Last month I spent four weeks living on a compound two and a half hours (or four or five hours if your traveling by van like I was) outside of the capital city of Ethiopia. As we drove to our ministry placement, HOPEthiopia, we put miles between us and the city. We drove away leaving behind so many of the comforts we’d experienced in Asia. We left behind grocery stores, pharmacies, wifi, and cell reception. We left convince and comfort in the city while we headed to the bush. And even when we left so much behind, I gained more than I could have imagined.
You see its funny, when you abandon so many of the things that are important to you, you expect life to be miserable without them. You expect that your heart will constantly be aching from not talking to your family for a month. You expect that you’ll go starving without a grocery store. You expect to be bored without and internet connection. You expect people to forget about you when you have no way to communicate with them.
I know you’ll be surprised to hear that none of those things happened this month. Instead this did: the simplicity changed me.
Not talking to my family at home allowed me to seek God first, instead of them. While seeking advice from my family is important, I learned to take my thoughts to the Lord first. I grew in independence and realized that I do not depend on my family, they are an added bonus to my life. Not having our immediate family members to talk to allowed my squad and I to grow as a family.
Not having a grocery store allowed me to eat fresh local food, and learn how to cook it.
Not having the internet allowed me to rest. I read books and filled my time building relationships with the people around me and spending time sitting with the Lord.
Living simply, allowed me to appreciate and experience the important things.
Like intimacy with the father and what it looks like to spend time with Jesus without an agenda. The lack of distractions gave me space to sit in silence and listen to God speak (yes He still does that, it’s awesome).
Like the beauty of living in community with people I love- sharing meals together, watching movies, worshiping, playing card games and living as the body of Christ. Because we all lived on a compound, our entertainment came from spending time together.
Like spirituality and how real spiritual warfare is. Our squad experienced spiritual warfare in a big way this month and saw deliverance from spiritual oppression (if you wanna hear more about that- I’d love to talk about it).
Like intentionally loving people. Whether that be my orphan neighbors, my ministry hosts or squad mates. Living on the compound in close community gave me the opportunity to spend quality time with the people around me.
I went to Ethiopia knowing that I would be leaving a lot behind. But I did not realize how much I would gain. While I know that I will not live off the grid for the rest of my life, I will forever treasure all the lessons I learned from living simply.
