Living Sent, Ethiopia: Worth It.

Saturday, June 21st

 VBS, Ethiopia style. Perhaps the most fun, precious thing ever. But then again, I could say that about our flower ceremony. I would say it about the selfies these sweet, sweet children love to take, and the way they love to dance. I could say it about our visit with little Yikram and her mother and looking up to see her VBS craft hanging so proudly on the wall of her one-room house.

Living Sent, Ethiopia: Day One

 Friday, June 20th

 Well, now I have officially joined my heart on this beautiful African soil. Most of the day was spent viewing it from the window of a bus, but I am so so so glad to just be here. But there is an element of shock and heartbreak, as the contrast of poverty and beauty is overwhelming.  As is the contrast of the poverty from what I consider 'normal'. I wake up from sleeping in a king-sized bed in an air-conditioned room, load up my suitcase full of clean clothes, and get on a bus to ride in comfort. On the other hand people are trying to find a way into our bus, standing at the windows in tattered clothing, begging for money or food. Then there are business men walking out of their big, tall office buildings while just a couple blocks away a child sleeps soundly in an alley, using a plastic bag as a blanket.

Living Sent, Ethiopia: We're Back!

 We've been back on American soil for 24+ hours, but my head is still in Ethiopia time and I'm half-asleep right now. It was a 'welcome home', but also in a way, it's just a 'welcome back'. They say home is where the heart is, and my heart is just as much over there as it is here. I know that I'll be back in Awassa, in the Meserete Kristos Church, among those precious Compassion children. It may not be next year, but I'll be back. Those children captured my heart, and I'm hoping writing it all out will help me process this past week. I'm going to try to post once a day this week for each journal entry I wrote. So, here goes the first {short} one!

Living Sent: Ethiopia

 Oh my. It. is. here. In just a few hours I'll be on a plane heading to a country that already has my heart. And though I really should be sleeping, I'm writing. 'Cause that's how it always works... I'm going to try to blog as much as I can throughout the week, but whatever internet connection we might have will be very spotty to say the least, so I may just have to post them all when we get back. But I figured I might as well start now, because my heart is so full I don't think that I'm going to sleep much at all tonight. And hey, it's 9:00am in Ethiopia right now, so I'll be up this time tomorrow anyways. Haha.

I want to live my life sent out for Him, in my community and across the world. Ethiopia is just a step in the journey on which God has me. I want to demonstrate compassion to the people of Ethiopia, to break with, to walk with them. I pray I continue to chase His heart for the world as I follow Him to a beautiful country with precious people whom I am so ready to see face-to-face. I'm humbled and thankful to be His hands and feet, showing His love to a thousand generations.

A Promise Being Fulfilled from a Dream Unveiled

 Several posts have been started in the past few weeks that I have yet to finish. I'll get to them, I promise. But for now the blog break ends to share with you...

 Nine days. We're into the single-digit territory now. We're heading full-force into a time that is full of packing and planning and praying and shopping, a time of impatience and of trust, and of praying some more. Nine mere days until we are headed to a country that already has my heart.

 The past couple weeks especially have been a time of reflection and of hope for the future. There have been moments of fear, when the enormity of everything I cannot control overwhelms me. But Christ always, always steps in and replaces the fear with more of Him. I look back and see how perfectly He has orchestrated everything to bring me right exactly where I need to be.

 Back in December, I was absolutely positive God's plan included a week-long June mission trip to Costa Rica, a trip that would have me gone the same week my dad would be leading a trip to the opposite side of the earth- Ethiopia.

 But sometimes God's plan is quite different from our own.

What I Learned in April

 I'm a few days late on this... But I'm linking up today with Emily over at Chatting at the Sky for her monthly 'What We Learned' post; and as I didn't really take the time to write down what I learned throughout April, we'll see how this goes!

 one. Reading Emily's list, I realized the acronym for my blog is SAD. Literally. Which is pretty much the opposite emotion that comes to mind when I think about this blog. Why didn't I call it "Great Lessons Abigail (is) Doing" or something?

 two. Okay I am apparently just terrible at coming up with acronyms. And um. Yeah.

My Compassion Story

  My sponsorship story starts with a girl who wanted to sponsor a child because it would be 'cool', but never got around to actually doing it. And then August 2013 happened. And God happened. And a brokenness and love for the world's children happened. And that girl now wanted to sponsor a child, not because it's right or because it's the cool thing to do, but because of her Father's love for her and for every child in every corner of the world. So that 14 year old started sponsorship with a precious 5 year old Indonesian sister named Devi. She saw Devi turn 6, and she wrote and prayed for her. But she wanted to do more...