Life In Africa!

For the past month I have been living in Ethiopia! I love life here, even though there is basically no connection to the outside world.

Life in Africa is simple, and I wouldn’t have it any other way.

My Squad is living/working with the organization HOPEthiopia in a small village called Harbu Chulule. We live in a compound owned and ran by the NGO.

HOPEthiopia is an amazing organization that creates homes for widows and orphans in the local village, as well as provides many agricultural developments for the town.

A normal day of ministry here looks like:

I wake up at 6am to walk to the main house and grab a cup of coffee. I occasionally will sit outside and watch the sunrise, when it isn’t too cold. When I head inside, I help the kitchen ladies cook breakfast (usually bread, French toast, or pancakes). After breakfast is served, I sit down and spend quiet time with the Lord. This usually looks like me grabbing a cup of coffee and sitting on the couch in our living room space. When I’m done, I go back into the kitchen to cut vegetables, peel garlic, wash dishes, or do anything else the ladies might need help with.  Once lunch is finished, I have some free time. I usually take a nap, go for a run, wash laundry, read my Bible, or watch a movie. At around 4 o’clock the kids get back from school and are ready to play. There are about 30 children who live in the HOPEthiopia compound with us. They are adorable and love to play with your hair, play soccer, take pictures, and crawl all over you. The whole squads afternoon ministry is to invest in these children. At 6 o’clock the squad eats dinner together and then we are free to do team time, go to bed, whatever we want. And then I wake up the next morning and do it all again.

There isn’t much to do on weekends. Sometimes a few of us go to the market on Saturdays, but other than that we aren’t usually allowed to leave the compound. Every Sunday morning half of the squad goes to a local village church while the other half stays home for House Church where one of the squad members will preach.

Also, I will not be doing kitchen ministry the entire time. Since there are 6 teams on my squad, all teams switch ministry every 2 or 3 weeks. Other ministry opportunities include: manual labor, walking the children to school, teaching the HOPEthiopia kids, helping house moms, etc.

I am very blessed to be able to serve this amazing organization, as well as invest in the people who work here.

On another note, the Lord has been teaching me a lot during my time here in Africa! I believe the Lord has spoken “rest” over this next season. Not having wifi has been a huge blessing. Instead of stressing over my future or focusing on things happening at home, I am able to truly be present where I am. I also have a lot of free time to really dig into the Word and strengthen my relationship with the Father.

I’m sorry I haven’t been able to post often, but you can be positive that God is doing a lot here in Ethiopia! I love you all and will keep you updated as soon as I am able to.

I have officially entered into the second half of the race!! Please keep me and my squadmates in your prayers as we enter into month 5!