Why Ethiopia?

God's timing is nothing like our timing and He doesn't always speak to us the same way each time or when we want Him too. I remember when I came back from YWAM, Costa Rica in June 2012 (Wow! It seriously has been 4 years), I had all these ideas of how I was going to live more radically, specifically in my relationship with God and missions. I am pretty sure I told people that I was going to go on short term mission's trips to other countries every year. Well four years later and I haven't had the chance to leave the country again. My relationship with God has also had its ups and downs. Sometimes I grow frustrated because I am not where I would thought I would be 4 years ago. I pray and pray and I don't feel like God is speaking to me specifically, but once again God's ways and timing amaze me!

God uses situations that seem rather insignificant overtime to prepare me for what He has planned. When I look over the last year I am enthralled by the way that God used one situation after another to speak to me later on down the road. So for the first time in over four years I will have the opportunity to leave the country. I will be doing half of my student teaching in Ethiopia! When people find out that I am going to Ethiopia I get a number of reactions. The two most popular are, "Why Ethiopia?" and "But you speak Spanish!" And I know..there are moments that I think about that too. But it is actually a wonderful story about how God can change hearts and speak in many ways. 

I had always been very interested in Latin America, the culture, and speaking Spanish. Shortly after YWAM I had friends from Costa Rica that began doing missions and traveling in other areas. God began a process in my heart over the last four years and I began to see the beauty and need in other parts of the world. I finally told God that if He ever sent me out into the mission field again I would go to wherever He wanted me, to any part of the world. Then after 5 or 6 years of sponsoring children from Spanish speaking countries I felt this weird tug to sponsor a child from a different country. So sometime in June 2015 I began looking through a list of "longest wait children" on Compassion's website. And before I knew it I was sponsoring a four year old girl from Ethiopia. 

I was excited to begin learning God's heart for her and I read all the information that was provided about her area. So in September when I began my geography class and found out we had to choose a part of the world to research and present it seemed natural to choose Northeast Africa. God continued opening my heart to Ethiopia as I was researching it and at the same time I realized it was time to start my Student teaching application process. I was honestly dreading student teaching and I mentioned this to my dear friend, Miranda. She told me that she was too originally, but now was looking forward to it since she was student teaching in Guatemala. I had no idea that it was possible to student teach in another country! She gave me the website and that night I was looking through the schools that I could teach at through this program and the first school to pop out to me was: Bingham Academy in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. 

I thought of Ruzeya and everything I was learning and I looked at the website for the school. It seemed perfect. So I applied with Ethiopia being my first choice, but also with some schools from Central America, and even one in Asia. I prayed to God and knew if this was not the right decision He would either close the door to Ethiopia or to the program all together. I learned about the program so late that I had already missed the deadline for the application, I knew that if God really wanted this for me that He would figure it out. And by God's grace Bingham Academy chose to accept me as a student teacher from mid October to mid December 2016. 

So when people ask me "Why Ethiopia?" or "But you speak Spanish" I now smile...It's what God wants. And He may have been fine with other countries or other life choices as well and I am sure He would also use those for His glory, but right now God has something special for me there. I don't know what will happen after I come back and graduate, but after look back on the last 5 years I trust God. He has been preparing me for this and He will use it all to his glory. Sometimes God speaks to us in subtle ways and His plans just fall into place.

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I sincerely appreciate all of the wonderful people that God has placed in my life. And how those people have allowed God to work through them to draw me closer to Him. I really appreciate all of your prayers. Here are some ways you can partner with me through prayer:

-Time management-Getting everything I need done in a timely manner
-For finances regarding my Visa, plane ticket, and vaccines
-That God would be glorified through my life leading up to Ethiopia
-That my heart and mind would be open to be impacted by God and the people He places in my life
-That God would prepare the way for me so that He can impact others through me. 

"He said to them, 'Go into the world and preach the gospel to all of Creation'" Mark 16:15