Hey, hey, hey!! We have just gotten back from a month off the grid in Haribu Chule, Ethiopia. I’m sure that you all have been wondering what my day to day life looked like in a rural Ethiopian village, so I put together some photos (albeit from different days) that accurately depict my past 30 days.
6:45am: Sunrise worship! Although we didn’t get to do this every day, we did start our days with praise and worship through our headphones inside the house.
7:00am: Every morning this is what I would start with: open bible, open journal, and a cup of coffee. It was so beautiful to have the start of our days be dedicated to hearing from the Lord through His word and journaling all that we were learning. Not kidding, this month revolutionized the way I see ‘quiet time’.
9:30am-11:30am: Each morning we were assigned to a ministry around the property. The first 2 weeks my team was making & moving bricks (that will eventually be used to build a training center for people with special needs) as well as sifting the dirt that will be used to make said bricks. The third and fourth weeks we were helping to cut a 20-ish acre field of grass (with hand sickles or even pocket knives in some cases) that will be used to feed the oxen that live on the property. These oxen will in turn be used as food for people in the community. We also learned that had we not cut the grass, the kids would have had to do it in their free time on the weekends!
1:30-3:30pm: After lunch we would often times go to the local market located just a 10 minute walk from our compound. MAN it was so authentic. Donkey parking and everything. Because we were so far away from any cities, many of the locals had seen very few foreigners in their lives. The village we were in was also relatively unreached with the Gospel and therefore we were quite the spectacle. At any given time there were 20-50 people crowded around us, or following our group as we bought vegetables. Definitely a memory I will have for a long time.
3:30-7:00pm: The rest of our afternoons consisted of multiple different ministries. Most of them involved playing with the kids in some form or fashion: makeshift volleyball, kicking the soccer ball, playing ping-pong with no table, teaching guitar, or, my personal favorite, sunset soccer club. Every single night these kids would play soccer games while the sun went down. Holy moly they can go forever & seemingly never get tired. Honestly though, some of my best hours of the month were spent on that field.
6:25-6:45pm: Africa has some of the most beautiful sunsets I’ve ever seen. And that’s saying a lot because I’m from Colorado…
So there you have it! There were so many more things that happened this month that I couldn’t put on this blog. Keep an eye out for more amazing stories & photos of God’s goodness on display.
