Blog #4

Before I got here, I planned to do all sorts of blogging. Recording everything. I expected to be able to just jot down what I've experienced. But that has become difficult, and I'm unsure why.

I mean, it's not like I'm sitting on my butt all day twiddling my thumbs watching my time fly by out the window. I teach half of the day on Monday and Tuesday. And then I teach sign language in the evening on Wed-Fri, after teaching some at the school.

When I can, I go on homevisits. And I'm trying to figure out going to one of the churches each Thursday to play with some kids during the women's Bible study. (Which gives me a blog update idea for later on in this blog).

But I still can't find the words to blog, even though I have time in the evenings or mornings on alternating days to type up some blogs or even write in my journal. As far as my journal goes, I usually just forget. I like to journal about important things, and all days aren't important. Like, tonight was fun: we had a game night with New Zealand, today I experimented with chicken melts, but it's not blog-worthy in its entirety, and I've never been one to journal about normal things—everyday things.

I don't know. Maybe when I get home and show people photos, I can tell stories along with them. Afterall, photos are 1k words.

So, to actually blog on my events...

1. can't even remember what I last blogged about. So, excuse any repeats...

We went to a Children's Choir in Addis Feb 3. It was run by some Korean organization. The choir sang songs from around the world: Ethiopia, Korea, America, Germany(I think), and a few others. I recorded most of the performance, but I don't know how well it came up because the lighting was stagelights and my camera isn't made for night-time performances. But I think it did OK, I haven't watched the videos though.

...Feb 3. It's—as I am typing this—Feb 25. Just a few days late.

I don't know why this is so hard. Maybe it's because there are a lot of things that happen. Or maybe it's because the weeks go by fast and the days blur together. I mean, it's already Saturday night. It's already a few days short of me having been here 2 months.

It's strange to have alternating feelings toward the length it is until I leave. It's 58 days. Less than two months. Most times it feels too soon. Some times it feels far away. And I don't like feeling either way. Because when I feel it's too soon, I feel like I'm making a declaration of not missing anyone, not caring about anyone back at home. But I do miss people—if not everyone. And I do care about everyone.

But at the same time I feel that if I miss home, then why am I here? I'm not here for my own comforts. I'm not here to satisfy some sense of right-doing. I'm here because I've been called. I'm here because God's directed. I'm here to serve. (Which reminds me of another blog tidbit later on). I'm here to love, to connect with these people. I'm here to allow the light of Christ in me to shine so these people can have a deepened hope in God. They already have such a great faith in God. Do you remember that story about the sugar and the family who ran out of it that morning, but God provided in response to their faith. It reminds me of the widow who used up all her oil and flour to make bread for Elijah. She had no money to just go out and buy more, and she had none in reserve for emergencies. It was all she had, and then she and her son would go hungry and die. (Of course, as nurturing a mother as she was described in the Bible, she would have died of hunger before the son because she would sacrifice her food so he could eat.) But then this man came in, hungry(but, mind you, most likely not knowing the same hunger the widow and her son knew), wanting something to eat. So she baked him bread. God honored her and she never ran out of oil and flour again.

Faith in service, despite a lack of means, gets rewarded. I know the family's situation here in Ethiopia wasn't identical, but still, she had faith God would provide and He did. The widow had faith God would provide(obviously not in the way that happened), and He did.

Do we have that faith? Do we serve God or His people, even if it makes us uncomfortable? Are we running low on food, and God impresses on us to feed another of His children—even if they have more food or more money? Are we running low on money, and God wants us to do something for one of His children but we “have no money” to use, so we ignore it?

1 John 3:16-18 talks about that. If anyone has the world's goods and sees his brother have a need, but shuts up his bowels of compassion from him...how does the love of God dwell in him?

But I feel I've rabbit-trailed.

58 days. It's like a war of love. If I miss home, I feel like I love home more than I love these children and these families. But, if I have a lower level of dread or displeasure at leaving Ethiopia, I feel like I'm loving these families more than I love my family and friends.

It's a weird middle ground. But maybe my focus should be on neither side of the fence, but instead on the Sun that shines on them both. God's will is obviously best, it is on his face I should be focusing. Not my family's or the faces of these impoverished souls.

Afterall, that is what we are called to do. Love God. Deny ourselves; follow Him. Peter stepped out on faith onto the waters that crashed about them all. He remained on firm ground so long as he kept his eyes on Christ. But when he began to look about him, at the waves and the storm, he began to sink. Sure there is chaos here. Sure people are starving, sure families are torn apart, sure people are hurting. But I've stepped out to follow Christ. Not them. I was called to follow as my focus—not serve. If by following Him he leads me to serve, then that's what I'm supposed to do. Peter did step out into the waves around him. I'm sure his feet got wet, I'm sure his clothes got splashed, but he didn't sink if he focused on God.

In Luke it talks about Mary and Martha and Jesus. Jesus came to their house and taught. Martha served, Mary sat and listened and learned. It says that Martha was distracted with her much serving. She went up to Jesus and accused him of not caring that she was working alone while Mary sat, doing nothing, listening to Him teach. Jesus then tells her that she is anxious and troubled over many things. But only one this is necessary. He explains that it was Mary that chose the good thing, that that will never be taken away from her.

Martha was anxious and troubled that she would be able to serve the master of the universe adequately. She was in his presence, and she wanted to make sure she didn't pass this opportunity up by being lazy. She wanted to serve Him with all she had, running around tirelessly. But she became irritated doing it all alone when her sister was in the same position as she was, but she was sitting and not doing anything.

But it was Mary who chose the good portion. She chose to sit at Jesus' feet and learned more about whatever it was that Christ taught about. She didn't worry about making sure Jesus was fed, clean, or comfortable. She wanted to know more about Him, more about His word, more about His will. She wasn't distracted like Martha was. I'm sure they both heard the same lessons, the same teachings. But Martha couldn't pay attention because she was distracted with service. Mary simply sat and listened.

God isn't saying not to serve Him. He wants us to deny ourselves, pick up our crosses, and follow Him. He blessed those who fed the poor, clothed the naked, and gave water to the thirst—he said they did those things literally to him when they did it to the least of people. When we serve others, we serve God. But God doesn't want us to be distracted with much service that we don't hear the lessons He is teaching to us. God speaks to us through various things in the day. He speaks through music, through His children, and through His word, and through our consciences. But if we tone everything out so we can serve more and more, we totally miss the opportunity of His presence with us.

I feel like I'm all over the place...

So, when I went to Zion Church during one of the Lady's Bible Study, I hung out with two brothers who live on this church compound(alone, no parents. The oldest boy is like 13, and the younger is about 8), and his friend(who is the pianist at Zion). At first we just sat around, hardly talking. Neither of us really knowing how to have a conversation—either because of language barriers or just lack of subjects. But at one point I asked them what they wanted to do, and Adana—the 8-year-old—mentioned wanted to play football, but they had no football. I reminded him of the beachball I brought the last visit, and he seemed to consider it, but the conversation kind of ended. We moved locations as the pianist came until finally he went into their house and got the beach ball and we played football in front of the church office. We didn't play officially at first because there were only four of us, but we eventually added another player so we could play 2-on-2. It was fun, even if I did break my flipflop and had to play on rocky soil barefoot for a little while.

But I'm really enjoying it here. It's fun, and I'm learning a lot about God and myself.

So, my two main things for coming here(or at least my mission plan) was to teach ASL and music. ASL teaching is going well. Apparently her sponsor bought he Signing Made Easy sometime in the past, so she had already been going over that book, learning the signs. Obviously, for learning out of a 2-D book, there were signs not signed properly, and obviously for being an English book, there were words she wasn't understanding but copied. My initial plan was to deal with the book last, but when I learned she had already learned everything in the book, I decided to go off of that and re-teach it all, correcting what needed correcting and explaining what was unclear.

In my classes I started out with Fekerite and her brother Teddy. They both seem to enjoy it. Once I finished the book, I gave them both a test. Fekerite scored 56/75, and Teddy scored 59/75. He was ecstatic for, what I'm assuming, having a higher grade than Fekerite. He was jumping around, smiling widely and laughing/squealing.

I've now added another Foster Home kid, Adana. He seems to enjoy it as well. I'm trying to make these classes more fun. (Any ideas would be appreciated.) I plan on playing Jeopardy with them. I'm nearing the point of having taught them everything they need at this stage, so I just need to build on their comprehension and usage skills.

As for music classes, they're going well, too. I'm just now getting into notes and their rhythms and rests. Grade 3-4 are the most receptive, I think. Grades 5-6 are borderline. There has been an ongoing music class already, so I'm replacing the teachers while I'm here. So these kids have been taught this stuff already, and I think it's evident in what appears to be their boredom level.

But it's all good. I'm enjoying it. They're learning at least a little. And I'm not being tarred and feathered. So pretty good all around.

So, yeah. That's about it. I've rambled on enough about random things. Time to say ciao.

Buahala.

Blog #3

Ishi. It's been a while since I've blogged. But days flow together. Some days are hectic, other days are not so hectic and I forget or I want to rest.

I started teaching music Tuesday of this past week. I taught grades 1-6 twice, except for two classes (Grade 3 and grade 5, I think) that were for Monday. It's fun. They've had music classes before, so what I'm teaching right now isn't groundbreaking information, but they seem to enjoy it. At least most classes.

They're understanding, to a degree, what the Treble Clef is, and its musical notes; and what the Bass Clef is, and its musical notes. Hopefully by the end of Feb I can introduce musical instruments to them. Like my roll-up piano and the recorders.

Wednesday I started teaching ASL at the Foster Home. Fekerite is picking up well. She's understanding most of the signs and can relay to the different signs. Her brother Teddy is taking classes with her as well and is apparently really enjoying it. My last day for the week I finished the 8^th or 9^th chapter and so I went back on the entire previous chapters in review, and the closer I got to the end, the more he piped up excitedly, trying to beat Fekerite to the punch.

Another Foster Home boy seems interested also. The first two days he tagged in at the end, and the last day he was in for at least half of the lesson, attempting the signs and answering review questions.

Monday I went to visit Tekia(I might have written about him earlier, but he is one of the kids I met on home-visits.) When I was at his house the first time I asked his social worker, Nigist, if there was anything he needed specifically and she told me afterwards that he needed shoes and clothes. So, having been given my month's advance Monday, I went shopping for him. We went to a little clothes store and he picked out what he needed and liked. He ended up getting 3 pants, 2 socks, 1 shirt, 1 pair of shoes. His social worker was betam distonia, and he was happy too, though he was shy and reserved he didn't really show it in the store, but we could tell as we parted ways that he was happy.

The upcoming few weeks are going to be interesting. Tomorrow and Friday I'm going on home-visits, and today we're finalizing plans on a VBS-type thing for Tues-Thurs of next week. It might be a choir portion, and then life-skills training, and activities.

Then the following week I start up teaching again. I'm really enjoying it.

It's whenever I sit down to write these blogs that my mind goes blank. I can never think of what I did, or what I will do.

I'm going to try to take pictures of ASL classes tonight since Jonnett is coming with me. (My camera doesn't have a flash, and I teach at night time, so I can't take any with mine.) And hopefully when I start teaching again Jonnett can come with me and take pictures. I can't really take photos myself since, well, I'm teaching.

Strength/Weakness Nugget

**We need to cast our weaknesses on God**

Here in Ethiopia, in the Guest House, each morning we have devotions together. Each person is on the rotating schedule, and a couple mornings ago it was my turn. The list was made up for that week on Sunday, and I had it on Monday. And I didn't find out I had it the next morning until late afternoon, if not later(perhaps 7:30ish). Well, on Sunday nights we have Home Church with New Zealand and so through the course of Home Church(I can't remember if it was in a prayer or in a statement) Asaua made the comment of us throwing our weaknesses on God.

And God worked in my to develop that into the next morning's devotional.

So, the first verse that naturally came up was 1 Peter 5:7: casting all your anxieties on him, because he cares for you.

So, because God cares for us and loves us, he wants our anxieties, our worries, our cares, our fears.

Sometimes our weaknesses are public things like not being able to lead a ministry, teach a class, help in a Bible Club, etc. But other times they can be private weaknesses like sin weaknesses.

2 Cor. 12:7-9

So to keep me from becoming conceited because of the surpassing greatness of the revelations, a thorn was given me in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to harass me, to keep me from becoming conceited.

Three times I pleaded with the Lord about this, that it should leave me.

But he said to me, “My grade is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.”

Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me.

For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong.

God's power comes to show—to its perfection—when we are weak. When we can't do something. It's when we absolutely need him that God's power shines the brightest and most powerful. And when we realize our weakness—that we can't do something—then God's power can rest on us. And it's then that we have power over our weaknesses, when Christ's complete power rests on us.

Isaiah 30:9-15

For they are a rebellious people, lying children, children unwilling to hear the instruction of the Lord;

who say to the seers, “Do not see,” and to the prophets, “Do not prophesy to us what is right; speak to us smooth things, prophesy illusions,

leave the way, turn aside from the path, let us hear no more about the Holy One of Israel.”

Therefore thus says the Hold One of Israel, “Because you despise this word and trust in oppression and perverseness and rely on them,

therefor this iniquity shall be to you like a breach in a high wall, bulging out and about to collapse, whose breaking comes suddenly, in an instant;

and its breaking is like that of a potter's vessel that is smashed so ruthlessly that among its fragments not a shard is found with which to take fire from the earth, or to dip up water out of the cistern,”

For thus said the lord GOD, the Holy One of Israel, “In returning and rest you shall be saved; in quietness and in trust shall be your strength.” But you were unwilling,

It is in returning to God and resting upon Him that we will be saved. And it is in quietness and trust that we gain strength.

But...sometimes we are unwilling to return to Him, to rest on Him, to be quiet and to trust. And because of that we fall “victim” to problems. Like the children of Israel in the rest of the chapter. They suffered battle loss, one thousand would flee at the sight of one, and etc.

The next chapter begins:

Woe to those who go down to Egypt for help and rely on horses, who trust in chariots because they are many and in horsemen because they are very strong, but do not look to the Holy One of Israel or consult the Lord!

And yet he is wise and brings disaster; he does not call back his words, but will arise against the house of the evildoers and against the helpers of those who work iniquity.

There is woe on us when we resort to other people above God for help. When we rely on horses(speed?), numbers, and strength, but don't consult or look to God Jehovah, then we are in a worse place. God is wise. God brings disaster to our opponents(in context with this passage), which means He brings strength. How can the opponent be devastated without a greater strength opposing them?

Isaiah 40:28-31

Have you not known? Have you not heard? The Lord is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He does not faint or grow weary; his understanding is unsearchable.

He gives power to the faint, and to him who has no might he increases strength.

Even youths shall faint and be weary, and young men shall fall exhausted;

but they who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles; they shall run and not be weary; they shall walk and not faint.

God is everlasting. He is the Creator of the entire earth(which exemplifies His strength). He does not faint or grow weary. He has immense understanding. And because He is so powerful, he can actually give strength to the faint and weak. If He weren't strong Himself, we would be utterly powerless in life. But He is omnipotent, and He offers us to tap into His power, to partake of His strength. And the way to do that is by waiting on the Lord. We will have a new-found air about us; a strength to lift us into the heavens. We will be able to run and not be weary, and walk and not faint.

Think about it. Running, here, could be taken to imply a work; a continual process that we do: teach a class, lead a ministry. Walking, here, would then imply a life, a day-to-day living. So, when we wait on God, we won't faint despite what temptations come, or difficulties, or circumstances. We can walk—live--and not faint.

Psalm 55:22

Cast your burden on the LORD, and he will sustain you; he will never permit the righteous to be moved.

God wants us to cast our burdens on Him—our weaknesses. And when we do, He will sustain us, never allowing us to be moved, shaken, or faltered.

Ephesians 3:14-19

For this reason I bow my knees before the Father,

from whom every family in heaven and on earth is names,

that according to the riches of his glory he may grant you to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in your inner being,

so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith—that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth,

and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.

God allows us to be strengthened with power through God's Spirit within us. And with this strength, Christ may dwell within us through faith, and that we(having been rooted and grounded in love) may understand the enormity of God's love that surpasses knowledge. That we may be filled with -all- the fullness of God.

His entirety can be in our soul. His love, His attributes. The natural response to this would be to walk with Him in His Spirit. To abide in Him, to relish Him.

Galatians 5:16

But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh.

So, when we have God's fullness in us, we will respond by walking in His Spirit. And when we walk by the Spirit, we will not gratify the desires of the flesh, we will not give in to temptation. God can empower us and indwell in us so that we will not be weak to sin and give in to it. We just have to accept His strength. (Remember, His strength. Not ours.)

So, to end this:

Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might. (Ephesians 6:10)

Be strong in the Lord (not us) and in the strength and power of His might(not ours).

Blog#2

So, today marks day 13 of being here. It's shocking how quick it all has passed. I'm enjoying homevisits. About the middle of last week I decided to buy some groceries for the families we visited. The first family I bought 2 packages of spaghetti noodles, 2 pounds of elbow macaroni, and 2 bars of soap. The second family, I had to buy at the Corner Shop by the Guest House because there wasn't a shop near the house, or so I understood the social worker to say. They didn't have spaghetti so the social worker replaced it with sugar.
After being at the house for a while, we decided to head back to the Guest House; and right before we left we handed the groceries to the mom. She got really excited and explained to the social worker that that morning they had used the last bit of their sugar and she had told her girls there would be no more sugar for anything, and that they'd have to pray that God would provide. Then she praised God for His provision.
It's really interesting to be used of God that way. It's not like I had any idea of their needs; nor did I choose to buy sugar above spaghetti noodles. God worked it out so that we would get sugar, not spaghetti. Because they prayed for sugar out of faith. And God was pleased with their faith and answered it.

Another interesting story is the first visit of that day we went to this house that was smaller than my parents' bathroom. And it housed at least two people. Luxurious house, right? Well, that didn't stop the mother from praising God for the house they had, that it was OK.

How often are we ungrateful for what we have, always wishing we had something bigger, something better, something different? How often do we overlook the fact that we have a multi-room house, running water, consistent electricity, enough food?

It's definitely a smack in the face to live in a life of ungratefulness for big things, when people are living with small houses and are thankful for that.

~~
I'm really glad I'm staying here for four months. Despite the fact that I haven't done anything of my main mission(which might play in this forthcoming expression), I wouldn't be ready to leave in two days if I had come for 15 days. Like, if my mission vision wasn't that of teaching music and ASL, and just come to be a 2-wker, I'd most likely would want to stay here longer.
I think if I ever go on other mission trips to other countries, it'd have to be for at least a month at a time. You can't really experience the culture, or all of the potential lessons ready to cultivate. Like, with the Spain trip I feel like it was more of what I can do for missionaries(which isn't bad nec.). But I think in the area of missions, I'm more called to the people, not the missionaries. Saa...
And being with the people, learning their stories, learning their love, learning their faith, will give me greater experiences on which to act. Like, to see my lack of faith in “big things” that are in reality little things, while these people have faith for everything.

I've been here 13 days. :O I really hope the rest of the time doesn't fly so fast without at least something amazing happening per day. Like God working in my life or seeing God work in another's. Or even both.

~~

Oh, so on my way to Addis on Christmas I sat next to this mother and her 3 year old son, Yared(?). He started talking to me, and I couldn't understand anything obviously. So Jonnett leaned over and told me to ask him what his name was in Amharic. She then tells me how to tell him what my name is. And then I ended up finding out how to count to 5 from him. I had a bag of gifts for Mussie's nieces and nephews and one of the gifts was a “my first 1000 English words” so I showed him some things like bed and sugar and rice. And then I taught him how to count to five in English. :D It was rather cute all together.
Like during one time of lull, he stared at me and we had a conversation out of raise of eyebrows for a couple of minutes. :p


It's lunch time now and I leave for more homevisits in an hour and my thinking for blogging isn't coming fast enough, so I'm going to end it here.

First days in Ethiopia! (redo)

So I’m writing on the second or third day of my being here. It’s weird for the days to blur and me to have no idea what day of the week it is already, but it’s happening to a degree.

The plane ride was OK. The US Airways flight was the worse of the two flights: longer flight, less leg room, and I was in the middle-ish seat. The Lufthansa flight had spacy-er seats. I slept mostly on the Lufthansa flight for a couple of hours out of the 13-hour flight time.

My first full day here Jonnett and I worked on making sugar cookies for the kids at BCI for their Christmas program. We had to make around 400(or was it 200?). It was ridiculous. So, the oven here isn’t like ours, obviously. It’s a gas one, so the only heat source is from the bottom and it doesn’t circulate well, so the bottoms burnt while the tops barely were cooked. It was enjoyable, though. Two of the New Zealand kids came over to help, so that was a time-reducer greatly. (Since we were making them from scratch, not store-bought junk.)

We also made icing(though apparently it didn’t taste good—I didn’t think to/want to taste it, so I don’t know firsthand). But something from that is that you can make confectioner’s sugar with regular sugar by grinding it in a coffee grinder.

(BTW, my thoughts are very sporadic as I type this, so bear with me.)

Last night(late) a team from Wisconsin(I think it was) came. Today all of us went on a tour of the churches.

It feels weird for me right now around them. I mean, They’re 20-weekers and are doing normal 2-week things(home visits, whatever are they want to work in, etc) whereas for me I’m short-terming not doing the same things as they are. (Well, once the ball gets rolling.) But it’s my first few days here so I need information as much as they do, but it’s weird ‘cause I’m not with them, they’re not my group.

And that’s another thing. I haven’t done anything related to my “mission vision” or whatever. It’s somewhat obvious not to be thrust into it all on my first couple of days, but from what I understood((*Note to be mentioned in a few*)) it seems like I might be starting teaching at the Academy Monday, but I’ll go to the end of the week which is the end of their finals and then they have a 15-day break. So I think Mussie said I’ll be doing home visits then.

So, for that note earlier. Obviously when habasha’s(nationals) speak english, it’ll be thickly accented depending on the person. Well, Mussie supposedly is the best to understand(or at least he is to Jonnett), but it’s hard for me. I think it’s because my brain shuts off focus to foreign languages(unless I’m trying to speak/understand it) and how he speaks is like Amharic but with English words. So my brain fluctuates focus and I miss a lot.

So Mussie asked me when I wanted to start working at the Academy, and I told him any time. He then went to say something that sounded like I’ll be teaching for a week and then go on a 15-day hiatus until schools lets back in.

As for teaching Fekerite, it seems like it’s going to be in the evening time((which would co-work with my home-visiting during the 15-day school break since home visits, tmk, are done during the day)) because she is working on sewing as a trade. And learning a trade is highest priority for her. Without a trade, there is no livelihood for when she graduates out of BCI. As of yet I haven’t met her or her brother(though Jonnett pointed out Adana as he was walking past at the Christmas Party).

I tried injera and wot for the first time today. The injera was alright, but it was much thinner than expected and tasteless. The wot was good, but the ratio of spiciness and meat was weighing too heavily on the spicy side. It wasn’t incredibly hot, but it was more like eating a mild hot sauce packet from Taco Bell than eating a stew. I think if there were more meat it would be fine. Or if I had a thicker bread to sop it with. Jonnett got some kinda of wot chicken tips or something that was good. I’d probably prefer that over the wot(unless it was thicker or had sopping loaves).

First days in Ethiopia!

I'll try to fix this one...

So I’m writing on the second or third day of my being here. It’s weird for the days to blur and me to have no idea what day of the week it is already, but it’s happening to a degree.

The plane ride was OK. The US Airways flight was the worse of the two flights: longer flight, less leg room, and I was in the middle-ish seat. The Lufthansa flight had spacy-er seats. I slept mostly on the Lufthansa flight for a couple of hours out of the 13-hour flight time.

My first full day here Jonnett and I worked on making sugar cookies for the kids at BCI for their Christmas program. We had to make around 400(or was it 200?). It was ridiculous. So, the oven here isn’t like ours, obviously. It’s a gas one, so the only heat source is from the bottom and it doesn’t circulate well, so the bottoms burnt while the tops barely were cooked. It was enjoyable, though. Two of the New Zealand kids came over to help, so that was a time-reducer greatly. (Since we were making them from scratch, not store-bought junk.)

We also made icing(though apparently it didn’t taste good—I didn’t think to/want to taste it, so I don’t know firsthand). But something from that is that you can make confectioner’s sugar with regular sugar by grinding it in a coffee grinder.

(BTW, my thoughts are very sporadic as I type this, so bear with me.)

Last night(late) a team from Wisconsin(I think it was) came. Today all of us went on a tour of the churches.

It feels weird for me right now around them. I mean, They’re 20-weekers and are doing normal 2-week things(home visits, whatever are they want to work in, etc) whereas for me I’m short-terming not doing the same things as they are. (Well, once the ball gets rolling.) But it’s my first few days here so I need information as much as they do, but it’s weird ‘cause I’m not with them, they’re not my group.

And that’s another thing. I haven’t done anything related to my “mission vision” or whatever. It’s somewhat obvious not to be thrust into it all on my first couple of days, but from what I understood((*Note to be mentioned in a few*)) it seems like I might be starting teaching at the Academy Monday, but I’ll go to the end of the week which is the end of their finals and then they have a 15-day break. So I think Mussie said I’ll be doing home visits then.

So, for that note earlier. Obviously when habasha’s(nationals) speak english, it’ll be thickly accented depending on the person. Well, Mussie supposedly is the best to understand(or at least he is to Jonnett), but it’s hard for me. I think it’s because my brain shuts off focus to foreign languages(unless I’m trying to speak/understand it) and how he speaks is like Amharic but with English words. So my brain fluctuates focus and I miss a lot.

So Mussie asked me when I wanted to start working at the Academy, and I told him any time. He then went to say something that sounded like I’ll be teaching for a week and then go on a 15-day hiatus until schools lets back in.

As for teaching Fekerite, it seems like it’s going to be in the evening time((which would co-work with my home-visiting during the 15-day school break since home visits, tmk, are done during the day)) because she is working on sewing as a trade. And learning a trade is highest priority for her. Without a trade, there is no livelihood for when she graduates out of BCI. As of yet I haven’t met her or her brother(though Jonnett pointed out Adana as he was walking past at the Christmas Party).

I tried injera and wot for the first time today. The injera was alright, but it was much thinner than expected and tasteless. The wot was good, but the ratio of spiciness and meat was weighing too heavily on the spicy side. It wasn’t incredibly hot, but it was more like eating a mild hot sauce packet from Taco Bell than eating a stew. I think if there were more meat it would be fine. Or if I had a thicker bread to sop it with. Jonnett got some kinda of wot chicken tips or something that was good. I’d probably prefer that over the wot(unless it was thicker or had sopping loaves).

Tomorrow!

It's finally here, and it's all surreal. I'm taking a trip halfway around the world, following the calling of God. I'm nothing special; I've had my screw ups. I don't have formal training for anything of what I'm doing over there. But, God equips the called. And it's not what I can do, but what I allow God to do through me and in me.

It may be cliche to say this to any missionaries(~2week, short-term, or full-term ones), but it feels really all of a sudden. It's like...for a year I've been in the mind set of in the semi-distant future I'm going to Ethiopia. But it isn't the distant future anymore. It's isn't a week from now. It's tomorrow. In 24 hours I'll be in the airport holding on to my two carry-ons waiting to board my flight. 24 hours!

(Lol. I began this at around 3pm. It is now 7...so it's less than 24 hours now. :) )

I'm excited for the experience of everything. The trip there(First time I've flown alone, let alone alone out of the country.); the living in a different culture, environment, thought-processes; the opportunity to serve God in an area I at least have a little knowledge.

It's going to be an experience. And I hope I don't miss a lesson. Perhaps I should write and record everything so when I get home I can read it all and watch it all and learn lessons I might have missed in the moment.

God is good. And God is powerful. It's amazing at what He has done to prepare this way and enable my steps.

Thank you for your prayers, support, and love. I hope that God doesn't just work in my life through all this, but that something somewhere in someway touches your heart to, to make you a better Christian.

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Smile Before You Go Crazy,

Kevin.