Hello friends! Where do I even begin?
Ethiopia is one of the most incredible places I’ve been in my entire life. We spent the month of January serving alongside an organization called HOPEthiopia.
Our location was a beautiful, flat land in the middle of nowhere. It’s covered in tall, waving grasses, livestock, and thatch huts. Rolling hills, amazing African sunsets, and beautiful people surround it. There was an authentic village market within walking distance from our compound where we could buy bread, eggs, and vegetables. The market experience is a story in itself – sometimes I felt as if I was stepping straight into the Bible! The arrival of strange-looking Americans often caused a lot of chaos, but it’s all part of the experience, lol. We prepared each meal together as a team and always had fresh ingredients. We learned to get creative with what materials we had, and I will just say that some of us became expert chefs! We were also able to disconnect for an entire month and just be completely present in the tasks before us. Having no access to Internet or the outside world, we were free from many distractions and were able to hear the Lord’s voice more clearly than ever before.
Each morning, I woke up around 6:30am, wrapped up in my sleeping bag, and went into our common area to have quiet time. We arrived to Ethiopia in the middle of winter, so it has been our coldest month so far. It was a quite a contrast coming from 5 months of Southeast Asian heat, noise, and traffic. The Ethiopian winter is extremely clear and dry – with cold nights and mornings but warm days with intense sunshine. It has been my favorite weather ever – I get to snuggle up in warm clothes, then play outside with the kids in shorts, and get a nice tan! Not to mention the absolutely insanely beautiful African starry nights. Spending nights stargazing with my friends will be some of my favorite memories of the World Race! It was a month of awesome community because almost my entire squad was able to be in one place – living together, worshipping together, playing games, praying, going to African church services, doing ministry, and hanging out with our amazing African hosts. Seriously such a blessing!
It is becoming a dream of mine to run a ministry similar to HOPEthiopia. It’s an organization based out of Canada, and they provide crops, supplies, orphan care, and clean water to the surrounding community. They are also involved with reforestation projects that ultimately provide jobs for many families. The people in the area live in extreme physical and spiritual poverty; many families following the religion of Islam or Orthodox Christianity and relying solely on farming and livestock to live. I got the chance to spend some time with the shepherd children while they looked after the cattle, sheep, and goats left to their care at extremely early ages! They live a beautifully simple way of life that is very reminiscent of Bible days and made me feel more in touch with Jesus at times.
We spent a few hours in the mornings split up as a squad doing various ministries. This month I did manual labor in the mornings; the first 2 weeks my team and I did brick-making (which was so much fun, talking, playing music, and getting a great workout) and then the remaining two weeks we were out in the fields cutting down grass with sickles. The bricks we made will go towards the building of a training center for people with special needs, and the grass we cut will feed the oxen during the winter months and ultimately provide food for the surrounding communities. I learned a lot about sustainable farming this month and providing and caring for a hungry community. In the afternoons, I played soccer with the kids (I’m pretty bad at soccer but still SO FUN!!). For the second half of the month, I did women’s ministry for the ladies who work on the compound that do various childcare as house moms, or other tasks such as cleaning and housework.
Despite the love and caring efforts of the ministry we were serving, they face a lot of persecution from people of other religions. Protestant Christianity is a relatively new concept to that area, and most people are very much against it. Sometimes people in the village would even resort to violence or shouting curses, but we learned what it looks like to truly “pray for those who persecute you”. We dealt with a lot of oppression, witchcraft, and some serious spiritual warfare and had to battle against darkness the entire month – but we experienced God’s authority and power throughout all of it!
And of course, there is nothing quite like an African church service. Dancing around, holding onto beautiful dirty little kids, praising Jesus in their native tongues, on their knees begging for more of Jesus…
There’s nothing quite like it on Earth.
We are officially in Rwanda for debrief, and will be hanging out here for the next few days until it’s time to head to our new ministries for the month! I can’t believe it’s officially month seven! This month is especially exciting because MY PARENTS ARE COMING TO SEE ME!!!! They are participating in the “Parent Vision Trip” and get the opportunity to come out to the field and do ministry with the squad and other parents who are able to make the trip. I CAN’T WAIT TO SEE DON AND GWEN!!!!!
Thank you so much for reading! I know you haven’t heard from me in awhile but don’t worry, more updates to come 🙂
