Overnight, I had an impossible dream. Not once, not twice, but multiple times. My brother has come out as trans and made the transition. It is such a difficult situation with many different layers involved. I miss him and love him dearly. In the dream, I was at a funeral. The funeral was for my brother in his new name. In the dream, he said, "It is time for this life to die." My whole family was there (a rare and unusual thing), and then I woke up. I heard God tell me to pray for my brother, so I did pray. When I went back to sleep, the dream started over. It played again on repeat, and I woke up. God said, "pray more." This happened once more until I prayed like I never have before. I don't know what this dream means, but it reminded me that God can do the impossible. I don't know if I will ever see him again, but I sure hope that I will. If you're reading this, I hope you know that I love you and think of you more than you will ever know.
I woke up on Sunday morning refreshed and ready for the day. Our daily Bible study was on 2 Corinthians 3:1-18. We had a great moment of prayer and split into multiple groups to attend various church services. I went with Christian to a youth service in Addis. He preached, and I shared my testimony.
It was a different experience than we were used to because all of the children in the room understood English (almost no one outside of the "city" speaks any English). After the service, we were able to speak with them. I even met a couple of girls who had been to Austin, TX on vacation before. Though it was cool to have full conversations, I found the experience to be almost sad. The students idolized America and truly believed that everyone there is a Christian and righteous. We made it a point to emphasize that Americans need Jesus just as much as their country did. To note: one girl actually said that her dream is to come to America and evangelize to Kim Kardashian. I wish her the best :))))
We were also invited to watch the adult services. The worship was nearly an hour long and consisted of around 3 songs. Midway through the worship, Dagne, our Missions Pastor, showed up. We had no idea that he was speaking that day. It was such a treat to hear him preach in his native tongue. He also invited both me and Christian on stage to discuss why we choose to serve Jesus. It was exhilaratingto share my "why" with the church while having my friend, Dagne, serve as the translator.
We were also lucky enough to see a man accept Christ during the service. As we were leaving, the pastor and his wife invited me to come back next year and host a training on care and counseling. If you're wondering, yes I will be going back. I'm not sure about next year, because fundraising makes me want to cry. But, YES! Ethiopia has my heart.
Dagne drove Christian and I back to the house where we ate delicious lasagna and received some much-needed rest.
That evening, we headed to The Fellowship Church Addis for a worship night that featured our very own Payton Keller. It was so incredible to see different choirs, bands and performers come together to worship the same God. It was moving and inspirational, and I enjoyed the entire experience.
When we got back to our house, Dagne told us that he had gone to counsel a missionary whose house had been burned down as a result of the persecution. Dagne found himself being counseled as the man said, "I am so happy because God saw me worthy of suffering for His name." This message would become even clearer the next day as we went to visit the oppressed area.
My journal entry for the night (it was a long night of reflection): I just found out that I am going to ride 7 hours to visit the area of oppression (as it turns out, it wasn't the area of oppression. Instead, it was their training location. Things got very lost in translation. It was not as dangerous as I originally thought, but it felt incredibly scary in the moment). I am nervous but also excited about the experience. Right now, I am praying for peace of mind as I walk into the unknown.
I have found that God is taking me on a journey with our morning devotionals. I have taught on two of the passages, and one of the passages was part of a spiritual discipline practice that I participated in. Additionally, Christian and I have been together every day of the trip. He has done multiple teachings, and each has contained a message regarding water. I am unsure of that meaning (God later revealed this message to me as I prepared a teaching on Revelation 22 a few months later). Finally, I am seeing a theme of "in His name." I need to do more work with God to understand these words.
Tonight, Brandon challenged us to decide which spiritual gift best fits us from Romans 12:6-8. I am really struggling with this challenge. I really feel like I am mediocre in a number of the gifts, but not excellent at any of them. I then told God that I prefer to identify these gifts in others and explain their meaning to others than to participate in any directly. I received a very loud and clear message from God that teaching is my gift. It just looks different than other people's gift of teaching.
The next day would be the most powerful words I heard from God on the entire trip!
Don't forget to read about the rest of our experience by clicking the links below!
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