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!