As a group, we started the morning by discussing our spiritual gifts and the calling for us as disciple-makers. We studied Matthew 6:33, Psalm 63, and 2 Corinthians 5:11-21. We did not eat breakfast because as a group we were participating in a fast and planned to come together for a rejuvenating time of prayer.
When we arrived in Senkele to pray, we sought God individually, corporately (in many languages), and with partners. After pouring out all week, I sensed that the time was a much needed moment of rest and filling up by the Holy Spirit.
My notes during prayer time were powerful. They were somewhat random and disconnected but have come together more clearly in the time that has passed since the trip. Firstly, God gifted me a beautiful metaphor. I realized that breath, food, rest and water are our only necessities for survival. It is no secret that God is said to be our breath, our food, our rest and our source of water (Job 33:4; John 6:35; Matthew 11:28-30; John 7:37-39). I recognized that though I was thirsty, hungry, and tired, I had an even stronger craving for MORE of God. I wanted the Spirit to fill me up so that Christ's love would pour out of me. Simple yet profound.
Secondly, when we would pray as a group, I could only understand one word that the Ethiopians would proclaim: Hallelujah. There, we were all crying the same Hallelujah to the same God. We were all broken sinners crying out praise to our glorious Savior. It was a perfectly depicted picture of the diversity yet simultaneous unity of God's people.
Finally, God wrote a short and meaningful love letter to me. He said, "Hannah, I see you. I see you fighting to discover who you are. Let me help. You are obedient above all else. You say 'yes.' You are most comfortable in the uncomfortable.
Even so, I am better. I will always be the truer and better Hannah. Let that truth set you free."
After some deep time in prayer, I started to look around for what I was missing. Finally, this window grabbed my attention.
I couldn't stop looking at it. I saw Jason, one of the men on the trip from The Fellowship, walk outside to grab some water. As he was walking back towards the building, he saw a child that was thirsty. He turned around and gave the child his water. They shared a smile, and he told the child "Jesus saves" in Amharic. I was struck with the revelation that often, God moves most outside of the church. I need to continue to step out in obedience and reach people outside of my comfortable Christian bubble.
After our time in prayer, we hopped in the van, and my half of the group left to visit the Christians who live in areas of oppression. It was somewhere around a 7-hour bus ride. I spent a great deal of time on that drive in prayer with God. He revealed to me how little I had been on my phone during the trip. The limited-time on my phone had opened me up to more ministering to people, interacting with humanity, and appreciating the beauty of the creation. I made a promise to be more intentional about my screen time back in America. I'm pleased to say that I have been intentionally putting aside technology to be present in the moment with God.
The drive was incredible because all in one trip we saw "city" (I use that word lightly), savanna, mountain ranges, farms, villages, and wildlife galore. We even saw a monkey. It was as awesome as it sounds.
We also spent time encouraging one another on the long ride. We each gave words to our fellow friends. The words people shared for me were hungry, analytical, student, forefront, and mother. The word "mother" meant the most. In this season, in particular, I was telling myself on repeat that I was a terrible mother to Jaxon. The word hit my heart that day and begun to transform and expand my definition of mother. I still have work to do, but I owe Christian a thank you for his kind word.
When we arrived in the city (I am intentionally not mentioning its name to protect the anonymity of the mission, we drove past a beautiful tower. I was disappointed that I didn't get a picture. Not to worry, our driver Benji was terribly lost, and we passed that tower 8 more times while we tried to get back on track. I took a picture each time :)
As it turns out, we were too late to go to our evening program. Apparently, we weren't supposed to go to the day of fasting and prayer. We all agreed that the morning was worth it. I think God knew what we needed. We spend the evening chatting, laughing, and eating delicious food before heading to the hotel for the night.
The slogan for the hotel was "where happiness happens." I'll let you guess what kinds of jokes were made about that.
We walk into what appears to be the nicest room we had seen on the trip. We thought we had scored a jackpot until we realized that the water reeked of rotten eggs and there were dozens of mosquitoes buzzing around our heads (I promise you, I'm not exaggerating). Payton was my roommate, and before bed, we sent up a prayer that our Yellow Fever vaccine worked and fell asleep in a very comfortable bed.
Don't forget to read about the rest of our experience by clicking the links below!
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