Sorry I always share my journey in words and I know my poor grammar didn’t make the reading very enjoyable. Wifi in Africa also doesn’t allow me to upload pictures on blog easily but here are a few of my time in Ethiopia!
The “freely giving” host
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This is a group picture of me and my host whom I stayed with for couple weeks in Bahir Dar. The one who was holding a baby is Jeremy and the 5th from the right is his wife Andrea. I have so much respect for the way they live and serve. They adopted 5 children in total (one of them is the Ethiopian lady in the middle, her cooking is incredible btw). They spend everyday to support (spiritually & financially) the women who are free from sex trafficking and also encourage the young college students to continue following Jesus. From the short time I spent with them, I truly learned about generosity. Jeremy and Andrea told me “Blessed be the name of the Lord” is their favorite song which was used in their wedding. I can see the song came alive by the way they serve. “You give and take away, you give and take away. My heart will choose to say, Lord blessed be your name.” Generosity isn’t just about how much you give but how much you have left.
Traditional Coffee
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At one point you probably have heard someone said “Ethiopia has the best coffee”. It surely is the most common beverage in the country. I was pretty dehydrated in the first few days because of the altitude and the amount of coffee I drank. It tastes similar to a shot of espresso and it is super inexpensive (average 22 cents each). While it is extremely easy to find coffee on every street and restaurants, the process isn’t easy. First you cook the coffee beans, then you grind it, pour into a pot with water, and set on top of the burning charcoal. Every coffee I drank was a story because I had to sit for 10 minutes while they prepared. Those time that I waited let me to meet many new friends. There was “Rosa” who said selling coffee provided better financially than other jobs she had; there was the restaurant owner who showed me his new remodeling excitingly and I got to pray for his business; there was the “mama” (in the second picture) who was cooking coffee beans on the day we visited her in the mountain and ended up I drank 4 cups; there was an old taxi driver shared wisdom of “be happy with you got”; there were countless conversations. It was more than just coffee.
The College Student – Habtamu
3.This is Habtamu (pronounce Half-tum and it means rich in Aramaic). He is the “College student” I mentioned in my last blog post. One morning as I was spending quiet time, I heard “Cloth him” as I asked for direction of the day. I found a nice long sleeve shirt that I was saving for special occasions so I put it in my bag. During lunch time with Habtamu, I noticed he was wearing the same shirt he always wore. There I felt the Lord said “Cloth him” and I gave him the shirt. He was so excited that he said he would never take it off! Matt told me he was still wearing that shirt the next time they met and Matt decided to give away one of his nice shirt as well! I know he needs more than just clothes to finish his education but I also know the same God that provided 2 shirts for him is the same God that will bless him even more.
The Landslide
Perhaps you may saw it from the news. Few weeks ago there was a landslide in Addis Ababa and over 200 people were killed (they are still searching currently). Me and my team visited the site and it was devastating. This is the first time I witnessed something like this. Families who mourned for their loved-ones, houses were destroyed and it was hard to imagine the living condition even before the incident happened. We spent couple days there to talk and pray for the people. One day my team needed to find a place to stay but we decided to go to the site first, there we met our new friend “Prince”. He came to support the people just like us. He heard that we were looking for a place so he spent his only day off to help us! He took us to places after places, translated for us, found us a house that was within our budget, even assisted us to carry our packs and didn’t leave until we were all settled. We were supposed to go comfort people but turned out we were blessed instead. We were supposed to be the ones who walk an extra mile but turned out we witnessed that in Prince instead.
5.This is what me and Liz did one day to help painting. Another team of my squad was at this place for much longer time and did so much more work than me. I just thought it is cool to show you what my day could be like. The boy in the second picture is Yilkal whom I mentioned in my last blog post.
6.One day while we were prayer-walking, we found this museum that showed the history of the battles. Well, there isn’t any stories about these picture. I was just surprised and happy that we got to see all these cool stuff!
Here it is guys! 3 months in Africa has came to an end and there are so many more pictures and stories I wish to share with you. I will post more often with video and such as long as wifi allow me to. I love you and God loves you more.
