The Lord is present – wow. Everyday I feel God’s presence. Mostly in the sky, in his creation. Every day that he makes, every sunrise, every cloud, every color in the sky. I am always blown away by his creativity and the goodness he pours out to his children in the way he creates the sky.
I live in Wakanda which is a little house near the front of the property here at the Hope Ethiopia compound. Everything happens in the guesthouse which is about a 3 minute walk from our home. Every morning, every night and all the walks throughout the day I see Gods creation. It’s such a precious time to me. A time to talk to him in private. On the race there are few moments alone but these walks, usually in the morning are always alone. Sometimes I get so overwhelmed by his creation I take a video to capture the sky and the way I feel, to capture the presence of the Lord inside of me or sometimes I’m brought to tears… always speechless by the beauty. All in all, coming before The Father and praising him and his creation.
Sometimes I’ll grab my blanket and go sit with the Father, looking out over the countryside and watch men, woman and children make the long trek from their home to the market, watching and admiring each one as God’s masterpiece. Watching but always filled with crazy peace. This place is soaked with his peace.
Or going to church. Walking in our church clothes and loving on each village child as they attack our hands craving love on the way. Letting children climb all over us during service and give us lots of hugs. Watching as this culture comes before God and worships Him in their way. So completely undignified. Coming before God with all they have and worshipping him with all their strengths. I can feel His presence as I watch people getting thrown down by the spirit but just as much with every “hallelujah” and every “amen”. I can’t tell what they are saying but I can feel what they are saying through their actions. Laying down at the feet of Jesus and praying to him, crying out to him. Time is not of importance, we sit there for hours, praying, singing, reading. Coming before the Lord. It is beautiful.
Or helping the house moms in the kitchen. All we do is sort beans for hours but feeling the absolute JOY fill the whole room and create laughter.
Or the love from the children. All the smiles and giggles always reminds me of Him. I can always feel him. Something He is teaching me here, away from society and the noise is that He has always been here but he had to take me to the middle of nowhere to show me.
I believe one of the first nights we arrived here to Ethiopia, Ralph, the man who started this incredible organization was giving us a run down of this place. He talked with such passion for the presence of the Lord, alive and working on this compound.
The village we are in is mostly Muslim, in fact, Christians get judged for just walking down the street with a Bible in hand. Ralph created an atmosphere here, on this compound where the word of God is ALIVE. He does this by, having each squad come through to write scripture on popsicle sticks and plant them all over the property. As a squad we also prayed in this new building called the training center. We prayed for hours, worshiping our God and writing on every wall scripture and words the Lord gives to us.
There is also the Faith Well- an incredible story. When Ralph was first building on this property he wanted to dig a well. He got the usual well diggers from the area to come and check out the land. They got to work and after a couple of days of digging there was no water. In fact, the men who do this for a living told Ralph that there wasn’t hope and that these are dry spots and Ralph should stop digging. As Ralph received this news in Canada where he and his wife reside, they were discouraged but immediately turned to prayer. Ralph sent out a prayer chain and got everyone to pray, to pray for God to provide water. In the middle of the night Ralph was abruptly awoken and felt God telling him to keep digging. The next morning he called his guys and told them to keep going. They highly disagreed since they had dug very far already. But, nevertheless they kept digging. Only maybe 10 more feet down they hit this MASSIVE body of water underneath the ground, on the property of HOPEthiopia. It was a miracle, it was God providing. Not only does this water run all of HOPEthiopia but is open to the whole community where villagers come very far for water. Ralph calls the well the Faith Well. He told us to not be afraid of the tap water because the water from the well is Holy Water and in Jesus’s name you will not get sick or be affected. To this day I drink water straight from the sink and every time I fill my water bottle up I am trusting God 100% to give me his Holy water. Unfortunately we had many members of our squad get a virus from the water which we believe was because of man not of God and are highly recommended not to drink water straight from the faucets but I still do, mostly because of the way Ralph talked of his Faith well. I could see it and I could hear the complete certainty, trusting God that he will provide Holy water.
Three people out of our whole squad do the ministry called water distribution every morning where they oversee all the people coming to get water, mostly because there are soooo many people coming to get water that it can get chaotic. But through all the chaos is a beautiful thing that would not be possible without faith, faith that He will provide.
There is something about this place though, feeling the Holy Spirit like I’ve never before. Sunday night worship underneath the beautiful Ethiopian stars wondering how can this be, how the creator of the universe’s presence was right beside me and inside of me. Charging me with incredible joy of the Lord. Walking around the compound and listening to nature worship the Father. Listening to the wind sing, watching the grass dance and looking up to the stars smiling. Everywhere I look I see Him. Living the simple life and realizing the simple gospel.
FUNDRAISER UPDATE: ADOPT A MONTH!
SEPTEMBER (TAKEN!!! YAYAYA!!!!!)
OCTOBER (TAKEN!!!!! WAAHOOOOOO)
NOVEMBER (TAKENNNNNN!!!)
DECEMBER (taken!!! Whoop whoop!!)
JANUARY (needed!)
FEBRUARY (needed!)
MARCH
APRIL
MAY
JUNE (may or may not be needed, depends what day I get home)
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Ways YOU can Join me on my Spiritual Journey:
1. Pray. I will need a multitude of prayers ranging from strength, wisdom, clarity, love, joy… The list goes on. Whatever your heart desires and feels right, pray. Here in Ethiopia we have a little boy at the orphanage who’s legs don’t work, pray healing over his body please!
- SPREAD THE WORD! Tell everyone about my trip and show them my blog.
- SUBSCRIBE! When you subscribe you will get all notifications when I post on my blog about my trip and any updates!
- If you would like to donate to me still, please donate directly to me and not World Race. I AM FULLY FUNDED but I could always use money to cover vaccinations costs and so on! I do have squad mates who aren’t fully funded, if you feel lead please donate to them and keep them on the field!!!!
Thank you and God bless you all!
