retreat weekend.

Our Africa team spent an incredible day together all day Saturday - teambuilding, prayer, worship, laughter, service, great food, and a lot more prayer! All in all, preparing for something BIG. It really was an amazingly well thought out day, and it was evident that God was all over our day. We began the morning with a mini-service project in preparation for the bigger Project Impact that our church body will be doing on Oct. 3rd. It felt good to begin working together as a team. We did a lot of scraping, transplanting, digging and pulling. Hopefully we laid a nice foundation for what the larger group will be doing there on the 3rd.

After that, it was time to head over to the amazing "Wasson Retreat Center". Okay, so it is not formally a retreat center, but it certainly could be!! The Wassons graciously allowed us to descend upon their home and property for the day (all 16 acres!). It was a beautifully serene setting.

We had a very special guest fly in from Kentucky to join us for the day - Holly Garrett. Holly is one of two Americans on staff at LIA, and she will also be joining us on our journey to Africa (hooray!!!). It was so valuable to have her insight into how exactly we will be serving in Addis and a glimpse into what we will be experiencing. It is truly overwhelming, so it is so nice to have her guidance. We are all eager to reunite with her in Detroit as we board our connecting flight to Amsterdam, and then Addis! Holly spent a while sharing with us more about the vision and heart of LIA. AMAZING stuff. I am so honored that we are able to go serve along side the heart of this organization.

Our lunch was even designed to be a team building exercise. One of the members on our team is a fabulous cook (more on that in an upcoming "meet the team" post!), and had provided three delicious recipes and the ingredients so that the team could work together to prepare our own gourmet lunch!! Such a creative way to learn to work together as a team. I loved watching everyones' hands involved in the prep. We really are better together!!

Following lunch, we each shared mini-reports that we had been working on regarding different aspects of the culture in Addis and in Ethiopia. It was so valuable to learn more about the place we will be serving for 11 days. Holly also shared more of her story, and how she ended up at LIA (which....by the way....was such a God-sized story!!). Following the reports and some sweet worship lead by another of our diverse team members, we headed out to the Wasson's beautiful "backyard" for some focused/individual prayer time. Such a beautiful way to end the day.

We are each so eager to embark on this journey. As Holly described, we are sure to draw closer to the heart of God as we experience firsthand what He sees daily and what breaks His heart. I can really see the hope and excitement in each team members' eyes....