Today we left our $3.50 per night hotel, in which we all called our rooms the honeymoon suite because of the nice silk sheets (of a sort) with embroidered hearts.  literally.  As usual we started off with our normal 16 or so order of macchiatos.  The coffee here is something our team has grown to like, and more so turned into a favorite.  Our original plans to go to Ankober, a historical palace that is now just ruins, changed because almost everything around here is closed on Sundays.  After some recouping from the long, yet fun, journey the day before we were on the road again back to Addis. On the way back we had quite the experience when we pulled over on the side of the road for what was supposed to be a 5 minute break.  This 5 minute break turned into about a half hour break for various reasons. One, we caused the little village of people in the vicinity to stir because of our foreign “color”. Rightfully so. Mind you we were still on the countryside were the towns/villages were spaced apart. It started by a few little boys running towards us yelling “you you you” which  essentially means “hey hey hey”.  In no time we had people coming towards us from all directions to see what was going on.  Soon enough, they were all laughing at us because of our lack of skill with the bull whip in comparison to the little boy who had it mastered as he tended the goats and donkeys.  A few of us gave it a try but it never got much better, it actually got dangerous.  It had been a running joke that Dylan and Troy wanted to ride a donkey before we leave, as it is common to see donkeys all over here.  During this half our break that joke actually came true for Troy, he indeed was able to ride a donkey.  After a much needed break, we were back in the van bonding or sining songs that is.  You name it, we sang it. Sunday school songs, secular songs, worship songs, and amharic songs that Aki taught us.  Although this 2 day journey was long it was a great time for the team to be “packed” together and bond.  Because it is Sunday, when we returned to the guest house it was our rest day.  Some napped, showered, played soccer or pingpong, simply rested by reading, or went and bought some soccer balls, sweet bread, and cappuccino biscuits (all popular things to buy around here).
While the journey on Saturday and today were long I couldn’t help but think of God’s grandness as we drove along the countryside.  As we drove through the countryside I was amazed at the landscape and all that it encompassed.  The trees of all sorts, farm land, animals, villages/huts, and of course the beautiful people.  The thought that God is so big that across the world from Montana, His creation is receiving praise.  The fact that he spoke this beautiful creation in its entirety into being and that it is without fault. In the midst of this amazement, He looks down on mankind and forms the hearts of all and considers all we do.  He uses ordinary people like us to bring glory to His kingdom.  He uses ordinary people like us to: carry his compassion, love a world thats broken, be his hand and feet, give with the life we have been given, to go beyond religion, and to see the world be changed by the power of HIS name. God is grand my friend, his creation is perfect, and it can be seen anywhere you look.  I couldn’t help be but ponder the question posed in Isaiah 40. “To whom, then, will you compare God? What image will you compare him to?  There is none to compare Him to, the Lord is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth and He alone is worthy of all our praise and worship. Such thoughts were derived from the captivating countryside of Ethiopia.
I will end with this, our team will be memorizing Micah 6:8 and processing how it will strengthen our faith in our daily life and how it will help our service as a team during our time in Ethiopia. Let us “work out our salvation” as we have been called to this mission at Bright Hope School.  We want to revive the hope inside these young peoples lives by showing them God’s abounding love for them.
Esus Yewodehalo (Jesus loves you)
-Brew