Church, Relatives & Construction

(from Cyndi's hubby)

Yesterday, we went to a service at one of Getahun's churches in Addis and enjoyed a great worship service - all in Amharic, but Getahun came off the stage and translated the 2 (yes, two) sermons that the guest speakers delivered. After that, we enjoyed a wonderful meal with Getahun & Tegist at their home.


It's Monday evening now and we're at the guest home visiting with a couple of other families after a great day. We went all the way out to Bantu today and toured the school construction project. (Buckner/Bright Hope is building it in the president's home village on land he donated) We had a great time walking the site and visiting with the local kids and adults from the village that walked along with us.(By the way... there is so much more to tell about ALL of this than I can fit into this email... this is definitely the Reader's Digest version, for fear of losing this connection...)


When we returned to Addis (and this is the part that will really take more time and words to properly relay) we met at one of the Bright Hope offices with Minte's aunt (cousin, actually, as we learned). We had a very nice, short visit with her and she was so glad to see Minte again before he leaves. We spoke with her, in private, about Minte's parents, his early childhood, etc... Afterwards, we were so blessed by her with 5 or 6 pictures of Minte, his mom, and his dad. These pictures are our new most-valuable treasures, for sure. Too much really to convey in text - we're actually still taking it all in.


We'll do a little bit of shopping tomorrow morning after we pick up Minte's transit visa at the German embassy.


I know this doesn't seem like much of an update, but I've probably already pushed the limits of what I can shoe-horn across the Internet when I hit the "send" button, so I'd better say goodbye for now. Much love from all of us to everyone who reads this. Thanks for all your prayers; can't wait to see everyone.