Returning to Ethiopia

The above photo was taken during our adoption trip to Ethiopia this past September. During a rainy/hail-stormy day we stayed in and had fun with some colored pipecleaners we had brought (for just such an occasion). This is one of my favorite photos... Luke and Minte, new father and son, clasping hands, both wearing bracelets they had made with with the colors of the Ethiopian flag. So many thoughts run through my mind when I look at this photo.

Especially today.

As I write this post, my sweet husband is about two hours from landing back in Ethiopia for a week of mission work there. Little did we know just over four months ago when we were there as a family that he would get to return so soon. God is so faithful! Oh, how I wish you could've heard what I heard yesterday. We gathered as a family to pray together one last time before Luke's ride to airport arrived at our house, each one of us taking a turn to pray. When it came to Minte, he prayed in Amharic as he usually does. There was something extra tender in his voice as he prayed for his Daddy. I didn't understand all of what he said (I can pick up a few words here and there) but his voice would rise and fall with emphasis and he would insert words I did recognize... "airplane." "Guest House." "Baby Home." "Jesus." And the names of his friends still living at the orphanage, who Luke will get to visit once again and for whom Minte lovingly put together presents to send. What a precious time.

So, Minte is excited, as we all are, that his Daddy is returning to his birth country. He is, as we all are, missing him like crazy already. He is, as we all are, mindful each moment that someone is missing here, and imagining what Daddy might be seeing. It's an exciting time, but also an emotional one. (Any of you with traveling spouses can relate to that, I'm sure!) For the past several years, we have taken as many mission trips as possible as a family (to Ghana and now Ethiopia) but due to finances and time off from work, sometimes we have to go separately. It is hard. But, it's worth it and we believe it is our call. So, we go. I have come to understand that God does BIG things, not just where the mission team is but back home where the family remains. He is at work on both sides of that big ocean.

Luke is traveling with two other men (and dear friends) from here, on behalf of our non-profit organization. Also joining them will be another precious friend who found out last week that their adoption court date had been pushed back a month. So, God ordained that there would be a spot left on this trip and now she is having the amazing opportunity to meet their beautiful daughter and spend some time with her this week. God is so good! The trip is coordinated by our friend who owns the Ethiopia Guest Home, which is where they will be staying. Once in country, they are meeting up with a larger group of about 20 people made up of the leadership of various non-profit organizations and ministries. They will be "visiting orphans in their distress" (James 1:27) and also visiting various ministry projects, both new and ongoing, to see what the needs are in the coming year and to discern the best and most effective ways to get involved as organizations and as individuals.

Here is what's on the agenda for the week for our team, some of which will occur with just our small group and some with the larger group. Keeping in mind that TIA- "This Is Africa"- and plans change, they hope to:

Sunday: Attend a church service

Monday: Have a meeting with the Social and Labor Affairs Minister (or his representative) to learn more about the initiative towards the rehabilitation of the 70,000 beggars who are on the streets of Addis. Also a visit to the Buckner Orphanage (where Minte used to live! And where Baby Ellie is!)

Tuesday: Visit the Bantu model school run through Buckner/Bright Hope.

Wednesday: Meet with the president of ET to hear from him the extent of the needs. (In case you missed that last sentence, you might want to read it again. Can you believe this opportunity???) Then, meet with a group of foster children and families, as well as those on the waiting list who desperately need a loving family either nationally or internationally.

Thursday and Friday: Tour with the large group, meet to discuss and pray about what's been learned and future plans, leave margin these last two days to visit other ministry projects we have going, etc. Our small team departs to come home Friday night at 10:45.



I would be so blessed if you would join me in prayer for my sweet husband and this God-assembled team as they seek to glorify Him in Ethiopia this week. Would you please pray for their health, opportunities to serve, that they would be Jesus' hands and feet to the hurting, that they would see people and opportunities through the eyes of our Heavenly Father, and for all of our hearts to remain tender toward the ways that God would get all of us involved in what He's doing in our world. Most of all, that God would be glorified in all things both here and there in the coming weeks and months.

Thank you so much for stopping by and for following our journey! (To learn more about our non-profit organization, please email me privately from my profile and I will send you a link to our website.)

"Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen." Ephesians 3:20-21

I Need Africa

I Saw What I Saw

I have often asked myself, asked God really, why He has allowed me to see what I've seen in this world. I have stood in places and have thought to myself, "I'm just a suburban American housewife... how is it that I have the privilege to be here, to experience this, to look into these eyes, to love these people?? And when I get home, what am I to do with this?" Well, the answer to that is still working itself out in my heart, as it does everyday. I came across this Sara Groves video that captures what I've been thinking. "I saw what I saw and I can't forget it...I heard what I heard and I can't go back...I know what I know and I can't deny it..."



There's a reason we all get to see what we see... whether personally or through someone else's camera lense. It's not for nothing. It's not merely for "personal enrichment." It's not just data. And it's certainly not just so we can realize how "blessed" we are as Americans. I've seen what I've seen so I can act. It's not real love if I just "feel" it, nor is it true compassion if I merely momentarily shed tears. What wonderful opportunities are out there everyday for us to demostrate the love of Jesus!

"Your courage asks me... what am I afraid of?
Your courage asks me... what I am made of
And what I know of love...
And what I know of God..."

Enter His Courts With Praise

Two summers ago, before our trip to Ghana, I was at our African partner church and a woman I'd never met before approached me. She began asking me, in her broken English, where we were going on our mission trip. I told her the region we would be visiting, and named the villages to which we would be going. Her face lit up! She exclaimed that one of the villages I had named was where her brother and his wife lived. She told me he was a pastor there, building a small church. She asked for my address, and a few days later I received a letter from her telling me her brother's name, and a picture of him standing next to the frame of the church they were building. I had no idea if I would be able to find him, and if I did, what exactly I was to do with this information, but I tucked the letter and picture into my journal and slid it into my backpack before we left.

My team worked in two main villages that week, and between the hectic pace, my son's sickness for part of the time, and the sheer volume of work we were trying to accomplish in such a short time, I didn't get to search out the man whose sister I had met weeks earlier. Our last day in the village, I pulled out that letter from my journal and prayed, "Lord, if you mean for me to meet this person, You will need to orchestrate it. I have no idea how to find him." I put the letter back in my journal and left for the day's work. Later that evening when we were back at the small hotel where we were staying, one of my kids came to me and said there was a woman there, looking for my husband. Thinking she was someone we had met earlier in the week, I went to find her, as he had not made it back to the hotel yet. A lovely woman approached me, with her warm Ghanaian smile, clutching an envelope with my husband's name on it, followed by the word, "missionary." That, in itself was enough to make me get tears in my eyes. It turns out, she was the wife of the man in the picture! She didn't know if we were still in the area, but she had walked about six miles from where they live to this small hotel, where she thought we might possibly be staying. She had no idea that this was our last day there! She had apparently gotten our name from her sister-in-law.

We sat under the shade of a hut-like structure and had a wonderful visit. She told of her husband's work trying to start a church in a nearby village. She described what God was doing in their lives, the miraculous provisions He had made, and the daunting work that lay ahead in this particular area dominated by tribal religions. She told me of their goal of starting an orphanage in the area, and told me wonderful stories of babies they had already received. It was an amazing time. She wanted to make contact with us in case we would ever be working in their area again and might be able to help or possible partner with them. I was thoroughly blessed by our conversation. But the blessing was about to be greater.

Before she left, I asked her if we might pray together. She exclaimed that yes, she would love that. Immediately she stood up, straightened her posture, and looked up. She paused, turned to me, and said in her wonderful accent, "I always eentah Heez cawts weeth praise!" at which time she began singing, loudly, a magificent song of praise in her own language. I praised right along with her, feeling very much like we were now officially, "in His courts!" We then prayed together, very much in the presence of the Heavenly Father. I don't know when I'd ever felt more "before the throne of grace." It was so, so powerful.

That moment changed the way I approach my personal prayer time. Like my Ghanaian sister, I always "enter His courts with praise." Now, that doesn't mean that I sing loudly before each prayer (that's a personal favor to anyone who might be near me at the time!) Our church has a separate bulletin each week with the worship lyrics printed, which I keep in the front of my Bible for my own "personal praise" time. Just looking at the lyrics jogs my memory and I can sing, either out loud or to myself as I begin my prayer time. I have my iPod nearby when I have my not-so-quiet times each morning, too. This morning, as I was making pancakes for my kids, I was still singing the wonderful strains of "O Worship the King" from "Hymns: Ancient and Modern" (Chris Tomlin and the Passion band- whoa.)

So often, after I have entered His courts with praise, I feel like I stay there long after I say "Amen." I encourage you to "enter His courts with praise" as you start your prayer times. That can take whatever form you want it to, from lingering in the psalms, to singing out loud. It will transform your time in prayer!

"Enter his gates with thanksgiving and his courts with praise;

give thanks to him and praise his name." Psalm 100:4

"Better is one day in Your courts than a thousand elsewhere;" Psalm 84:10

Halala Ngo' Jesu

African church was wonderful this morning. I was on the praise team! (That's me... second from the right. ;) I love, love, love their worship. I had my last Sunday School lesson with the youth this morning, wrapping up my series on "gifts." (Okay, that was punny and I didn't even mean to do that. In case you missed it, read it again. There it is. ;) I can't say enough how much I love going to church there. The people are so warm and gracious. The teaching is so scriptural. They are so glad to have us there, but I can't imagine that they are half as glad as we are to be there. They have been dear to me since I met them in the summer of 2005. I'll never forget, sitting on a bus in Ghana, having traveled 25 hours to get where we were, getting ready to ride another few hours on a bus to get to where we would be working for the week. I was extremely tired, but pretty keyed up, as I can sometimes get when I travel. The (Ghanaian) cell phone Luke was carrying rang, and he handed it to me and said, "It's for you." Huh? A call for me... in Ghana? It was a precious woman I had just met from our African partner church back in Texas, wanting to know how I was doing and letting me know that she would be praying as we worked in her home country all week. Hearing her kind, wise voice coming through the phone really calmed my heart and made me feel so... prayed-for. She called me a couple of other times that week and it meant so, so much. She has (as many others in their congregation have) become dear to me during the past year. God is so faithful to bring about such partnerships.

I hope you've had a nice weekend. We certainly have! The kids spent Friday afternoon with their Grandma, shopping for our Christmas presents. They burst in the door that night exclaiming "Don't look!!" as they scurried upstairs to the sound of bags rustling. Fun! Yesterday Bethany and I finished some running around and then I baked cookies for my high schoolers and put the finishing touches on my Sunday School lesson. This morning, Bethany went to our church at 7:00 to work at the cafe and the rest of us went to African church. We enjoyed church and then came home to... nothing. Yey! I've waited weeks for this day! Don't get me wrong, I love Awana and look forward to it each week. It is one of God's greatest gifts in my life. But for the past two weeks I've taught across town, raced home, changed, then gone straight up to our church for the afternoon/evening Awana ministry responsibilities. I was able to do that because I knew TODAY was coming... Today we got home by 1:30 or so and then I (:::::drumroll:::::) took a nap. (Did you hear that? That was me, sighing contentedly.) We are about to go retrieve Bethany at a gathering she's been at all afternoon for the cafe staff.

So, that's the weekend update. Errands, baking, worship, and rest. A good weekend!

Have a blessed week!