Language learning to start next week!

Wednesday of next week I am officially starting my language learning with Nadia, a really cool Ethiopian gal that is in university here in Atlanta. She has agreed to take up the courageous task of teaching me Amharic!

I was reading something in one of my fave devos called "Jesus Calling" and came across these verses which I think will be my theme for learning a new language: "Devote yourselves to prayer, being watchful and thankful. And pray for us, too, that God may open a door for our message, so that we may proclaim the mystery of Christ, for which I am in chains. Pray that I may proclaim it clearly, as I should. Be wise in the way you act toward outsiders; make the most of every opportunity. Let your conversation be always full of grace, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how to answer everyone." ~Colossians 4:2-6

Trying to learn the heart language of Ethiopians I imagine will be the one of the most rewarding yet humbling experiences for me. I covet your prayers! As we learned at our training in Belgium "learn another language, gain another soul."

Entering transition time

One of the things I was the most grateful for about the Belgium training was just to have a time set apart from my normal life to refocus my spiritual life and get more mentally prepared for Ethiopia. I know that for me, it's really difficult to be intentional about spending time each day with God, not to mention having like an extended time (maybe a morning or afternoon) where you're really examining your life and getting into the Bible and praying more intentionally about yourself and others around you. It felt great to have time to do that. But like most training/retreats/etc, you go back home at some point and get back into the routine of life. When I was flying back to Atlanta from Brussels and in the first few days of being back here, the thought crossed my mind several times about why it's so hard to keep that momentum going. I really think too I have the unrealistic expectation that in Ethiopia it will be easier to keep my spiritual walk going then it is in Atlanta. I guess because I'll be in "missionary mode then" I don't know why I think that sometimes. But what is likely to happen is that Ethiopia will become my new "normal" and what I am in the habit of doing here in Atlanta will translate into what I'm going to be doing over there. All that to say, I'd like to actually follow through on the spiritual boost I got in Belgium, and hopefully use this transition time I have right now where I'm not working full-time and not yet boarding the plane for Addis, to pick a few hours or a day here & there to just go somewhere and have my own "retreat" with God. FOLLOWING THROUGH WITH IT- now that's going to be the kicker.

There have been other times in my life where I haven't had structured work to do each day every day. Like when I was in graduate school, I had a ton to do but it was up to me how to balance work/school/internship, etc. After school, it took about 2 1/2 months to find a job, which I worked at for 3 months, and then I was laid off. It took another month to find two part-time jobs, and a total of 3 months to get a full-time job. My tendency though when I'm not working full-time is to feel like a slacker and over pack my free time. In Belgium we talked a lot about how being in full-time ministry looks a lot different then maybe an 8-5, M-F job we might be used to in the states. In ministry there's not a clear start or stop time. You might have nationals or people coming to your door at different hours of the day, or getting phone calls about people that need help. For those who have families, they have to balance taking care of their marriage relationship and kids well in addition to ministry/work demands, and singles may struggle with loneliness or how to make friends and work out how to spend time with them (harder when transportation or safety can be a problem). My hope is that maybe in this transition time when I don't have a specific job to do, I can practice being in ministry mode and hopefully get some opportunities to serve, but also balance taking care of myself/my spiritual life and helping family I'm living with as well.

In the past year God has blessed me extremely in this process of preparing to be a missionary. One of the many ways I've seen this is how he's raised all of my financial support in just about 10 months time or so. Other ways have been seeing God provide a place for me to live during this transition, love and support of so many to spend time with while I'm still in Atlanta, opportunities to spend quality time with friends & family before I leave for Ethiopia, a renter for my home, and I'm sure I can think of others. I am exceedingly grateful and humbled about all this stuff. It's hard for me sometimes to be showered with grace! I know that sounds stupid. But it's like, I'd rather be giving out the help, you know? It's hard not to feel indebted towards others, and towards God. But that's what is so interesting, He has set this up so that I can't do this on my own. I have to rely on His help, and the help from others. And I truly believe that they will be blessed by their generosity as well. I know this time of transition is a part of his plan.

It's times like these where I can see bits of heaven while we're still on earth- the joys and blessings of just knowing Him, and walking with Him.

CCMI Brussels, Belgium: Close to being done

Unbelievably our time here has gone by way too fast and we're almost done. I will be heading back to Atlanta on Thursday, February 9. Back to life- back to reality. Like most concentrated trainings/conferences/internships, etc there have been a ton of fun times and also deep learning times. I look forward to trying to summarize all of those for those inquiring minds who want to know and hopefully sharing in some amazing Belgian chocolate with you all.

This week I have again been humbled a lot and encouraged a lot by God's goodness. This concept has been a theme in my life- just the struggle to always trust that God is good despite whatever circumstance comes my way. What's weird is that I think I get so used to the struggle that I'm surprised when things are awesome. I've felt this a lot while being at this training. It seems like God continues to remind me that His character and core essence is consistent love and goodness. He has given me several gifts along the way here.

One being is the reminder of the power of prayer. This week, and several other times here, we've had a more extended time of prayer in the Word, and for each other. I guess that's something I always enjoy about trainings like this, is that there are scheduled times for you to do it, so there's no like slacking off. One day this week the women gathered to pray and were asking me about prayer requests. I mentioned that my Ethiopia team is having a meeting probably in April in Atlanta, and we could be praying about that. I also said that it looks like right now, I have just $100/month left in pledges to be at 100% of my financial support team built. I am at the last $100/month. It's totally weird to put that into words. Since I'm likely not leaving for Ethiopia until May, I was just asking them to pray that it comes in. They were like "why don't we pray that comes in by the end of this training." I'm often hesitant to pray really specific things like that, especially because I'm afraid of that whole dichotomy of having faith it will happen but being able to hold the outcome of this loosely and in God's will. But I thought it was cool they wanted to pray and believe that with me. We'll see how God does this!!!

Another thing I wanted to mention was that I got to take several of the CCMI participants to enjoy Ethiopian food in Leuven, which is a town about 20 minutes from where we're staying in Zaventem (outside of Brussels). Since I've become a walking advertisement for Ethiopia and all things food related, quickly I discovered that I was the only participant here (a lot of the staff had had it before) who hadn't experienced this part of Ethiopian culture and they totally wanted to do it. Andrew found this place so we went! Man, talk about cross-culture experience. I volunteered to order everything so looking at the menu, I decided already I wanted tibs and wat and their yellow peas things and gomen. I also wanted shiro, but that wasn't on there. The Ethiopian lady/owner came and spoke English but honestly she might as well have been speaking Latin I had no clue what she was saying. Somehow we figure out that the menu online we were looking at was five years old and now all the prices for the sampler platters (best for big groups) have gone up by 9 Euro which is a boatload of money since everything's crazy expensive here. Also they don't have shiro because no one liked that in Belgium. So I try to order a minimum amount so we don't get too much food- one veg platter and one meat platter. About twenty minutes later one very small platter with meat and vegetables come out. We all eat it and it's awesome but we only get like two bites each. Everyone's attitudes are great though and no one's like throwing me under the bus. We keep waiting thinking another one's coming out. Nope. After flagging down the lady's son, we order another platter and more of the yellow peas and gomen and I order tibs and kitfo (Andrew and Megan will eat anything as long as it's crazy and weird and kitfo is in this catagory. Google if it if you're curious). The son leaves. Five or so minutes later the lady comes back out again and talks again in the English/Latin and somehow I think she's confirming our order so we're good. We're wondering at this point why her son works there. Anyway, we did get enough food and somehow managed not to pay a fortune. So great! Everyone loved it, and it warmed my heart to get to share this part of my life with them. That literally was the only thing warm though because it was a VERY COLD 15 minute walk back to the train, and then 10 more minutes back to Zaventem. Whew! Can't wait for 60 degree Atlanta!!

I think they liked it