Not Easy, But Good

We’ve made it through our first eight days in Bantu.  As you may have guessed from the title, these days have been full of challenges as well as the opportunities to overcome.  We’ll share some of the hard times, but first we want to share with you the many blessings we’ve experienced this week.

We have been surrounded by a tremendous group of people that God placed in our lives for this first week in the village.  Jim and Viola Palmer are incredible mentors and guides as we begin this experience.  From mission practices to spiritual guidance to how to survive with no running water, they have been invaluable to us.  We have also been incredibly blessed by a man who was a complete stranger one week ago and is now a dear, dear friend.  Chuck Miller, a contractor and apparently Superman, gave up a week of his time to fly halfway around the world and literally make us a home.  He built us a kitchen (from scratch), installed a 1000 liter water tank and all its connections and pump, fixed the bathroom, built shelves, and did so many more things I can’t even list.  Plus, he’s just a great guy to have around.  Dr. Elijah Brown from ETBU was here this week investigating future mission possibilities.  I can’t tell you how many rounds of animals and superheroes he played with the boys and how many books he read to them.  We have been so thankful for all these wonderful friends who have loved our boys and cared for them during this busy week. 

We also have been very blessed by Ethiopian friends this week.  Pastor Berhanu has given up so much of his time this week to help us get settled, find people to work around the house, translate for us, and just make sure we have everything we need.  We’ve hired two guards for the house and found a wonderful helper for the house.  Her name is Waarkeenesh, and she has helped make my days tremendously easier.  She has such a servant’s heart; she comes early, stays late, and looks for extra things she can do to help us out.  I am so thankful for her help each day.  The Ethiopian people have been very welcoming to us and go out of their way to show us kindness.

We did face quite a few challenges this week.  We arrived in Bantu late Friday afternoon to no running water.  The well pump for the school facility has broken.  We brought the electrical component into Addis today and will hopefully have it fixed and working at the end of this week.  In the meantime, we have learned other ways of getting the water we need.  We have filled a lot of outdoor buckets with water from the church well and have hauled a lot of water indoors for washing dishes and bathing.  When the electricity went off in the village mid-week and there was no power for the city wells, we resorted to water hauled from the river.  Though we bleached it to make it safe, it was of course still river water.  I know this sounds challenging, and it was, but we also had an adequate supply of bottled water for drinking and cooking.  500 yards away from us live about 5000 people who have no access to bottled water.  River water is all they had for three days.  It was hard for us, but there was much we could be thankful for. 

One of Chuck’s biggest projects this week was helping us remedy this situation.  He installed a gravity based water tank for us on the roof of the house and a pump that draws water from 55 gallon drums to fill the tank.  For now it holds and supplies our water until the well is working.  Once we have fully running water, it will be a holding tank for when the electricity is out and the well does not run.  We have a generator, and we had to use it quite a bit this week when power was off.  It is an adjustment, but we are definitely thankful to have it. 

Communications systems have been really unreliable this week.  The phone services are just overloaded and it is very tough to communicate.  Other than a two minute conversation with each of our moms and two text messages, we were not able to talk with our family at all this week.  The lines are just so busy and we can’t get through.  That has been one of the toughest aspects for all of us, so please pray that communications improves.  This has also been an exhausting week.  We fall into bed so tired at the end of each day.  Please pray that things will settle down a little now that most of the house stuff is finished and that we can get good rest.  We are so thankful tonight for hot showers, the chance to do laundry, internet, and the ability to talk with our family.

Ministry takes time, and we know that, but we have been able to do a couple of things this week as we’ve worked to make a home.  Larry was able to go out to one of our sister villages of Abebee and help begin construction on the congregation’s new church building.  The Abebee church has identified a new village for a potential church plant, and we are eager to help reach out to them.  Last Sunday we worshiped with the Bantu church and got to lead two worship songs.  Mostly we’ve shaken a lot of hands, smiled a lot, and just started to build relationships that we hope will have future impact.

Finally, we are so thankful to have survived!  It was a challenge, but we made it through.  Nobody got sick, everybody is sleeping well, and the boys are enjoying climbing trees and playing outside.  They seem to be adjusting really well, though of course they do miss some aspects of home.  On our way back to Addis today, we stopped at a beautiful park and monkey reserve.  It was awesome, and such a great gift of relaxation after this week.  Thank you so much for your prayers.  We are so grateful for them.  We head out again early in the morning to make it back for worship, so this is just a brief trip into the city.  I’ll post pics next if I can get them to load before we leave!

Photos From Our Trip Out to Visit Bantu

 Headed out to Bantu...ready for an adventure!

 Meeting children in the courtyard of the Bantu church.

 Enjoying the countryside.

 Our Bantu home and vehicle.

Enjoying gelatto and Mirindas after a long trip back from the village.

First Days

A huge thank you to all who have covered us in prayer these past 6 days.  We’ve had a relatively smooth transition from home to here.  Twenty-seven hours of travel were not nearly as difficult as we anticipated them being.  The boys slept about seven hours on the first flight and two-three hours on the second.  Their own T.V. screens in the seat backs in front of them took care of the rest of the time.  We got to the guest house very late (actually very early) on Saturday morning, and it was probably 3 a.m. before the boys settled down enough to sleep.  Saturday was just a day for us to rest and settle into being into a new environment.  We left the guest house to eat at a pizza place we’ve always liked here and get Ethiopian cell phones, but other than that we just took it easy.

Sunday we attended the International Evangelical Church here in Addis.  They have an English speaking service and a children’s Sunday school every week, and it was so nice to have the opportunity to worship.  Joshua, Matthew, and I went to one of the children’s classes during the sermon, and it was cute to see how similar it was to our church.  They sang songs, played, had a lesson, made a craft, and ate a snack.  The teacher was a young Ethiopian women who did such a great job engaging the kids.  We will routinely worship with the village church in Bantu, but it’s nice to have this option if we’re in the city on the weekend. 

That afternoon, I was able to visit the local grocery store with Viola Palmer.  She and Jim are leading a medical team a few hours north of Addis this week, and we needed to buy supplies for the team.  It was a great opportunity for me to learn what it looks like to buy for a team and to see what the stores offer for our purposes.  We found two stores I think will supply what we need food-wise with a little creativity.  I was pleasantly surprised by what they had to offer.

Jim and Viola left Sunday evening to head out with the medical team, so we’ve been on our own for the past two days.  Our vehicle for the summer was delivered Sunday night, so we had transportation and the freedom to explore and get out a little.  Yesterday was a really great day in terms of feeling like we were figuring out life here.  We (and by we, I mean Larry) drove to the grocery store, to meet the pediatrician, and to lunch and dinner successfully.  That may not seem like much to many of you, but the traffic here is pretty amazing.  I’ve never seen anything like it.  To the casual observer, it would seem as if there are no traffic rules.  There are rules, and we are learning them, but at times it seems very chaotic.  Pedestrian traffic is constant and everywhere, and yesterday at one time or another we encountered horses, cows, donkeys, sheep, goats, and chickens in the road (literally IN the road, in downtown).   

Today we spent the morning here because Josh woke up with an upset stomach.  It was a rough morning for him, but he seems back to normal now.  We’re so thankful it was so mild and short-lived.  Larry went out this afternoon and bought a fridge, generator, and bed for our house in Bantu.  We are so ready to be out in the village and in our home there.  The guest house here in Addis is wonderful, but we’re ready to unpack, make a home, cook our own food, and just settle in.  Nights are a little difficult in the city with traffic noise, other guests moving about, and lots of barking dogs and screeching hyenas.

Tomorrow we are making a day trip out to Bantu to visit and show the boys the village.  We move out there on Friday!  Thank you for all your continued prayers!

10 and 2

A little less than a year ago, Larry and I sat with John Jackson in Bantu, Ethiopia wondering what God had next for us.  We’d sensed His call to something more for awhile, but we just didn’t know what that meant or looked like.  Over the past 11 months, God has shown us one step at a time, and in more ways that we could have imagined, the path He is leading us down. 

Today we take a big step down that path.  In 12 hours we will be on an airplane departing Houston for Ethiopia.  We are excited and ready to be where He has called us to be.  Would you be willing to cover us in prayer while we are gone?  Please click the “Daily Prayer Guide” link on the right for a day by day prayer list for our ten weeks in Ethiopia.

Ethiopia is 8 hours ahead of Central Time.  We are asking specifically for prayer at 10 and 2…10 pm CST and 2 pm CST.  10 pm Central is 6 am in Ethiopia and we will be in the middle of our morning devotional and prayer time.  If you will join us in prayer at 10 pm, you will help us cover our entire day in blessing and provision for what lies ahead.  2 pm Central is 10 pm in Ethiopia.  We will be headed to bed, tired and possibly emotional at the end of the day.  This is usually my most vulnerable time because exhaustion can make things seem the most difficult.  If you will pray for us at 2 pm, you will help us resist the negative emotions that can arise from a long day.

Finally, would you pray over the next 40 hours for the following specific prayer requests?

1. We are excited but not looking forward to the goodbyes coming later today.  Please pray for the five of us, my parents, and Larry’s parents as we say goodbye this afternoon.

2. I have known for nine months that preparing and packing for our family of five to leave home and live in rural Ethiopia for ten weeks would be a massive undertaking.  I was not wrong.  Please pray that things will be taken care of here while we are gone and for a smooth check-in with our packed items tonight at the airport.

3. Travel from our home to the guest house in Addis Ababa will be about 27 hours.  Whew!  Please pray for sleep on the plane for all of us, joyful spirits, patience with each other, smooth flights and connections, travel safety, protection, and health for us all!

 Can’t wait to join God’s work in Ethiopia…to God be the glory!

Our Next Ten Weeks...

This summer will be busy!  We leave for Ethiopia on Thursday evening, May 22.  Our first leg of the journey is a 12 hour flight from Houston to Istanbul, Turkey.  After a 3 hour layover, we will board a 6 hour flight from Istanbul to the capital city of Ethiopia, Addis Ababa.  We arrive in Addis at 12:15 AM on Saturday morning.  Ethiopia is 8 hours ahead of Central Time, so that is 4:15 PM on Friday in Houston.  Needless to say, we will all be very tired after 21 hours of travel.  We will spend our first few days in the capital city of Addis Ababa at a guest house as we acclimate the boys to Ethiopia, rest from traveling, and prepare to move out to the village of Bantu. 

Our first couple of weeks in Bantu will be busy, and each day will bring something new.  U.S. teams arrive for mission service during late May to mid-June.  During those weeks, we’ll get to visit with teams from East Texas Baptist University, FBC Athens, The Woodlands FBC, and Hope Springs Water.  Some of the ministries the teams will work with include Vacation Bible School in a new village, women’s ministry, church construction, water well rehabilitation and installation, and the Rural Pastors’ Bible Institute.  Most days we will head out with the teams as they serve in and around Bantu.  This will give us a wonderful opportunity to meet  people and participate in ministry with our local pastors.  The boys and I will head back home most days for Matthew’s nap and the boys’ school.  We want to preserve that time as much as we possibly can so that the boys can get the rest they need to stay healthy.  We’ll have dinner and fellowship with the teams in the evenings.  We are excited about the time we will have to spend with good friends (both from home and Ethiopia) and with Larry’s brother-in-law, Russell, who is coming with the FBC Athens team.  We know seeing familiar faces will be a big encouragement for us. 

Late June and the month of July will look quite  a bit different for us.  After The Woodlands’ team leaves, we’ll be on our own in Bantu.  I imagine our days will be a little quieter, and this will be a good opportunity to get to know many people, make new friends, and learn more about the Oromo cultural traditions.  We hope that this will be a good time for fellowship with our Ethiopian brothers and sisters in Christ.  We plan to visit the new church plants in the surrounding villages and help facilitate some of the ongoing TEAM Network ministries.  We also hope to explore new areas and villages for future mission work.  Larry’s mother, Linda, is going to visit us the end of June through the first week in July.  We know this is going to be a wonderful refresher for the boys and us at the halfway point, and we are so excited that she will get to experience Ethiopia with us.  We are looking forward to both the excitement and company the first few weeks will bring, as well as the time we will spend as a family in Bantu for the remaining part of the summer. 

We will head back into Addis about once a week to wash clothes, buy supplies, and connect to the Internet.  While we will have cell phone service in Bantu, we will only be able to get online in the city.  We’ll check emails, post a blog update, and get in some much needed FaceTime as often as we can.  Most of our trips to the city will be during the week so that we can be home for worship with the Bantu church over the weekend.  We return back home on July 28^th.  God is doing amazing things with His church in Ethiopia, and we are so excited to share in it this summer!