Good morning!!! Kevin
and I both felt like we struggled to fall asleep. I think it was all the excitement of finally being
here! Kevin woke up to dogs barking and
to the rain, but I only woke up dreaming that we overslept for church (which we
didn't). The alarm went off, the sun was
coming up, and we could hear prayers (we learned later it was the Orthodox prayer) that sounded
like they were coming through a loud speaker.
Taking a shower felt great as it had been a LONG time! We got around and headed down for breakfast
before heading to church. We had
scrambled eggs (ok, I had eggs. Kevin
doesn't like them), banana bread, tea, and mango juice. The Morning Coffee staff is taking such good
care of us!
The view from the guest house
The view from the guest house
The view from the guest house
The outside of our guest house
At 8AM, we were picked up by a driver to take us to
church. Driving this morning was
definitely different than last night.
There was lots of honking and a lot more people (and animals) in the streets. Church was great! We met some missionaries that have been
living here for 15 years, some people from Los Angeles, a man that works with a
ministry here to help impoverished women learn business skills, and another man who
is here for a couple weeks working with him.
Everyone was so welcoming and friendly.
The service was in English and the pastor was a visiting pastor from
Dallas, TX. It amazes me how we can
travel half-way across the world and experience a church service not that far
removed from our own.
Another family was supposed to arrive at the guest house
this morning. We found out at lunch that
Abel waited there for them almost all morning and now it sound like they might
not arrive until tomorrow. This is the
difficultly with international travel and a 7-hour time difference. Even if they contacted Bethany, it was the
middle of the night, so they wouldn't have gotten the message to pass on to
Abel. Hopefully we will see them
tomorrow. There are also two families
staying here that should be returning from visiting their children (in Awassa)
tonight. We are excited to have other
families here with us.
Today for lunch we had spaghetti, Ethiopian style. It was delicious! After lunch, we rested for about half an
hour, then Birtukan’s niece prepared a coffee ceremony for us. The way she made the coffee for us was what they call Macchiato (coffee with milk). It was about 1/3 milk and 2/3 coffee with sugar
and it was good! They also prepare
popcorn for the coffee ceremony which is made with sugar. Imagine the best kettle corn ever. That’s what it tasted like! While we were enjoying our coffee, Birtukan
shared her testimony with us.
A-mazing! I will not share it all
here, but she was once a World Vision sponsor child. She graduated from the program and then
became a translator for World Vision, translating the letters written by
sponsors into Amharic for the children.
It was a letter written by a sponsor that changed her life. She committed to God that she wanted to
change the life of one orphan. Several
years later, she is changing the lives of over 1400 orphans through Yezalelem
Minch. What an amazing testimony that,
with God’s provision, one person (along with her husband Nebisu) can make an
amazing difference!
Preparing the coffee
Also during our coffee time, Birtukan’s two younger sons and
her youngest daughter came in and performed some songs for us – one in English
and two in Amharic. There was
accompanying dancing as well. It was
great!! So sweet!
After our coffee ceremony time, we tried to call home to
talk to Nicolas. I got to say hello….but
that was about it. Unfortunately, the
internet connection did not want to cooperate to let us talk. But, he was already playing video games at
8:30AM, so I’m pretty sure he is enjoying his time with Grandma and Grandpa
G! The internet has not been working
since we got here, but we are hoping it will be up at some point so that we can
let everyone know we made it here safely.
Around 3:00PM, it started to get pretty dark. It is the rainy season, so it’s expected that
it will rain fairly often. It started to
sprinkle lightly, then much harder, then it began to HAIL! Not just a little. The ground looked like it
had snowed! The hail was probably the
size of a pencil eraser, some larger, and it just kept coming down!!! The girls said it has never hailed like that
here before! We apologized for bringing
crazy Michigan weather to Addis!! We did
take video of the hail that we will be able to post once we are home.
A little before dinner, two other families returned from
their trip to Awassa. One of the
families went to visit their daughter.
The other is actually doing missionary work in Kenya, but is here while
they renew their visas. We had dinner
together and chatted about their trip.
I hope we can sleep well tonight…..tomorrow is a BIG DAY!!!!
It's beginning to look a lot like MICHIGAN!
If only we could have made it into a snowman.....
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