Happy Birthday!

Happy 6th birthday to our sweet Ariana.  She is a very special daughter who is always quick to serve our family.  She loves to care for her younger sisters and help in the kitchen.  She is cheerful in serving others and quick to forgive.  She loves to laugh and has a special place in our family with two special roles: the younger sister to Kalia and Joel and an older sister to Nadia and Sonia.

She was so pleased to have an early birthday party in Addis with her two new friends but we will also celebrate it here in Gesses on the 28th.  She is looking forward to getting some presents on her real birthday.

One year ago, we were getting ready to return to Ethiopia and with a basement filled with boxes, I prepared 3 birthday parties in 2 days.  This year, Kalia and Ariana wanted to celebrate their birthdays before returning to Gesses so....I prepared three birthday parties in less than 10 days.  A little easier than last year but still a lot of work.  But....the kids all loved it and it was so much fun.

Ariana has 2 special friends that she has made this month.  She was so pleased they could join her.  Ariana decided that the middle flower cake would be for herself and the other girls would each get to stand in front of the others and blow out the candles. Ariana was so happy to have her very own party.

The party was pretty short so we had quesadillas and sandwiches for lunch and then a short playing time before cake time.  Rolf did not have time to decorate the cake this time so I was rather apprehensive about how it would go.  I decided to do cupcakes and it ended up being a simple way to make a pretty cake.  And no cutting needed:)

An hour before the guests were to arrive, Nadia was happily licking the icing from the bowl.  She decided to hand it to me without me looking at her and it smashed into hundreds of pieces on the cement floor.  We found little pieces of glass everywhere so it was quite the job to clean it up!

Food for Work - you can help too

Well the maize is still a month away for most families here in Gesses though one farmer already sold us 8 cobs which we roasted on the fire. We have continued to provide 3 kg of grain for 1/2 day's work. One quintel of grain gives 30 families food for a day and costs $50. We hope to continue providing food for work for another month. 

 If you would like to contribute towards this physical ministry, send a donation to our ministry account with a note that says food for work. If the donations exceed the amount spent, we will save this money until the next time of hunger. 

 We have also started a soccer outreach program 2 times a week. Last week, the 24 boys that are registered for the program arrived. More than 1/2 of them were so malnourished that they hardly had the energy to run around. Even Joel noticed their knobby knees. We will provide a small snack for them for the next couple of months so you are welcome to donate to this as well. Just mark: Kruse ministry: soccer outreach. Two snacks for 24 boys/week = $10 (Yes that's it. One cup of tea and a fresh greasy donut or one cup of milk and a package of biscuits.) 

My heart just aches as woman come to my door to get some "medicine" for their malnourished child. I have had 2 mothers come with 3 year old children who are malnourished with possible TB. I wish I could do a feeding program for all these children who are fed next to nothing but it would be a full time project. Instead, I give some famix grain or milk powder and I remember that Jesus LOVES these little children.

We love to serve our community (even when it hurts) and so we want to give you this opportunity as well! 

Pray that the Gumuz would trust in the Lord and that they would work hard with their hands and plant fields to feed their family (many continue to just hunt and gather and it is not sufficient for their diet).

Cleaning Millet

Our return to Gesses: A mixture of dread and anticipation

After spending 7 weeks in Addis Ababa, a city of 4+million people, we eagerly anticipated our return to Gesses where everyone knows us by name. A place we can breath fresh air and go for walks and hear donkeys braying rather than taxis honking.

At the same time, I was filled with some dread knowing that upon our return there would likely be many challenging circumstances. In hindsight, my feeling leading up to our departure from Addis reminded me of childbirth. Since childbirth was always lengthy and full of pain, I came to dread it. Would it be any easier the 3^rd, 4^th or 5^th time around? No, not really. Yet despite my feeling of dread, I was also filled with anticipation and I could hardly wait to meet this little one.

I knew life would be hard upon our return, but I didn't expect so many things to be hard. In fact instead of arriving home full of energy, it felt like we had been punched, slapped and kicked by the one who desires to discourage us and weaken us. Looking back on our first 4 days, I can laugh at the drama of it all.

We left Addis later than we hoped to so we ended up having to stay in a hotel after 6 hours of travelling. Our kids all suffered from carsicknesses and I had a headache, Ariana felt really sick and didn't eat supper. We got to our hotel room after eating meat that should have been cooked longer to find that our beds had fleas. Rolf went out to buy spray and when he returned, nicked another truck parket in the tiny hotel parking lot. He had to deal with inebriated men who weren't filled with much grace for the tiny dent in the back of their govt owned vehicle.

We had two rooms which had one queen size bed in each. 4 of us in one bed and 3 in the other...it was interesting. Ariana had a bad headache and fever so I knew it would be an interesting night. She ended up having to go to the bathroom about 6 times that night – diarrhea and then in the morning vomiting.

I ended up treating her for the same illness Joel had a week before since the symptoms were identical. But how would our drive be?

We left at 8am and planned to drive 2 hours to Injebara where our team leaders live. We had to stop every 1/2 hour but we arrived at 11am. We had a nice lunch and break which was important for several of the kids. Kalia was so carsick that she threw up outside of the car just before we arrived. Since we stayed until 2pm, Ariana was improving enough that we only had to stop 2 more times on the way to Gesses.

Since the last 2.5 hours of driving are on much straighter roads, the carsickness improved and my headache had finally subsided.

The kids were SO happy as we neared Gesses while my heart was still dreading what we would find. We were greeted enthusiastically by several Gumuz men, women and children and there was peace in Gesses. PTL. Our houseworker had walked 2 hours from town in order to arrive ahead of us so she could help clean the house. PTL again.

We walked in the front door and nearly gasped. There was mold everywhere! The pillows, the blankets and sheets, the mattresses, clothes that hadn't been washed before we left, woven baskets that had the children's toys inside and so on.

Well the adrenalin kicked in and we got to work. I was so thankful we hadn't arrived in the evening as we had many hours of work ahead. While Mesalech and I were cleaning furniture, bedding and floors with vinegar water, the kids were cheerfully wiping the mold of their toys.

Rolf went to check out the other two houses and found that one of the houses no longer had functioning solar power and the other house no longer had a functioning freezer. Thankfully it must have stopped working just a few days earlier as the items were still cold, just not frozen. I spent the rest of the evening cooking. We ate a hearty meal and I cooked and heated up all the meat stuff.

We had a large cooler filled with meat and cheese and other frozen goods from Addis. What do we do now? Well we called up the Moore family and asked if they had room in their freezer. They did! Since our cooler had been closed the entire trip, it was all still frozen and we were able to wait until the morning (at which time Rolf, took the goods there. He needed to pick up and drop off some other things as well so it worked out well.)

Well that must be it, right? Not quite. The next morning dawned (our first morning in Gesses) and we had people at our door pretty much all day. Most came with a greeting and a request. One of our teachers needed help because he hadn't paid his full dowry for his wife (though they have atleast 3 kids already). He already gave 4 cows but now he needs to give a couple of goats.

The greetings were nice but the requests were getting challenging in the midst of everything else. The house was livable, the freezer from the house without solar power was moved to the other house and was now running.

Life was slowly returning to normal....or was it? As I unpacked our bags and boxes, I began to panic. We had taken the satellite phone to Addis in order to set it up with a second computer (which didn't actually happen) and I wasn't finding it. I have never unpacked so quickly. Missing.

We left several boxes of clothes or items that we didn't need in Gesses, could this box have been accidentally left behind as well? It took another 24 hours to find the answer.

After several phone calls, we found the answer. Yes, we had left a box behind that should have come with us and it would take several people's help to get it to our front door. The first exchange has already taken place, the next transfer happened the next morning. Then someone was sent by bus to Injebara with the package. We are hoping it arrives by this weekend with either our teammates or one of our staff.

During the past 2 weeks, I have been able to send messages via a friend of mine. This has helped at least have some connection with the outside world. Then yesterday we had no network for over 24 hours and it was a strange feeling. We have no way to contact anyone anywhere. Well the network returned and my cell phone died. Seriously? I began to wonder why this area continued to be attacked. I don't know the answer but it did bring up a conversation with the kids that went something like this.

I said: “I sure am glad that God doesn't have a cell phone.” The kids answered: "yeah, you never have to wait for Him to answer. He always listens. His phone doesn't break. There is always network.”

Praise the Lord that our communication with God is always open! Isn't it amazing? Anytime, anywhere, all the time. Free, unlimited, direct communication with our Father who hears every word!

The question is: is communication on earth worth all the hassle. Well I hope so. I hope that it spurs others on to pray for our family. I hope that it also brings you encouragement and praise to God. And I hope that through it, our relationships can flourish despite the distance. Reflecting on it, I realize it is more than finding out what the weather is like, and the latest going ons. It is about a relationship. A relationship with family and a relationship with those that pray for us so faithfully. It reminds me of our relationship with the Lord.

The number of things that have happened in the past week has been enough to throughly discourage us and yet here we are still standing....God is the strength of our hearts. It is because we found a way through this all to communicate with you, our friends, what our needs were: strength and joy to persevere under trials.

Thank you. Life is not easy in this place. It is even more difficult for the people that we serve yet because we serve a great God, we are filled with joy.

PS  Our sat phone arrived Friday and we are now able to be in daily contact with the world outside Gesses! PTL!

The homeschool room – decluttering & decorating

I must admit, there was no real anticipation mixed in with the dread at what I would find in the homeschool room. It is not a rat proof or bug proof building and not entirely rain proof. I actually put off looking in the room until the 3^rd day we were in Gesses.

Would the books all be moldy, would the rats or termites have destroyed them? Imagine a teacher walking into their classroom a week before school was to start and finding the following:

Student chairs destroyed. (3 of the 5 leather stools completely destroyed by rats. Yes the leather was completely eaten and the filling pulled out. The other 2 leather stools had golfball size holes. Greedy rats.)

Dozens of moths flying around....not sure yet what they are eating.

Termites decorating the walls with lines of dirt tunnels that needed to be scraped off.

Rat poo on the tops of shelves, tables and some books and stashes of crayons and glue under cupboards.

A pool of water on the floor where the ceiling leaked.

One shelf back eaten through by termites.

First thing: the janitor would be called. Second thing: the cleaners would be reprimanded. Third, exterminators brought in.  Fourth, painters would be hired. Fifth, new chairs would be ordered. Sixth, a builder would be hired to fix the roof.
But here in Gesses, it's me. (Well actually my husband is a great handyman so I called him in for help with a few things.) The kids and I got to work sweeping, cleaning, throwing out and washing shelves. It was a much bigger job than I planned.
I also spent 2 mornings decluttering. There were lots of good resources in our classroom thanks to our teammates.  We have also been given lots of free stuff. The longer that I live, the more I am aware of how dangerous free stuff can be. I tend to accept free stuff just because it is free and not because I need it.  It takes great discretion and will power to say no to something that may have a use "someday".  The shelves were overflowing so I boxed up all the books and teacher resources that I didn't absolutely need and the classroom now feels more manageable.
We then got to work on the walls. Last year's work still adorned the walls and I was tempted to keep it that way but my kids were determined to do something new.  I found a book filled with ideas for a monthly writing wall so that is where we got started.  My creative 10 year old daughter Kalia was a great assistant and made a large colourful umbrella with construction paper. Joel, my 8 year old son cut out large “raindrops” and these will hold rainy season writings. They were placed on the wall along with small raindrops and our August writing wall was complete.
We also worked on our reading wall (we are doing a path to 100 using paper stones to make a wall and then will add flowers and butterflies for each book read) and our word wall where we will put up new words each week.On Thursday, I had the privilege of meeting with the Gumuz elders and Yasheko as we discussed women's training. It takes perseverance, wisdom and lots of creativity to bring teaching to the women. This Sunday we will meet with the women and possibly begin Sunday afternoon teaching times instead of Thursday morning. My goal is to set up a women's program that is sustainable and growing! I am excited to see what the Lord will do. It can be so much more than I can even imagine! Pray that the baptized women will get excited about serving the church and doing outreach and attend teaching times. Pray that vision would grow in the Gumuz church.

Food for Work

I was first introduced to the idea of grain for work when observing the organization of WFP (World Food Program) in the refugee camps. The idea is simple: your wage is grain instead of a dollar amount.

We struggled with the idea of paying people 10Eb for half a day of work (which is a normal wage for general labor) because it doesn't buy much at all. In fact it only buys 1.5 kg of grain. The maize crop is still not ready and the Gumuz are hungry so we decided to set up food for work.  We give 3kg of grain for 1/2 day of work. Each day, this week we have had 3 groups of 5 people cutting grass. They come in family groups and in this way can leave with 15kg of grain. (It helps that we have a large area to work with). To be honest, we don't need all this grass cut but it is a way that Gumuz can see if they work with their hands, they can eat. It also means that people are working for food, not using their money for alcohol.

A second way, we are trying to help during this time of hunger is by buying necklaces that the women make out of beads.  Since I am able to sell these necklaces in Addis, we are now exchanging grain for necklaces.  It is quite satisfying for these women to walk away with a basket of grain. 

There is no employment for Gumuz. If you are not a farmer or a herdsman, you have no income. Gumuz are not naturally farmers. They are hunters and gatherers. This means there are months of the year when they are very hungry. They are slowly becoming better farmers but still struggle with how to store their grain so they sell it to the townspeople. The townspeople are merchants and they store the grain and then sell it back to the Gumuz during this time of the year for double the price.
We may not be able to feed everyone but we trust that we are showing compassion without encouraging begging.   We need the compassion of Jesus each and every day. Compassion for the physical needs of the Gumuz people and compassion for the souls of the Gumuz people. Man cannot live by bread alone for only the Bread of Life is everlasting!
Our kids are great at asking us why we do the things we do. They are learning important lessons through this all and we love how we can model to them a (hopefully) holistic way of sharing the good news of Jesus!

Kalia's 10th birthday

During our time in Addis, I have discovered that our oldest daughter is probably best described as a shy extrovert.  She thoroughly enjoyed our 7 weeks living at the Press compound.  I lost count of the number of sleepovers she had and the hours and hours of playing with the other girls who live here.  It was a joy to see her overcome her initial shyness and dive into relationships. 

For her birthday, she invited the neighbour girls and several girls that are also homeschooled.  She was so pleased that everyone could come.  She has a great love for horses and so she once again chose a horse theme for her birthday. 

 

As usual, I baked the cake and made the icing and her dad decorated it.  Since there are few resources available to assist in decorating a cake, Rolf decided to construct the fence using local breadsticks.  They are extremely hard and large but using his handy pocket knife, he managed to cut them to the length and width that he wanted, notches and all.  Kalia then placed her horses on the cake which simplified the decorating procedure.

 Some of the neighbour girls helped decorate and they drew a picture of Kalia to hang on the wall.

 I enjoyed being the behind the scenes mom as all I had to do was facilitate the activities by providing the materials.  The girls enjoyed some cardmaking, sidewalk chalk, and pin the tail on the horse and of course some gifts and cake.

 

At the end of the party, I rolled out the dough for one large pizza and each of the girls added the toppings they wanted to their large piece.  

Several girls stayed for a sleepover and Kalia's still had lots of energy for the next day.  Impressive.

We will spend the entire day driving this year on her birthday but it will end with a potluck in Injebara with several missionaries there.

We thank the Lord for our dear daughter who brings much laughter, creativity and joy to our home.  I pray that she will grow in her love for the Lord and the people around her and that she will shine brightly wherever she goes.

Trying to leave tomorrow

It has been a week preparing to return to Gesses.  Due to Rolf's busy schedule with language school, he had a long list of things to work on this week.  One of these things included installing a backseat to our landcruiser so that it now seats 9 instead of 6.  Through an Ethiopian welder's expertise and Rolf's understanding of how to design it, they put something together that will be excellent.

It is a 3 person seat that faces forward and can be stored up against the middle seat when we have a lot of stuff to transport.  It will give us the ability to drive somewhere with extra passengers and all have seatbelts. 

The boxes of food and books, the roller bags of clothing and all the miscellaneous items are piling up by the front door.  Rolf will have a full evening packing the landcruiser.  It is like putting a puzzle together to fit everything in such a small space.  And with it being rainy season, he would prefer to keep things off the roof rack as it means having to tarp and tie.

What an excellent time it has been in Addis (despite it being the coldest and rainiest rainy season we have ever experienced).  It poured almost the entire day today!

This has been the hardest trip to pack for.  I don't enjoy packing for 7 people especially with a 20 month old daughter who likes to pull things out of boxes and bags.  It always takes many more hours than I plan for and I find emptying the drawers, closets, fridge and freezer the hardest.

More than that though, I have found it the hardest emotionally and spiritually.  I am definitely not a city woman so I yearn to be back in the countryside but will I be ready to face all the challenges again.  Will I be able to embrace homeschooling?  Will I be able to joyfully serve all the women that come to my door with different needs?  Will I be able to balance family and ministry?  Can I live in Gesses without fear for what could happen and trust that the Lord will care for all our needs?

I can do all things through God who gives me strength......God has not given me a spirit of fear but of power and love and a sound mind.