Broken Walls

Hands down one of the most heart-breaking things that I saw while in Ethiopia working with the Somali people was the living conditions. When we were there, there were four refugee camps that all had over 25,000 people in them. In Dolo Ado, there were over 30,000 people in transitional waiting periods to even get into the camps. Today, there are five camps. The stories that we kept hearing was that Somali people were dying everyday as they were traveling to the camps in Ethiopia and Kenya. The conditions in Somalia are horrid and they need help. I am so grateful that I was able to go see and do.

The Somali people physical needs were being met in these camps. The thing that makes me sick to my stomach is that they do not know Jesus. Nearly 100% of the people are Muslim. Join with me in prayer for them and that God would tear down the walls, the physical and spiritual walls of these people. They are BEAUTIFUL people and I have a heart for them. Below are the pictures of their tents that they live in, and pictures of them in line to get food and water.

One thing I know is that I believe in the Ephesians 3:20 God, “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.” He is ABLE!

He WILL come through, ALWAYS!

The Faceless People

One of the most incredible things that we experienced on our trip to visit the Somali people in Ethiopia was that they were infatuated with getting their picture taken. SERIOUSLY. When we were taking pictures, they not only wanted their picture taken, but they wanted to see themselves. I was blown away by the enthusiasm that they had for doing this. I could not figure out why they wanted to see themselves, until I was talking to one of the few locals who spoke and understood the English language. They wanted to see themselves because they had never seen themselves in a mirror, or it had been an extremely long time since they had last seen themselves. It was so awesome to experience their joy when they saw themselves. It made me think about how many times I look in the mirror each day. A LOT! I can still see their faces full of JOY and AMAZEMENT. It was a great experience.

When is the last time that you stopped and looked in the mirror and thanked God for everything that He has blessed you with?

I am forever changed by having this experience with the Somali people. It brings shear joy to my heart to recall that experience. We are blessed people and God wants us to always be grateful for the many blessings that we have. I want to encourage you to take a moment out of your day today and look in the mirror. What do you see? Do you see yourself as God sees you? Are you hurting, broken down, tired or exhausted? What do you see in the mirror when you look at yourself?

I love what Paul says in Romans 8:

28 And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose. 29 For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters. 30 And those he predestined, he also called; those he called, he also justified; those he justified, he also glorified.

31 What, then, shall we say in response to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? 32 He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all—how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things? 33 Who will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen? It is God who justifies. 34 Who then is the one who condemns? No one. Christ Jesus who died—more than that, who was raised to life—is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us. 35 Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? 36 As it is written:
“For your sake we face death all day long;
we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered.”

37 No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. 38 For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, 39 neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

HOW DO YOU SEE YOURSELF NOW?

Photos From Ethiopia Mission Trip

Easily Amazed

One of the greatest things that made my heart full was the first day we arrived to one of the refugee camps down in Dolo Ado.  As it was no surprise, we stuck out like the moon does in the dark night.  You would have thought that we were celebrities.  But for many of these people we were the first white people they had ever seen.  I mean it truly was amazing, the reception we got from the Somali people.  They were incredible, and possibly a bit intimidated.  The best part was playing soccer with them.  There was no balls, no net, no yard markers, no goalies, uneven teams, but we played soccer with this tiny mesh ball that one of the boys had, and they were EASILY AMAZED.  It warmed my heart to see how happy they were.  Remember, before their arrival they had no food, no clothes, no water, and no home.  They had seen all kinds of family and friends die to starvation just on their journey from Somalia to Ethiopia.  They had been through it all.  And just when things get going at the camps, white people show up and play soccer with them.  I am serious when I say that I have never experienced that kind of true joy on their part before.  AMAZING.

Here is a picture of me with some of my soccer buddies:

I want to leave you with a question.  What amazes you?  Seriously answer the question.  WHAT AMAZES YOU?  Is it your family, friends, job, or you relationship with God?  How about Jesus?  Think about what he did.  That amazes me.  We have to be the people who bring the type of joy that I was talking about to the world.  As followers of THE WAY, we must bring hope to the world who desperately needs it.

Driving Somewhere

(Highlight From Ethiopia Day 3)

Day 3 was travel day. All that I could ask was, “are we there yet?” It is hard to keep the end result of where you are going when conditions are far from ideal. When you know that you are about to travel a total of 20 hours on the road and only 6 of it is paved, you start to think negatively. The good news was that we traveled in 3 land cruisers. Our drivers were such good troopers. In Ethiopia when you rent a car, it comes with a driver. That means they do not share the driving responsibilities. So in my opinion, they did a phenomenal job.

OK… Time to backtrack a bit. The driving in Ethiopia is like New York times a thousand. I am telling you, it is what we like to call white knuckle rides. You know what I mean? Do you know of someone that when you ride with them, you come close to losing your lives? That is what the driving is like in Ethiopia. Those people do what they want on the road. Oh, you have road rage? Good luck driving there. There were a few times that I thought that we were going bowling, and I am not talking about bowling at the local main event. I am talking about bowling for people. There are no stop lights, no stop signs, just people who miraculously get from point a to point b. Needless to say, I came close to wetting my pants a few times. SCARY.

Our drivers really did a great job. Riding on dirt roads for 14 hours is like playing 3 football games in 3 days. It took a toll on our body. Within the first few hours I actually got sick. Vomit EVERYWHERE. It was not pretty, but when I lost it I felt so much better. It was a great time to bond with our teammates and a time to really dwell on what God was doing in my life. He showed me a lot of things. One of the things that he reminded me of was that he was always with me. He tells us in Matthew 28:20 that, “… and surely I will be with you always.” Another thing that he reminded me was that we will be uncomfortable throughout our lives. A passage that I kept reading over and over was Isaiah 41:10 which says, “So do not fear, for I am with you; do not be dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you; I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.” I had to keep reading that because I am a human, and I kept getting discouraged by something that was so minute. After all, God never said that our walk with him would be easy. We have to be uncomfortable at times in our lives to grow in our relationship with Jesus. So, How is your walk?

I once heard Perry Noble talk about a mentor of his in his life challenge him with a question that was, “If you could attempt something for God and you knew that you could not fail, what would it be?” And then, he said you are a coward if you don’t. I knew that we were going to be uncomfortable for a while, but serving God’s people who were in great need was our end result. I knew that negativity needed to go somewhere else. So I decided that from then on that I would have the heart of a servant. I stopped complaining.

I want to leave you with this: “If you could attempt something for God and you knew that you could not fail, what would it be?” Answer the question. Write it in the comments section and allow me to pray for you!

Here is what our Land Cruisers looked like:

I’m Seeing Things

(Highlight From Ethiopia Day 2)

Often we think that we have seen it all… right?  Our attitude seems to suggest that nothing can shake us.  Not even a hint of poverty, malnutrition, or anything to do with orphans and widows.  These last couple of months have been such a challenge to me.  I am currently taking a course at Truett Seminary called Urban Mission Issues.  I am here to tell you that my emotions and values have been shaken to the core.  The funny thing is, we have only been discussing these issues.  Some of the questions that have been asked were:  How do you attend to the poor?  What are you doing right now to take care of the poor?  What does it look like for you to look after orphans?  Those are just a few.

Over the past 10 days or so, my travel to Ethiopia challenged everything.  I started to see people the way God sees them.  My prayer all along was that God would break my heart for what breaks His.  After all, I am pretty content in my life.  You too?  We live in a bubble.  NEWS FLASH:  the rest of the world does not.  Just when I thought that I have experienced global issues such as poverty and malnutrition, I HAVE NOT, that is until my trip.  Since my time back in the United States, I’M SEEING THINGS.  I can not shake some of the images I saw in Ethiopia out of my head.  Here are a few photos that I took in Addis during our second day there:

This is the view from the window of our hotel that we stayed at a few nights in Addis.

This is another view from our hotel in Addis.

Homeless people were everywhere, even sleeping on the medians during the middle of the day.

These people have no where to go, and nothing to do.

One of my favorite worship songs is “Hosanna” by Hillsong United.  This is an unbelievable song.    Here is what I believe:

I see a generation
Rising up to take the place
With selfless faith, with selfless faith
I see a near revival
Stirring as we pray and seek
We’re on our knees, we’re on our knees

Watch this video and ask God to break your heart for what breaks His. The meaning of HOSANNA is GOD, PLEASE SAVE. Make that your prayer EVERYDAY!

The Church – Striving To Make A Difference

(Highlight From Ethiopia Day 2)

Perhaps one of the greatest things that gets me pumped up is seeing people who are excited about reaching people for Christ.  During our second day in Ethiopia we had the opportunity to go to International Evangelical Church in Addis.  We spent all of our time there with Pastor Germa, who is one of the associate pastors on staff.  This is a church who ministers to people from 60 different nations every Sunday morning.  I was so encouraged by that.  It is not too often that we see churches who reach people from this many different nations.  They have a French, Korean, and Chinese congregation in their church, and the main services on Sunday Mornings are in english.  This is a church who is souled out to making a difference in the younger generation, and for people who are called to ministry.  They have a Bible college that meets on their campus that runs from 300-500 students annually.  They are doing what it takes to make a difference in this world.

Coming this November they are hosting the Global Leadership Summit right there on their campus.  Bill Hybels will be there in person.  How awesome is that?  Pastor Germa mentioned that they wanted to raise up Godly leaders in their congregation, as well as their surrounding church leaders.   I have had the opportunity to be a part of 3 GLS conferences before, and I know first hand that people will be stretched and challenged as leaders.  We dropped off a lot of books and resources from the speakers who will speak at this conference.  Pray for them as many people will have an incredible experience.

The church is called to serve, so I ask, WHERE ARE YOU SERVING?  I encourage you to get involved in the local church.  If your prayer is, God use my life to make Jesus famous, HE WILL ANSWER THAT PRAYER.

Here are a few pictures from our visit to IEC.

Our God Is Greater

Ethiopia Day One

What an incredible day it has been. Of course the environment and culture here is totally different than being at home. We had quite the adventure at the airport upon our arrival. Rex who is a videographer with the BGCT is with us and we had problems getting his video equipment through customs. After an hour wait or so he ended up leaving it in their possession. Hopefully he will be able to get it first thing in the morning. We have to file a lot of paperwork and pay deposits to get it out.

My favorite part of the day was getting to worship with the Evangelical Ethiopian Church here in Addis. Sometimes it gets to where church can be boring an redundant. Being here with people who speak a different language was unbelievable. I was reminded that the same God we worship at home is the very same God that these people worship here. I left so encouraged because they are so enthusiastic in worship and you can’t help but join in on what God is doing. It is obvious that this country has way less than we do, but yet it seemed as if they perhaps have a bigger faith in Jesus than we do. Their worship was so exciting and their expressions were exuberant! They truly understand what it means to follow God in a way that is pleasing to him despite the lack of resources that we have. I am serious when I ask: how is your walk with God? What does your worship look like on a daily basis?

We literally just got in from walking in the streets looking for a coffee place. It is unbelievably dark in the roads due to the lack of street lighting. There are people walking everywhere an a huge percentage of homeless people (my heart is broken). Some would call us crazy for even doing that, but yet it brought tears to my heart to be among the poverty here. The streets are in horrible condition, and not to mention the sidewalks that have pot holes everywhere. This was just a small glimpse of what we will see when we travel down to the border tomorrow to the Dollo Ado Refugee Camps.

Hopefully we will have a charter flight down south tomorrow to get us there, or it could be a long 20 hour drive.

Overall, I got an incredible feeling that God is BIGGER than anything that we could ever fathom, and I am grateful to be a part of HIS story!

Please continue to pray for our safety as we travel and encounter new people, and pray that we may bring God’s hope and grace to these people!

Christ is ALL!