Ethiopia has been a complete 180 compared to Asia. Africa started out a little rocky for my team. Trying to understand the brokenness and poverty was extremely hard for me. On a daily basis, people of all ages were begging for money and food. I was confused as to what we were even doing there because the need was so heavy. Instead of trying to find my own understanding, I had to pick up God’s understanding once again.
Often times, when someone is struggling, the blame goes to the devil. But what if your whole purpose in being there was for God to show you what healing needed to take place in your own heart? This perspective changes everything. That’s what happened in Ethiopia. Last month was for some extended healing. I needed to finally leave it behind so that the devil couldn’t use it as leverage anymore. Moreover, it needed to take place in an enviroment where I couldn’t escape it anymore. After realizing I was right where I was supposed to be, it made me question how many times God has opened the door for healing and I walked away from it.
God amazes me more and more everyday. In fact, he can make the worst situations into the best ones. Now, Ethiopia has a special spot in my heart because of how much deep healing took place and how much closer I feel to God. I didn’t want to leave feeling like I gave up on the people there, but after the healing started, the environment changed for me. It was easier for me to see people how God sees them. Everytime I thought something negative about someone, God showed me how broken they are, and he asked me to show grace towards them. Grace is easy to give when its for yourself or someone that you love. But grace doesn’t work like that. I can only imagine how much grace has been given to me throughout my life.
It’s easy to focus on the bad. But what happens when we focus on the good, and the glory goes to God rather than the enemy? Even when we were struggling, God put so many wonderful people in our path and continued to protect us. He always knows what he is doing. I just have to let God be God and follow him.
Each day, we would eat breakfast at this amazing little local restaurant. The owners name was Mesi and we fell in love with her. She is so full of life and has one of the best smiles. We got a chance to visit her family and we were blown away by their hospitality. She works so hard to provide for her two sons. One of her sons has some medical issues, restricting him to a wheelchair. He is unable to go to a public school without a nurse. Please keep him in your prayers so that God may provide the nurse so he can go to a public school. He is so smart and just a little boy. She is just one out of many of the wonderful people I got to meet.
I would encourage anybody going through a hard a time to ask God if he has put you in the wilderness before assuming it is the enemy. Such a beautiful experience came out of this difficult time for me. In my next countries, I will be able to use this experience to bring kingdom.
I want to close in a prayer,
Dear God, I want to thank you for Ethiopia and for their people. I thank you for all the healing that happened. I pray that peoples hearts will be receptive to your voice and that more people will want to come to Ethiopia because of it. I pray blessings over the whole country. Amen.
