So, month six in a nutshell. Leaving the airport from Rwanda, this was my attitude: “I’m exhausted. Loving is so hard. Leaving is harder. I’ve loved Africa, but I’m glad there’s only one African country left…because Europe will be a nice change of pace. Just one African country left…just one…”
Then God smacked me in the face with my favourite month so far on the Race. Then He helped me to love so hard that my heart broke at the end of the month. I haven’t cried leaving any country until this passed month. It hurt SO much. It was beautiful.
Our squad spent the month of February just 2.5 hours from Addis Ababa – remote from wifi, any other “farange’s” (foreigners), and from…everything really. It was awesome. We worked with HOPEthiopia – an NGO whose foundation is laid on the ultimate hope of Jesus Christ’s love. Super awesome story how the organization started (check out their website at hopethiopia.com), but basically they aim to spread the hope of Jesus to Ethiopia, specifically reaching out to the most desperate of people – the widows, orphans, and abandoned elderly. HOPEthiopia sponsors families, sending grains, sugar, and salt to families in need while teaching single moms trades (like sewing) to create an income for their children to be able to go to school. They have a number of sustainable projects – mainly faciliated by locals, though one of the founders named Dr. Ralph from Calgary, is very involved…definitely not the type that sits back in an office in Canada just to oversee! I was so encouraged and blessed to see the work that this organization is doing in their area and just how God has truly provided for them.
So our ministry – on paper – was “manual labour.” This meant that our teams split off to move rocks and bricks, assist in the building of different houses on the compound which will one day host widows, orphans and the elderly in need. We did priming and painting, lots of digging in the hot sun to start gardens that will one day sustain families living there, and walking down to HOPEthiopia’s tree nursery to tend to the seedlings and plants sold to go towards different sponsor families. We accomplished a lot! It felt good to get some grunt work completed so that those working for this NGO could focus on their ministry.
But overall, the amount of walls painted and ground dug up did NOT define the month. It was all the in-between moments. All the conversations with my squad mates while slapping varnish on the side of bricks. The coffee ceremonies mid-day with the local workers who we strained gravel next to. Teaching a few mornings a week at the Kindergarten school – hearing “Teacher Martha!” and being attacked by hugs and kisses at the beginning and end of each class time. The soccer played and time sent with our sponsor kids. The stories and laughs with our ministry contacts – founder Dr. Ralph, Director Zee, our translator/facilitator/project manager/go-to/doer-of-many-other-things-with-HOPEthiopia named Gadisa, and his friends Baba and Jordan. THOSE were unforgettable.
And I mean, our squad is a giant family, yes. But this month really proved it. From working alongside each other in ministry, to cooking and cleaning together, to running together – even organizing our own race at the end of the month (called the ‘Donkey Dodge’ – super fitting), to spending evenings together playing cards, chatting, debating, holding theological discussions (wait, it’s not just pastor’s families that do that right?), worshiping together a few evenings a week, playing the game ‘Murder in the Dark’ whenever the power was out (which was often!), fasting together and seeing funding miracles happen, praying together…well, needless to say we learned A LOT about each other. It was so awesome to become closer!
Our squad worked like a well-oiled machine all month – creating cooking teams, kitchen-clean-up teams, and drinking-water-boiling teams among other things. We lived in lovely dorm-like rooms with our teams, had flushing toilets and electric power in a comfortable guest house. Despite these comforts though, God stretched me so much and made me love the month not for the ease of our living conditions but for the different ways He poured into me over the month – through my squad, my team, our ministry contacts, and all the different locals we met that month.
Now that the scene has been set, head to the next blog post to read some highlight stories of the month – there are some good ones…
