Ethiopia Feb. 2023: This Week

Written By: Allison Johnson

I have been to Ethiopia five times and I absolutely love coming back! I feel so at home here! This past week has been hard with sicknesses and sleepiness but it has also been an incredible week with lots of acceptances and learning.

Yesterday I had an incredible experience with my mom. I went out with her and Mesfin and I was put to the test. They wanted me to run a whole day by myself and see if I could go out by myself! I ended up passing the test but it was also a great learning experience. In my life I have learned that I love to keep busy and fill up my time with fun activities. The problem is that when I do this I also start to get in the motions and find myself checking off boxes instead of being in the moment. In Ethiopia I notice myself doing similar things where I feel like I need to go into each house and stick to a routine. However, yesterday in the first house the woman of the house started to cry because two of her children were sick. After a little bit I felt uncomfortable because I did not know how to move on. My mother then used this as a teaching moment to remind me that I don’t need to know how to move on and that I don’t need to stick to the routine. Just this little reminder felt like such a great teaching moment for me. This day turned into both a training and learning day and I was so grateful for it.

Today was also such an amazing and God filled day. I was able to go with my father, Anne and Dan, one of the best translators out there. In each house everyone accepted, praise God! A couple of just fun things that happened today was we got to make coffee, wash clothes, pitchfork hay, pump water, and play games/talk with some of the village kids. Also throughout each house we had different kids follow us and their excitement and curiosity about following us was one of my favorite things. Every time I say hi or come to any of the Ethiopians they have to biggest smiles and the best laughs that it always makes me feel so happy!

One of my favorite things that happened today is we started to attract more and more people and they would come into the houses that we were evangelizing to. Every single time, they would accept! They didn’t get the gifts and they were just neighbors but their excitement and eagerness to follow Christ always made my day!

I love Ethiopia and I am so thankful that we were able to welcome a ton of new people into the family of God!