HAPPY 2012 ETHIOPIA!
The things you don’t know until you visit a country and find out about their culture, traditions and celebrations. *The Sunflowers are a way of celebrating*
This month was packed with a couple different things and lots of moving around in a short amount of time.
We arrived in Ethiopia at the end of August. To start off month 9, we had Squad Debrief. Debriefs are filled with relaxing, catching up, exploring the area, sessions, one on ones, team debriefs and amazing worship.
As a leader, debriefs are jammed packed with little time to actually relax but this time was my favorite debrief.
The Squad had a rough past couple of months with sickness, homesickness, and feeling warned out but they all came together wanting to feel refreshed, rejuvenated and wanting a fresh new outlook to head into our last 3 months. There was a sense of peace and unity among the squad. It was a great start to our last leg.
After a couple days of debrief, a good amount of us headed to Hopethiopia in a rural area in Ethiopia to eagerly wait for our parents arrival.
Our parents visiting finally arrived. This day seemed so far off into the future and now we are here. It was an amazing few days.
It doesn’t seem like a lot of time for our parents to have traveled across the globe to visit us but it was the perfect amount of time.
We were able catch up with our parents, spend quality time with all the families, bring our families into a little taste of our lives, share ALL the emotions, do ministry together, see our parents fall in love with the people and witness lives forever changed.
This was such a special time and I am thankful I was able to share it with my Mother. Thanks Mom for saying YES and coming to Ethiopia.
By the end of this time, us Racers were exhausted but also ready to get back into our “norm.”
This month, the Squad split into two groups for the last two weeks we had left this month.
4 Teams stayed at Hopethiopia and 2 Teams (including myself) traveled to Blessing the Children, an organization in a city outside of Addis Ababa surrounded by volcanic mountains and lakes.
We were sad to leave Hope since it is such a beautiful, amazing ministry with the most wonderful Hosts but we were also looking forward to see what God had planned for us at this other ministry.
So we have been here for about a week 1/2 now and we have been enjoying our time.
I personally have loved spending time with the two teams this month-our all guy’s team and girls team who 3 of the girls happen to be from my old team. (More on community living in a different bog.)
Blessing the Children is an organization that focuses on support for the local community and has two campuses for a school.
Our ministry this month is helping them paint the windows and desks in the schools (they are on break now), to visit families in the community and to spend time with and love the kids and young adults who help us paint.
The house visits are my favorite but painting has also been such an intentional time of getting to know each other, having good convos and having fun with the youth.
For house visits, a few of us go out at a time to visit the families of current students who are need of sponsorship and support in many different ways. My heart hurts for these families especially hearing and seeing where they need help. Most of the families we visit are fatherless and some even parentless due to death or addiction. Most are living in a closet size house with a community bathroom (a hole in the ground). It is hard for the women to make a living and even make enough to supply their family with enough food.
I am going to post more about this but if you are interested in helping in anyway, please reach out and we can make it happen. While I am here, I could bring some things to their house and take pictures of the families we are helping or you can think about sponsoring them monthly to help pay towards the child’s school, food, medical etc.
It’s hard not to be able to help every single family with everything they need but I know personally, I want to do what I can even if it’s a small act of kindness.
Anyways…These past months in Africa have been amazing and I still have so much to process and update you all on.
I am sorry I have not been better about blogging weekly. Now that I am done with SCHOOL-PRAISE GOD…I will be able to focus more on writing more.
I cannot believe I am heading into month 10 soon. We head to Romania on the 20th! It truly is a bitter sweet feeling but I am currently at the point where I am sad this trip is coming to an end so soon. I am going to try to slow it down as much as I can by being present, being ALL IN and truly appreciating every moment.
Thank you all for your love and kindness!
Love you so much!
Kristen
