June 30, 2004

SALAAM!!! Sorry I suck at blogging. I will try my best to do better! If you didn't know, we made it safely to Ethiopia! It's 2004 here. No joke. They have 13 months in a year. Also, it's June 30th, not July 6th. I've adopted the phrase, "Don't get me started on things I don't understand." I say it about 7 times a day. This place is so different, but so beautiful.

Briefing in Dallas was great. Everyone on this project is really cool and it wasn't hard for us to click. Team unity: check. So, STORY TIME. In order to go on this project, everyone had to agree that if they didn't raise all of their support that they would pay the difference. Raising support to go on an international project is probably the most stressful thing I have ever done in my life. By the time we got to Dallas, I owed the project a little less than $1,000. My heart sunk when I found that out. There were about 5 of us that didn't raise all of their support and so we had to meet with the project directors to talk about how to pay for the rest of our support. I was NOT looking forward to that conversation. We all are standing in a circle with the project directors and they tell us that through many different supporters...our WHOLE project had all been covered. How much more evident could it be that the Lord wanted us ALL to go on this trip? What a beautiful picture of God's provision. Don't worry, this is just the beginning!

The plane ride was so much better than I expected. Each seat had a TV screen on the back of it so I watched a few movies, journaled, & talked with the people I sat by. Dare I say it was fun? Except, have you ever tried to brush your teeth on an airplane? I SPIT ON MY SHOE. Seriously. Also, random fact: Germany doesn't have trash cans. Anyways, 21 hours later we landed in Addis safe and sound! When we got outside of the airport to take a bus to the hotel, the Ethiopians met us all outside and handed us each a rose! We crammed 27 people into a 20ish passenger van...that was fun. We are getting used to being crammed. There are 23 students, 6 staff, and 3 kids...Claustrophobia, what? We got to the hotel and were greeted with warm hugs from our friends from Arkansas that went on the Ethiopia trip A. It was a nice ease into actually being in Africa. The hotel is SO nice. The beds are as hard as a board, seriously...but I feel so spoiled with everything else. I have taken 2 cold showers which were a fun reminder of Santa Cruz motel life. :) Oh, and my roommate's name is Amy. She's the project nanny for the director's 3 kids! She's great. We got to have pillow talk the other night and I really feel like we got a lot closer. Love her already.

I'm gonna be honest...Ethiopian food is WEIRD. Some stuff has zero flavor and some is so spicy most of us can't eat it. And the main bread here is called Injera. It has the consistency of a sponge and tastes like lime. Not my cup of tea, but my roommate likes it! Breakfast is my favorite meal here. I've had pizza about 12 times, spaghetti 5 times, and fried rice twice....don't judge me. I'm easing into this stuff. I have tried a lot of strange food, though! Melissa, you should be proud. I kind of thought that I would lose weight here but the amount of carbs I am eating is unreal. Diet starts tomorrow. Coffee is unavoidable at this point. I'm averaging about 2 cups a day. Sometimes 3. It's delicious by the way...unlike coffee in America. GROSS. Betsy...be proud. :)

We got to go out last Friday and walk around the city! We saw the cool meeting spots for sharing the Gospel and got to meet people at what is now my favorite coffee shop/pizzeria called Five Zone. We also learned that pickpocketting is basically a profession here. The kids are crafty to say the least. Day 1 of going out, one of our teammate's phones got stolen. The streets are so full of homeless, sick, beggars, etc. It really rips your heart out to see it.

The way our day generally goes is to go eat lunch and then go to the discipleship center before we go out and do ministry. The first day we tried to do that, we took an hour and a half to get a taxi. Patience was almost lost at this point. The thing that made it worth it was when we got to the street that the discipleship center was on, we turned down the alley and little kids were running at us full speed screaming with excitement. This is everyone's favorite part of the day because the kids in the village behind the discipleship center LOVE to play. There are 30ish precious kids and we played with them for hours. Everyone fell in love with them. It made the wait for a taxi totally worth it.

Friday night, we went out for our first social as a whole project. We went to this restaurant where we all sit in a half-circle and watch Ethiopian dancers while we eat. We were encouraged to try everything at least once. I follow the policy of, "Don't ask, don't tell and i'll try it." So, naturally, the server came up to me as I was in line and was pointing to certain dishes and saying things like, "This, lamb stomach. This, chicken stomach." So much for that policy. I still tried things and it wasn't half bad. The dancers were insane...i really can't explain that. It got interactive after dinner though. They brought every one of us out to dance with them. We have never looked more white. It was a blast!

NOW FOR THE GOOD STUFF. If you haven't read any of this, you should read this next part.

Friday day we went and talked to people at Five Zone. We met Isaac right when we sat down. He is a college student and loves rap music and is a D.J. He translated a lot of Amharic stuff for us because he spoke PERFECT English. When he left, two other people sat down. Their names were Mikyas and James. They also spoke English which we were so thankful for. We got to talking about faith and they told us a little bit about what they believe. It was so cool to hear from them. We also met a precious 12-year-old boy named Tarkue. He sells gum on the streets all day, every day. He is one of the only kids we have met who hasn't tried to reach into my pocket or unzip my purse. Needless to say everyone on the campus track team is in love. I'm going to cry BUCKETS when we have to leave him.

Saturday was incredibly blessed to say the least. We had a free day and all of the campus track wanted to go to the lion zoo. We invited everyone that we met on Friday to come and join us. Isaac, Mikyas, James, and Tarkue came. Tarkue brought his friend Job too. He is also precious and has made us all fall in love with him too. Emilee and Lindsey got to share the Gospel with Isaac and Emily and I got to share with James. THEY BOTH ACCEPTED CHRIST!!! It was incredible. So we all went to the lion zoo and it was so much fun! I can't really explain in words how I felt, but it was definitely top 2 days in my life.

On Sunday we went to the English-speaking church service. It was so cool to worship the same God from a different country.

Monday was our first day of ministry with the translators. It was challenging to say the least. The language barrier is harder than I expected. I went out with a guy on our team named Andrew, and our translator's name was Mercy. We had NO idea what we were getting into. Mercy grabbed a random guy that was walking in front of us and told us to share the Gospel with him. We were definitely not expecting that to happen so quickly. It was really hard to figure out what exactly our roles were in sharing the Gospel. We talked to a few more people, but no one accepted Christ...which was really defeating considering the fact that we had so many come to Christ the day before. We also had a girl's night that brought the mood of the group back up. The girls on this project are SO incredible.

Tuesday-Thursday were a lot better ministry wise. We are all still learning the easiest ways to share the Gospel and how we work with different translators. It's a process, but so far we have shared the Gospel around 200 times and 25 people have accepted Christ! The Lord has been SO good to us, y'all. I have so many more stories but I am falling asleep typing this. I'll update soon!

PRAYER REQUESTS:

~The guys we shared with on Saturday (Isaac, Mikyas, and James) are being really flaky and making us feel like they only want our money. Pray for discernment for us and changed/convicted hearts for the guys.
~We found out earlier this week that Tarkue has HIV. It has been hard on everyone to handle that news. Pray for him as he is dealing with it and the campus track as we grow closer to him. Pray that we can just love on him for the time that we are here and keep our spirits up.
~That the team can be renewed every day. Doing ministry every day is so rewarding but it is also SO draining. Pray that we can just lean on the Lord and spend sweet time with Him daily.
~We have one issue that is hurting our team...namely the girls. I can't really explain it on this blog post but pray that the issue is resolved quickly and in a Christ-like way.
~Health. Week 1 was rough on everyone. Pray that we can all stay healthy these next 3 weeks!
~Ethiopia. This place is so beautiful but so broken. Pray that we can keep reaching people here and impacting this city.
~Joe & Jeremy are adults that were a part of the film track for this week. They just left yesterday and today. Pray for safe travels as they go back home to their families!

Thank you all so much for being a part of this and for being patient with me. Love you all!

"Therefore, my dear brothers, stand firm. Let nothing move you. Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain." - 1 Corinthians 15:58