Every time I think about my time in Ethiopia I get sad and my heart aches a lot.
I didn’t think I would have this problem, but I really fell in love with the country and especially the people in it. But I have been realizing that instead of dwelling in sadness I should realize the positive ways my life was changed during my month in Ethiopia. God worked on my heart in a way I haven’t felt for a while. When I think about my team and all of the boys we had the privilege of getting to know at the rest center, I realize what a beautiful thing it was.
One night as we were walking home, my Tesfeye explained to me how he had lost faith in people before we came. He thought we were just going to be like all of the other foreign people who have come in and out of his life. He told God he didn’t want to trust people anymore and that he wanted to be by himself. He said he heard God say, “Are you sure about that?” And he didn’t want to give us a chance because of the lack of trust he had in people. When he let us in he said that he has never felt love like the way he had felt it with us. This amazed me because God put us in his life to show him he could trust people. The even more amazing thing is that we weren’t even supposed to go to Ethiopia in the first place.
God’s timing truly amazes me. God put our team in the boys’ lives at just the right time, but he put them in our lives at the perfect time also. I have not felt love and passion in my heart for a very long time. To be honest, the first two months of the Race I felt like I was just going through the motions but my heart was not engaged. Because of the passion I saw in these boys and the love they had for everyone they served, my heart changed. I felt passion again. I wanted to love again. It is so amazing to think that although I was not praying for this change, God knew my heart more than I do. He knew the boys at the rest center needed to be in my life at the exact time they were.
It is so hard to trust God’s plan and timing sometimes, but He knows the depths of our hearts and has amazing plans for each of our lives. He wants to heal us and He listens to our prayers. He fights for us more than we could ever imagine.
NO SEPARATION has become the theme of our friendship. No matter where we are in the world, nobody or nothing can separate us in spirit or understand the bond God has created between us. God’s perfect plans are beautiful and beyond anything we can wrap our minds around.
Megan 🙂
