Blog number two from my time in Ethiopia:
The chicken, rice and veggies that were in my bowl last night were a huge blessing. Every day, I have three meals that are paid for by the money that you, my supporters gave to me. I don’t know what exactly stirred your heart to support me financially , but I do know that daily as I eat, I am reminded of the blessings that you have shared with me.
As I slurped my steaming hot dinner (Sorry mom! I only slurped a few times), a thought occurred to me that I wanted to share with ya’ll. When I first started fundraising for the race, the money I received was a sign of God’s provision and also the fact that I was deeply loved and trusted by my friends and family. It was a spiritual blessing first. As I began flying on planes, riding buses, trains and taxis, that money became a blessing of transportation, BUT, the blessing didn’t stop there. When I took a taxi to the bus station in Honduras, that money from the transportation budget, from you, went to a hard working taxi driver with six children. What started as one blessing, multiplied into three! BUT, it doesn’t stop there. The taxi driver used that money to put food on the table for his family (that’s a fourth blessing) and pay for school supplies for his children.
Maybe some of that money went to pay the electric bill. I recently learned that when a single solar light was installed in some homes in a village here in Ethiopia, the children of that house experienced a drastic improvement with their schooling. Why? If you live in a mud hut without electricity, your time of studying is limited by daylight. The sun sets between six thirty/seven in the evening here and there are also chores that every child is responsible for along with their school work. These chores also need daylight to be accomplished. Think about how much of a difference a single solar light could make in a child’s life!
The blessings just keep increasing the more I think about this. Often the food that we eat comes from local farmers who make a living off vegetables they can afford to sell. When we spend money from the food budget on those vegetables (money that you donated) we are blessing a local farmer and her family.
Often I ask God for the opportunity to see the miraculous. I want to experience the dead coming to life and the blind healed and the lame walking as they encounter the power of the Holy Spirit. Sometimes, in that desire, I miss out on the miracles of every day. I believe that what I listed above are the miracles that are closest to God’s heart. When a father makes just enough money that day to feed his family or a mother sells enough vegatables from her garden to provide for her little ones, the miraculous is taking place. Thank you for letting God use you to be a miracle in my life and in the lives of many others!
Life Updates…
I laughed when…I played kick the can with the kids and they kept pushing me around corners of the guesthouse to get me out of sight of the child who was “it”.
I feel incredibly blessed…that we got the opportunity to be up in the mountains and away from malaria mosquitos
I learned about…permaculture, water storage, irrigation, gardening, reforestation etc. I have loved preparing and planting the garden here. It was especially sweet to have all the kids join in.
I cried when… the Lord convicted me about taking care of the land that He has abundantly blessed humanity with.
