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Yeah...I don't know what to call this one. Oh well. Make up your own title.

So today is Friday, my first real day off in almost two weeks. To be totally honest, I'm completely drained and exhausted and I think I could sleep for three days straight! I worked Wed-Sat at 5:30am everyday last week, had a super busy Sunday, and worked Mon-Thurs. morning this week too. *Sigh* I'm so thankful to have a day of rest, and I know I wouldn't have been able to make it through without the Lord's help. I had to constantly remind myself that "The joy of the Lord is your strength" [Nehemiah 8:10] and "this is the day that the Lord has made, I will rejoice and be glad in it." [Psalm 118:24] God has really been teaching me a lot about just relying on His power and strength to get me through even silly little things like waking up early in the morning and working for 7.5 hours. It really isn't anything horribly difficult, and people do it all the time erryday. But I'm finding that even those little things are draining at times and we are to rely on the Lord for everything we do, not just when a major tragedy happens.

Speaking of big scary things happening....we've had some scary stuff happen this past week on project. There have been a lot of health things going on - one of the girls had to have surgery for appendicitis a few days ago (she's doing well now!) and another girl had a fall and got a minor concussion.

Right now, my friend Jaden is on her flight to Minneapolis to Mayo Clinic to be with her family. PLEASE PRAY FOR THEM - her mom is has bleeding in the brain, which can be super serious but they don't know what the implications are yet. She first went to the hospital in their hometown in South Dakota, they couldn't do anything there. They flew her to Sioux Falls and they couldn't do anything there either, so now they've airlifted her to Mayo. Jaden first found out about this yesterday afternoon and then last night found out that she needs to go home, and left at about 7am this morning. Here are things you can be praying for:

1. Healing. God is all-powerful and can bring healing - pray that if it is His will, he will heal Jaden's mom quickly and will give the doctors wisdom through the process.
2. Safety. Jaden has family coming to Mayo from various places, and obviously she's flying from NMB (she just boarded from Chicago to Minneapolis, so she's almost there!), so please pray for safety for all of their travels.
3. Peace. Pray that God would cover Jaden's family with a blanket of peace and comfort, and that they would find rest in Him, trusting that He is sovereign and in complete control.

Thanks for your prayers!

Hmm...what else can I update you on.....I'm not really sure. Well last Saturday was the "No Talent/Talent Show", in which Marissa and I competed and sang some Christian parodies. It was super fun and we ended up in 3rd place! This past week has been super good growth-wise, God's been teaching me a ton and I've just been doing a lot of processing (and as a result, being anti-social) and it's been SAWWEEEEEETTT!!

Ok honestly, I can't think of anything else to say at all which is super lame, because I know there has to be more to say! Maybe if I think of something cool later I'll get back on and post it...peace out!

Lauren