Coffee Cermonies. Dust. Chots. Donkeys. Salom. Handshakes. Thumbs Up. Air Pollution. Morning Prayers. Dogs Barking. Tea. Bakeries. Delicious Donuts. Macchiatos. Taxi Vans. Injera. Food Poisoning. Mixed Juice. Western Gifts. Ask The Lord. Unsung Heroes. Flexibility. Water Shortage. Loving Teammates. Ish. Street Ministry. Ethiopian Hospitality. Homeless. Eyeglasses. Jerseys. Street Kids. Goat Heads. Mixed Juices. Avocados and Bananas. Haggling. Markets. Color. Traffic. Mud Houses. Mountains. Orthodox Challenges. Love Ethiopia Festival. BMX Riders. Safety Issues. Guesthouses. Healing. Demons Cast Out. Marriage Proposals. Prayer Languages. Bible Studies. Beautiful People. Exhaust Fumes. Curiosity. Public Urination. Squatty Potties. New Friends. Language Barriers. Traffic Frogger.
When someone will ask me about this month in Ethiopia I know it will be a more difficult one to explain. When my teammate Shelley asked us all how we were feeling using eggs as an analogy I stated “scrambled” and if I’m being honest with myself that feeling has not been limited to just one day this month. But I’m not saying it’s necessarily a bad thing either. Especially if I’m picturing my sister Heidi’s amazing morning scrambled eggs with zucchini, peppers, onions, and cheese melted in. This month has been different ministry wise but also spiritually wise for me. But I’m going to jump around a lot in this blog, so try to keep up.
Unsung Heroes. That’s what this month is mainly about for the three teams here. Unsung Heroes are the ministry contacts we have on The World Race that we partner with and many times live with. Since we are the first teams in Ethiopia there aren’t any existing contacts. So our teams are given the task to pave the way for future squads and go find them. Which has been quite an adventure. Navigating around the city in vans that pose as public taxis while you try to give them the real price after they see you’re clearly not Ethiopian while trying to make sure you’re going the right direction is just a small sample of our days around the bustling capital.
Vibrancy. When I think of the capital this is the best word that can describe it in my mind. It seems the culture is just oozing everywhere and screaming at you in the face. Crowds of people everywhere. Coffee shops and mini food marts about every 10 feet beckon me. Abundant quantities of bananas, avocados, oranges, and other produce waiting to be bought and eaten. People sitting outside drinking coffee, tea, or beer with one another being social is always seen. Ethiopian jerseys walk alongside traditional wear. Beautiful mountains and vegetation in the distance offer pleasure to my senses.
Broken. We have been partnering and working with Win Souls Ministry, an organization that takes street boys out of that environment and provides them with housing and a new life. Team Illumination has been working the closest with them, but we have all had the chance to go out to night ministry with them. There they reach out to the boys who roam the streets in hopes of recruiting some to a better life in Christ. The night I went broke me. The faces of those boys stuck in my mind. The fact that their day does not end with a home cooked meal, homework, and a tv show on the couch before tucking themselves into their nice warm bed. The fact that when they do sleep, they sleep on cold concrete and don’t wake up to their mothers gently brushing their foreheads. It broke me. Here are some words I came up with the day after while I was trying to process through my emotions.
I see a hunger in their eyes
One that is not satiated by the food of this world
I see their faces, worn and downtrodden, yet resilient and strong
Warriors of the Street, God’s beloved children
Endless cold dark nights without hope or an end in sight
Oh to walk a day in their sandals
To share in their struggles and misery
To hear about their hopes, dreams, and aspirations
“Is this the fasting I choose?” Yes.
Because He first loved me.
Pursuit of God. This has not been a theme only this month, but has been ongoing. I am learning more and more on what a constant pursuit of God and a deeper relationship with Him looks like. It is a constant challenge, and in my sinful nature, my selfish nature, my flesh fights against it. I’ve felt distant at times from God, and I know that is not His doing, but mine. In A.W. Tozer’s incredible book, Pursuit of God, he writes
“If we truly want to follow God we must seek to be other-worldly… The other-world, which is the object of this world’s disdain and the subject of the drunkard’s mocking song, is our carefully chosen goal and the object of our holiest longing”.
Unfruitful. This month has been more abstract in the fact that we don’t have a set ministry. We have been bouncing around a lot. Because of this, it has been hard for me to see any lasting impact that I have made in people this month. Seeds may have been planted, but I am not doing much of the watering or harvesting. Not being able to see this has been a struggle at times, causing me to believe the lie that the works we have done haven’t been producing good fruit.
Privileged. We were able to work with The Love Ethiopia Festival with Andrew Palau for a week of our time here. This incredibly enormous outreach to the Ethiopian Festival had been in the works for years, and we were all of a sudden invited onto the missions team and working alongside everyone. It was truly an amazing experience seeing such a movement amongst the Ethiopian people, and I will not forget it.
Inadequate. At the ministry outreach for Love Ethiopia I was at one of the eyeglass clinics. There people waited for hours and hours to see us. We fitted them for adult reading glasses and then referred them to a doctor for more serious issues. During our interaction we tried to encourage them to come to the Festival, tell them about Jesus, and pray for them. I struggled with this ministry. I struggled to feel I was speaking the right words into these people having just met them. I struggled to hear discernment from God. I struggled with feelings of failure to bring people to His Kingdom.
Blessings. We again have been blessed with accommodations. We have stayed in a couple guesthouses and have not had to use our tents. Power and Water, most of the time. We also were shown the incredible generosity of our Western friends from Love Ethiopia Festival as they gave us their hotel rooms to take amazing hot showers in, brought us food from their buffets, left us with treats from the U.S., and cared for us in so many ways.
Physical Limitations. This one comes with a short explanation. After my stomach being very indecisive on how it liked Ethiopian Food, it took one night of food poisoning for me to decide that was the last of my boldness of experimenting this month. My illness also caused my back to go out, which has been a physical struggle. Sleep has also seemed to be a struggle this month, and I have yet to find the answer to why that is.
Loved. The Ethiopian people are incredible. I could tell story after story of the love we have been shown by absolute strangers. Loved by many different friends we have met on the street that have welcome us into their homes and served us coffee and refreshments for hours, meanwhile giving us thanks and blessing us for coming. Loved by people who have seen us struggling with navigating the public transportation and have brought us to the right spot or talked with the taxi drivers. Loved by fellow runners when I ran the Great Ethiopian Run by words of encouragement, pats on the back, and sprays of water.
In Love. I have fallen in love with this country. That’s something to be said since we have yet to leave the capital and go to see the beautiful countryside. The whole culture has definitely stolen a piece of my heart, and I will be very sad when I have to leave and say goodbye. This month I have felt many different emotions and experienced many different things. Such is life, and I honestly can say it has been for the better that I have been able to serve and have been served by God’s people in this majestic and incredible country of Ethiopia.
“Where can I go to escape your spirit? Where can I flee from your presence? If I go up to heaven You are there; If I make my bed in Sheol, You are there. If I live at the eastern horizon or settle a the western limits, even there Your hand will lead me; Your right hand will hold on to me.” -Psalm 139: 7-10
