New team, new continent, new country, new language and new currency, basically what started out as “routine” (routine has a meaning all its own on the race) quickly became anything but. Allow me to explain.
Our ministry this month was in Hawassa, (for a little more on our ministry read my blog Unmet Expectaions). Life in Hawassa was frustratingly boring… Until Thursday June 14.
Our ministry for the day was cancelled so we decided to go somewhere to get off the compound, find some good food, and get Wifi. We called a bajaj (taxi) and after a very brief discussion of whether or not we should try somewhere new we all decided to go to Haile Resort. We spent the day relaxing, also went boating looking for hippos.
The time came to go home and we could not get a bajaj. We asked at the front desk and they told us there were no Bajajs running due to rioting on the streets. We knew there were some “celebrations” going on; we had not left the compound for two days because of them. What we didn’t know is what was about to come and change the trajectory of our time in Ethiopia.
Earlier that day we had met some people who were there for the same reason, Wifi. We went and asked him and he confirmed what we had heard and suggested we get a room and just stay put for the night; apparently, the “celebrations” had gotten out of hand and turned political, there was fighting and looting. However, we were in the safest place in the city, the first of many instances over the coming week where we saw God’s hand on us.
The upside to this was I got to wash my hair, for the first time in too long, shower and sleep in a bed. I went to bed thinking this would settle down by morning and life would return to the frustratingly boring routine of the past few weeks. Boy, did I think wrong!In other words life in Hawassa went from 0-60, real fast.
My team mate Sam came into the room and said our hosts home had been broken into, another instance of God protecting us that we weren’t there.
We stayed at the resort Friday and Saturday having no idea how long this would last. Saturday afternoon the rioting slowed down enough that our host took two of the team to his house to get our stuff. He also arranged for a private mini bus to get us to Addis Ababa Sunday morning, we were praying things would stay calm long enough for us to get out of there.
Our bus, and host, showed up Sunday morning around 11, and it was suddenly swamped with people wanting to get out of Hawassa. Our host made sure everyone got off and we were safely on the road. Another God send was a couple Sam had met that is from England; however she was Ethiopian and could speak the language. We offered them a seat on our bus and she was able to translate and get us safely to our destination in Addis.
Aside from a cop wanting a bribe- he had seen the white girls and was in the process of removing the license plate, essentially leaving him driving an unregistered vehicle. Our driver gave him some money and we were allowed to continue without incident.
This is a skeleton version of the story; it’s been a crazy week, to say the least. I have seen God come through for me in crazy ways the last week, He was on the scene before we were.
I would appreciate your prayers as we finish out Ethiopia, there’s some uncertainty in what the next stage will look like. We are currently in Addis were we are finishing out our time in Ethiopia. We are safe and this will make a great story to “tell the kids” someday.
