Struggles and Praise Items

Hey Everyone!!

I am safely back from my safari, and I had an amazing time :) I am trying to post pictures which takes a long time, but I will get them up soon hopefully!!

I was trying to think of my favorite part, but I can't...it was all very awesome. I saw rhinos, hippos, flamingos, giraffe, zebra, antelope, gazelle, topi, hyenas, I was about three meters away from five male lions which was awesome, ostrich, elephants (with a baby one!!!), cheetahs, monkeys, lots of birds, and lots of baboons!! I feel very blessed to have seen all of these things in one week. Honestly I thank the Lord for this oppertunity, because without Him I know I wouldn't have seen those things. I was praying quite hard for photo oppertunities, and I sure got them!! God is so Amazing :) I have a couple of stories that prove how amazing the God that I serve is:

• On my safari, there were 14 of us plus our driver; Ben, our cook; Mike and our guide/group leader; Florance. I was the youngest one in the group and the only one who wasn't interested in drinking every evening...the first night I thought "what did I get myself into". As it turned out, God used this past week to show me that I DO have the courage to talk about my faith and stand up for what I believe. For a long time I have struggled with sharing my faith with others. I know we are called to do it, but it is one of the things that is super hard for me. That is part of the reason I am volunteering with babies...they can't talk or question me :) Anyways, nearly every day I had a conversation about religion or what I believe or why I believe it. And it wasn't like they were attacking me, but the conversations were very cool. This one instance, I was talking to a guy and I had mentioned that when speaking in tongues you shouldn't do it aloud unless there is an interpreter (he was very knowlegable about Christianity). He was like "Really?! Where in the Bible does it say THAT?!" and I was like "oh boy, I have no idea!!" But my Bible was right in front of me so I grabbed it and opened it, right to 1 Corinthians 14 and I was like "THANK YOU LORD!!" so I did a quick read through and got to verses 27-28; If anyone speaks in a tongue, two-or at the most three-should speak, one at a time, and someone must interpret. If there is no interpreter, the speaker should keep quiet in the church and speak to himself and to God. Usually when I want to find a passage it takes me forever to get there, but in this instance God totally showed up and gave me the passage :)
• Story number two; on Friday morning, the 22nd, I got up and went on a hot air balloon ride, which was pretty sweet, long story short we spotted 5 male lions from the balloon and got to drive over to see them after our balloon landed. **First cool thing, I would not have seen these lions if I wasn't in the balloon.** When I rejoined my group, they were pretty much all complaining, as it was the last day, and they hadn't seen lions yet. To make matters worse, I told them that I had seen the five male lions, and also three female lions at a different place. So they were kinda bumbed out. I sent up a short prayer asking God to let us see lions. Not for me, but for the rest of the group and wouldn't you know it about an hour later..... LIONS!! Three females. It was cool :) It sure helped me to remember that God cares about the small "insignificant" things too!!

On a different note though, when I got back I went in to feed the babies. I noticed that one of the babies, Micah, wasn't in his crib. When I left on the 16th he wasn't eating properly and had an IV in his hand. I found out that they took him into the hospital on the 20th, Wednesday, and he passed away shortly after that. The poor guy was only four months old. It makes me very sad because I was often the one to sit with him when he wasn't eating, trying to make him eat. But I am also at peace about it becuase I know that he is in a much better place, sitting in Jesus' lap, than he ever could be here!! And on a positive note we got another little buddy on Friday!! He doesn't have a name yet, and no one seems to be able to tell me how he got here, but I think he is about one year old and he is a chunky monkey!! Once I get the full story I will try to remember to post it.

Things are going quite well here I would say. About mid way through my safari I missed being at HappyLife, so clearly I am loving it here :)

I specific prayer request that I have at this time would be for the Kenya Elections. They are coming up, March 4th, and this country NEEDS prayer at this time. The last election was five years ago and there was a lot of post election violence; some got injured and others even died. It was a terrible time, and so many of the Kenyan's are afraid for this year's elections. They have actually changed the constitution for this year and so they are better prepared to deal with things this time around, but prayer will only help the situation!! The following are the candidates:

• Mohammed Abduba Dida
• Raila Odinga
• Uhuru Kenyatta
• Musalia Mudavadi
• Martha Karua
• Peter Kenneth
• James ole Kiyiapi
• Paul Muite

Thank you for praying, and if you could pass along the message to those who aren't reading my blog, I would appreciate it!!

I don't really have any other major prayer requests right now. I do have a cold, which sucks, so prayer for that is appreciated. But all in all, I am loving my time here. I was in church yesterday for the early service with a friend named Olivia, and then after that there was a ladies service. One of the ladies was sharing about seasons of life and how we need to seek God's purpose for us in each season that we are in, weather we enjoy the season or not. I am obviously enjoying this season as well as a specific season in the near future *cough* my wedding *cough*. But even though I am enjoying it, I still need to seek God's purpose every single day!!

Speaking of weddings, I think you all should know that Erik and I picked a date!!! August 17th 2013 Erik Picard and I will be tying the knot :) pretty pumped about picking a date.

I hope all is well with you as you go about your week. I am going to try to make a concious effort to update a little more often, but sometimes I struggle with a topic. Some of the things that I do on a daily basis seem normal to me, but maybe you would be interested in hearing about it. If there are questions that you have, or topics you would like me to share about, please comment below or email me at rachelbergen_13@hotmail.com. I want to share things that you are interested in hearing, so please let me know!!

Love you all, and may God bless you this week and all the weeks to come.

Love: Rach :)