I’m sitting at a hotel in Rwanda, looking out at an incredible view and reflecting on the month I spent in Ethiopia.
Processing is a word that gets thrown around quite a bit on the World Race, but I’m beginning to realize its importance. Processing the ups and downs of my journey has become a necessity to fully grasp what we have seen around the world and manage the highs and lows that come with this unconventional life.
So today, I’m processing. What was Ethiopia like? How did I feel while I was there? Does my heart fully understand the gravity of what I have seen?
Ethiopia was hard, for many reasons. It might have even been my hardest month on the race.
My heart is torn in half thinking this though because I did have so many beautiful moments in Ethiopia. I met numerous individuals who have dedicated their lives to helping the people in their community and furthering the love of the Lord among their fellow Ethiopians. Spending time with these new friends was what made Ethiopia so beautiful to me.
If I loved the Ethiopian people so much and cherished the moments we spent together, how could I have had such a hard month?
Well, it’s all the other stuff. The other people in Ethiopia. The ones I couldn’t spend time with, couldn’t sip coffee with, couldn’t help.
Poverty is widespread in Ethiopia, and I felt it deeply. All the streets I walked down in Addis Ababa were lined with beggars, impoverished mothers holding babies, people with tremendous ailments and multitudes of children running around asking for money for food. You couldn’t walk even a few feet down the street without getting approached, tugged on or asked for money. This is heightened if you’re a white person in an African country, and my friends and I stuck out in any environment we were in. Although I have very little money at this point on the race, to Ethiopian bystanders, I looked rich. My clothes don’t have holes, I am reasonably clean, and I carry a backpack filled with items that could be sold for money. I am rich, and the people I walked by every day were not.
What do you do when everyone around you needs money? What do you do when there’s so many people to help that you don’t even know where to start? What do you do when your daily routine involves walking by begging mothers holding newborn babies on the side of the road? The answer….after living in Addis Ababa for a month I still don’t know. All I know is that my heart, and the hearts of my teammates were broken every day, and most of the time, we just kept walking.
On top of the tremendous poverty, there was felt unrest in the political environment. Ethiopia has a new Prime Minister, and many are hopeful he will bring great change to their country. Forty-two-year-old Abiy Ahmed, the new Prime Minister, promises restoration of peace and stability in the country, and for the first time in a long time, many Ethiopians have hope. This drastic change does not come without opposition though, and while we were in Addis Ababa an event Ahmed was speaking at turned into a scary situation when a grenade was thrown close to the stage and two Ethiopians died protecting their new Prime Minister. This rally put all World Race teams on lockdown for two days and we waited patiently for the shuffle to settle down. I felt safe throughout this experience, but couldn’t help thinking about my Ethiopian friends who considered events like these a normal part of life. In America, a grenade would never make it anywhere near our President and even if it did, he would have hundreds of secret servicemen to protect him from any harm. In Ethiopia, civilians are protecting themselves and their leaders, even if it costs them their lives.
With the incredible poverty and political landscape of this new beloved country on my mind – I can’t help but feel a great weight for what I have seen and experienced. This, accompanied by some internal challenges with our World Race teams that manifested through intense situations caused by the unrest, has made it a tough month for me. I desperately want to fix so many things that I simply cannot, and it’s left me feeling heavy and helpless.
I took my heavy heart to prayer and asked the Lord why. Why did you bring me here and give me responsibility in these tremendously challenging situations? What is the purpose behind my month in Ethiopia?
His answer: I didn’t call you to Ethiopia to save everyone – but I did call you here to save one. One life, one person, one individual that can break the cycle. No Amy, you can’t help everyone, but you can change the life of one. To our God, one is worth it. One person is worth leaving the ninety-nine for and if I was able to change one life while I was in Ethiopia, the entire month was worth it.
As I continue to process, I am realizing that this lesson isn’t simply for The World Race, it’s for my life. When I come home to America I will likely face many new challenges and have many new heartaches, but what I won’t do is nothing. I will pour into that one, or group of ones, that The Lord is putting in my life and on my heart. Because big things often have small beginnings, and that big thing can start with one.
My challenge to everyone reading this blog: Do something today for one. Whether that’s a smile, engaging in an inconvenient conversation, sharing the dollar in your wallet, giving the jacket off your back or just buying your coworker who is having a tough week a cup of coffee – do something for one, because that one act of kindness might be the start of a big thing.
I’ll be starting ministry in Rwanda in a few days and am so excited to see what this beautiful country holds for my month ten on the race!
See you all in LESS than two months!
<3 Amy
“If a man has a hundred sheep and one of them wanders away, what will he do? Won’t he leave the ninety-nine others on the hills and go to search for the one that is lost? And if he finds it, I tell you the truth, he will rejoice of it more than over the ninety-nine that didn’t wander away! In the same way, it is not my heavenly Father’s will that even one of these little ones should perish.” Matthew 18:12
