So after doing a little research, this is the most interesting thing I found… “Lightning bug light is usually intermittent, and flashes in patterns that are unique to each species. Each blinking pattern is an optical signal that helps lightning bugs find potential mates.” OK…well…that’s not exactly the kind of information I was looking for, but it made me laugh.

It’s been three weeks since I returned unexpectedly to the States, but every day I am reminded of God’s incredible goodness and faithfulness that brought me here, and I am simply in awe of His perfect timing.

The week leading up to my unanticipated departure from Ethiopia had a been stressful and emotional, and as a girl…accompanied with many tears. By Wednesday, I finally decided that I was coming home to see my Grams and say goodbye to her, at least for this side of eternity. I was leaving in 48 hours. In my heart and mind, I knew that I was making the right decision, and God had given me great peace about it. But this didn’t make it any easier to say goodbye.

Aside from packing my suitcase and clearing out my room, saying goodbye to the people that I have come to love so much in the past 10 months was my biggest priority. Of course it was hard for me that I was leaving early, but it was even harder to have to go to each of my friends and say, “I’m sorry, but I’m leaving in two days, and I just came to say goodbye.” I hated it.

As often happens…nothing was going according to my plans. So each day…each hour…sometimes even each moment…I kept saying out loud and in my heart. “God, I trust You. I don’t understand why all of this is happening. This is really hard, but I trust You.” I can’t even begin to count the number of times I said it.

When I walked to say another painful goodbye to yet another person… “God, I trust You.”

When I was uncertain about whether or not my tickets were booked… “God, I trust You.”

When I was worried that there were certain people I wouldn’t get to say goodbye to… “God, I trust You.”

When my flight from Mekelle to Addis Ababa got delayed 6 hours and I was fearful that I wouldn’t make my international flight later that same day… “God, I trust You.”

When the man working for Ethiopian Airlines in Mekelle gladly printed my international  ticket… “God, I trust You.”

When I was worried that I wouldn’t make it out of the airport to go to the SIM Headquarters in the capital city of Addis Ababa to get my belongings from there… “God, I trust You.”

When someone from SIM HQ offered to meet me at the airport with my belongings… “God, I trust You.”

When I finally boarded my international flight after spending 13 hours in 2 different airports… “God, I trust You.”

When after 17 hours of flying, I was throwing up and crying in the bathroom of the Washington Dulles airport… “God, I trust You.”

When for the first time I was reunited with my whole family at the airport… “God, I trust You.”

And when I saw my Grams laying in her Hospice  bed, a different person than when I left 9 1/2 months before… “God, I trust You. You are so good to me. Thank You for allowing me to be here and bringing me safely home.”

And now here I sit, three weeks later, still saying it over and over again… “God, I trust You.” When I start thinking about those little flashes of light from the lightning bugs, I imagine that each flash is another confirmation of God’s faithfulness and goodness.

Many people ask me all the time, “What are you going to do next?” I have no idea. Literally. But that’s OK. Because I know that God is trustworthy and more than deserving of my confidence. So I wait. Maybe it’s Ethiopia again. Maybe it’s Ohio. Maybe it’s North Carolina. Maybe it’s somewhere that I haven’t even thought of. But in all of the processing and the waiting, He keeps saying one thing. “Just trust Me.” And each day He shows me again and again, like flashes from lightning bugs, that He is faithful, His timing is perfect, and that He has plans for His children that we can’t even begin to ask for or imagine!

So when I know…I’ll let you know : )

For five days no water had come into the compound where Sarah, Esther, and I live. We had no water in our pipes and only about 5 inches in our big blue barrel…not really even enough to wash from a bucket. On this day, I was especially tired and not feeling good…in no mood to deal with kids banging at the gate. There were two little girls who looked more poor than usual, with matted hair, thin little bodies, dirty faces, and ragged old clothes. All day they played by our gate and anytime we went in and out they asked for water, and sometimes they would just bang on the gate and ask again. Every time I told them we didn’t have any (except for the little in our blue barrel).

At one point, I was working at the kitchen table and I heard them yelling, “Lydia, Lydia.” I was so irritated that I didn’t even bother moving, I just yelled “Baca! Gidif!” which means “Enough! Stop!”

Later I was thinking about my response to these girls, and then I started coming under conviction for the way I responded to them. I started thinking, “What if I just gave these girls a drink of water? What if I gave every kid a drink of water that asked for one? Why don’t I give them a drink of water? What if the water ran out? ” These thoughts were all going through my mind when I went to bed that night.

In the middle of the night, I heard the water come on through the hose, and I thought, “Yes! We’re going to get water!” But when I got up in the morning, I looked in the blue barrel and realized that the water pressure had been so low that the amount of water had increased by only a few inches.” I just groaned.

As I was sitting in the quietness of our living room, I started thinking back to the day before and those two little girls. It was as if the Holy Spirit was saying to me, “Lydia, let Me tell you why you REALLY did not give those girls a drink. You don’t trust Me. If you really trusted Me, then you would have given those girls some water. You would have believed that I would and could provide for all your needs…even water. But, you didn’t give them water because you were afraid that if you gave it to them, there wouldn’t be any left for you.”

By this time, the water coming through the hose had completely stopped. I sat there in silence, realizing my disobedience to the Lord in not giving to those girls, for being so incredibly selfish, and my sin of not trusting God. I cried out, “Oh God, I am so sorry. I am so sorry for being so selfish and for not trusting that You will meet all my needs. Please forgive me.”

For what happened next, I will never cease to be amazed. It’s not some kind of magic, but only the incredible grace and love of God. About five minutes later, the water came back. This time not with a trickle, but a gush of water pouring from the hose; so much that we filled up every water container we have, and the water was still coming!

As I have reflected on all of this, I am overwhelmed by God’s incredible love towards me. At how He doesn’t just convict me of my sin and leave me alone, but He convicts me, forgives me, and then pours His love on me. And He is delighted to do it!

I wanted to share this with you because it is just one instance of God showing His incredible mercy and love! “My God will meet all your needs according to His glorious riches in Christ Jesus. To our God and Father be glory forever and forever.”  Oh how He loves us!

What do I do with the elderly men and women who sit on the side of the road and ask for money? If I saw these elderly people at home, people just like my grandparents, would I just pass them by? Would I let them sit there begging? They are someone’s Grandpa and Grandma.

What about the mother with her nursing baby who sends her toddler to beg for money from pedestrians? If this was my sister, would I not bring her to my home and take care of her?

What about the crazy man who throws rocks at people?

What about the street kids who roam around all day, not going to school, playing in the streets, trying to sell packs of tissues? If these were my nieces and nephews, or even my own children, how could I let them go unattended and uncared for all day?

What about the man who has no legs, who sits on the roadside begging, but when I give him a birr, or even sometimes if I just greet him, his face just lights up with a big smile. Or the middle aged woman, Ababa, who sits outside the grocery store nearly everyday, with sadness in her eyes? What is her story?

What about all the people I see who have physical deformities that you would rarely see in western countries because they would be easily fixed at birth with a simple operation? What hope do they have for opportunities in life?

Most days I just don’t know what to do. People are always asking for money. Sometimes I give to them…usually to the elderly people or the disabled…and sometimes I don’t. But is money really what they need? Is my 1 birr (the equivalent of about 7 cents) really going to help them in life? Am I giving out of guilt? Shamefully, sometimes I just walk past, saying or doing nothing, because I get too overwhelmed. My heart cries when I walk down the street, “Oh Christ, what would you do for these people? You wouldn’t just walk past, would You?”

I don’t think there are easy answers for these questions, but what I do know is that I can find some of the answers by looking at Christ’s life. Looking through the Gospels, I don’t find Christ handing out money to the poor and needy. But what I do see Him doing is giving dignity. He spoke to them. He looked them in the eye. He knew their names. He spent time with them. He loved them. And I think that this is what He asks of me. I may not be able to help every person that I encounter, financially or otherwise, but I can give what has so generously been given to me…the love of Christ. And it is His love that compels me.

How You Can Pray:

–for our team as we plan the summer activities at the youth center

–that our team will have lots of energy, patience, and love for the hundreds of kids who

will come to the youth center every day

–for me as I continue seeking God for the future and what the next step will be…that I

will have His wisdom

I would like to be able to say that I have some inkling about where I think the Lord is leading me next, but I just don’t. And that, I am learning, is a wonderful place to be. It is what Oswald Chambers calls “the graciousness of uncertainty.” So often I want the Lord to reveal to me NOW what is going to happen in the future. But God, in His great wisdom and mercy, does not work that way. And even if He did tell me now, perhaps I wouldn’t like what He says, so I would do whatever I could to avoid it!

Girls having fun at Bible club! They are so precious!

But even in the uncertainty of the future, there is One of whom I can be certain. Oswald Chambers says, “To be certain of God means that we are uncertain in all our ways, we do not know what a day may bring forth. This is generally said with a sigh of sadness; it should be rather an expression of breathless expectation. We are uncertain of the next step, but we are certain of God. Immediately we abandon to God, and do the duty that lies nearest, He packs our life with surprises all the time.”

And so over the last few weeks as I have been thinking and praying about “the next thing,” the Lord has been speaking to my heart, “Lydia, just be certain of Me. You know Me…your faithful God, who is always watching you, never forsaking you; your God who reveals things to you at just the right time. For now, just do the thing that I have called you to for this season…love the people that I have brought into your life. Don’t miss all that I have for you in your remaining time in Ethiopia because you are too busy thinking about the future. Seek Me first, and I will take care of the rest.”

So that is my challenge…to leave the whole thing to Him. Oswald Chambers again says, “It is gloriously uncertain how He will come in, but He will come. Remain loyal to Him.”

How You Can Pray:
–that the Lord will redeem the time I have left here in Ethiopia for His glory and honor
–that I will wisdom to see every opportunity to share Christ with those around me, and
courage to seize the moment
–for the girls in the Bible studies that Karen, Esther, Sarah and I lead—that they would
have a desire to know Christ personally and walk in relationship with Him

Thank you for your continual prayers, encouragement, and support. You are a huge blessing to me, and I am so grateful that you are part of this with me!

The Glorious Reunion!

From my journal Thursday, March 11, 2010…the day my family arrived in Ethiopia
“Oh God, how I can’t wait to see how this (being in Ethiopia) will change my family’s life. Do things that I can’t begin to ask or imagine.”

From my journal Wednesday, March 23, 2010…the day after my family left Ethiopia
“To my God who does abundantly beyond what I I could ever ask or imagine…Thank You.”

When I wrote in my journal the day before my family arrived in Ethiopia, I thought I was asking God to do things that I couldn’t begin to ask or imagine in the lives of my Mom and Dad, Ben and Lily. Little did I know that the great work He would do would be in me as well!

It brought me so much joy to see them with the people that I have come to love so much…the precious children at the blind school…the children in the countryside schools…the girls at the orphanage who called my Mom “Mom”…the students in my English class at the youth center who did a special drama for my family…the staff and guards at the youth center…my teammates…the family in the little shop where I buy fruits and vegetables…friends I’ve made Addis Ababa. All these people that I have talked about for the last months are no longer just names to my family…now they are faces and personalities and stories. They are real.

Ben and Lily with Aforki (center) and George (to Lily's right) at the blind school

Redi and my Dad at the blind school

Lily and I with the girls at the orphanage...they are so great!

My Mom and her new daughters, Atseda and Germanish, at the orphanage

Lily and I with kids we met while traveling around Ethiopia...precious

One of the greatest things that the Lord was teaching me through my brother Ben was to ask Him everyday to show Himself to me. As I watched Ben do this in his own life, it was so evident that God was at work all around us. How often do I miss seeing God because I haven’t asked Him to show Himself or I’m just not paying attention?

Here is just one example of God at work. Ethiopia is in its driest time of the year. It has rained only once since I’ve been here and that was about 4 months ago. Because of the lack of rain there is also a lack of water for daily living. At my house, we have had no running water (as in running in the taps) for about 8 weeks. The only water comes through a hose and we fill up barrels and then use smaller buckets to wash. No water had come into the hose for 10 days. On the tenth day, Ben and I were talking about seeing God at work around us, and so we prayed for rain…not just for our benefit, but for the people of Ethiopia. It didn’t rain, but that very night we got water through our hose..the first time in 10 days! The next day we left Mekelle to start traveling around Ethiopia. When we got to Axum, a historical site of Ethiopia, there was a torrential downpour. Our driver told us that it was the first time it had rained there in 6 months! Everywhere we went after that, it rained good and hard! God was answering our prayer and bringing blessings upon the people of Ethiopia! What would we have missed if we hadn’t asked God to show us Himself!

Ben challenged me so much in this area, and I have started doing this every day. And oh how amazing it has been! God is always at work and I think it is just a miracle when we get to see it! I have been seeing His work in my English class at the youth center since the day my family left Ethiopia. One of my students asked me for an English Bible and the entire class wanted to spend our time talking about Easter and what it means! What great things God is always ready to do if I just ask Him!

My heart is still full of joy as I think about my family being here. I don’t know if they will ever know how much it meant to me that they were here, that when I go home and talk about Ethiopia and the people they will understand what and who I’m talking about. How grateful I am that they have experienced the joy of being here…of knowing these wonderful, generous people. And how grateful I am that the Lord has shown me through their being here that He is at work all around me, all the time. And that is another kind of glorious collision…when our Majestic God and His work collide with our lives.

Thank you for praying with me and for my family! God has indeed done beyond what I could have ever asked or imagined, and I am always thankful that you are part of this with me!

Just as an extra…
I wanted to add a revised “You Know You’re in Africa When…” This list was made by my family at the end of their time here.

So here we go…

You Know You’re in Africa When…
The toilet seat is duct taped together.
You find yourself out of breath after walking for only 5 minutes (due to the elevation).
You throw up in your mouth when you go to the bathroom because it smells so bad.
You have to go outside to get to your kitchen.
Everyone (Ethiopians) wants to have you for the traditional coffee ceremony.
Oil of oregano is your appetizer.
You pay 12 dollars for a hotel room, and your water gets shut off.
Everything is built from stone.
You walk down the street and every boy wants to clean your shoes.
The kids are constantly asking you for a pen.
Your skin is flaking away due to sunburn.
You have flies all over your mouth and nose.
Ethiopians are wearing winter clothes in the blazing sun.
In one city, every kid says “America…Barack Obama?”
You smell the same before and after your shower.

First, a little background info:

The house that Esther, Sarah, and I live in is located between a hotel and the youth center where we all work. About a month ago, some guys were seen climbing into our compound in the middle of the night, getting our ladder, and using it to climb into the hotel compound to steal from the hotel guests. After this happened, we locked the ladder in one of the side rooms.

On Tuesday night, I went to bed at 10:00pm as usual and fell right to sleep. Our house is designed in a “U-shape” with a courtyard in the middle. There is a main part of the house with a living room, kitchen, and Esther’s bedroom. But for Sarah and I to get to our bedrooms we have to go outside. At about 2:30am, I was awoken to the sound of people yelling. Because it is so close, it can sometimes sound like the people who are staying at the hotel are talking right in our compound, but it is just the way the sound carries.

But on this night, it was too close to be in the next door compound. A few seconds after hearing the shouting, someone started firing a gun…five or six times. By this time I was out of my bed, standing by the door, and asking God to protect us. After a few seconds the shooting stopped, I heard someone talking and I recognized the voice of our guard from the youth center, Aragawi. I opened my door and stepped outside. I quickly noticed that the lights in the main part of the house were on and the door was hanging wide open. To my horror and my own stupidity, I saw my keys hanging in the door. I’ve never done this before, but I left my keys in my bedroom door.

I went inside, looked around, thinking that Sarah was already in the house and that she had turned the lights on. But it didn’t take long to realize that we had been robbed: two cameras, one cell phone, and the money that was in my wallet, 100 birr…the equivalent of about 8 dollars.  When the thieves came through our compound to go to the Africa Hotel, I think they saw the keys in my door, and took the opportunity to take what they could.

By this point, I was quite shaken. Sarah had come out of her room and we were both talking about what in the world had just happened. Then I heard Aragawi’s voice. He said, “Lydia, it’s Aragawi.” Nearly in tears, I went to the gate to unlock it for him. He came in and gave me a big hug and kept saying “Chigareeyellin, Chigareeyellin,” which means “no problem.” Then I told him that our things had been stolen. I found out later that when he fired his AK47, it was to alert the police in the area. So he wasn’t firing at the thieves, only into the air.

I called our team leader, Jon, and he immediately came to our house. It wasn’t long before there were about ten men with AK47’s standing in our compound talking about what happened, and trying to figure out how the thieves got away. Just as a side note, Sarah and I found things to laugh at even in the midst of this, which I am thankful for. For example…I always wear shorts to bed. Sarah said the reason she thought that there were so many men in our compound wasn’t to investigate, but because they wanted to see my white legs. We laughed, but after she said I was watching all these men to see if they were looking at me. They weren’t : ).

By about 4:00 am, the police had taken their reports and everyone left our house. I went back to bed and turned my Ipod on in hopes that the music would help me calm down and fall to sleep. The song that came on was from Psalm 121:

The God who never slumbers or sleeps. The moon will not harm you by night. He will watch over your life. As a I was reminded of these incredible truths, I was just overcome by the goodness and faithfulness of God. Praise God that even when we sleep, He is continually active and moving, always watching His children. Praise God that even in my stupidity (leaving my keys in the door) that He keeps us from all harm. Praise God for men like Aragawi, our guard and my new hero, who willingly risk their lives to protect us. Praise God that Esther went home to England for 2 weeks the day before the break-in, and that she wasn’t in her room because the thieves went into her room to steal her camera. Praise God that the thieves didn’t take our computers…which were sitting right out in the open and only a foot away from the cell phone that they took. Praise God for the incredible sense of peace that He has given to Sarah and I in the days following the break-in. How grateful we would be if you prayed for our continued safety and praise God with us for His watchful eye and for being our sleepless God.

When I was about your age, maybe a little older, God started teaching me about how blessed I was…to have two parents who loved me, to not have to worry about where my next meal would come from, to have a home to live in, a bed to sleep in, to get new clothes every year, to receive a good education, to be part of a church that taught the Word of God and encouraged students to be part of missions…and I could go on and on. At the time that God was teaching me about how blessed I was, He was also teaching me that because He has blessed me with so much, He expects me to be a blessing to others in return.

If I had to guess, I would say that you are blessed with most of the same things that I was blessed with. And so, I was wondering if you would think about doing something. Would you think about blessing the kids of Ethiopia?

Every day I work with the some of the best kids in the world (next to you all : )) These are kids who are just like you. They go to school. They wear school uniforms. The boys love to play sports. The girls love to talk, paint their nails, have their hair done. They have the same needs, hopes and dreams, and they love getting new things just like me and you.

But they live differently. Some are orphans. Some are blind. Many of them have only one or two shirts and pairs of pants to wear…clothing that is often torn or too small. They live with their families in one room on a compound with other families. They don’t have running water in their houses. Some don’t have electricity.  They only have one pair of shoes– shoes which are often old, broken, or too small. They are smaller than the average kids their age because they are malnourished. Though they are poor, they are incredibly joyful and their joy has blessed me immensely.

They don’t have the latest toys, computers, cell phones, etc., but they are thrilled when they get a new ball to play with, they love stickers, new pencils for school, hair clips, etc.

So, I’m asking you. In the way that God has blessed you, will you bless the kids here? In a couple of weeks, my Mom and Dad, my brother, and my sister Lily (who is in Ehko with you) are coming to Ethiopia. With all their extra luggage space, they are going to fill their suitcases with things to bless the kids of Ethiopia! I so badly want you to be a part of it, and I hope and pray you will. I know that the kids will be delighted to receive your gifts, and I can’t wait to take their pictures so you can see who you have blessed!

Eric and Jarrod will have a list of things you can give. If you have any questions, you can ask them or you ask me. I would love to hear from you! You can find me on Facebook or email me at lydiawalkley@yahoo.com. Thanks Ehko! I love you!

By the word of His mouth light came into existence traveling at 186,000 miles/second. He spoke and a raging ball of fire, known as the sun, came flying out of His mouth…the sun, that though it is 93,000,000 from Earth, can still turn us into lobsters if we are exposed to it for too long! He breathed the billions of starry hosts into the nighttime sky…and He gave a name to each of them. He measures the span of the entire universe with His hand. This universe that He can measure by the width of His hand, He created to declare His glory and majesty! And declare it He does!

Can you imagine spreading apart your thumb and index finger and being able to see the entire universe? My mind cannot fathom God! He gave names to the billions of stars He flung into the sky, and yet He knows MY name, YOUR name. The Psalmist says, “When I consider Your heavens, the work of Your fingers, the moon and the stars, which You have ordained; What is man that You take thought of him, and the son of man that You care for him?”

God…the star maker, light breather, Creator of this universe that is beyond my human understanding, is the same God who gave His only Son for the sins of all mankind…the greatest act of love. I’m not trying to be preachy, but I have just been so incredibly awed by how great God is, His unmatched power, how small I am, and the thought that He still loves me.

And yet, so often I take God’s power from Him by not believing Him…by not trusting Him for who He says He is, by not trusting Him to do BIG things. Things beyond what I could ever ask or imagine!  And so this is where I am. In His great goodness, grace, and mercy, God is revealing Himself to me, and it is giving me a great hunger for more. More of Him. More of His power. More of His love. More, but not just more for me.

I want more for these precious kids that I have the privilege of knowing. I want them to know the God who breathed the sun from His mouth, and the same God who passionately loves them and delights in them. I want more of what author and speaker Louie Giglio calls “astronomical grace” for me…for them…and for you.

So these are my prayers….and I would be grateful if you would join me in them…

—that I will be attuned to the Holy Spirit so that I can receive more of Him

—that I will believe God to do BIG things in the live of the kids we work with…at the youth center, the        blind school, the orphanage, the countryside schools, in the Bible studies…and that they will have a      desire to know God and His great love for them through Jesus Christ

1. You have dead mosquitoes floating in your coffee and you still drink it anyway
2. Everyone thinks your name is “Money” because that’s what they yell to you when you walk down the street
3. There are donkeys and horses and other animals standing in the middle of the road
4. You can buy a cappuchino for 45 cents
5. You have to bleach your fruits and vegetables before you can eat them
6. You get really excited when you see another white person
7. Color coordinating your clothes is no longer important to you
8. You receive marriage proposals on a weekly basis
9. Instead of saying “How are you?” to other foreigners you say, “Are you fine?” because that’s what the Ethiopians say to you
10. When people send you chocolate you eat the whole thing in one sitting…and you don’t feel guilty
11. You worry that when you go home you will shake everyone’s hand as you walk down the street
12. You forgot what personal space is
13. You worry about getting diseases after you touch the children
14. You GET diseases after you touch the children
15. Going to post office is exhilarating if you have something
16. Going to the post office is depressing if you have nothing
17. People you have never seen in your entire life know your name
18. You use dial-up internet
19. You have an English class with 90 kids, and no Ethiopian teacher
20. You go to weddings of people you have never met
21. You thought saw a Starbuck’s, but it was really Starback’s
22. You organize a soccer game with 50 kids on each team…and it’s not a problem
23. You can eat as much as you want for $2
24. Washing in a bucket is normal
25. You know you’re in Africa when all these things are normal to you.