The First 100 Days

Wow! Today marks the 100th day that I have been living in Ethiopia! It’s not that I’m counting the days, but sometimes I like to do little math calculations in my head. For example, if I see a series of numbers, I add the individual numbers up and divide by how many numbers there are in the series. Then I find the average number. I know…it’s weird…or maybe I’m weird. : )

So… the other day I was adding up the days of each of the months I have been here, and adding them up in my head. And today…it’s 100. This got my brain churning and I started thinking about my fears, expectations, and hopes before I got here.

I had fears that I wouldn’t like it here. That I would actually be counting down the days until I could go home. That I would, to use a cliche, just be surviving, but not “thriving.” I had fears that I would lose my joy. That I would not be able to be who I really am. I had fears that I would not adjust to living here and that I would not be able to endure it. I had fears of teaching English, that I just wouldn’t be cut out for it. I had fears of leaving my family and friends, of missing out on a whole year of their lives. I had fears of being on a new team. That I would not get along with my teammates. Fears of not making new friends…particularly Ethiopian friends.

101 days ago these were all thoughts swirling around in head. These were the things I thought and prayed about in the months prior to moving here. These were the things I journaled about. Even as I write this I keep going back to my journal…reading about all the things I was thinking through before I came here. And now…100 days later, it is such a blessing to tell you of how abundantly good God has been in freeing me from these fears, and doing far beyond what I could ever ask or imagine!

Just the other day I was telling my mom how much I love it here! If you know me, then you know that I am fairly outgoing, and that I love meeting new people. After being here these three months, I love that when I walk into town I will see lots of people that I know and that we will greet each other in Tigrinya/English or Tigringlish (as I like to say) ; that I will have thumb wars with Yared and Haben, two precious street kids.

I love teaching English to the high school kids every day. This is my favorite part of the day! What a privilege it is to know them and be part of their lives! I love that this Thursday in our class we will share with each other what Christmas means, and that one of the boys asked me to bring chocolate…so we’ll have a little party!

When I feared leaving my family for a year, God has been revealing to me that He has great and wonderful things that He wants to do in and through them this year, and that soon we will get to share face to face what those things are!

I feared leaving the amazing team I left at The Chapel and joining a new team and making friends, but again the Lord has blessed me with a team who has become like family. He has blessed me with Ethiopian friends…people I can’t wait to see each day…people who bring such joy to my life!

All these things that were fears and worries 101 days ago have become some of the greatest blessings to me and testimonies of the goodness and faithfulness of Christ. Isaiah 64:4-5 says, “Since ancient times no one has heard, no ear has perceived, no eye has seen any God besides you, who acts on behalf of those who wait for him. You come to the help of those who gladly do right, who remember your ways.” And so on this 100th day, I praise God for His acting on my behalf, and coming to my help. He has done what I could never imagine, and He is so worthy of all the honor and the glory!

How You Can Pray:

–Praise God for doing beyond what I could ask or imagine!

–Thank God for the incredible friendships He has blessed me with

–Praise God for this great love He has put in my heart for Ethiopia!

–For wisdom as Esther and I and our teammate Karen lead Bible studies with girls from the youth center

–For wisdom as I continue to teach English…that I would know how to teach the students in ways that they          would understand

Thank you for reading this blog, for encouraging me, and for being part of this journey with me. I am continually thanking God for you…my incredible family and friends, supporters, and encouragers who keep me going. God has done great things through you, and I am so grateful.

Pictures from the Depths of the Earth

trying to kiss a camel at the salt mine...and being rejected : )

just a small portion of the volcano exploding!!

at the sulfur flats

goofing around at the sulfur flats

the aftereffects of having my hair in braids for 5 days : )

To the Depths of the Earth

How can I describe in words sights what pictures won’t even do justice? Just this last weekend our team has been on the adventure of a lifetime…and we lived to tell about it : ) Traveling through Ethiopian terrain that changed drastically every 15 minutes, spending 30 hot, sweaty hours in three old Land Cruisers over 5 days, driving on “roads” that could rattle your brain loose, we descended from our elevation of 7,000 feet in Mekelle to 200 feet below sea level in the Danakil Depression.
 
We traveled through the Afar region of Ethiopia, and because it is close to the Ethiopian/Eritrean border we had military men with us the whole time. Our first stop after 9 hours in the car the first day, and 6 hours the second day, was the bottom of a volcano. We arrived at 4:30 dripping in sweat and covered in dirt. We had dinner, and then loaded up a camel with sleeping stuff and water so it could carry it to the top of the volcano!!  I never knew this before, but camels definitely have personality, and this camel was one of the crankiest, moodiest camels ever and he complained and moaned all the way up the volcano! I guess I might too if I had to carry all that stuff.

At 6:45pm we began a three and half hour hike up the volcano in the pitch black. If there was ever a time when I didn’t think I could finish something, it was getting to the top of this volcano. I was the last one up, and by the time I arrived, I was ready to vomit. The only thing that kept me going was the glow of what I thought to be the volcano, but actually turned out to the moon! What a disappointment!!

So we got to the top of the volcano and then hiked down the cavern and walked to the lip of the volcano. When I got there, I saw something I have never seen before in my life. Hundreds of feet below was a massive volcano erupting! For an hour and a half we sat right on the edge and watched the lava bubble up and shoot out like fireworks! Unbelievable!

One thing I must tell you about is the bathroom facilities…or should I say lack thereof. There were no toilets in this vast region, and so the only way to go was to just find a big rock or a bush and squat down behind it. This is probably more than you wanted to know, but I honestly felt like a dog…just going to the bathroom all over the ground. But the best part is that the Tigrinya word for “restroom” is shintabate. It shouldn’t take very long to figure out what other word shintabate looks like (just take out the “n”). The driver of our car, Weldu, made the word into a verb, and so he would often ask us, “Does anyone need to stop for some shinting?” And when we got back in the car he would say, “How was shinting? Good shinting?” Needless to say, we died laughing about this every time : ) 

So the morning after the volcano, we hiked back down the mountain and spent another 7 hours in the car going back to our camp. I thought that I couldn’t see anything else that could be just as spectacular as a volcano. But…I was wrong. The next day we loaded up and continued a further descent in elevation…to one of the lowest spots on the earth. Driving for miles across a salt land, we stopped at a mountainous spot made of dark orange, yellow, and purple earth. Because we were so close to the Eritrean border, our Ethiopian army soldiers went ahead of us to make sure that everything was safe. When we got to the top another breathtaking sight awaited us. Spread before us was every color of the rainbow in these sulfur flats. It was just one more instance of God displaying His infinite glory through His creation! Of course it smelled like rotten eggs, but to hear it bubbling underneath your feet as you walked and see it bubble out of holes in the ground was just amazing. I realized that if these sights were in the US, you would never just be able to walk all over them. They would be roped off with special walkways for tourists, but here we just got to be right in the midst of it and experience it with all five senses!
Our final destination was again…amazing. Driving through the salt lands we came upon a massive salt mine. It was like we stepped back in time thousands of years as these Afar men dug in the salt mines and chopped the salt into blocks and loaded them onto their camels. Literally hundreds and hundreds of camels. I have just never seen anything like it.
 
This country is so magnificently diverse. God’s creativity is awesome, and I am so amazed at the diversity in this one small corner of the earth! Wow! I am so thankful for the opportunity I had to see more of this great country, and it has just made me love it even more!

One more thing I must tell you just to make you laugh. One day our group had stopped so our driver, Weldu, could look at the car. While we were standing there, something came flying at me and hit me on the arm. I looked around and found a water bottle cap lying on the ground. When I looked up I saw one of the other drivers, Abraha, grinning at me. Immediately my teammate and supervisor, Jon, came over and said, “Lydia, did he just throw something at you?” I said “Yes, why?” He then proceeded to tell me that when a man throws something at a girl (usually it is a lemon or lime) that means he loves her. Of course I didn’t believe him, but when we got back in the car, Jon asked Weldu what it means when a man does that. In Tigrinya Weldu said “Fehkaree.” We all just burst into laughter because that means love. How funny that love is declared by throwing something at the girl. Don’t worry…I didn’t throw anything back….yet. (Just kidding. I won’t throw anything back. Dont’ freak out, Mom.)


Ethiopian Friends

Have you ever had one of those moments when you realized that God has answered a prayer you have been praying for months? I had one of those moments, just the other day and I wanted to share it with you because I know that you have been prayed for this also, and are part of God’s answering the prayer.

Months before coming to Ethiopia, one of my big prayers was that God would bless me with an Ethiopian friend…someone who I could just hang out with…who could teach me about her culture…someone I could share life with in Ethiopia. Shortly after I got here three months ago, our team was studying the Tigrinya language with two language helpers, Emebate and Semhal, 2 girls from the youth center who are now in college. I didn’t realize it then, but these girls would become the answer to my prayer!! It has been such a huge blessing to have them in my life.

I love it that they just stop by the house anytime, they come for dinner, we go shopping  together, or out to coffee, and anytime we’re together we just die laughing. But more than all those things, I love that I have the privilege of knowing Emebate and Semhal and hearing the stories of their lives.

Their stories, though much too common in Ethiopia, would be somewhat atypical in America. Emebate is fully orphaned, and Semhal’s father died several years ago and her mother lives in Saudi Arabia in order to make money to send back to the family.

And yet these girls attitudes towards life are not ones of feeling sorry for themselves, but rather wanting to help those even less fortunate than themselves.

Just the other day I had the opportunity to tell Semhal and Emebate that they were they answer to my prayer. What a blessing!  How gracious and just like my faithful God to bless me with two friends (not just one, like I prayed for) who I can die laughing with, but with whom I can also talk about the deeper things of life. They are teaching me so much about life in Ethiopia and about following God even when life is hard.

Thank you for praying for my Ethiopian friends and for being a continual part of the journey with me. What a great blessing you are to me!!

How You Can Pray:

–That my relationships with Emebate and Semhal will continue to grow and that I have more opportunities to speak truth into their lives and encourage them.

–For my family and I as the holidays are approaching, and we’re missing each other greatly

–In about an hour from now, as I write this blog, our team will be going on a 5 day adventure to the Danakil Desert…so if you would pray for safety and health, I would be grateful. I can’t wait to tell you about it when we return!

A Stolen Heart

What an incredible day it has been. My heart has been in my throat all day as I keep replaying the events in my head. This morning I had the one of the most amazing experiences in my life and I can’t stop thinking about it. Today I met Radi.

Radi is a ten year old boy in Mekelle. Esther and I and three of our Ethiopian friends went to his school today to play games with the kids there. But this was no ordinary school. This was a blind school. Radi is blind.

I have never been to blind school before today, but I don’t think I was prepared for what I saw. As we travelled by mini-bus to the school, I silently offered up a prayer to God, asking Him just to help me. When we arrived, a countless number of kids greeted us at the gate and welcomed us to their school. They instantly attached themselves to us and we walked and talked and got to know their names.

These children live at the school because it is the only blind school for miles around. Some of the kids live 30 miles away and are with their families only on holidays. Oh how my heart longs to just go live there with them and be their mom!

What I could not believe was that they were running around their school grounds like they could see! They were jumping and laughing and making funny faces! As I stood there overwhelmed and just watching them, I just cried. They are some the most beautiful children I have ever seen.

And then I met Radi. Radi came and shook my hand and instantly nestled his body next to mine, like a child does with his mother. With his crooked teeth and pants and suit coat that are too big, he was just precious. He felt my hands and my arms. Running his hand over a band-aid on my hand, he asked me what it was that he was touching. He was feeling my wrist and asked me if I had a watch. I told him no, and that I never knew what time it was. He reached in his pocket and handed me his watch…telling me that it needed “charged” (new batteries). I promised him that I would get it charged and bring it back to him. And he just smiled.

 

Talking with Radi

When the other kids asked him to come play a game, he went and played. But as soon as his turn was over I watched as he tried to figure out where I was. As soon as he found me, he was right by my side again, holding my hand. I knelt down so I could look up into his eyes and see him smile. We just talked and laughed in English and Tigrinya. Radi asked me to go for a walk with him. I held his hand as we walked in the field. He just stayed right by my side the whole time. He walked me to the gate as we left, and I knelt to kiss his head, and he kissed my hand. He has stolen my heart.

All day I have been trying unsuccessfully to wrap my heart and mind around what I have experienced, but I will keep trying. I just wanted to share with you the abundant joy that God has blessed me with today and I hope and pray He will bless you with it too!

Is It Worth It?

8 weeks…the amount of time that has passed since I moved to Ethiopia…and the longest amount of time I have been away from home. Over the last week, I have been struck with how much I miss my family and friends. I miss not being at being at birthday parties for my nieces and nephews. I miss Sunday afternoon lunches with my parents and siblings and their families. I miss not being with my best friend and sister Lily and laughing with her until my stomach hurts. I miss not being able to talk about the deep things in life with friends who know my heart and I know theirs.

And in the midst of aching for those relationships, I asked the question that I have been too afraid to ask until now…for fear that I would be lacking faith if I vocalized it…Is this (being in Ethiopia) worth it? Is it worth the heartache and pain of being so far away from the most important people in my life? Is is worth their own heartache and pain?

But even as I am writing this blog entry, I am reminded of the name of this blog…anyroadanycost. The name of blog came from a song called “Any Road, Any Cost” by Point of Grace. I want to share it with you because right now it says so clearly how I have been feeling, but more importantly it reminds me of why living in Ethiopia is worth it. It is worth it because of what Jesus Christ has done for me, and it should be my joy to share that with others, even when it’s hard.

Leaving the safe and familiar

With their hearts set on a heavenly prize

There were some who laid down their nets

And some who laid down their lives

Not sure where they were going,

But they did not have to know

Because they knew Who had called them

And they said, “we will go”

Down any road, at any cost

Where ever You lead, we will follow

Because we know that

You’ve called us to take up our cross

Down any road, at any cost

It may be fear that we’re feeling

When we see what we must sacrifice

But You promised You’ll go with us

So we’ll trust with our lives

It’s Your love that compels us

To do what You’ve called us to do

And be completely abandoned to You

When I go to the youth center and play Chinese checkers with the younger boys, or when I see Yarid, one of my favorite street kids, and we have thumb wars on the sidewalk, or when I paint the little girls’ fingernails, or have discussion groups and Bible studies with the teenage girls, I am reminded of why this is worth it…because I get to be involved in the lives of some of the most precious, beautiful children I have ever met and love them with the love of Christ.

Thank you so much for your ongoing love and support, for encouraging me and praying for me in this journey and being part of it with me. You are an incredible blessing to me!

 

How you can pray:

–that I lean hard on Christ all the time, and be always dependent on Him

–that I will know Christ as my sustaining joy

–next week I start teaching Englsh one day a week each in a countryside primary school, an Orthodox orphanage, and a blind school

–pray that I will I have wisdom in planning lessons and that my confidence will remain in Christ

–for the girls discussion group I have started–that I will have wisdom in the topics we cover and know how to speak the truth into these girls’ lives

Welcome to My World

Welcome to My World

It has already been over a month since I moved to Ethiopia, and I thought that you might like a little insight into what life is like here in Mekelle.

Water:

Since about a week after Esther and I arrived in Mekelle, we have had no running water in our house. It is a problem that has yet to be solved, but there is usually enough water pressure at night to fill up a huge barrel with a hose. From this barrel we wash our dishes, filter our drinking water, flush our toilets, and “take showers”…more like pouring a pitcher of cold water over your head (see picture below). So technically…I guess I could say I haven’t showered in three weeks : )

Transportation:

For getting around town, Esther and I usually walk everywhere, but in the event that we are in a hurry or are exhausted, we can get a ride in a “Bajaj” (see picture below). Bajajs come from India, and in Hindi, “bajaj” means “cockroach.” It is funny because that it just how they move…like little bugs scattering along. It’s like riding in one of those bumper cars at an amusement park. But for only 1 Birr (about 8 cents) they are a quick way to get up the road.

Food:

Esther and I do most of our cooking…lots of fruits and vegetables from the market, bread, peanut butter and jam, spaghetti, soup, and even tonight I made flour tortillas for tacos! Once or twice a week, we go to our favorite Ethiopian restaurant called Hakfen, where we have injera, femtibs, and tegabino…our favorite dishes (see picture below). I know it doesn’t look at appetizing, but it really does taste good!

Medicine:

Laughter. With so many big changes to our usual ways of living, Esther and I have found that they way we deal with them is by laughing. So many days we laugh til we cry, and usually at the dumbest things (see picture below).

For real medicine, like for when we get amoebas or bacterias (easily curable), it cost 9 birr for 20 pills…about 75 cents. We get these pills after giving “a sample” at the medical clinic. Haha. And yes…the pills do work : )

Hopefully these descriptions and the pictures give you a little glimpse into life in Ethiopia…and hopefully they made you laugh…not worry : ) If there are other things you want to know about…just ask! Thank you for all your love and support and encouragement…I am so thankful that you are part of this journey with me!

Until next time!

Language Listening

It has been nearly three weeks since I started learning the Tigrinya language with Esther, our teammates the Nykamp’s and their son Matthew, and two other American women. We use a language learning method where the 1st 100 hours is all listening, and no speaking. There are four girls in their early 20’s who are our language helpers.

our awesome language helpers

While we listen, they point to objects, repeat them, and then have us point to them. It is similar to the way a child learns a language…by listening first and then picking up words and speaking and messing up. It has been a very interactive, productive and fun way of learning Tigrinya, and when we go out to the market, bread shop, grocery store or work with kids at the youth center, I am sometimes surprised how much I remember and can use in interacting with others.

But this whole method of learning language has gotten me thinking about a different kind of language listening…listening to the language of God…through His Word. Too often I come to His Word, read it, decide what I think it means, and try to apply it to my life. Instead though, I need to come to the Word ready to listen…to hear from God and allow the Holy Spirit help me understand what He is saying.

In this whole language learning process I keep thinking of Psam 46:10 that says, “Be still and know that I am God” and Proverbs 1:5, “A wise man will hear and increase in learning, and a man of understanding will acquire wise counsel.”

It seems that in all aspects of my life, listening is key to learning…listening to God speak through His Word, listening to my language helpers so that I can learn Tigrinya, and listening to the wonderful Ethiopians I have met so I can understand and appreciate their culture, and hearing the stories of their lives and learning how to serve in response to them. Listening without speaking is hard thing to do, but I know that I have learned and will continue to learn so much more, if I can be quiet long enough to understand.

And so as my prayer continues that this year I will be a learner, I am also praying that I will be a listener…first to God and His Word and then to those around me so that I can learn to love and embrace the Ethiopian people and their culture.

Thank you again for being part of this journey with me. I am abundantly grateful!

How You Can Pray:

–Thank God for His sustaining grace

–Pray that I will listen and seek God first as I try to figure to whom and what I should devote my time

–Pray that I will have wisdom and confidence as I teach English, and know how to best teach my students

When the props are gone

I can’t tell you how many times I have sat down to write a blog entry, but have just sat here typing nothing because I didn’t know what to write about. I know that sounds so lame, seeing as how I just moved 8,000 miles away, but it’s true.

Do I talk about the crazy music that played every night until 12:30am and it sounds like it is right outside your bedroom window (in the capital Addis Ababa)?

Do I talk about my wonderful English roommate Esther and the crazy English phrases she’s been teaching me? (For example: I would say “go to the bathroom,” Esther would say, “pop to the loo.”)

Do I talk about going to the market with Esther and trying to ask for a half kilo of onions, and having the Ethiopian woman laugh in delight? (half kilo sounds like “freaky kilo”)

Do I talk about the dead rat I found in our house? Haha. Just kidding…I haven’t seen any rats.

 Do I talk about how all the sudden the electricity just went out as I am writing this blog entry, or about the dance that Esther and I did when it came back on?

Do I talk about the poverty I have seen? The children with disabilities, who if only they had the opportunity to get an operation, their condition would be fixed?

 Do I talk about the smells? The sounds?

Do I talk about how encouraged I have been by your emails and Facebook messages, just knowing that the you are thinking about me and praying for me?

Yes, I guess these are all things I could write about, but I have the whole year to tell you about them, and they all seem to pale in comparison to the thing that matters the most in this whole journey.

 Trust.

 It has been over a week since I stepped onto that airplane en route for Ethiopia; a week since the props were knocked out. The props of having family and friends close by, the props of comfort and convenience, of picking up my phone to call someone whenever I wanted to, of having a fast internet connection, of speaking English, of having drinking water right out of the tap without having to filter it first.

All those things are gone now, at least physically for the time being, but that isn’t a bad thing.

It’s not bad because it is teaching me to rely solely on Jesus. “I dare not trust the sweetest frame, but wholly lean on Jesus name,” goes the old hymn. I’ve been thinking lately about what this means, and what it looks like to trust Jesus wholly. It means that when I am overwhelmed with losing all personal space, or being stared at all the time, or not being able to speak the language, or tired and trying to adjust to the altitude, or homesick, or just want to hear my family’s voices without paying $1.50 a minute, or whatever it is, that by God’s grace, I am reminded of why I am here in the first place: Jesus. So often, I have to remind myself this is not about me, but about following Jesus and doing His will.

And so here I am, in Mekelle, Ethiopia, with the props gone, learning to trust in Christ alone, focusing not on what is seen…what lies in front of me, but on Christ who is unseen, daily surrendering my will back to Christ and asking for His will to be done, so that He is glorified! Thank you for being part of this journey with me…for supporting me, for encouraging me, and most all for praying for me because I know that it is the grace of God that is and will sustain me!

How you can pray:

–Thank God for abundant grace, providing for every physical, spiritual, and emotional need

 –Thank God giving me Esther–to share this year with her is an incredible blessing!

–Pray for our team as tomorrow, Monday 9/21, we all begin studying the Tigrinya language together. Pray that we would have patience, humility, and clear minds

–Pray for Esther and I as we adjust to living here, get settled in, learn our way around Mekelle –Pray for good relationships to be built at the youth center with the girls and for an Ethiopian friend

 –Pray that I will be learner, and with all humility, learn to love and appreciate the Ethiopian people and their culture

The Blessing of Family

A while back, my family decided to take a vacation together right before I leave for Ethiopia. I have some incredibly generous friends who allowed us to use their lake house up in Lakeside Ohio. So for the past week, I have been at Lake Erie with my parents, my two younger sisters, Lizzy and Lily, my older sister Sarah, her husband Mike, their four kids, Ian, Flynn, Anna, and Bennett, and also my brother Ben and his wife Kelly, and their two kids, Gaby and Carter.

Something happens when you realize that you are not going to have your family for a while: it makes you relish the time you do have, and that is what I have tried to do this past week. God blessed us with an incredible house, sunny and 70’s weather everyday, the beauty of His creation, and the blessing of each other.

Here are some of the things I relished in, knowing I won’t have the opportunity to do them in just a few days:

–going on family walks to the park

–making cookies for everyone

spinning on the tire swing…and getting ready to just about vomit : )

getting up in the middle of the night with my niece who needed

a diaper change and some string cheese

–taking my nieces and nephews on lots of walks around Lakeside

playing countless games of Sorry and Yahtzee with Lily

having coffee in the morning with my parents

listening to my brother’s constant insistence that I will be living in Zambia…not

Ethiopia : )

holding and playing with my 7 month old nephew Carter,

knowing he will be such a big boy in year

–watching Tim Hawkins (a comedian) videos online with all my siblings…dying of

laughter…and then quoting them to each other later

–eating dinner together as a family every night

going on bike rides with Lily

watching the sunset

listening to my nieces and nephews jabber on and on

–eating my mom’s homemade cinnamon rolls…and mostly her food in general : )

watching my nieces and nephews experience the wonder of fireworks!

All these things I am so thankful for and will dearly miss…except maybe the poopy diaper. In all seriousness though, I am so grateful for the family that God has blessed me with….they are absolutely what I will miss the most while I am in Ethiopia.