Coming Home (Nancy)

Well, we are in the air again flying now from Frankfurt, Germany to Chicago, IL, USA. We have very mixed emotions about leaving Ethiopia. When we first arrived we thought that four weeks was a long time. For us it was just long enough to make friends and connections and then leave a little of our heart there. Our time went by so quickly. The last few days have been hard saying goodbye to the people we’ve grown to love.
Here’s a few of the things we’ve done this last week:
VBS:
The kids and I spent the last week being part of an English-speaking VBS at the International Evangelical Church (IEC) in Addis Ababa. The church is connected with the college where Geoffrey was teaching. Our part was to teach the Bible story each day. We had around 90 kids broken up into three age groups (7-8, 9-10 and 11-12) so we got to tell the story 3 times each day. Kara and Garren were amazing!! They started each day with a drama to introduce the theme for the day. The kids really connected with them because they were their ages. I think it was cool for the VBS kids to see that kids could teach too! Kara and Garren really worked at the dramas and did a great job. They also were good examples for the VBS kids to follow. Once their drama was done then we taught the Bible story and worked on the memory verse for the day. The VBS kids were so good at learning their verses. By Friday they could recite all four verses. I taught 3 days and Marcia (our team leader) taught 2 days. Between Marcia and I if we weren’t teaching we had Kelsey patrol! The Lord was good and the church nursery was right next door to the Bible story room so it was great for Kelsey. I haven’t taught in awhile and forgot how much I loved it.
Deborah House:
I’ve written a lot about these girls and I have to say that getting to know these girls was my favorite part of our trip. The girls love to have their picture taken. They all have photo albums and love to share them. So we thought it would be fun to make them a gift to remember us by. We took a picture of each of them individually (all 32) and got them developed. We bought a large piece of sheet material and cut the edges and tied them to make a fun edge. We then colored the ties different colors. We wrote the Bible verse from Psalm 139:13-14 - "For you formed my inward parts; you knitted me together in my mother's womb. I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made." We then glued their pictures all around it. We also added our family picture at the bottom with a note that it was from us. We took it to the girls Thursday night. When I opened it up they went crazy, clapping, singing, yelling. It was awesome. We hung it on the wall in their living quarters. These girls have been so amazing to get to know. If they come to your mind, please pray for them that the new faith they have in Jesus will stay strong and fresh and that God will send people to love them!
Returning Home:
Although we are sad to leave we are excited to return to family and friends, clean sidewalks without beggars asking for money, our minivan where we can go where we want on our own (no mini-buses), our house (which will seem like a castle to us after living in a one-bedroom apartment) and not standing out as ‘firenji’! As soon as we got to Germany we headed for McDonalds! The cheeseburger tasted so good! Next stop...Chicago pizza!
God has been so good to us...we have seen a different part of the world and have seen that God is very much alive there too. Sometimes we forget He’s not just in our little world.
Thanks for praying for us! We’ll see you in the States ! :)