A Drive to Town

Opening the front door of my apartment, I step out into the cool, rainy air. I look across the helicopter landing pad in the center of our compound, over the high wall with wire twisted in loops on top, to the green fields filled with crops, donkeys, cattle, and goats, and the green hills that are hidden behind a thick fog. I look to the sky to see if there is any chance of sunshine. All to my left I see clouds and fog. I look to my right and see a patch of blue sky with the sun poking through.

I step into the open, onto the wet grass, rain gently sprinkling my face body. The short walk between my apartment and the missionary’s white 12-passenger van is just enough to get a little chilled. Letting my teammate sit in the front seat, I hop in the back with six kids, ages five to sixteen. The van starts backing out of its parking place and soon we are waving at our guard as he lets us pass through our metal gate doors.

The semi-paved road is bumpy. As I look out my window there is a boy around age 12 wearing ragged clothes and lime green rubber boots with an opened red umbrella and a stick walking nonchalantly behind a flock of goats, every now and then gently motioning the stick to the right of the flock so they knew not to get any closer to the road. As we pass the boy with his goats we see a group of three girls wrapped in their beautiful white fabric covering their hair, shoulders, arms, and torsos. The van rumbles on the now broken, half paved, half gravel road forcing the van to tilt almost uncomfortably to the right. In the middle of the road there is a light brown dog lying on its stomach, scratching behind its right ear. It must not hear the van advancing towards because it continues to lay there. A gentle honk tells the dog we are coming. Casually it stands up and trots off to the side. By now there are many Ethiopian people walking along the road to go to work, or to school, or to the market. The kids see us coming and they excitedly wave their hands at us, flashing their biggest and brightest smiles at us, yelling, “Forenji! Forenji! How are you? Forenji!” in their best English. We smile and wave back as we pass them. Splashing through puddles, driving over rocks, passing a large cement building, we have reached the main road. We see a blue and white taxi van racing in our direction; he flashes his lights to let us know he is coming. After he passes we leave the bumpy half paved, half gravel road and get on the smooth, fully paved main road.

As we gain speed, I look out the window and see a new site. There is a large pile of something covered in white with little blue lines. I immediately realize it is a large pile of guts, covered in white slime with the veins running through it. I quickly look to the right and see the body of a large animal with the head still attached; it is a cow. “Ew! Did you see that?!” exclaimed one of the kids, half giggling. Chuckling to myself at her comment, I see yet another cow that has come to the same fate. There must be a holiday tomorrow, we concluded. As we continue on passing huts, little shops, vegetable stands, elderly women carrying large sacks on their back, other people carrying stacks of the round bread, injera, on their head, we see ahead of us a large dump truck is slowing down traffic. It is a ‘no passing’ zone. Everyone knows those laws only apply when there is a cop visible, so we, along with the other vehicles, scoot right along past the dump truck. We follow the road, now on a gentle grade, with two green hills on either side and a few goats sprinkled among the dewy grass, around a corner, around another corner, and to a bridge with the dirty brown water below, the beautiful green hillside sprinkled with different colored clothes and linens laid out to dry in the sun that is now forcing its way through the clouds.

We pull into the city limits, weaving through the people, the animals, and the other cars, and come to the first roundabout. Traffic is heavy, the most cars I’ve ever seen. Blue and white taxi vans are trying to shove their way in, a little black car is sick of waiting and honks twice, up ahead there is a long red city bus waiting to enter the roundabout. Slowly, we inch our way forward and finally make it to the front of the line. We see a large puddle of water that no one will drive through. We enter the circle, head straight to the puddle, drive through it, and exit the roundabout. Watching out for the random teenage boy that ran in the road not paying attention, we see vegetable stands, clothes shops, people roasting corn, taxi drivers laughing while they wait for their vans to fill, soldiers casually carrying M-16’s joking and laughing with their fellow soldiers.

After ten more minutes of driving along the highway passing cars and pedestrians, we pull up to the large, brown gate of Bingham Academy. As the guard opens the gate door he smiles warmly and excitedly waves to us as we pass him. We go up the hill, pass the guard house, down the hill, and find a parking spot. The van backs into its new spot and turns off. Everyone unbuckles, opens their doors, and files out. We go to our different places for the day until we are reunited once again at the white, 12-passenger van. 

Languages of Love

Some of you may know, and some of you may not, what I mean by “love language”. For those who haven’t heard it before it’s pretty easy to figure out by breaking up the phrase and looking at what each word means. Love. Language. Cool. Now everyone is pretty much on the same page.

There is a book written on the five love languages called The Five Love Languages. The five are: quality time, receiving gifts, words of affirmation, physical touch, and acts of service. (You can find all of this at 5lovelanguages.com, so go there, check it out, and take the little quiz. I just did it in like 5 minutes.)

These are true. Think about it. When do you feel most appreciated, most loved, least depressed, etc.? Is it spending time with someone? When someone gives you a gift? When someone encourages you through words? When someone shows love or appreciation through physical touch? When someone does something for you?

For me, quality time is my top love language, with words of affirmation second. When I think about times when I know my friends love or appreciate me, it is almost always because they have hung out with me or given me an encouraging note (or some other type of word of encouragement). I know that quality time is my primary love language because when my best friends do not make time to hang out or spend time with me I am hurt and begin to think that we really weren’t that good of friends to begin with. I know that words of affirmation are my second because I cherish the encouraging notes friends give me, or the encouraging words from people; and because I get hurt by some things that people say, or when people are not encouraging me. Which reminds of something I read: “Better is open rebuke than hidden love” Proverbs 27:5.

Now, I know that I have family and friends all over the place. So the ‘quality time’ has to change a little bit. It is not possible for me to spend time with each friend or family member in Virginia, Kentucky, Kansas, North Dakota, Montana, Idaho, and Washington. Especially while I’m in Africa! This is where I say Praise God for technology. Phone calls, text messages, emails, Facebook, and Skype are all ways that I can get my ‘quality time’ with my peeps. Sure, it means going out of our way to sit on the phone, sit at the computer, etc. But it is so worth it.

Think of how you feel most loved. What happens when you aren’t getting that quality time, or that word of encouragement, or that (you fill in the blank)? You start feeling sad. You start being hard on yourself. You think to yourself, “I just want one person to ….”. Now do you see what I’m getting at?

Pick a person or two that you are really close to: boyfriend, girlfriend, spouse, best friend, sister, brother, etc. Think of what their love language might be. Now start showing them love in that way, even when it means going out of your way. When you show them love with their love language it will make your relationship better. They will feel loved, and you will love knowing that you made them feel that way! And, I’ll bet that they will go out of their way to speak your love language.

Oooh. But what happens when you score a 2 on physical touch and your person scored a million on physical touch? (I scored a 2, and people are very, very touchy. Especially in Ethiopia.) Let me tell you what you do: you get over it. Chances are, someone is getting over themselves and going out of their way to love you how you receive it best. If the other person knows you are not a physical touch (or whatever else) person and you do go out of your way to do it, they will appreciate it all the more.

My challenge to you is to not only find out what your love language(s) is/are, but to find out the love languages of those you love or care for; and do something about it. Relationships are two way streets. It’s not all about you, and it’s not all about them. Going out of your way to show someone you love/care for/appreciate them is a good thing. It will not always be reciprocated, but that does not matter. Keep doing it. Persevere through those times. “The Lord does not look at the things man looks at. Man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.” (1 Samuel 16:7)

I would love to hear stories from you guys! Whether it’s with a person of the same love language, or different. 

Back in Addis Ababa

We came back to Addis Ababa last Sunday! Addis Ababa is different than where we were in a few ways. For example, Addis is a lot bigger than Nekempte. We are also with a different family. We actually are living with two families on the compound.  There are no godees (horses pulling wooden carts). The taxis are a little different. And we are not in the heart of Addis, we are a little bit out of the city.

Just so you can kind of get an idea of what our living situation looks like, here’s a brief description. The compound is a piece of land, but I don’t know how much. I’m not even going guess because I don’t even know how big an acre is. Therefore, the compound is one some land. The compound is surrounded by a gate. We have guards at the doors of the gate. We have a small storage unit. There are a couple sheds, two houses, and an apartment building. The apartment building has 4 apartments and a conference room. Kait and I are staying in one of the apartments. On either side of the building are the two houses.

The two families we are living with are great; the Fehl’s and the Giles’. The Fehl’s have four kids: Addison (16), Mallory (13), Darby (11), and Ethan (9). The Gile’s have three boys: Danny (7), Ryan (4 I think), and Casey (3). The adults names are Adrian and Jen Fehl and Marshall and Rachel Giles.

Ethan is my new student. He is finishing up 3^rd grade and starting 4^th grade. He is a lot of fun! Full of energy, but it’s never a dull moment with him. We take a couple breaks throughout our day to have a snack and play a game. We have completed our first week of school, and have many more to come!

Prayer requests:

-Our time here in Addis

-Ethan and I have a fun time together

-Kait as she starts teaching at Bingham Academy soon

-We have a homeschool conference coming up and Kait and I are in charge of like 45 kids! Pray for no injuries, no lost kids (just kidding, we won’t lose any; but seriously), but that we would have a lot of energy and have a blast with the kiddos!

-We have a team meeting in a few weeks. That means all of our teammate from Ethiopia will be traveling to Addis. Pray for safe travels, productivity, and lots of fun. I think I’ll be watching the kids, so for that, too!

I think that about sums up what I wanted to say! I would love to hear about your summers and how God is moving in your lives. Please let me know how I can be praying for you!

Blessings!!

Breaking Cultural Norms

I was privileged to teach at our last Girls Time in Nekempte. About a week and half before I taught God laid it on my heart to teach them about when Jesus washed His disciples feet (found in John 13:1-17). Along with this teaching would be Kait and I putting into action Jesus’ teaching. But I knew that us touching their feet was probably not culturally acceptable. When I tried painting their toenails they were very adamant against it. (After persisting and telling them it’s what we do in America, they let me!) So I knew that we would be breaking cultural norms and possibly even be rejected.

I talked to my awesome host missionaries, Steve and Doretha, about whether or not it would be okay to give it a shot. They both told me to go ahead. So I continued to pray about it. A lot.

I felt strongly I should do it. So I started to study. And I prayed. Kait and I talked about the meaning of some passages. With the Lord’s help, I was able to get everything in order and written down. Finally Friday came. It was the day to wash the girls feet.

As usual Doretha, Rowan, Kait, and I loaded up and started the walk/bajaj (taxi) ride to the church. We had a bucket, a pitcher and some good smelling body wash from Bath and Body Works. Of course I forgot a towel, but no matter. We walked into the beautiful new church building to see our girls excited to see us; quite the blessing. We sit down, pray together, talk about our blessings from the day, then get started with the lesson.

I was shaking from being so nervous. I have taught these girls multiple times throughout the month, teaching them was not the problem. We read the Scripture; the girls said they had heard it before. I asked them if it would be okay if Kait and I served them by washing their feet.

Silence.

I reminded them of Peter’s reaction. I told them the disciples feet were probably way dirtier than their feet. I told them it would bless Kait and me if they would allow us to serve them in that way. I asked again, “Would it be okay if we washed your feet?”

Finally one girl responded. She timidly nodded her head and whispered, “Yes.” Excitedly I said, “Yes?!” A few more of the girls nodded and smiled. I asked for a volunteer to go first. No one volunteered. Doretha suggested the girl who had shown great leadership qualities. I said, “Adamay! You can go first!” She got up, came over, took off her shoes, and put her feet in the cold water. Kait and I washed her feet. We finished, and the next girl came. Then the next, and the next, and the next. None of our girls rejected the invitation.

We finished and Kait sat down. Doretha came over and we started washing Kait’s feet. We were almost finished when all of our girls got up and walked over to us. They said, “Kayla. Ta’e.” Which means, “Kayla. Sit down.” So I sat on the bench. They washed my feet. Then Kait’s. Then Doretha’s.

God was definitely moving. Moving in a bigger way than I could ever have imagined. They even dried our feet with their skirts.

After we were all finished we sat down together again and I asked them what they thought and felt about that teaching. Their responses left me speechless.

“I am blessed.”

“No one has ever done this before.”

“I have never seen this kind of humbleness in the church before.”

“I will never forget this.”

“We will always remember this, and do it with others.”

God doesn’t just answer prayer. He goes beyond what you are asking. When you obey Him, He will bless you immensely. Praise God for His faithfulness, His wisdom, and His love. This day will be a day I won’t forget (unless I suffer from memory loss). But in all seriousness, my faith in God just went one step deeper. I have never loved the Lord more. He is good. He is faithful. His love endures forever. 

*All praise goes to God. I was just doing what I was told! He worked through me, and opened the girls hearts and minds. Without His work, this would have been a disaster.

Abigail's Wisdom

Here is something I taught at our Ladies Bible study. It was written for the intent of being translated from English to Oromo verbally. 

Do you ever think you are too unimportant to do something important?

This is the story of Abigail. Abigail was not a queen; she did not have an important career. But she loved the Lord, and she had wisdom. This is her story:

Abigail was married to a man named Nabal. Nabal means ‘fool’, and he was a fool. He was also very wealthy. He had a thousand goats and three thousand sheep, which he was shearing at Carmel.

A man named David was in the desert at Carmel as well. David and about 600 men were camping around Nabal’s goats and sheep, but they never stole from him and they never treated his shepherds badly. David was told Nabal was at Carmel, so he sent ten men to go greet Nabal. They asked Nabal to feed David and his men. Nabal was very wealthy so he could afford to do it. But Nabal was known to be rude and mean in his dealings. He rudely refused to feed David and his men. When the ten men told David what happened, he became angry because they had been protecting Nabel’s flocks. David told his men, “Put on your swords!” They were going to kill every male in his family.

We can read what happened next: read 1 Samuel 25: 14-17. It says: 

  "One of the servants told Abigail, Nabal’s wife, “David sent messengers from the wilderness to give our master his greetings, but he hurled insults at them. Yet these men were very good to us. They did not mistreat us, and the whole time we were out in the fields near them nothing was missing. Night and day they were a wall around us the whole time we were herding our sheep near them. Now think it over and see what you can do, because disaster is hanging over our master and his whole household. He is such a wicked man that no one can talk to him.”

Immediately Abigail took two hundred loaves of bread, two skins of wine, five dressed sheep, 37 liters of roasted grain, a hundred cakes of raisins and two hundred cakes of pressed figs, and loaded them on donkeys. She did not tell her husband what she was doing. As she rode her donkey into the ravine, she met David and 400 of his men coming off the mountain. We can read what happened in 1 Samuel 25:21-25.

 Abigail was very wise with her words. She knew that if David killed Nabal and the men in her family, he would no longer be righteous. Not only was she protecting her family, but also the soon to be king and ancestor of Jesus. Abigail continued talking to David in verses 26-31. It says:

 "And now, my lord, as surely as the Lord your God lives and as you live, since the Lord has kept you from bloodshed and from avenging yourself with your own hands, may your enemies and all who are intent on harming my lord be like Nabal. And let this gift, which your servant has brought to my lord, be given to the men who follow you. “Please forgive your servant’s presumption. The Lord your God will certainly make a lasting dynasty for my lord, because you fight the Lord’s battles, and no wrongdoing will be found in you as long as you live. Even though someone is pursuing you to take your life, the life of my lord will be bound securely in the bundle of the living by the Lord your God, but the lives of your enemies he will hurl away as from the pocket of a sling. When the Lord has fulfilled for my lord every good thing he promised concerning him and has appointed him ruler over Israel, my lord will not have on his conscience the staggering burden of needless bloodshed or of having avenged himself. And when the Lord your God has brought my lord success, remember your servant.”

David’s response is in the next few verses. Read verses 32-35: "David said to Abigail, “Praise be to the Lord, the God of Israel, who has sent you today to meet me. May you be blessed for your good judgment and for keeping me from bloodshed this day and from avenging myself with my own hands. Otherwise, as surely as the Lord, the God of Israel, lives, who has kept me from harming you, if you had not come quickly to meet me, not one male belonging to Nabal would have been left alive by daybreak.” Then David accepted from her hand what she had brought him and said, “Go home in peace. I have heard your words and granted your request.”

David listened to Abigail because of her wisdom. He was very thankful for the wisdom of Abigail.

Abigail returned home to Nabal having a huge party, and he was very drunk. Being wise, Abigail waited to tell Nabal of what happened until he was sober. In the morning, when he was sober, Abigail told him how she saved his life, and the lives of every male in their family because of his foolish ways. Then his heart failed him and became like stone. About ten days later, the Lord struck Nabal and he died.

When David heard Nabal died he asked Abigail to marry him. And so she did.

Even though she was not a queen or someone important she played a very important role. We see great wisdom in her story. It is important to have wisdom.

Can you think of a time when you made a wise decision? How often do you seek wisdom from loved ones, the Bible, from the Lord?

Scripture is filled with gaining wisdom. All kinds of different people had wisdom. Many people strove for wisdom. People today strive for wisdom. Wisdom is not always easy to gain, but so important to have. Proverbs continually teaches on how important it is to gain wisdom. Here are two passages on wisdom from Proverbs:

Proverbs 8:17-21 (Wisdom is speaking)

   "I love those who love me, and those who seek me find me. With me are riches and honor, enduring wealth and prosperity. My fruit is better than fine gold; what I yield surpasses choice silver. I walk in the way of righteousness, along the paths of justice, bestowing a rich inheritance on those who love me and making their treasuries full." 

Proverbs 8:32-36 (Wisdom is still speaking)

“Now then, my children, listen to me; blessed are those who keep my ways. Listen to my instruction and be wise; do not disregard it. Blessed are those who listen to me, watching daily at my doors, waiting at my doorway. For those who find me find life and receive favor from the Lord. But those who fail to find me harm themselves; all who hate me love death.”

As situations arise, it is important to seek wisdom. Ask God to fill you with his wisdom. Constantly seek to find wisdom; you will find it when you seek wisdom in the Lord. 

Blessings.

Language Learning

Akum oltay!

The language I am learning is Oromo. Like Spanish, they switch their sentence structure. Unlike Spanish, I am unfamiliar with certain sounds the language makes.

I have been having a blast learning a new language. We have hour long lessons every morning, Monday-Friday. At least 5 minutes of this time is used for laughing, unintentionally. Sometimes you just really mess up what you are trying to say. Here's an example:

We were learning how to invite someone over for tea. I said: "Would you like to come over to drink my house?" The kicker is this: I was talking in English, not Oromo.

Let me tell you, learning a new language is something else. You forget how to speak your own language. And it can be quite hilarious.

Here are some words, spelled how they sound, that I have learned and can think of right now (and I think they are right, buuut....you know, I could be wrong):

Akum oltay: greeting for after noon
akum bultay: greeting for before noon
akum oltan: greeting an older person, or multiple people for after noon
akum bultan: greeting an older person, or multiple for before noon
akakayou: grandpa
ako: grandma
hida dhu: mother
abuh: father
inteluh: daugher
mucha: baby
ray tea: goat
coh fee ya: hat
con colata: car
con colata fay um sa: truck
boyay: pig
kay-lo: yellow
cho co leesa: blue
gurracha: black
deema: red
magadisa: green

Okay, that's enough. I know a lot more than that! And!! I can follow a few commands, like stand up, sit down, put the red marker on/under/beside the table. Oh ya, we are learning a lot of Oromo.

Pray that we all continue to learn at a great pace. Pray that we are accurate, patient, and continue to find the joy in our mistakes. Finally, pray that our language tutor, Kalbessa, sees Jesus in each of us (Kait, the family, and I) and we are an encouragement to him in his faith.

Nagan olee! (Good bye for after noon to multiple people, I think.) :) 

Week 1: Complete (Holla!)

Week 1: Complete

What happened in the last week:
-I arrived in Ethiopia.
-My bags did not (of course). :)
-Then they did.
-4th of July, which Ethiopians do not celebrate. (It's an American holiday...July 4th, 1776 we declared our independence. No one else really has a reason to celebrate that.) We had a party with some American friends. Jen made an American flag cake. We put it on top of a British flag. Hahaha. The girls and Kait made a couple of signs. We lit off a firework (yes, just one). And we each got a sparkler.
-Kait and I traveled the 300-ish kilometers to Nekempte, which is where we are now.
-Since it was the weekend when we got here we were able to have a lot of bonding time with our host family. The parents are Steve and Doretha, the kids are Caeden, Reaghan, Andwynne, and Rowan. I probably spelled all of the kids' names wrong except Caeden. Because he is my student. :)
-We started language school. The language we are learning is Oromo.
-I started teaching Caeden. He is in first grade. And it's a blast.
-Kait and I started a college-aged Bible study for ladies only. It's called Girls Time. And it is awesome. We have a translator!
-I was almost hit my a bjiaj (taxi) today. I didn't hear him coming from behind, so it was probably my fault.
-I have had lots of yummy food.
-I accidentally handed something to a native using my left hand, which is bad, bad, bad. You are supposed to use your right hand. Always. But I forgot twice. Oopsi! I apologized in English. And then laughed. A lot. Because I did the wrong thing, then tried to apologize in a language they don't understand. Hahaha.

Contrary to popular though, I am not sun burned. It is actually mostly chilly here, because it is rainy season. I haven't eaten anything crazy. I haven't seen any crazy food. We have hot, running water (when the power is on). The power doesn't typically go out for days. But our first couple of days in Addis it did. Flashlights and candles are where it's at.

The people are (typically) pretty friendly, at least the people I have encountered. On our language route Kait and I stop at four (afur in Oromo) shops: OMG Business Center (a copy center), a stationary center, a vegetable stand, and a coffee/tea shop. Two of them can speak like 4 words of English, which means we get to figure out what words mean by repetition and actions. Sometimes it's a major fail and we do the whole smile and nod. But sometimes it is a success! Today Kait and I had a blast learning some different words with a couple of ladies and about 6 college-aged guys. They laughed at us a lot, but so did we. It was pretty fun. And the chai is awesome. Today I tried to tell a lady "gala tomee" (phonetically spelled) which is "thank you" in Oromo, but instead it came out "gracias". Yep. Not even the right language.

God is good. Actually, He's pretty great. It awesome to see the ministry that Steve and Doretha have here in Nekempte. Speaking of them, they are awesome. Their hearts of gold beat solely for the Lord. They are doing great things here. Apart from ministry, Doretha has one of the best laughs I have ever heard. The other night we were playing charades and Kait was acting like a bull and Doretha lost it. Hahaha. I am still laughing about it. Steve has one of the best senses of humor ever. Probably because mine is similar. I think he's hilarious. The kids are some of the most precious kids in the world. They each have their own personalities, and each make me laugh a lot. God has definitely blessed the Limiero family. They are very encouraging with my faith, as well. They pray together all the time; we pray together all the time. I am very, very blessed to be a part of this family.

That just skims the surface. Know that my time here has been awesome. Thank you for your prayers. Keep 'em comin'. Please pray for Steve and Doretha as well. Things to keep in prayer:

-Steve is doing a small group leader training
-Kait is teaching English to Oromo speaking students every day at 1:30-ish a.m. Montana time
-Steve, Kait, and I have a college Bible study/hang out time on Saturday's from 2-4 our time, so like 4-6 a.m. Montana time
-Kait and I have a Bible Study with a group of ladies ages 15-25 MWF from 4-6 our time, so 6-8 Montana time
-Doretha stays home with 4 kids and manages the house. She does a wicked awesome job at it. So praise for her hard work, and prayer for continued joy and energy.
-For all of us to be effective in our communications and relationships with the Ethiopian people
-For our language teacher, Kalbessa. He has been a great teacher so far!!

This is long enough! Hope you have enjoyed getting to see what I'm doing now!! If you  have any questions or comments, feel free to leave a comment. I'd love to hear what you have to say!!

Chow!

*Disclaimer: if anything is spelled wrong or sounds funny, I blame the jet lag and learning a new language. :)