By the time this blog comes out I will have been in Ethiopia for a little more than a month! Time has honestly been flying by here since being in Ethiopia and I catch myself a lot of time celebrating the fact that I get to come home soon but also I catch myself wishing the days would go slower so that I could continue on this beautiful journey that is the World Race. Either way I am learning to take each moment in with lots of joy and appreciation.
An Ethiopian Christmas:
Unlike any other year, I spent this year’s holidays away from home, including spending Christmas and New Years in the middle of Ethiopia with no connection back to family & friends. Christmas 2019 is one that I will forever cherish and never forget. I spent Christmas eve making Christmas ornaments with the little ones, going into the village to get some coffee with my dear friends maddie, mallory, and our amazing base leader Mango!(also the coffee here only costs 13 cents so i’m always down to make the walk to get some of the best coffee I have ever had!), then we watched countless Christmas movies together as a squad and we finished the night off by doing an open mic night that brought endless laughter! As I look back on the day, I’m so thankful for the opportunity to celebrate the birth of Jesus by getting the little ones to make ornaments. I’m so thankful for the moments I got to share on Christmas eve with my friends around the table drinking coffee and sharing our hearts about Christmas. The photos below capture the cuteness of the kids ornaments and the joy I get in drinking coffee from the place that coffee was discovered!!!
Christmas day started out with joyful noise as everyone on the base of HOPEthiopia was awaken by some of our squad mates all coming to our rooms singing Christmas Carols! Then everyone came into the main room and we opened our stockings (literally just our dirty socks labeled with our name that we hung on a line) and inside of the cute and maybe a little smelly stockings, I got some of the best Christmas gifts I have ever received. The stockings were filled with meaningful and even prophetic notes from almost everyone on the squad. Opening these meaningful notes put a huge smile on my face and made me realize that this is what Christmas is all about. Jesus brought a new way of living into this world when He chose to come down and save us all and we should fill others with words of life on the day Jesus decided to start the journey of bringing new life to the world. Of course this doesn’t mean that Christmas is all about writing notes to our loved ones, I just mean to say that Jesus’ birth is something that brought new life to this world and shouldn’t be overlooked by presents, we should all be so focused on the absolute gift that God gave us that day. What a humble God we have to come down as a baby and save us forever.
Our squad continued celebrating Christmas by playing an intense tournament powderpuff game, which brought upon a lot of scrapes and bruises.
To finish up the day squad W did what we do best and gathered around a bonfire (we were all so positive we might set Africa on fire as we built a fire in the tall dry grass lol) and worshiped Jesus. As we were worshipping Jesus I found myself looking up at the stars and my eyes being filled with puddles of tears. For the first time in 19 years I realized the depth and meaning of Christmas, of course I always knew we celebrated Christmas for the birth of our savior but I really just never thought deeply about it. God loved us so much that He took on the most sincere form of humility by becoming a baby whose name would change the world and save the world. Christmas was the day that new life would begin.
2020 New Years in Ethiopia where the year is currently 2012:
Although Ethiopia’s New Years is in September and it’s only 2012 here, we all celebrated 2020 8-10 hours ahead of all of you! New Year’s Eve we all came together again to play another long tournament, but this time volleyball! After playing 3 long games my team ended up winning the Championship game!!
After playing volleyball for about 4 hours all the girls got all dolled up and took endless photos out in the tall grass of Africa!! Of course I had to post some of the adorable photos me and my best girlfriends took:
Then we all came together for dinner followed by one of my favorite things we do here in Ethiopia, a coffee ceremony! After enjoying more than just one cup of coffee we all came together as a squad to intercede for one another! During this time we all prayed to the Lord for some words and wisdom we should write down on a little piece of paper that we would then give to the person whose name we drew out of the bowl. As always the Lord spoke to us and man did the Lord speak truth into my friend who gave me my piece of paper. The Lord told my friend to write “Joyfulness, Redemption, a tree that produces fruit of fulfillment , not only in you but also in the Kingdom. Deuteronomy 8:1-6”. This verse encourages those who went through a season of wilderness to not forget all the goodness the Lord has provided them with in every aspect of hardship. through the hardship the Lord strengthened them in humility and trust in Him, and it goes on to say that food alone will not satisfy our hunger because what we really hunger for is the word of God. Deuteronomy 8:1-6 really captures my spiritual growth I have made with Jesus this last year. I have walked through seasons of letting everything come to light and giving it all to Jesus. I’ve learned the art of listening to Jesus and hearing Him in all the things I say and do. Another reason this note hit me hard was due to the word fulfillment. This is a word that has been brought up over and over this last month and it’s become clear to me after sitting and praying over this word that this is my word for the year. Although fulfillment is my word for the year I was reminded that we actually only get to taste fulfillment on this earth and we will reach full fulfillment when we get to be with Jesus for eternity.
After receiving some really good words and insight into my 2020 we all got to declare in front of the squad our hopes in what 2020 will bring. I declared many things but some of them include : not allowing my doubts to control my faith but instead encourage me to ask the Lord more questions and get a better understanding of Him, and since I am getting married this year I declared over my marriage with Alec that our marriage would be one that puts Jesus in the middle and that we will always choose love in every circumstance.
I know this year is gonna be one of fulfillment, joy, and deeper understanding of who the Lord is calling me to be.
