Chapter 11

Flying over the Atlantic Ocean at 12:45 am EST and 8:45 am Addis Ababa time.  On my way home from my third trip to Ethiopia.  Trying to make sense of the thoughts swirling in my head from the past 10 days and anticipating a sweet reunion with my precious family.  My heart is full yet also more broken than ever.  There's no doubt in my mind that each of us on this trip was supposed to comprise this team, and now we divide, each back to our own lives.  What will we say when others ask, "How was it?"  I struggle for words-- there were so many things, experiences, thoughts, emotions... where to begin.
Relationships: dear new friendships among our team, meeting amazing missionary families, engaging with Ethiopian people.  Abraham.  Each and every one a STORY-  I am blessed to glimpse each one, although knowing none in their entirety.  Only He does.  However incomplete, I love them where they are: the broken woman, the hurting mom, the tattered orphan, the woman carrying sticks, the prior addict, the man driving us everywhere, the woman who prepares our meals, the boy abandoned who is now my son.  God knows and wrote their stories and it is my desire to be a vehicle for His perfect love and affection in this broken world.  What a privilege and an honor that I "get to to be" right where I am.  Looking into the eyes of the orphan, into the eyes of my teammates, into MY eyes in the mirror, I know that we are all orphans... yet we "get to" claim and offer adoption into His family.  Surrounded by inequity, injustice, sin, poverty, abuse, and atrocity-- I realize that we are agents in causing and perpetuating these cycles.  However, He calls us on an adventure to redeem it, to bring beauty from ashes, to experience miracles, signs, and wonders.  This all happens while in relationship-- with Him, with others, with the bigger world that He created...
I don't know what to tell people.  I yearn for others to know and understand that saying "YES" changes you.  Although you don't do it to be changed, you do it out of obedience to Him, change is something He does in you.  Do you have to travel thousands of miles across the ocean to be changed? I don't think so.  But you have to do something that is counter-cultural, that takes you out of your comfort zone, that causes you and others to ask "why?," and you have to put on His perspective.  He created us to love, and as the book I read last week says, love DOES.  It's sometimes messy, inconvenient, hard, and not popular, but He is faithful to provide above and beyond what you need.  My expectations were not only met on this trip but far exceeded.  And now the journey continues...  I'm jet-lagged and overcoming illness, but I couldn't be more grateful for the experience of the last 10 days and the signs and wonders that are following.  Thankful that He gave me the opportunity and strength to say "YES."