Salam, just wanted to catch you up on how things are going in Addis.

After spending a day (me) or two (Tanya) sick, the team is back in action.  It’s amazing to see how God works through even things like illness.  It allowed some of us to spend more time together just talking, which in turn helped the team break down walls and share very personal parts of our lives.

Yesterday, we spent some time with the Beza staff, and I had the chance to share Andy Stanley’s message from Catalyst about controlling our appetites and preserving the things we hold most dear.  It was good for the team to be able to meet the folks from our sister church and for me to be able to reconnect with people I had met previously.  People like Pastor Z are beginning to feel like old friends.

While others were souvenir shopping in the afternoon, I spent some time walking through a neighborhood where I was the only ferengi.  I was supposedly helping an elderly gentleman buy some medicine, but the pharmacy was "just ahead" one too many times, so I left and rejoined the group.

We also visited home care groups (Beza’s small groups) last night, which is always a cool experience.  Unfortunately, I had stayed up half the night before preparing my talk, and I could hardly stay awake.  I felt myself starting to fall over during the opening prayer, and realized I was falling asleep standing up!

Today we visited Hope for Ethiopia, an organization that works with people who have been enslaved: street kids, firewood gatherers, and prostitutes.  Among other things, they help provide people with fair employment, so it was cool to be able to pick up some of their wares as souvenirs and support a great cause.

In the afternoon, the team finally got the chance to visit the Entoto Project and hear a better explanation of what Entoto (the project and the mountain) is all about.  It was amazing to hear how God had blessed them in the year and a half since I had been there.  Their ministry has expanded dramatically.  They’re now employing around 100 women and are exporting their jewelry to a few American companies, including 10,000 Villages.  They’re also paying for tuition and supplies for 40 kids to go to school.

One of their big needs/prayer requests was for a coffee roaster which would allow them to purchase unroasted coffee beans directly from a farmer, ensuring the farmer is paid fairly for his crop and saving them money.  They would need about $3k-4k to buy one.

Sometimes God answers pretty immediately.  A few minutes after they told us about it and we were thinking of some ways we could raise the funds, Tanya agreed to buy it for them, which was amazing.  The Entoto staff weren’t quite sure how to process that!  Tanya is one of two people who God had told me were supposed to be on this trip, and the only one of those two who actually went.  I think this might be one of the reasons (and yes, there are definitely others).

That pretty much brings you up to date.  It was an exciting end to the afternoon!  Tomorrow we head out to Debrazet to get the Change boys out of the city for a little while.  We’re staying at a place with some canoes, sports, etc.  I think it’s a summer-camp style thing.  Should be a great time.

This will probably be my last update at least until Saturday.  I don’t think I’ll be able to get online again before we head to the airport, which I believe (and hope) has wifi.

Today seems like it lasted almost as long as yesterday. We started the day with some delicious oatmeal before heading to church services at Beza. Pastor Zeb preached about the tongue, telling us that it is a rudder that controls the direction of our lives, that when combined with faith, the words we speak are powerful and truly determine our course.

In the afternoon we met with some folks from Youth Impact, an organization that serves orphans and street boys.  We had a great opportunity to hear both from the leaders of the organization as well as some of the people it serves.

Afterwards we had our first opportunity to visit the Change house where Adam, some of his team, and the street boys that they serve are living.  We had gotten the chance to interact with the boys a bit previously, but this was our first opportunity to really begin to engage them in a significant way.  It was a great time of dancing, horseplay, and more importantly, relationship building

At dinner we had the opportunity to hear from Adam about some of the challenges he’s facing, and at night we debriefed and strategized about some ways that we can use the skills God has given us to support Change Ministry.

I apologize for the brevity and lack of insightfulness.  The day is pretty busy around here.  There’s not as much time or energy to write as I would like.

(Written at the end of the day on October 31, 2010.)

It’s the end of a very long day.  This morning, really yesterday morning, we left DC for a 15 hour plane ride, winding up in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia around 9 AM the next day.  Most of us were only able to grab an hour or two of sleep on the plane, and we had a full day in front of us.

After the team got the chance to meet Adam, Camden, Pastor Z, Pastor Sale, and some others on the Change Ministry team, we got some preparatory info from Adam and unpacked before heading to lunch and then up Entoto mountain to meet the Change Ministry boys and the Entoto kids.

Shortly after we arrived in Addis, I encouraged the team to spend the first couple of days observing, to really notice their surroundings.  We spent the debrief tonight dicussing what the team noticed.  Here are some of the things the team picked up on:

• There’s a one for all and all for one mentality among Ethiopians.
• The kids we met had a vibrant, excited attitude in spite of their circumstances, many of whom lacked a meaningful family.
• The kids competed just to hold your hand.
• The Change boys don’t know a world other than street life.
• Some buildings are in such bad shape that it’s hard to tell if they’re being built or being torn down.
• Ethiopian men were frisked when entering the bank, while women and a white man weren’t.
• The Entoto kids are a lot like inner-city American kids.
• There are a lot of government-related problems in Ethiopia.

(This post was written around 10 PM Addis time on Saturday, October 30, but wasn’t published until later due to a lack of Internet access.)

Sunday began with church at Beza. It was a great experience. At NCC we hear a lot about Beza, and I’ve had the opportunity to hear Pastor Zeb (Beza’s head pastor) speak before. So it was great to be able to actually experience a Beza worship service.

Pastor Sale spoke on “Go.” It was a great message about how we need to just go, to go do what God is telling us to do or to take a step forward in faith, trusting God to meet us on the way.

After service we went to lunch. On the way there a guy came up to the van and wanted me to buy a pair of sunglasses. This type of street vending is very common in Addis Ababa. Usually people aren’t selling something I want, but I knew I’d appreciate having sungalsses while in Addis. The guy asked 75 birr. (A bit more than $7, the exchange rate is around 11 to 1). We haggled over the price and settled on 40 or 50 birr, at which point I realized that I only had 29 birr on me. I figured I was out of luck, but he was happy to sell them to me for 29. I think this made me the first person to haggle for something on the trip. (Well, not including John who had already been here for over two weeks.)

At lunch Rachel and I sat with Melissa and Anna, the Beza staffer who coordinated and led our trip. Afterwards half of the team went to the pool and the other half went to the Ethnological Museum. I headed to the museum which was located in the former palace of former king Haile Selassie. It was a good opportunity to learn a bit more about the history and culture of Ethiopia.

After that we went to the Shiro Meda market, which we we had driven through the day before. It’s an interesting place. Tamara, one of the Entoto Project staffers, was with us and helped us bargain for better prices, but the best find of the day was the Ethiopian coffee pots. I don’t think we even had to haggle over the price. They offered them to us for 10 birr (less than a dollar). Coffee is a staple of Ethiopia, and even those who are very poor have a coffee pot and small stove to prepare coffee, so a pot makes for an authentic souvenir.

The group split up a bit going through the market, leaving me on my own, which is pretty much how I like it in situations like that. I walked down a few shops and saw a belt that I was interested in. Once again, the guy started the price at 75 birr. I said 25. I don’t remember what his “final” price was, but I walked away from it. He called me back and agreed to give me the belt for 40, but when I gave him a 50, he gave me back five ones. I had walked away again by the time I realized it, so I went back to the shop to get five more. He was reluctant, but after some arguing I got my five birr. As I walked away, one of the guys standing around said “Good” to me. I was pretty pround of myself. My second day in Ethiopia on my first trip out of the U.S., and I was already haggling like a pro!

After shopping was dinner at Yod Abyssinia. Yod serves traditional Ethiopian food and has live music and dancing in the traditional Ethiopian style to entertain you while you eat. There’s a good story here, but it’s better accompanied by video, so I’ll leave that for another time…

I know what you’re thinking. This doesn’t sound like much of a mission trip, but let me assure you, the real work began on Monday morning, although for me that meant more shopping. (More on that in my next post.)