A Wedding to Remember

The girl in me loves going to weddings!  There is something that is so beautiful about watching two people commit their lives to one another in marriage before God and the people they love most.  I love weddings even more when I know how the couple got to the point of marriage.  It’s beautiful to watch God’s faithfulness played out on the day they decide to start their lives together as man and wife.

This past weekend, I was honored with the opportunity to be a part of a wedding I will never forget.  I got to watch as my sweet friend Lidya pledged her love and committed to a life of faithfulness to Steve, the man she has waited to know for many years. 

When I came to Ethiopia, Lidya was one of the first people God placed in my life.  She is my teaching assistant in the grade one classroom, and we became close friends quickly.  She is one of those people that you just know God has placed in your life for a reason.   Since knowing her, she has done nothing but encourage and inspire me.  She has spurred on my faith and been a listening ear anytime I need her. 

It was a blessing to watch Steve and Lidya’s love story unfold over the past several months.  It’s the type of story that brings glory to God.  You can’t help but acknowledge that God had His hand in every part of their story.

When Lidya asked me to be a bridesmaid in her wedding, I was truly blessed!  It was obvious that I would have been there to celebrate with her on that special day, but to get to play a key role in the wedding was an honor.  This day was unlike any other I’ve ever experienced.  I want to try to paint a picture of its beauty, but I know that my words cannot do it justice!  However, this is my attempt at trying.

The wedding was unique because it was filled with Ethiopian, American, and Jewish wedding traditions.  My experiences with weddings come from the limited background of how an American wedding is orchestrated.  But this wedding was very different than an American wedding.  With the exception of the bridal shower and bachelorette party, the majority of the bridal party clothing, wedding vows and kiss at the end, nothing else seemed to resemble any wedding I’d been to in the States.

I knew from the moment I entered Lidya’s house the morning of the wedding, that I was going to be experiencing many new things!  The day started at the bride’s house where Lidya was participating in a mega photo shoot with numerous photographers catching her actions at many different angles.  She was dancing and laughing around her house.  Her beauty was magnified by the look of sheer happiness on her face.  It truly was a sight to see!

We, the bride’s meezays (bridesmaids) joined her shortly after her private photo shoot.  We were instructed to dance with the bride around the house.  The bridesmaids were made up of two Ethiopian friends, Konjit and Eden, another American (Lisa), and myself.  Dancing in general is out of my comfort zone, but Ethiopian traditional dancing is really out of my comfort zone!  Thankfully Konjit and Eden were there to teach us what to do with the traditional dancing, to translate for us, and to guide us through the whole process. 

After our photo shoot session, the groom and his meezays (groomsmen) arrived to the bride’s house.  The groom, who is American, entered the home to fulfill some of the traditional expectations.  He entered the house, offered her a bouquet of flowers, lifted her veil and kissed her on the forehead. She then presented him with his boutonniere.  The photographers documented this and continued to take pictures of the whole bridal party.  We were then escorted out onto the front porch of Lidya’s home for a ceremony.  The bridal party sat on the porch in throne-like chairs facing the audience of close friends and relatives.  There was worship music playing and then someone gave a quick sermon (in Amharic).  Then we all ate together. 

As I sat there next to Lidya, watching her, I couldn’t help but thank God for allowing me to be a part of this day.  I thought to myself, who would have thought a year ago I would have been a bridesmaid in my friend’s wedding in Ethiopia?  I felt blessed beyond measure.

After everyone ate, the bridal party made a quick departure so we could continue our photo shoot at the Sheraton Hotel.  Before we could leave her home, we had to bend down to kiss the knees of Lidya and Steve’s closest relatives to receive a blessing.  This is a sign of respect and it allows the family to give their blessing in taking the bride.  As you leaned down to kiss the knees, they would lift you up and give you their blessing and kiss you on each cheek to show their approval.  It truly was a humbling experience.

We had a quick photo shoot at the Sheraton, and because we were already behind on schedule, we started to head to the church.  We quickly went over the procedures and agenda for the ceremony, touched up our make-up, and got ready for the wedding.  It was time!

 The ceremony itself was unlike any ceremony I’ve experienced.  After the processional of the bridal party, we all sat down including the bride and groom.  The ceremony included a worship time in both Amharic and English with a choir, soloist and praise team.  Then the pastor spoke about a prophetic word and it’s symbolism for the bride and groom’s marriage.  Then vows were exchanged, the marriage certificate signed, and the groom also included the Jewish rituals of blessings being spoken in Hebrew while the bride and groom stood under a prayer shawl, and the breaking of a glass.  The ceremony was sealed with a kiss, and they left as man and wife.

I was touched by the ceremony.  The pastor’s words that were spoken to Lidya and Steve were encouraging, hopeful, and pertinent.  The hearts and faces of the worshippers both on stage and off were breathtaking.  There were many times where I caught myself looking at the bride and groom during the worship time and what I saw was joy!  They were both so joyful not only to get to marry one another, but to just worship and praise the One who got them both there.  I thought to myself, this is what a wedding should be about, worshipping to the Father!

The night ended with a dinner reception with some of her closest friends and relatives at a nice restaurant.  We all shared a meal together, and laughed about the events of the day.  There were many things about the day that we have to look back on and laugh about.  It was a day filled with joy, love, and laughter.  It was a beautiful beginning to a long and happy marriage, and it was a blessing to everyone who got to be a part of it!

It’s 2004….again!

“It’s a new year, it’s a new day, it’s a new life.”  These song lyrics come to my mind as I think about welcoming 2004 again.  Why might you ask may I be welcoming 2004?

Ethiopia uses a different calendar than the one we use in Western cultures.  They do acknowledge that the rest of the world is using a different calendar, and they use that when applicable.  However, within their own culture, they use the Ethiopian calendar.  The Ethiopic calendar has 13 months:  12 months with 30 days each and an additional month with 5-6 days depending on whether the year is a leap year or not.  There is also a 7 year difference between the year in Ethiopia and the current year. 

Last night, my friends and I celebrated New Year’s Eve with a group of Ethiopians.  We started the night eating injera, wats, vegetables, and yummy desserts!  Then after everyone finished eating, we went outside to sit around a bonfire, (or should I say dance around a bonfire).  There wasn’t much sitting aloud!

At first I was just an observer of the action going on around me.  I watched as grown men danced around a bonfire, singing praises to God.  They were joyful in their singing and dancing.  They all knew the words to the songs and danced around in circles.  They didn’t care what they looked like or how they sounded; they just offered up songs of thanks and praise.  Although I only recognized a few words here and there in the songs, it was truly a beautiful sight and sound.

Our Ethiopian friends wouldn’t let us sit for long.  They would come to us and make us sing with them.  If we didn’t know the words then they would at least make us dance.  It truly was a New Year’s Eve like no other.

There were a few moments during the night that I reflected on the past year.  I realized that it was the week after Ethiopian New Years that I heard about the opportunity to teach at Bingham.  This time last year, I would have never imagined that I would be celebrating a New Year’s Eve in Ethiopia in 2003!  I thought about the faithfulness of God and everything He has done for me during the past year.  I serve an amazing God, who has bigger plans for me than I have for myself.  Although living a surrendered life for Christ can be challenging at times, it’s worth every moment.

After making the connection of where God had brought me over the past year, I started thinking about the year 2004.  2004 was a monumental year for me!  On July 29, 2004, I made the decision to surrender my life to Christ.  Although I had been in church since the time I was in the womb, it wasn’t until the summer before my senior year of high school that I decided to fully commit; go all in.  It was on that night that I decided to give my broken heart to the Mighty Healer.  He changed my life on that night.  He got ahold of my heart, and I have never been the same!

New Year’s Day is always a representation of a new beginning; a chance to start over.  Not only do I get to start a New Year, but I get to relive the year 2004.  If someone asked me what I would do differently, the only thing I would say is surrender my life at the beginning instead of the middle.  It was the greatest decision of my life, and my only regret is that I didn’t do it sooner! 

He is able to do the same in anyone’s life.  All He needs is a willing heart.  Not someone with all of the right answers.  Not someone who knows exactly what it takes.  Not someone who has their life together, because I definitely did not.  He just needs someone to desire it, and He will take it from there.  Trust Him.  It will be the best decision you’ve ever made! 

Happy New Year!

First Days of School

Sorry it has been so long since I updated my blog.  I went home for 6 weeks during the rainy season, and that gave me a chance to update everyone in person.  J  Now I’ve been back in Ethiopia for 6 weeks, but things have been busy.  I’ve barely had enough time to relax between staff orientation, an online course I am taking for a Reading Endorsement Program, and the first few weeks of school with my new first grade class.

When school started 3 weeks ago, I could officially say I was an experienced first grade teacher (if you count 8 months experienced).  However, I had never started a new year with my own class.  There were many disadvantages to starting in the middle of a school year, but there was also one very BIG advantage.  The leg work of preparing the students for school/class procedures had already been done for me.  Last year’s class had already been in first grade for 8 weeks before I took over the class.  They were minor league first graders when I got ahold of them, thanks to the teacher that had them during first term.  This year’s class was a group of rookie first graders with a new coach: Coach Cawood and she runs her first grade team different then their previous kindergarten teachers.

All of my students have been in a school setting before, but first grade is a little different from kindergarten.  I have high expectations for my first grade students.  I have an idea of where I need them to be in order to be ready for second grade at the end of the year.  Because of this, I knew I had to start out the school year right.

Going into this school year, I was a bit nervous about how to start the class.  We were told in our college courses that we should not even smile until Christmas; the students should know in the beginning what your expectations are and that you mean business!  But not smiling at first graders until Christmas would be impossible!  The best part about teaching young students is their zeal for learning, life, and their humorous words and actions.  There is not a day that goes by that they don’t make me laugh.  (Sometimes I’m laughing in hindsight, but still laughing nonetheless.)

So I’ve decided that I will smile at them and laugh with them, but I still have to be firm and consistent.  These first few weeks have been challenging for me.  As I’ve spoken to other colleagues, they say that the beginning of the year is always like this; until students know your expectations and procedures, it will be frustrating to have to continually repeat yourself over and over again. 

Although I knew it would be like this in theory, this is the first time I’ve lived it!  I have a whole new group of little ones.  They are different than my first class.  They are unique and fun in their own ways, but I’ve got to learn their habits, needs, and personalities just like I did with last year’s class. 

There have been several times where I have caught myself remembering last year’s group of students.  When I think back to that class, it seems perfect (and of course it was not always that way in my mind).  I enjoyed them as a whole class.  We established a loving community with each other.  I respected them and they respected me.  There isn’t a day that has gone by since school started that I’ve not gotten numerous hugs from my now grown up second graders, and it makes me miss them terribly.

However, we have had a speaker visiting the school for our middle school and high school students’ spiritual emphasis week who said something that challenged me.  At the family worship night the other night he said something to the parents that stuck with me as a teacher.  He said that parents should become students of their children and figure out how they can uniquely encourage, discipline, and motivate each of their children. 

It made me realize that I too should become a student of my students.  I need to figure out a way to encourage, discipline, and motivate each one of them.  God has placed each and every one of these students in my life, and I have a huge responsibility.  I’m meant to teach them, love them, and disciple them to become followers of Christ.  My job is huge, and I will not take it lightly.

Although the beginning of the year has been challenging, it has also been rewarding.  I’ve learned a lot about myself and grown as a teacher.  I look forward to getting to know this class of students.  And mark my words, come June they will be professional first graders indeed!

Goodbyes

I believe one of the most painful parts of life, is having to say goodbye.  The hardest part about accomplishing a milestone like graduating college or changing jobs is saying goodbye.  The hardest part about ending a relationship or losing someone you love is the goodbye.  The hardest part about leaving America to come to Ethiopia was saying goodbye.  And there should be no surprise here, but the hardest part, so far, about teaching here at Bingham has been having to say goodbye.

We had a Gibsha today in which we honored and prayed for the staff that we will be saying goodbye to in a couple of weeks.  Bingham is a special place that encompasses a multicultural community.  We have staff and students from all over the world, working and sharing life together.  It is one of the most unique components of the school.  However, often times the staff and students are only at Bingham for a season before God calls them away to do something else.  And because they come from all different parts of the world, you realize that when it comes time for them to leave, you may very well never see them again.

People are often only put in your life for a season.  When that season ends, you grieve the loss of not only the season, but the people that shared the season with you.  Sometimes you don’t even realize the effect someone had on your life until you have to say goodbye to them. 

I want to dedicate this post to those who are leaving Bingham.  You truly will be missed, and Bingham will not be the same next year as it was this year.  However, I met you because you followed God’s call to Ethiopia, and for whatever reason He has called you to follow Him somewhere new.  I know He will be faithful to you!  I will end with my favorite monologue from The Prince and Me.  This is the speech the prince prepares for the people after he has been crowned king.  I’ve always been touched by the emotion and truth in these lines.  May you be blessed as well!

“Today, marks a proud but a bittersweet milestone for all of us, as we bear witness to both an end and a beginning.  And while we must continue on, we must also be grateful to have been blessed with someone who has so ably guided us to where we are today.  When there has been so much love and happiness for someone it is natural to be reluctant to close such a wonderful chapter in our lives.  For moving forward is rarely accomplished without considerable grief and sadness, and while our sorrow may be profound, the clouds will clear and the sun will shine on us again.  And in that warm, bright light, we will find ourselves facing a glorious future.  A future of exciting challenges and infinite possibility in which the horizon will stretch out before us rimed in the heavenly glow of the sunrise of our tomorrow.”

Hosanna House

I mentioned in my last blog that some other teachers and I teach English to 19 girls living in an orphanage here in Addis.  I want to tell you more about these girls that we have quickly come to love, and share what little I know about their stories.

Hosanna House is an orphanage that was started in 2005 in Addis Ababa to provide housing and education for orphaned girls who have lost their parents.  There are currently 19 girls living in the house, ranging in ages/grades from grade 3 to grade 11.  Although these girls have lost much in their short lives, they are full of life and joy.

The house was started by an Ethiopian woman named Tersit from Los Angeles.  Although she now lives in the United States, she makes frequent visits back to Ethiopia.  Several years ago on one of her visits to Ethiopia, she became aware of the number of children living on the streets without a hope of breaking free from the conditions of their lives.  She felt burdened to help these children, especially young girls who are often living on the streets with small children of their own to care for.   She looked for a house to rent to provide shelter for some girls, found some people to help care for the girls in Ethiopia during the time she has to be in Los Angeles, and opened a home.  She felt the burden from God, and feels to that He has and will continue to provide.

Her hope and vision for these girls is that they will have the opportunity to become educated and make a difference for other children orphaned like them.  She has taken these girls in, loved them, cared for them, and most importantly taught them about the love of God.  These girls love her like she was their own mother and even refer to her as their mom and the other girls as their sisters.  She too, thinks of these girls as her own children, and would do anything for them.

She would love more than anything for these girls to have the chance to go to university after high school.  This is a dream that she is working hard towards.

For a while she has been praying that God would provide someone to teach English to her girls.  Having the ability to speak English well would open up so many doors for these girls.  Although almost all students who go to a government Ethiopian school are taught English, students still do not have the ability to speak the language well.  The schools focus on the reading and writing of English more than the speaking of English.  Also, many of the schools have non-native English speakers teaching students that, too, do not know the language very well.

The other teachers and I just happened to be an answer to her prayers, and little did she know, this was an answer to my prayers as well.  As I mentioned in my last blog, I have desired to find a place to serve here in Ethiopia.  I had prayed for months for God to reveal where He wanted me to volunteer.  There are so many wonderful ministries that I could be involved in.  However, I had not felt led to commit my time to any of them until I met Tersit and heard about these girls and her vision for their future.

These girls have had a soft spot in my heart since I first met them.  All 19 of them greeted us with hugs and kisses upon meeting us.  It was evident that they respected us and were grateful for  our time to invest in their lives by teaching them English.

They were very shy to begin with and would rarely volunteer to speak up.  However, over the past few months, they have come out of their shell.  We focus on teaching them conversational English and we always try to keep our lessons fun and interactive.   We also teach them slang words each week.  Words they would not learn in school but that native speakers use a lot, or at least native speakers our age.  Phrases such as: “What’s up?”, “Wow! That’s so cool.”, “Bummer”.  No matter what though we try our hardest to get them speaking.  Sometimes we come up with games or simply bribe them with gum and stickers. 

While in college, I enjoyed all of my education courses.  However, the courses that I enjoyed the most were my courses that focused on teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL).  I never would have guessed how valuable that training would have been for me.  I can see how God’s hand has been on my life in so many areas, preparing me for the things He has in store for me.  I’m truly amazed at His faithfulness.

Please keep these girls in your prayers, and if you want more information about them or the Hosanna Foundation ministries let me know.

The Hole in Our Gospel

“Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.” James 1:27

I’ve recently been reading a book called The Hole in Our Gospel, written by the president of World Vision.  This book has been one of the most challenging, but affirming books I have read in a long time.

The “hole” in the gospel Richard Stearns is referring to, is the fact that we overlook the numerous passages in the Bible that command us to take care of the orphans, widows, and the oppressed.  In America, we tend to overlook it because it is not that visible.  You are not faced with true poverty.  However, living in Ethiopia, it is a reality that I see, and it burdens my heart.

I visited a ministry the other day that helps 85 girls in the city who have been affected by AIDS/HIV.  All of the girls that this ministry helps have either lost a parent or both parents to AIDS.  As I was reading the pamphlet that the ministry uses to inform people about their mission, I read that over 6 million children in Ethiopia are orphaned and something like 720, 000 of them are orphaned because of AIDS/HIV.

Over the past few months, my heart has been conflicted.  I want to somehow look after the orphans and widows, but what am I to do?  The need is so vast.  This book has echoed the cries of my heart, and attempted to answer some of the questions that are most dear to the surface of what I feel.  I’m not sure what God’s plan is for me to address these needs.  However, what I do know is that I’m willing.  I want to be sensitive to the Spirit, and I want to be obedient in everything He is calling me to do.

I can’t deny the fact that I am exactly where I am supposed to be for this time.  God called me to Ethiopia, and specifically Bingham Academy.  I plan to serve Him here faithfully until He leads me elsewhere.  Who knows how far the influence I have on my students will reach?  Only God knows. 

But He has also called me, through scripture, to look after the orphans and widows in their distress.  Since I have been here, I have prayerfully sought out God’s guidance on how I can serve people here in Ethiopia outside of my ministry at Bingham.  There are so many wonderful ministries to get involved in here in the city.  However, I was not being led in any direction until just a few months ago. 

God orchestrated an opportunity for some other teachers and me to teach English to 19 girls living in an orphanage who were at one time living in the streets of Addis.  Every Thursday, three other teachers and I go to teach them conversational English.  We truly enjoy it, and it feels good to use both my ESOL background and my talents as a teacher to invest in these girls lives.

At the core of my heart, I believe that God has created us all with gifts, talents, and passions.  To experience life to the fullest, I believe we are meant to use those gifts, talents, and passions to glorify God and serve others.  There are so many “good” things we could do to help others around us, but the initiatives that will have the most impact are those that are God appointed.  I encourage everyone to seek out how God would like to use you to care for those who are orphaned, widowed, oppressed or downtrodden.  What He has for you is going to be different than what He has for me; it will be something designed especially for you.

Unlived Life

I have to prepare a message for next week’s elementary chapel about the Easter story.  I’m not quite sure why, but speaking at chapel always seems to make me a little nervous.  I want to share something that will make a difference in the students’ lives, and that is a lot of pressure!  I have much admiration and respect for pastors, youth, and children’s ministers that do this on a weekly basis.

I feel as if the Easter story is the most important story anyone could ever tell.  It has the ability to be life changing for those who hear the message.  I’m overwhelmed because I don’t really know where to start, or how to tell this story.  So many of our students have heard this story many times, and I am not sure how to tell it in a new way.

As I pray, and think about what to say, and how to say it, one theme keeps coming to my heart and mind.  This theme is from a scene in a movie Tuck Everlasting; the movie is about a family who has discovered a spring of water that has the ability to give a person everlasting life.  The Tuck family drank from the spring without knowing its capability, and now they can never die.  A young girl meets the Tuck family and finds out about their secret.  She has to make a choice and decide if she would rather drink from the spring so she could live forever, or go on and live a normal human life and eventually die.  The father of the Tuck family in the movie takes the girl aside and explains to her that what the Tucks have, you can’t really call it living; they just are.  He goes on to tell her not to be afraid of dying, be afraid of the unlived life.

How many of us are afraid of death?  If we were honest, I think we could admit that it is a legitimate fear of everyone.  Christians have less to fear than others because of our heavenly eternity, but we still do not like to think of the finality of death.  Maybe we have made peace with the real possibility of our own deaths, but what about the possibility of the people we love most dying?

There are several valuable insights we can take from the movie Tuck Everlasting.  First of all, there is a spring of everlasting life available to all of us.  That spring is found in Jesus Christ, the savior of mankind.  John 3:16-17 says, “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whosoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.  For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.”  When God sent His Son into the world, He provided a way to save us from death and give us eternal life.

Another valuable insight is the idea of not being afraid of dying, but of the unlived life.  What does it mean to live an unlived life?  I think living an unlived life means, living a life that is outside of your destined purpose.  I’m not quite sure why this next particular image keeps coming to mind, but I have to share this somewhat humorous and disturbing parallel.

One of my grandfathers was a taxidermist, on the side of his other profession, when I was growing up.  For those of you who do not know what a taxidermist is, it is a person who prepares and preserves the skins of animals and stuffs them into a lifelike form (Dictionary definition).  When we would go to visit my grandfather, we would often go to his shop to see his newest projects.  That shop had to be one of the creepiest places for a little child to visit.  I was surrounded by numerous lifelike, dangerous animals.  There were bears, deer, wolves, etc. all standing in a lifelike pose looking at me.  Although these animals look like they are alive, they are certainly not, and they never will be again.  These animals once had a purpose much different than the one they have now.  They once used to wildly roam around this world; they all had their own part to play in the great “circle of life”.  However, now their purpose is much different, now are admired for their beauty and fierceness, but they are also very dead.

I believe that we all have a purpose in life, and our greatest purpose is to reflect the image of our Savior.  Jesus Christ conquered death so that we could have eternal life.  He took our blame so we could be made holy in the sight of God.  “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus.  God presented him as a sacrifice of atonement, through faith in his blood.” Romans 3:24-25

This is the reason that we as Christians celebrate Easter.  Jesus died to save us.  As I reflect on this truth, and think about the sacrifice Jesus made, I feel a burden to continue to seek out God’s purpose for my life; seek out how I can most reflect the image of Christ.  I don’t want to live a life admiration for my accomplishments like the stuffed animals, which is something I am often tempted of doing.  Why live a life of being admired by others for a few moments while they are in the room with your mounted figure, when instead you can live an adventurously wild life with Jesus Christ.  The former may satisfy your desire for admiration, but the latter will satisfy your soul!

To end my thoughts, I would like to encourage everyone to take a drink from Jesus’ spring of everlasting life.  Acknowledge His sacrifice and believe in His love.  Ask for His forgiveness, and live your life.  Don’t be afraid of dying, be afraid of living the unlived life!

When the Shocking Becomes Familiar

It’s funny how the things that were once shocking and unsettling can easily become familiar.  It’s kind of like when you walk into an area that has a strong smell that eventually becomes undetectable, or an idea that you once detested that one day becomes a welcoming thought.

 I’ve been here in Addis Ababa for six months now, and some of the things that were once the source of my culture shock, have become familiar and in some cases esteemed. 

I was initially overwhelmed with the amount of people that live in Addis, and the sights that I daily saw.  It was a city that was built for 400,000 and now 8 million people inhabit it.  When you drive along the streets of Addis, your sights are drawn to the many people who are walking about.  Not only are your eyes drawn to the multitudes of people, but you also see livestock everywhere.  There are often donkeys carrying heavy loads on their backs or a herd of goats or sheep being herded by their owners.  There are people carrying heavy loads, women with babies on their backs, and friends walking alongside one another holding hands.  You observe the sights and you realize that these people experience a life much different from the one you have come to know.  I now know that I have never known true hard work or labor.  However, they do not seem to be embittered by the reality of their lives.  In many cases they seem to be some of the most joyful and warmhearted people I know.

The Ethiopian people and their culture are unique and beautiful.   Many of their faces are filled with smiles, and they get so much pleasure from a welcomed smile or acknowledgement.  As a foreigner, you get many looks of curiosity.  People will often shout “foreinge” or “you, you, you” when they see us, but out of fascination not disdain.  If you speak back to them, their faces light up with smiles all the way up to their eyes.  When you respond in the same way by saying the equivalent “habisha” or “antes, antes, antes” they laugh in amusement!

Greetings are so important, and often very affectionate.  The people have a way of making you feel loved from the moment they see you and greet you.  Initially, I was uncomfortable with the greetings because I was never quite sure what to do.  Whenever I meet a woman in whom I am acquainted, I am greeted with usually 3 cheek to cheek embraces, sometimes more or less.  Whenever I meet a man I am acquainted with, I shake his hand and we touch shoulder to shoulder and embrace in a slight hug.  When meeting someone for the first time, usually you shake their hands, although sometimes if they are a close friend to your friend you might have a similar greeting as you would with an acquaintance.  When meeting someone, a person will often show you respect by extending their right hand, while placing their left hand in the crease of their elbow.  It seems that every gesture or greeting is important to the person and always warm.  I love the tenderness shown to one another, and my heart is still touched when a stranger shows their respect towards me.

At first glance, traditional habisha food did not look appetizing to my American eyes or palate.  I can remember my first experience with Ethiopian food.  There were these rolls of injera stacked up on a plate, with spoonful’s of lentils or colorful meat filled (what looked like) porridge splattered on an unrolled piece of injera.  I had made a silent request to God before ripping a piece of injera and pinching, with my fingers, a very small portion of food and putting it in my mouth.  I was immediately surprised by the taste of the food; it wasn’t as bad as I had imagined, but I couldn’t imagine ever choosing to eat it.  However, now I eat it about once a week, and I’ve come to enjoy it!

I have made reference to the driving in Addis before, and it was once very unsettling for me.  However, now as long as I know where I am going, I enjoy driving here.  People do things here that you only wish you could do in America.  For example, when there is a traffic jam on the interstate, the thought goes through your mind I’m sure, about getting over on the shoulder and passing up the traffic.  No one in their right mind would attempt that unless maybe for an emergency, but here it would not be out of the ordinary for someone to try it!  I laugh to myself when I see these things happen.  You will also be glad to know that I am learning to use my horn more frequently.  I’m still not using it like a local would, but I’m getting there. 

In America, I have become accustomed to many luxuries that aren’t a given in other countries.  For example, high speed internet, constant power, or running water.  Because there are so many people living in the city, some of these amenities have to be rationed.  I have resolved some of my frustration with the internet usage by buying a high speed mobile internet stick, but it is still not always consistent.  There are some days when I go to turn my light on to find that it won’t come on.  This has become so familiar that it doesn’t even faze me.  No running water is still hard to swallow, but not the end of the world.  Luckily, since I have been here, we have not gone more than a day or two without running water.  We have water set aside for these times, and you come to truly find out what you are made of.  I don’t find myself regretting my decision to move to a third world country during these times; if anything, it’s a blessing because I am reminded of what really does matter in life.  Sometimes there is no greater blessing than being humbled and reminded that God is all you need, and He will provide the rest!

I could go on about the realities of living in Ethiopia.  It’s a country that I have come to cherish, and it will always be dear to my heart.  I’ve learned so much about life, love, and the meaning of true joy.  I only hope everyone gets a chance to find their own Ethiopia: a place that touches your heart and causes you to never be the same!

Choices

Ghandi once said, “Whatever you do in life will be insignificant, but it is very important that you do it.”  I like that quote, but I don’t quite agree with it fully.  I do think that what you do is important, but I don’t think that it is insignificant. 

Every choice or decision you make has consequences; even the decision not to choose has its own consequences.  Often times those consequences have the power to change the trajectory of your life, or someone else’s life.  They have the power to heal or to wound; the ability to help or to hurt.  Your decision can often times seem scary or even impossible.  And many times the results of your choices are not black and white. 

I’ve learned that one of the realities of becoming an adult is that your decisions seem to get harder.  And it is impossible to make everyone happy.  Sometimes your decisions even cause conflict within yourself.  A part of you wants one thing, when the other part wants another.  Sometimes it is easy to identify the right choice, but it goes against your nature.  Other times you are stuck with two choices and both seem right, and you realize that either choice would be okay, but the outcomes will be two completely different realities.

The question then becomes, how do you make the right choice?  Proverbs has insight into this concept.  Proverbs 16:25 “There is a way that seems right to a man, but in the end it leads to death.”  Even when we think a choice seems right, it might be a choice that leads to death.  We see things through a human’s finite frame of reference.  However, God has an eternal perspective. 

The choices you make today might seem insignificant, but usually the greatest disasters or breakthroughs start from an insignificant choice.  For King David, the insignificant choice not to join his army in battle led to his moral downfall.  For Abram, his decision to believe God resulted in a nation in which the whole world would be blessed.

For me, choosing to believe God instead of what would be culturally accepted at times has been hard, but choosing to believe God has also been the decision that has resulted in the biggest breakthroughs in my life.   Whether God is asking me to choose to forgive someone who hurt me deeply, believe in someone I should have given up on, or leave everything I know to follow Him to the unknown, when I have chosen to believe Him, I’ve become a different version of myself.  Those decisions have not been easy, but they have all changed my life for the better. 

To continue with the pattern of giving my own opinion about popular quotes/songs, I will end with this.  Rascal Flats sing a song called My Wish and in that song they sing, “When you’re faced with a choice and you have to choose, I hope you choose the one that means the most to you.”  I hope instead you choose to, “Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make your paths straight.” Proverbs 3:5-6

What I Didn’t Learn in College

I honestly believe that I received a top-notch education from DSC.  The Early Childhood Education program did a wonderful job of preparing me for the profession of teaching.  However, there are some things that you just can’t learn from a college lecture.  These lessons have been some of the most challenging for my first year teaching.  The biggest one is how to handle the source of my students TEARS.  Tears are common in the grade one classroom.  I am pretty sure that a day does not go by without seeing drops of salty water stroll down at least one child’s face.

These tears are not a result of the teaching, or the content (at least at the grade one level, I hope).  The tears are a result of external factors which coincide with all of the other roles I have to play daily.  Teachers are truly more than just teachers; we are nurses, disciplinarians, counselors, among other things to multiple children.  These are the roles that I feel less adequately prepared for; these are the roles that I did not take a college course on.

Teacher as a nurse.  I can humbly say I would not have made a good nurse!  I cringe when I see a really bad cut; my stomach turns at the sight of blood.  However, I am exposed to bloody knees and cut hands on a weekly basis.  The only way to protect my students from injuries would be to place them in a plastic bubble - to have a class full of bubble boys and bubble girls.  It would be a funny sight, but no life for a child. 

My students also complain of headaches, stomach aches, and not feeling well often.  I know that some of these complaints are true, I have “rubbish” cans full of tissue paper to prove it.  However, I am not knowledgeable or experienced enough to always know when my students truly need to go home, or could push through the day.  The types of decisions I make in accordance with my students’ injuries and health are purely trial and error. 

When my students complain of a stomach ache, I tell them to go to the bathroom and as Comedian Tim Hawkins would say, “sit on the pot.”  When my students have a headache, I tell them to drink some water (knowing that most headaches are caused by dehydration), and then tell them to let me know if it is still hurting in an hour and I will send them to the office to get medicine.  When my students tell me they don’t feel good, I check to see if they have a fever, and if they feel hot, I send them to the office.  If not, I tell them to try to make it through the day.  When my students get injured I always try to take it seriously.  If the injury has not resulted in blood, I usually tell the student to go to the bathroom and “run it under cold water” (which surprisingly always seems to work) or if it is really bad, I send them to get ice.  If the injury does produce blood, then I put my nurse’s cap on and fix them up with a band aid and Neosporin.  I have to get over my discomfort with injuries and be confident and encouraging, and ensure my student that it will be alright.

Teacher as a disciplinarian.  My least favorite part of my job would be disciplining students.  I finally understand what my father meant when he said, “this hurts me more than it hurts you” before he gave us a spanking.  There are days, when it truly does hurt me to have to discipline a student; a student that I know is going to be crushed by my discipline.  There are some students that want to please you.  They work hard, they follow directions, and they are good examples for your other students.  However, those students are also human, and they make mistakes.  I have to make a hard decision when I choose to discipline those students for those rare mistakes.  I could choose to turn my head and pretend I did not see their misbehavior or let it slide because it is usually not like them.  However, I also miss a really important opportunity for helping to develop their character.  You do not help your students by not disciplining them, you actually hurt them.  Scripture says, “spare the rod, and spoil the child” and, “a father disciplines those that he loves.”  It is those statements that give me a peace about disciplining my students.  I do it because I love them, and I want them to become responsible!

Some of my students could care less about, “moving their star” and they have to move it on a weekly basis.  It has been so long since they have gotten anything from the “treasure box”, that it is an elusive concept.  These students are not bad, and I don’t love them any less.  They are just normal kids with short attention spans or have frequent lapses of misjudgment.  They are the students that keep your day interesting, humorous.  They are the students you will forever be telling stories about.  I wouldn’t trade them for anything.  The actual act of disciplining is not as hard for these students, but decisions about how to best discipline them can become challenging.  If you truly want your student to learn the lesson of, “there is a time and a place” for certain behaviors, then you have to consistently instruct them in that way.

Teacher as a counselor.  There was a time that I thought I wanted to be a counselor.  I thought I wanted to listen to people’s problems and help them find a solution.  I just never thought the problems I would be solving would be so….challenging.  For every bloody knee or woe over getting in trouble, I have two students whose tears are a result of hurt feelings.  My students are at such an impressionable age.  They are starting to build relationships with their classmates, and as we all know, relationships can be messy.  They realize that they get along better with some students than others, and they don’t always know how to include everyone or tactfully tell someone they want to play something else or with someone else.  Some students are friends with someone who is similar to them and this causes competition with one another, and sometimes the competition can become unruly.  Sometimes the way students say something to their classmate is hurtful or in an unpleasant tone. 

I daily have to play mediator between two students.  Sometimes I get two sides to a story, and I am not sure which one is true.  I have to make judgment calls between which incidents to take more seriously than others.  When I see a pattern in a student’s behavior, I have to try and figure out a way to correct that behavior pattern.  My heart breaks over seeing students treating one another unlovingly.  I feel burdened to figure out a way to teach them about Christ’s love, and how they can show it to one another, always.  Sometimes their “problems” and “disagreements” seem insignificant, but at this age it is truly shaping them.  It is affecting the type of people they will become, and my job as their teacher is to counsel them and help them find their way.

Teaching itself is not that hard, but when you combine it with all of the other roles teachers have to play, it is a challenge.  I think people often forget the significance of teachers.  

Teachers are much like farmers that plant a harvest of knowledge and prune and cultivate the characters of their students.  We have them for a year, and let them go for a lifetime.  In some cases, we will never know the fruit of our labor.  I had one student tell me the other day that he was going to be something better than a teacher - he was going to be a pastor.  I loved hearing that, and I hope he does become a pastor!  However, I hope he does not forget who teaches him the skills and knowledge he needs to become that pastor.  For those of you who are teachers, be encouraged your labor is not in vain, it will produce a harvest.  For anyone else, remember to acknowledge the role teachers have played in your life, and honor them by being great at what you do!

Joy vs. Happiness

God has recently been teaching me the difference between joy and happiness, and it is such a valuable lesson.  So many of us are pursuing happiness; it is what we long for.  We buy things we think will make us happy, or do things we think will make us happy, or pursue people we think will make us happy.  And sometimes these things or people do make us happy, but the happiness is short lived; happiness is fleeting.  It is subjective and always circumstantial.

When I think about the reality of happiness, I am reminded of the movie with Will Smith, The Pursuit of Happiness.  That movie is one of the most depressing movies I have ever watched.  The whole movie is about this man pursuing happiness.  Then at the end he identifies the moment of happiness, but that is what it is, only a moment.

Not only is happiness made up of moments, but it is also very rarely pure.  When I think of moments in which I was truly happy, it is always accompanied by other feelings and emotions.  My college graduation night was a happy night.  I had accomplished a goal, received recognition for my hard work, spent the evening with my loved ones, but it was also filled with bittersweet memories, and the reality that my life as an undergraduate student was over.  My first day in my classroom was a happy day, I finally had my own classroom with my own students, but I was also reminded of everything I left behind to pursue this dream.

During a typical day, I can be happy about one student’s success and then discouraged by another’s struggles.  I can be encouraged by one student’s character and disappointed by how another treated his classmate.  I can be happy about the success of one lesson and then mortified by the failure of another.  The days are often filled with a myriad of emotions just like these.  And that is how life will always be if we let our emotions control our thoughts and actions.

Joy is different; it is not an emotion.  It is a gift, a fruit of the spirit, given by God, and it is a reality that can define us no matter what our circumstances are.  It is in the “joy of the Lord in which we find out strength.” (Nehemiah 8:10) The joy of the Lord explains how someone fighting death can be at peace.  The joy of the Lord is the explanation for how Horation Spafford can write a song entitled “It is Well With My Soul” after losing his four daughters in the shipwreck of S.S. Ville du Havre.  It is only by the joy of the Lord that you could be going through something incredibly painful, but still have hope. 

What is God specifically teaching me about joy?  He is teaching me how to have joy in obedience, even when I don’t feel like obeying.  He is teaching me to have joy in waiting for the fulfillment of His promises.  He is stretching me, and teaching me how to overcome my obstacles with hope.    My favorite scripture about joy is found in John 15:10-11, “If you obey my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have obeyed my Father’s commands and remain in his love.  I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete.”  God only asks us to do hard things so that our joy may be complete and so that we can remain in His love; He is not holding out on us. 

Joy is a choice.  We can wake up every morning and decide to be filled with the joy of the Lord.  It is not a fleeting emotion, it is a constant reality.  It cannot be taken away, unless we allow someone or something to steal it.  Jesus put it there, and nothing can destroy it!

I taught my students, who love to sing, a song I learned in Sunday School as a kid.  It goes like this: “I’ve got joy down in my heart, deep, deep down in my heart, spell it J-O-Y down in my heart, deep, deep down in my heart.  Jesus put it there and nothing can destroy, stroy, stroy, huh! I’ve got joy down in my heart, deep, deep down in my heart.”

So take the joy challenge with me.  Wake up and decide that you are going be filled with the joy of the Lord.  Decide that you will trust that in obeying God, your joy will be complete.  And do what Paul commands the Thessalonians to do, “Be joyful always, pray continually; give thanks in ALL circumstances, for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.” 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18

Praise the Lord

Since I have been in Ethiopia, my former youth minister, Beth Evans, that I love very dearly and look up to, has been battling cancer.   I received news this past week that she is in remission.  PRAISE GOD!

Matt, our pastor, and Beth have been supportive of me for years.  They have played a big part in the discipleship of my Christian faith.  They encouraged me to pursue a mission opportunity in Australia and China when I was 19.  After coming home from my 6 month mission trip, they offered me an intern position at the church working with Beth in the youth ministry.  And from that internship I learned so much from them and their passion for God and church ministry. 

There are so many things that cause me to look up to Beth, but the one thing that I admire most is her faith and her commitment to the Lord.  As a young girl she committed her life in service to God, and she has never let that waiver.  She has such a beautiful heart.  She cares so much for the students in her student ministry and the members of Rock Bridge, and that was evident to them by the way the church rose up to pray for her and support her in her time of need.  Out of everything I have missed since being in Ethiopia, seeing the way the church cared for Matt and Beth is what I have hated to miss out on most.

However, they were two of my biggest cheerleaders when I told them about my opportunity to teach in Ethiopia.  They backed me 100% and shared in my joy of having the privilege to serve in Ethiopia, which is a special place to both of them as well.  They wanted me to be here, and I want to make them proud.

I think about her and pray for her often.  Prayer was the only thing I could do for her being across the world.  My friends and colleagues here in Addis have been praying for her and asking about her often as well.  There have been classes of students at the school praying for her daily.  There was rejoicing when I shared with the whole staff the news of her recovery.  Glory be to God!

I want to share however, the biggest lesson I learned through all of this.  I had been praying for her for a couple of months, and I am ashamed to say that my prayers were weak.  I was doing the ‘holy’ thing of praying Your will be done in this situation.  I prayed for God to get the glory no matter what happened.  There were times where the news seemed to look hopeless, but I still prayed Your will be done.  God revealed to me that He will get more glory from impossible circumstances, and that He did!  On the day that she received her bone marrow transplant, I was prodded by the Spirit to pray for her right then.  I started to pray my ‘Your will be done’ prayer when God reprimanded me.  I heard very clearly from God, “Why would it not be My will to heal her?”  It took me back, but I realized I had been wrong and my faith had been weak.  My prayers changed after that!

I was not surprised when I heard the news, but I was amazed at God’s faithfulness.  I’ve been praising God for how he worked in Beth’s life.  But I have also praised God in how He taught me to have greater faith, and that the tones of my prayers do matter!  I am interested to know how Beth’s faith and God’s miracle has affected others as well.  It is so like our God to take a situation of impossible circumstances and teach thousands of people about His grace and mercy.

Beth told me that she was encouraged by a verse she read on my Facebook page.  It is my favorite verse found in Romans 4:20-21 “Yet she did not waiver through unbelief regarding the promise of God, but was strengthened in her faith and gave glory to God, being fully persuaded that God had the power to do what He had promised.”  Although this scripture is referring to Abraham, I believe it is also true about Beth Evans!  She is a mighty woman of faith, and we can all learn something from her.

There are so many things I have experienced in Ethiopia that I wish I could share with her.  I can’t wait to see her when I come home, and tell her all about my adventures here.  But until then, I will praise God for the pivotal role she has played in my life and the miracles He has worked on her behalf!

Bingham Academy

I have been told since I started studying education that your first year of teaching will inevitably be your hardest.  People have advised me to just be prepared to work long hours, they have informed me that I will have more to do than I could ever possibly get done, and the most popular piece of advice is “just TRY to survive.”

After being thrown into the classroom mid-semester, there were times during the first 7 weeks of teaching that was purely survival.  My advisors were right!  My classroom management was not what I wanted it to be, some of my lessons stunk, and I had to complete a 2 page report on all of my students that I had only known for a month.  It was challenging to say the least, but I survived, and I have lived to tell my story!

However, at the end of the semester when I sat down to reflect, I thought to myself, ‘This isn’t so bad, if this is my hardest year, then I’ve definitely chosen the right profession.’  The reason I think that I have come to this conclusion is because of the school that I work for; it is an enjoyable, encouraging and supportive environment that has allowed me to grow and thrive as an educator.

Bingham Academy’s purpose statement is, “The purpose of Bingham Academy (BA) is to provide high quality, culturally sensitive education, within a Christian environment, which challenges each student to impact the world for God’s glory.”  Not only is it the teacher’s job to educate the students on reading, writing, and arithmetic, but we hold the responsibility of being a Christian example, and challenging their faith.  My favorite part of teaching at BA is this responsibility.  Teachers that teach in public schools still have the opportunity to be a Christian example, but you are limited in your pursuits of teaching about your faith.  Having the freedom to openly use Biblical principles in my classroom to discipline and teach is wonderful.  The staff starts every morning with a Bible study and prayer time; this time reminds us of our purpose and responsibility to God and our students.  The first period of school is reserved for Bible; all students whether they are in kindergarten to seniors in high school start their day with God’s word.

Another one of my favorite aspects of BA is that the school truly is international.  The faculty and staff are made up of a combination of Ethiopians, Americans, Canadians, Europeans, Australians, New Zealanders, and more.  The students are even more diverse.  My classroom dynamics are fascinating.  I only have 3 students in my class whose native language is English. Most of my students speak another language at home.  All of my students hold a passport from a  country other than Ethiopia.  They have visited places I have only dreamed about going.  My English as a Second Language training has truly been beneficial, and my learning of Amharic has given me insight into frustrations my students might be facing.

Along with these aspects of the school, I have freedom in my classroom.  I have expectations to follow the Cambridge International Standards and assessment requirements for all students, but I have complete creative control over how I want to teach the content.  There are no unrealistic expectations that I have to accomplish. I’m not burdened by the pressures of No Child Left Behind.  So in effect I am not overly stressed, and my students experience the benefits of a teacher who enjoys teaching.

Another positive aspect of teaching at Bingham is the schedule.  I have a total of 8 one hour planning periods a week.  Of course I do have a couple of meetings a week during those planning periods, but that is still a lot more than most schools allow at the elementary level.  Along with my 8 hours of planning, the whole school has a Morning Tea/Recess time from 10:20-10:45 (which has quickly become one of my favorite parts of the day).  The whole school also has a 45 minute time period for Lunch/Lunch Recess.  My first graders have 45 minutes of recess a day, and that makes for a happy Grade 1 teacher!  I truly am blessed with my schedule.  Because of my extra planning periods I am usually able to leave by 4:30 or 5:00 every day, during my first year of teaching! 

If all of this was not enough, I still have the benefit of a supportive administration.  During my first 6 weeks of teaching, my principal would come into my classroom every day to observe how things were going.  Although it does make my nervous, I appreciate his support.  He never comes in with the motive of catching me doing something wrong.  He is there to encourage and offer advice; advice that is greatly appreciated.  I also have a one-on-one with my principal every week.  During this time we talk about struggles I am having, concerns about my students, and ideas for teaching.  Along with this, we also have a meeting each Wednesday after school that usually includes a professional development topic.  The school also sets aside money every year for teachers to have professional development opportunities.  This could include training in another country or working on graduate degrees.  The school wants the teachers to leave here being even more prepared and knowledgeable than when they come.

Needless to say, I’ve been blessed in my first teaching position.  There are definitely struggles and challenges about teaching overseas, but when you are blessed with the opportunity to teach at a school like Bingham, those struggles are more bearable.  My main purpose in writing this entry is to give my readers a picture of what life is like teaching at an international school.  But it is also to encourage anyone who is thinking about teaching overseas.  You might not have the experience I have, but it will definitely be rewarding!