Don't mess with Texas

We thought we'd give a quick update of where we are now. Saturday we arrived in Temple, Texas where Staci (my sister) and her husband Brent just moved. Brent just started his residency at a hospital here in Temple. Staci and Brent have an adorable house decorated beautifully in their modern IKEA-like style with accents from their travels to India earlier this year.

On Sunday after church we drove to an area south of Austin and tubed down a river. Afterwards, we spent a little time in downtown Austin and then went to this great Mexican restaurant for dinner. It was very authentic and delicious! Unlike any other Mexican restaurant I had been to.

We'll be in Temple until Wednesday when we'll be heading East eventually landing in LaBelle, Florida at my grandparents' place.

Stay tuned for more adventures!

MTI Adventures

We've been learning quite a bit here at MTI. Some of the learnings happen in the classroom, while the majority happen outside of that venue through experiences while building community with our fellow MTI-ers or during our free time.

We had one interesting experience just last week. Kevin and I decided to go for a leisurely walk after class one afternoon before dinner. We were walking along and saw a group from MTI heading off on a hike and they invited us to join them. So we did.The hike started out nicely along a clear path. Soon though we were scrambling up rocks and going up some more challenging terrain towards the ridge of a small mountain behind MTI. Part of the group turned around about half-way there, but we continued on with the rest. I was never quite sure of what, if any, path we were on, but hoped our leaders were not leading us astray. Well, we made it to the top and enjoyed some beautiful views.

However, I could not ignore the dark clouds overhead.

We enjoyed the top of the ridge, took some pictures, and then started feeling raindrops. And I started getting a bit fearful. Every afternoon here in Colorado we've had some combination of hail, rain, and lightning so I figured that was coming. Kevin and I decided to go on down the mountain while the other 4 stayed up top. We began our descent. And the rain started coming down harder. And then the lightning and thunder. So we scooted down the steep parts, climbed over rocks, still not exactly sure of the path. Then we came to the wooded area. We could make out a trail maybe half the time. The thunderstorm continued. We just tried to keep descending, hoping to make it to a distinguishable path at some point. I was praying. Hard. Kevin was focused on the task at hand and somewhat oblivious to my concerns.

Finally, my heart racing and my anxiety surging, we made it to the bottom of the mountain, not too far from where we actually began the ascent. We heard some yelling from our fellow hikers who had found shelter at the top to wait out the storm. They had noticed we made it out and were rejoicing with us. We were still about 3/4 mile from our safe haven of the MTI building (where our dinner was awaiting). So we walked for a while, through mud and pouring rain. Then we decided to jog. Still through lots of mud and pouring rain. A bolt of lightning flashed nearby...way too close to my liking. So I just ran harder. Kevin, still not sharing my concerns, jogged along with me.

So, we did make it back safely to our room. Being our introverted selves, no word was spoken about my fear or Kevin's lack of fear during this adventure.

Lessons learned: We both need to communicate more openly. Thunderstorms concern me more than Kevin. Despite these facts, we seem to handle stress alright. Which is a good thing since another thing we've learned at MTI is how much stress missionaries face overseas.

Update - Colorado arrival

We thought we’d give a quick update on our life here lately since we’re behind in our blog posts. Our life has been kinda crazy over the past week – okay, it’s been extremely crazy. We just arrived in Palmer Lake, Colorado for three weeks of training through Mission Training International (MTI). It’s called SPLICE and covers the Spiritual, Personal, Lifestyle, Interpersonal, Cultural and Endure/Enjoy aspects of preparing for cross-cultural missions. We’re excited for this opportunity and time to seriously look ahead to Ethiopia.

Before this we had a whirlwind week of selling a lot of our things at a good ole’ Morton garage sale, then frantically packing the rest to move over to Bluffton to store. During the drive from Bluffton back to Morton, I (Kevin) even picked up a speeding ticket in the lovely town of Wolcott (in a 25 MPH zone???). We packed our stuff up anticipating closing on our home sale in mid-July with a gentleman we had agreed on an initial contract with. Unfortunately, we just received word today that the “gentleman” is pulling out of the deal. This means we get to sell our home while being halfway across the country. Everything should be in place to make this happen, but it’s disappointing and more difficult. Maybe this is part of God’s way of preparing us for the flexibility and perseverance needed in our future jojurney. Or just part of these “adventures” that we wrote about for the LSM blog: Loving Shepherd Blog

Here are some answers to questions we get asked

Where are you going?

We plan to be in the city of Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, which means “New Flower”. It’s a city of over 2.5 million people and is becoming quite advanced in terms of infrastructure and technology. The United Nations and African Union both have headquarters there. Coffee is the number one export in Ethiopia – they claim to have “invented” it.

What will you be doing?

We are working with Loving Shepherd Ministries (loving-shepherd.org). They currently have a Home of Hope for orphans in the city, most of whose parents have died of AIDS. We’ll be working with that home, starting another one that will house young women wanting to leave prostitution, and partnering with another ministry in the city working with the same population. We’ll be overseeing all LSM Ethiopia operations, and working to develop counseling and vocational training / microenterprise programs to help rehabilitate the women and provide them with another means of providing for themselves. The home will have a house mother to care for a girls and a coordinator to help with operations. There are an estimated 40,000 women and girls trapped in prostitution in Addis.

What language do they speak?

In Ethiopia, the primary language is Amharic. It’s a Semitic language, which means it belongs to the same family as Arabic – making it difficult to learn. We will begin some preliminary self-study and will go to language school once we arrive. We’ll be working closely with Ethiopian ministry workers who will be translating our training materials and adapting them to Ethiopian culture.


When are you leaving?

We leave for Ethiopia in mid-October. Starting the end of June, we’re going to begin more formal training, including time in Colorado for cultural training and also Haiti to observe LSM’s operations there.

Do you need to raise support?

Our personal needs and travel are taken care of. However, the Home of Hope we’ll be working with needs funding for operating costs and startup. The operating costs are about $1,000 per month and the initial startup cost will depend on whether the home is built, purchased, and rented. There is a link at the left side of this page for more info.

"It's like someone shoved a chocolate bar up your nose"

Here's a little taste of Ethiopia. The Bizarre Foods show from the Travel Channel did an episode about Ethiopia's unique food. Here are a couple videos that show an authentic Ethiopian coffee ceremony - something that is an integral part of the culture. The show host has an interesting description of the ceremony, which includes the above quote. To get the whole picture, at least watch the first video and the first minute of the second clip. There are more videos about other Ethoipian foods as well. I wouldn't recommend watching them over dinner :) Enjoy....

“Let justice roll on like a river”

This is a blog that we wrote for LSM's website. You can view more posts from other LSM employees at www.loving-shepherd.org/blog

Over 2,700 years ago, when the prophet Amos wrote these words, he was rebuking the people of Israel for depriving the poor of justice, building lavish mansions at the expense of those in poverty, and oppressing the vulnerable among them.

About three hundred years after Amos, when Nehemiah led Israel to rebuild the walls of Jerusalem, the poor of the city cried out to him saying, “some of our daughters have already been enslaved” because they could not pay their debts. They continued saying that “we are powerless”. Nehemiah was not passive, he did not reply timidly. But he writes, “when I heard their outcry and these charges, I was very angry. I pondered them in my mind and then accused the nobles and officials.”

When Jesus began his ministry nearly two thousand years ago, He pointed to what Isaiah prophesied of Him, saying the Lord had anointed Him to “preach good news to the poor” and “release the oppressed”.

God’s followers throughout history have cried out for justice and spoken against the evils of slavery, oppression and exploitation of the vulnerable. We had the opportunity to visit Park Street Church in Boston a couple weeks ago. At this church, nearly 170 years ago on July 4th, William Lloyd Garrison once again challenged followers of Christ to fight against the Trans-Atlantic slave trade:

“I call upon the ambassadors of Christ everywhere to make known this proclamation: ‘Thus saith the Lord God of the Africans, Let this people go, that they may serve me.’”

As we sit here today, it’s estimated that over 27 million people are enslaved throughout our world and many millions more are exploited physically and sexually because of their poverty. That’s over twice the amount during Garrison’s time. It can seem staggering and overwhelming. Indeed it is. But at the same time we can pray for the vulnerable and we can speak out against the oppressors. We can go to Haiti and set the orphans in families to prevent the oppression. We can rescue exploited girls in Ethiopia, and empower them to live out their created intent. We can join the cause of Amos, Nehemiah, Jesus Christ and our God of justice to let Amos’s words ring true – let justice roll!

Why Ethiopia?

As most of you have probably heard, we are planning to move to Ethiopia this October to work there for about two years. Since it’s been almost two years since we’ve put anything on our blog, we decided it was time to start it up again. We’ve heard lots of questions like: Why would you want to move to Ethiopia? What will you be doing there? What are the conditions like? So we’ll take a little time here to explain the “what” and “why” of our future plans.

We both had a desire to serve the nations in some way. After we were learned more about each other and how God works in a couple united in Him, we began seeking God’s direction for our next life steps and how we could use the gifts He’s given us to serve the needs that burden our hearts. For Erica, that’s her counseling experience and for Kevin, his business and education background. Kevin has had a heart for poverty and disadvantaged youth, while Erica has a passion to serve those who are rescued from trafficking and prostitution. Over the past year, we were reading some in the prophets and Old Testament and God’s heart for justice jumps off the pages of Amos, Micah, Isaiah, Nehemiah, etc. And it continues throughout Jesus’ life.

So how does God combine all this? Well, after much prayer and several steps, God brought Loving Shepherd Ministries and us together. They serve orphans and vulnerable children around the world, especially in Haiti, and were desiring to build a home in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia for girls coming out of prostitution. Last December, Ed Schwartz, the president of LSM, visited Ethiopia. He spoke with a ministry who was working with girls rescued from prostitution and they voiced their greatest need was for the emotional needs of the girls, and for vocational training and sustainability of the homes. It was pretty evident God was connecting all the pieces better than we ever could have planned!

We’ll share more specifics soon because this post has been long enough…