Ethiopia: The Adventure

 What to share about Ethiopia? So many things have taken place in these past two months, so many experiences, so many impressions, so many lessons about life. It is strange to be back in Norway where no one is asking me for money constantly, I can walk alone, the language is familiar (almost), the electricity and water are constant, and most of all, I live with forty other people again instead of just seven. 
 First of all, I think I'll tell you about my team. I went to Ethiopia with seven Norwegians and I learned more about Norwegians in those two months than I have for the other seven months I've been here. First of all there are Annelisa and Ragnhild. Annelisa is always organized and Ragnhild, who I also went to Scotland with, has a great sense of humor. Kristin, a girl who is passionate about God and Rebekka who is full of life, were my fellow girls on the team. Then there were the guys. I have to say, we had really amazing guys on the team. They were all servant-hearted and very protective, staring daggers at any man who dared to stare longer than two seconds at us. There was Martin the funny man, Fredrik the preacher, and Eirik the evangelist. It was a great team. 


Top Row, Left to Right: Ragnhild, Annelisa, Kristin, Me, Rebekka
Bottom Row, Left to Right: Eirik, Martin, and Fredrik

 If there was a theme to our ministry in Ethiopia, it would be preaching. We preached the gospel to street children and taught school children about God's strength in the capital Addis Ababa. Then we went out into the countryside, having two small conferences in total and then teaching for a week in the city of Kuyu to evangelists and pastors (that was a little intimidating). Finally, we spent four weeks in a city called Kofele, which is mostly populated by people who practice Islam, where we encouraged the Christians in and around Kofele.


Fredrik preaching to street boys



Drama for school children in Addis Ababa



Teaching pastors and evangelists in Kuyuu



Preaching in a mud hut church



Teaching in Kofele

And of course, we did a lot of this too...


waiting

Highlights: 
1. Meeting the beautiful people of Ethiopia 





  
2. Seeing God transform and heal people: both inside and outside 
3. Taking the challenge of both preaching and teaching
4. Drinking the wonderful coffee

5. Having a team full of unity
6. Spending time with missionaries and learning more about missionary life
7. Seeing churches encouraged which are in difficult areas for Christians
8. Meeting street boys that have been transformed into princes 

 There are many, many stories from Ethiopia that I could tell, but I am trying to think of a story that sums up what we did in Ethiopia or better yet, what was done through us in Ethiopia. The truth is, there isn't one. For me personally, the best moment was being able to hug an old beggar woman in Addis Ababa. Her blind eyes were not healed, but I was still able to be Jesus' hands and feet at that moment. I think that God works many times in small ways through us that we may never personally see the fruit of, but the point isn't that we see instantaneous results as much as it is walking out in trusting God and that He is good. That was Ethiopia.