Hey everyone! I hope your summers are still going awesome! I can't believe this six weeks has already come and gone. The good-byes have begun, which is difficult, but I am so thankful for the relationships I have made here. I will definitely miss everyone as well as Ethiopia.
I want to continue to thank all of you for the prayers during my time here. It means so much to me! I know God is doing amazing work here and will continue to do so. I am just so humbled He trusted me to do His will here.
We have been really busy the last week, which really isn't a big change, to try to finish everything up. The trip last Friday to Meki was great and we got a lot accomplished. The place is really starting to come together. We worked with the workers there and finished installing concrete on the porch. We also laid the remaining PVC piping for the toilets/shower. We also completed filling in previously dug trenches and dug a small foundation for the wheel-chair ramp to the toilets which they began pouring shortly after we left. God has really blessed us there. We have been praying to be able to contact various doctors/nurses which is difficult because Meki is kind of out in the middle of nowhere. But while we were working a girl came onto the compound and asked for a job. She is a nurse who has practiced for nine years! What a blessing! So Melaku has her contact info and will contact her when the clinic is finished! We also begun planting some trees around the grounds. The place will look really amazing when it is finished.
The weekend was great as well! On Sunday Teddy, Elias, and I went hiking. Addis is surrounded by many large hills/mountains and they wanted to take me hiking before I left. It was amazing and the view was beautiful from the top. We could see the whole city.
On Monday and on Tuesday we met with the families we chose to sponsor their children to begin with. There are nine total. We are really praying this program will kick off. It was amazing to talk to these families. Melaku and I explained the program (he translated) and why we wanted to start it. The families were very surprised and VERY thankful. They just kept saying "Thank you, God bless you". My heart breaks for some of these families. Some of them are just unable to provide schooling for their children due to circumstances they are in no control over. Anyways the kids were amazing and it was so good to meet them.
Yesterday the people at Hollis Language School had their official good-bye to me. They bought me coffee and it was really awesome. It has been such a blessing spending the last six weeks with them.
Also last night Melaku and his family took me to a cultural place for dinner. There was a live band playing traditional Ethiopian instruments and they have live dancers. It is so awesome because Ethiopia has almost 80 different, distinct cultures within it, each with their own dancing/music style. So we got to see some of them. They said the only more diverse African nation is Nigeria, with over 90 different cultures/tribes.
Anyways Teddy and I are about to head to Mercato, Africa's largest open-area market. There are always a ton of people there. I am excited to go.
God has truly blessed my time here. It is amazing how easy it is for us (talking about myself) fall into the same routine at home, mainly because it is so comfortable and what we're used to. Many times I totally miss the point of a relationship with Christ and focus on a 'religion' or being a 'good guy'. He wants to be present in every aspect about our lives and moreover He deserves that. It has been awesome learning from a guy like Melaku and the others here. Thankfully God never loses His faith in us and will wait for us to wake up! He is good!
Anyways I am in kind of a rush.
I leave tomorrow in the morning and head to Dubai. I then leave at night and have a 14-hour flight to Atlanta, where then I will finally head to Texas. Please pray for safe and smooth travels!
I love you all!
Grace and Peace!
Wednesday, July 14, 2010
Thursday, July 8, 2010
Ethiopia Cont'd
Friends and Fam!
I hope this blog continues to find you all doing amazing and enjoying summertime!
It is really starting to hit me that I only have a week left here. When I first arrived I remember thinking how long six weeks felt, but it really has flown by. God continues to reveal so much to me and Melaku is really teaching me a lot.
God really does have big plans for us, for all of us. He just wants us to realize those plans. I feel as Christians we are always searching for the BIG things to do, the BIG impacts to make, or the 'people to save'. God can do the biggest of work through the smallest of things. For He is in the smallest of details. It is his plan to save and redeem, for that is His nature. We should not seek for the huge moments, for God will make those happen regardless. It is not us that really does anything anyways. You never know how far a small gesture or motion of love towards someone will go. For regardless of how people appear, everyone wants to be loved. We are called to be His tool, an extension of His grace. And we are called to present that grace to others. We must put our full faith in Him and let Him do His will with our lives, which is really scary at times... We have no idea where He will take us or what He would have us do. But be prepared for He loves to take us out of our comfort zone, for this is where leaders and true faith are forged. How easy is it to be faithful in comfortable circumstances! He not only wants us to develop into these leaders, but expects it. As a father disciplines his child, He will discipline us and guide us in the right direction! He calls us to action and will faithfully guide us along our journeys, even though we will fail Him many times. I am so thankful for God continuing to do work in me and teaching me the meaning of the word servant and faith. It is a difficult lesson to learn at times, but what good lesson isn't?
Therefore I glory in Christ Jesus in my service to God
-Romans 15:17
It is impossible to express in a blog all I have learned here and what God is doing here and in my life. So I greatly look forward to talking to all of you when I return and sharing my experiences! It has been an awesome five weeks thus far and I am just praying God will continue to teach and mold me during this remaining week, and that I am able to accomplish what He sent me here to accomplish.
So far this past week has gone well, except for a little sickness that has hit some of us. I think it's a flu-bug that is going around. Melaku got sick one night then I got sick the next. As I have said this week is really busy so I made myself come into the school and get some work done. Thankfully He provided me the strength to accomplish all my tasks! When I got to the school I found out two others had gotten sick that night as well. It was just a little 24-hour stomach flu, I feel much better now. I left yesterday (Wednesday) after lunch and got some sleep, I was pretty exhausted. Good thing I am really super tough.
Tomorrow Melaku and I are headed to Meki, we will probably stay there overnight, depending on the work we get done. We are going to try to finish the main construction items on the clinic. We should be able to. I am excited about it. I haven't done any manual labor since I have been here. I did do some push-ups one day though. But only like a thousand. No big deal.
I hope everyone had an awesome 4th of July! Mine was different (obviously) but still really good. After church I went to my friend Elias's house. There we had an Ethiopian coffee ceremony. These are very popular and it has been the way they have prepared coffee for a very long time. Elias taught me how to do it. We sort fresh coffee beans, roast them and grind them ourselves, then make the coffee. The coffee is REALLY dark and they put a ton of sugar in it. It's really cool. It will definitely get your blood flowing. After that we went back to the house and some people came over and we watched Nacho Libre of course. We also played cards and had some snacks. It was a good time.
I want to continue to thank everyone for the thoughts, prayers, and encouraging e-mails. You all are amazing and I am so thankful for the AWESOME support system I have. You all are more of a blessing to me than I could ever express.
Also on a side note, if anyone knows anyone in the San Marcos area who needs a roommate, hook me up. I still have to find a place to live when I get back. But no prob!
I love you all! Thanks for everything! Fight the good fight!
Grace and Peace!
OK I know this is long but I wanted to share a small excerpt from my daily devotional from yesterday that I thought was really amazing (July 7):
"If we are going to live as disciples of Jesus, we have to remember that all noble things are difficult. The Christian life is gloriously difficult, but the difficulty of it does not make us faint and cave in, it rouses us up to overcome. Do we so appreiciate the marvelous salvation of Jesus Christ that we are our utmost for His highest?"
Much love!
I hope this blog continues to find you all doing amazing and enjoying summertime!
It is really starting to hit me that I only have a week left here. When I first arrived I remember thinking how long six weeks felt, but it really has flown by. God continues to reveal so much to me and Melaku is really teaching me a lot.
God really does have big plans for us, for all of us. He just wants us to realize those plans. I feel as Christians we are always searching for the BIG things to do, the BIG impacts to make, or the 'people to save'. God can do the biggest of work through the smallest of things. For He is in the smallest of details. It is his plan to save and redeem, for that is His nature. We should not seek for the huge moments, for God will make those happen regardless. It is not us that really does anything anyways. You never know how far a small gesture or motion of love towards someone will go. For regardless of how people appear, everyone wants to be loved. We are called to be His tool, an extension of His grace. And we are called to present that grace to others. We must put our full faith in Him and let Him do His will with our lives, which is really scary at times... We have no idea where He will take us or what He would have us do. But be prepared for He loves to take us out of our comfort zone, for this is where leaders and true faith are forged. How easy is it to be faithful in comfortable circumstances! He not only wants us to develop into these leaders, but expects it. As a father disciplines his child, He will discipline us and guide us in the right direction! He calls us to action and will faithfully guide us along our journeys, even though we will fail Him many times. I am so thankful for God continuing to do work in me and teaching me the meaning of the word servant and faith. It is a difficult lesson to learn at times, but what good lesson isn't?
Therefore I glory in Christ Jesus in my service to God
-Romans 15:17
It is impossible to express in a blog all I have learned here and what God is doing here and in my life. So I greatly look forward to talking to all of you when I return and sharing my experiences! It has been an awesome five weeks thus far and I am just praying God will continue to teach and mold me during this remaining week, and that I am able to accomplish what He sent me here to accomplish.
So far this past week has gone well, except for a little sickness that has hit some of us. I think it's a flu-bug that is going around. Melaku got sick one night then I got sick the next. As I have said this week is really busy so I made myself come into the school and get some work done. Thankfully He provided me the strength to accomplish all my tasks! When I got to the school I found out two others had gotten sick that night as well. It was just a little 24-hour stomach flu, I feel much better now. I left yesterday (Wednesday) after lunch and got some sleep, I was pretty exhausted. Good thing I am really super tough.
Tomorrow Melaku and I are headed to Meki, we will probably stay there overnight, depending on the work we get done. We are going to try to finish the main construction items on the clinic. We should be able to. I am excited about it. I haven't done any manual labor since I have been here. I did do some push-ups one day though. But only like a thousand. No big deal.
I hope everyone had an awesome 4th of July! Mine was different (obviously) but still really good. After church I went to my friend Elias's house. There we had an Ethiopian coffee ceremony. These are very popular and it has been the way they have prepared coffee for a very long time. Elias taught me how to do it. We sort fresh coffee beans, roast them and grind them ourselves, then make the coffee. The coffee is REALLY dark and they put a ton of sugar in it. It's really cool. It will definitely get your blood flowing. After that we went back to the house and some people came over and we watched Nacho Libre of course. We also played cards and had some snacks. It was a good time.
I want to continue to thank everyone for the thoughts, prayers, and encouraging e-mails. You all are amazing and I am so thankful for the AWESOME support system I have. You all are more of a blessing to me than I could ever express.
Also on a side note, if anyone knows anyone in the San Marcos area who needs a roommate, hook me up. I still have to find a place to live when I get back. But no prob!
I love you all! Thanks for everything! Fight the good fight!
Grace and Peace!
OK I know this is long but I wanted to share a small excerpt from my daily devotional from yesterday that I thought was really amazing (July 7):
"If we are going to live as disciples of Jesus, we have to remember that all noble things are difficult. The Christian life is gloriously difficult, but the difficulty of it does not make us faint and cave in, it rouses us up to overcome. Do we so appreiciate the marvelous salvation of Jesus Christ that we are our utmost for His highest?"
Much love!
Saturday, July 3, 2010
Happy 4th!!!
Well it isn't quite the 4th yet but by the time anyone reads this it probably will be. I hope everyone has an awesome weekend and blows up tons of stuff. For some reason they don't celebrate America's Independence Day here.... I am not sure why...
Things continue to go great here and I can't believe how fast the time has gone. We are continuing to stay busy and already have the next week planned out.
Melaku and I are planning a two-day trip to Meki to finish some construction items this week. The clinic is very close to becoming operable so we are trying to push hard and finish up these items. Melaku was talking about wanting to get it finished so I said, "Well let's go do it!". So we are. I think we are going Thursday and Friday and staying there over the night.
This morning I did something fantastic. I hand-washed some of my clothes. It was great. I actually kind of liked it. There is something peaceful about it. Beza (Melaku's daughter) took like 15 pictures of me doing it for some reason. I think because of their hospitable culture, especially towards us whiteys, they usually don't let us really do anything. They always want to help, which is cool. But I only had a few things I wanted to wash so I told them I am doing it no matter what.
Later on today we are having a program at the church. We invited a guest-speaker and a lot of non-church members. It should just be a good time for fellowship and we are having refreshments afterwards. Melaku teaches every Saturday evening to a group of youth-pastors and leaders. Today he asked me to go with him and share the Word as well. I am excited about it. He will translate for me, it should be a good time.
So earlier on this week I was going back home and saw a person in the village with a Texas A&M hat on. It was my first sighting this trip. Yes I got a picture. It was the most amazing thing ever.
Anyways thanks again so much for the prayers. I am just praying I stay diligent and we are able to accomplish our goals we have set for my time here. We have almost totally finished kicking-off the child sponsorship program so I am very thankful for that.
I love and miss you all and am praying for all of you!
Oh-also, it is now July, which means it's almost August, which means it is time for a little..... AGGIE AND COWBOY FOOTBALL! Oh yeah! Very important.
Also there is a marathon - 1/2 marathon in San Antonio in November I think I will run the 1/2. Anybody wanna join? I can't remember the exact date. If a bunch of people want to we can make it a group run. Don't be a sissy.
Grace and Peace!
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Things continue to go great here and I can't believe how fast the time has gone. We are continuing to stay busy and already have the next week planned out.
Melaku and I are planning a two-day trip to Meki to finish some construction items this week. The clinic is very close to becoming operable so we are trying to push hard and finish up these items. Melaku was talking about wanting to get it finished so I said, "Well let's go do it!". So we are. I think we are going Thursday and Friday and staying there over the night.
This morning I did something fantastic. I hand-washed some of my clothes. It was great. I actually kind of liked it. There is something peaceful about it. Beza (Melaku's daughter) took like 15 pictures of me doing it for some reason. I think because of their hospitable culture, especially towards us whiteys, they usually don't let us really do anything. They always want to help, which is cool. But I only had a few things I wanted to wash so I told them I am doing it no matter what.
Later on today we are having a program at the church. We invited a guest-speaker and a lot of non-church members. It should just be a good time for fellowship and we are having refreshments afterwards. Melaku teaches every Saturday evening to a group of youth-pastors and leaders. Today he asked me to go with him and share the Word as well. I am excited about it. He will translate for me, it should be a good time.
So earlier on this week I was going back home and saw a person in the village with a Texas A&M hat on. It was my first sighting this trip. Yes I got a picture. It was the most amazing thing ever.
Anyways thanks again so much for the prayers. I am just praying I stay diligent and we are able to accomplish our goals we have set for my time here. We have almost totally finished kicking-off the child sponsorship program so I am very thankful for that.
I love and miss you all and am praying for all of you!
Oh-also, it is now July, which means it's almost August, which means it is time for a little..... AGGIE AND COWBOY FOOTBALL! Oh yeah! Very important.
Also there is a marathon - 1/2 marathon in San Antonio in November I think I will run the 1/2. Anybody wanna join? I can't remember the exact date. If a bunch of people want to we can make it a group run. Don't be a sissy.
Grace and Peace!
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