Week 6

Sean has returned from North Eastern Ethiopia and his mother now is back in Rwanda. Sean led a group from the US to a remote people last week, who live nomadic lives raising camels and goats. World Vision has done good work with these people who initially were very resistant to any work that World Vision, or any NGO might want to do but now they are open not only to the work being done, but to people visiting them. They are a fierce people who file their teeth into spikes.

I stayed here in Addis with the kids and Sean’s mother came from Rwanda
to help. We had a nice week and it was a great opportunity for the kids
to bond with their Grandmother.
They are both doing well, enjoying trying new solid foods now that they
are over the 6 month mark. They are sitting up pretty well and I have
to watch them so carefully now if I place them on the bed as they move
all around and I am never sure which direction they might go!

I went to church this morning for the second time at BEZA church, an
international church here in Addis. This church is only three years old
but is very large. The musicians and pastor are very talented people
and it is fun to go worship among people from all over the world, mainly
of course Ethiopians but this church has a heart for Africa in general
and reaches many people. I have gone both times with a lady from my
guesthouse who is from Rwanda. Worshiping with someone who has endured
the genocide is quite humbling. I think we have no idea what real loss
is in America. This lovely woman has lost her mother, father and all of
her siblings in the genocide that happened only 14 years ago. Talking
to her just a little bit about her story, which is unfortunately not
rare at all in Rwanda, makes what happened there so much more real to
me. I will not, I hope, forget her story as quickly as I did forget
about the genocide after I saw the movie Hotel Rwanda. It is so hard to
understand how such mass killing happens, how you stop seeing people as
human just because they belong to a different tribe or race than you
do…I really feel my heart expanding not only for Ethiopia, which is
doing very well in many respects, but for Africa in general. I find
myself praying often for this continent, that God might move among the
people in a way that we have not yet seen.

Ethiopia is surrounded on many sides by countries that are in civil war
or in conflict with Ethiopia-Sudan, Somalia, Eretria, there are problems
at nearly every border. I just don’t have the historical knowledge I
guess, or the context coming from America, to understand or know how to
pray sometimes. I want to return here. I love the people and the
culture, it is so beautiful. I hope our children will learn Amharic.
It is a bit of a sensory overload in many ways to be here on the streets
(I have gotten good at getting around even on my own-today I rode the
minibuses that are all over the city for the first time-it costs about 6
cents to ride them) and see all the beggers and cripples and orphans, to
smell the different smells and to observe the mass of people who
obviously come from such a wide range of socioeconomic places. I
definitely feel like an outsider who breezes by with no real clue of who
people are or why they do the things they do. On the other hand I
realize more and more that they are not that much different than me.
People every where have the same wants and desires, they love their
families and work hard to improve their lives.

So this is the week, we’ve been here almost seven weeks and we’ve waited
now six for this second court date. Please Lord Jesus, please let these
children who we have grown to love dearly be ours officially on
Thursday. If you pray, pray Wednesday night, the court date will be
going on here Thursday morning which is Wed night there. I hope to post
pictures then, you’ll be sure to fall in love with them as I have Thank
you for upholding us in your prayers. I know that our God is able to do
vastly more than we might ask or imagine. God Bless you!