Parent Vision Trip
The World Race invites parents to come do ministry alongside us for a week called Parent Vision Trip, or PVT. Ours was last month in Romania. My mom was able to come help pass out New
Testaments to a local village, do door-to-door evangelism, and deliver groceries to people in need. This week was a time that was dedicated to connecting with our parent(s) in a way we never had before. There was time to pray over our parent(s), viewing them not just as a parent but as a child of God. Doing ministries together was a very unique experience, as it was the first time for us doing so overseas. It was a great way to catch up with things going on at home and for us to see how each other have grown the past 8 months. We also spent a day sight-seeing in Bucharest. All in all, it was a great trip!
Birthday
Thank you for all the birthday wishes! At PVT, my mom and I celebrated an early birthday together. I had several cards and gifts from family members and other friends. My actual birthday fell on a day that a big celebration was already happening in Ethiopia, so it ended up being a big party. There was another team from Ethiopia visiting for a few days, so we slaughtered and cooked two sheep over a campfire for dinner. I was also surprised with a slice of cake from the Sheraton Hotel in Addis Ababa. Milestone 25 will definitely be one to remember!
Month 9
Our ministry for Month 9 (September) is with HOPEthiopia. We are on a compound in a very nice facility in the middle of nowhere a village called Harbu Chululle, about two-and-a-half hours from the city Addis Ababa.
Our ministry host this month is a Canadian dentist named Ralph, who is one of the co-founders of HOPEthiopia. He’s been able to share with us the vision of this project. HOPEthiopia has already spread to several other countries around the world, such as Rwanda, Spain, Canada, and the United States!
The mission of HOPEthiopia is twofold: firstly, to raise Ethiopian children into citizens with exceptional moral standards and strength of character; and secondly, to restore the values of purpose and dignity to the lives of Ethiopia’s homeless pastors (from website).
Ministry
Right now, there are many parts of the compound. There is the Mission House, where we are staying. There are fields for growing wheat, as it is a main ingredient in a lot of Ethiopian meals. There are several gardens around the property and a developing apple orchard that we have been tending to this month.
There’s a red cluster of houses that make up the first part of the children’s homes. It is home to 19 kids who we’ve been able to pour into and hang out with this month. It is the first of many clusters to come!
The blue cluster is built, but still under construction. We’ve been working in this cluster in ways such as painting, clearing debris from construction, and cleaning them up to be ready for new children in the future.
We have led VBS-type kid’s camps, ran the water well for the community in the mornings, and prayer walked the property! Something that HOPEthiopia began doing in the beginning was writing Scripture verses on popsicle sticks, then walking the property while praying for fertile land and the people who would be working throughout it. Popsicle sticks were buried around every apple tree and several places around the garden, in the water trenches, in the wheat fields, and around the houses.
The compound also has a reforestation project that is located off-site on the other side of town. We were only able to visit it a couple of times because of rain. There are also plans for other ways to be self-sufficient, such as an aquaponics project. I can’t wait to see how much more God provides for this project in the future.
HOPEthiopia hosts a 6k once a year. It consists of a bike race, a children’s race, and an adult’s race. We were able to join them in it this month! HOPEthiopia runs happen all over the globe and are a time to involve the community in a fun event. If you can imagine the main street of the city lined with people as far as you can see, with excitement filling the air while everyone is anticipating who will be the winner of each event, that’s exactly what it was! As soon as competitors were in sight, the crowds started cheering. A few of us ran, but of course, we’re no match for the Ethiopians; they beat us by a long shot.
Cultural Things
Coffee ceremonies are a daily ritual here. It dates back to a time when people spent their mornings together with their friends and neighbors catching up on news and spending quality time with one another. Coffee ceremonies now involve local coffee, popcorn, and burning incense, and are a time to take a break and converse together.
Having clean shoes is a priority. As you can imagine, it’s been a difficult task during rainy season, but we always seem to find a water spigot to rinse off our feet!
Ethiopia’s calendar is five+ years behind ours. On September 11th we celebrated the new year, 2009. Additionally, their time is behind as well. I don’t just mean a time difference between here and the States. For instance, Ethiopia should be in the East Africa time zone, but the country has its own time zone. For example, what should be 9:30am local time is 2:30am for Ethiopians!
Terms such as “foreign”, or the local form “forengie” are used to refer to visitors, especially in the rural parts of the country. When we go into the city, however, people often call us “China”. It is interesting because there are so many Chinese immigrants in Ethiopia, but the locals see Americans and Chinese both as the same.
Ways to Pray
At the end of July, a squadmate (and former teammate) went home. Please pray for her as she works out her next steps. Pray for guidance for her. Pray also for our squad, as we support and encourage her from afar in this transition.
Please pray for us as we are making arrangements to return home. Anything from reverse culture shock, to finding jobs and places to live, to recovering from jet lag and all the other details our return entails would be a great place to begin joining us in praying over.
Pray for the physical health within our squad/teams. During this last month we had several people sick from various things. The next two months we’ll be in malaria-prone places. Pray for a healthy and enjoyable last two months!
Join us in praying for our entire squad to be fully funded! We only have a handful of people left who still need funds. Our goal is to be fully funded as a squad by the end of September!
One of my squadmates will be meeting her biological sister for the first time! Two others will be traveling with her to Cape Town. Please pray for safe travels there and back.
Where Are We Now?
This month (month 10, October), we are in Rwanda in the capital Kigali living with the pastor of a local church. We will be doing door-to-door evangelism, kids camps, preaching at daily church services, and anything else that comes up!
