Ethiopia. This country will forever have a place in my heart. Filled with beautiful people and sprawling with gorgeous views of mountains, valleys, and plains it took my breath away every day. Our month at HOPEthiopia was busy and often felt as if it were multiple mission trips rolled into one.
We had one week filled with manual labor around the compound, two weeks spent helping at a medical clinic put on by a team of Canadian doctors and nurses, and then one short week of relaxation before we headed off for India. God taught me a lot of great lessons through each of these experiences.
Our ministry site was absolutely beautiful. Nestled in the Highlands of Ethiopia each morning we could wake up, grab a fresh cup of coffee, sit on the patio and just look out at the amazing countryside around us. There were rolling fields of “teff”, Ethiopia’s grain, next to the house, out in the distance were mountains, and in between you could see clumps of green, leaf-covered trees. Every day I was in absolute awe of where I was able to live for a month.
Our hosts were wonderful and did everything in their power to make us feel at home, and although I loved the cool breezes and chilly nights that required snuggling in bed with a couple of wool blankets, I still found myself wishing for snow. I love snow. It is on of my favorite things about winter. Watching snow fall from the sky is something that brings me a weird amount of joy. Whenever I walk through a snowstorm I find myself filled with awe for our Creator. And this year I’m missing out on that… or so I thought.
One of our last nights at ministry our host led our group in a sort of listening prayer exercise. He played a song and asked us to just listen, meditate on the words, and see if God had anything He wanted to say to us. In all honesty I didn’t really pay attention to the lyrics but an instrumental section reminded me of a Christmas song I love, which made me think of snow falling. I could see myself standing in the middle of a snowstorm watching the snow fall. I was filled with so much joy and awe. Then the scene switched to a crazy dance party we had had earlier that day where our entire group of World Racers, doctors, nurses, and HOPEthiopia families were acting silly and laughing. Then it switched to playing card games on Thanksgiving and spending time all together. And the scenes just kept changing with more and more memories from the past month.
I didn’t really understand how they were all connected until the Lord brought something else to mind. At the very end of our time in Rwanda God spoke to me more distinctly than I can ever remember. He said, “Embrace it. That’s the only way this will work. You have to dive deep.” Combining that with the scenes I had just seen I think God was saying, “You have joy, life, and awe here if you stop to embrace it and it.” I had been so focused on what I was missing at home that, even though I was having fun in the moment, I wasn’t experiencing the fullness of joy that I could have had I realized the gift God was giving me.
I’ve spent a lot of my life wishing I could be filled with joy because I’ve often felt that is something I lack, but over this past month and the months before God is slowly showing me that I can have joy if I choose to see it. And so I’m choosing joy. I’m choosing to embrace it and find it everywhere I go.
