It has been crazy busy here in Addis Ababa Ethiopia. We are very happy with our home. It has great potential. It has been freshly painted and awaits our arrival. At the present moment we have no water so we can’t quite live there. Here in the city the government turns the water on and off at random moments; at which you have no idea when yours will be working. The people who live across the road may have access to water daily while others may only have it for one day a week. They sale tanks here in which you fill up while the water is on, in hopes that it will last you all week. We will use our pump and tank that we purchased last summer when we ran into the same issue. A bigger tank=more water to last through the week.
In 2 days and a 13 hour span we have finally purchased some items for our home. The 2nd day we were here we spent 7 hours riding around looking for furniture. We actually saw exactly what we didn’t want. The next day we rode around for 6 more hours and actually purchased our living room furniture, refrigerator, and our bed. The furniture was delivered yesterday. We were all smiles seeing that our hard work had paid off. We actually had furniture in our house. We still need to purchase the kids beds, home school furniture and some dressers but we are getting closer and closer. We can’t wait to be living in our home.
With the craziness of moving our family to Ethiopia today we are being forced to rest. I am 1 month or so pregnant and I have been bleeding for 2 days. I also have a sinus infection. So today we are taking the entire day to rest. Even GOD on the 7th day rested from everything! As we serve our FATHER ALL-OUT here in Addis Ababa Ethiopia we must remember to rest. The kids are doing great. They have adapted very well. Trent is officially driving and doing a great job. If you have never been to Addis the driving is a bit unique to say the least.
We had a couple of first that we would love to share with you. The first time we saw Abdul we parked the car and ran over to him and continuously hugged his precious neck. Abdul is a friend of ours from last summer. Abdul was born with a disfigured face, he was abandoned at birth b/c of this. He grew up thinking that his grandmother was his mom. Well his grandmother died and he came to the city realizing that his mom, dad and siblings were here. He had been lied to his whole life about who he was. His father soon dies to TB and mom is left with 6 children. Abdul was still shunned from his family b/c of the way he looked. He had to work and shine shoes while the rest of his siblings were able to go to school. From the moment I saw his precious face GOD put something in my heart to love on him like crazy. I decided one day to get in his world for a minute so that I could get to know him. I sat down and got my boots shined from him. From that moment on we began to love on Abdul and he became a part of our family. Abdul was a Muslim boy who we were able to tell about JESUS. The past year he has been sponsored by a teenage boy in America for 40.00 so that he can go to school, get a hearing aid, have clean clothes and help his family with rent or food. Abdul is in top of his class and has so much hope now. YOU TOO can make a difference. We have many children that need this opportunity.
The first time we saw Belay we ran to him and hugged him and hugged him some more. This boy has the most contagious smile ever. Belay showed up at our door last summer and wanted some shoes. We told him that everyone in Ethiopia needs a pair of shoes and that we wanted to get to know him. We began to build this relationship with him and were able to share Jesus with him. He was kicked out of his aunts home because of this. Last summer we had friends that came over to adopt 2 children from Ethiopia. They own Run For Your Life. They brought him new shoes, socks, shorts and watch. Everything that he would need to be a great runner. Since then he has completed 11th grade and wants to pursue running ALL-OUT. He is in training now. In a year or 2 he wants to try out for the Olympics. Again I say YOU TOO can make a difference in the life of one!
