One week. 12 of many accomplishments. 8 people.

1. Killed 2 rats. 

2. Cleaned the house (swept out rat droppings, cleaned windows....) 

3. Disposed of 4 rat nests. One in the oven. 

4. Fixed a rat chewed screen. 

5. Unpacked all our stored belongings. 

6. Set up homeschool room. 

7. Completed 5 school days. 

8. Repainted the kitchen. 

9. Hosted 7 church leaders for 24 hours (from 3 different churches in the Toronto area) 

10. Ate 3 pumpkins in soup, stew and cake form. 

11. Fixed two windows/screens at neighbours house after a break in. 

12. Did 5 loads of laundry, hung, and put away. Collected laundry water for other uses.

A difficult yet warm welcome

When asked on numerous occasions whether I was looking forward to returning to Gesses, my answer was the same. No. A better question would be: Will you be happy to be back a week after arriving? 

I knew. I knew that it would be a hard re-entry. It always is. Possibly it is part of God's plan. From day one, it is obvious. We can't do this without him. I can't be cheerful about my husband having to kill 2 rats after getting into bed. One in our closet. One in our pantry. I can't be cheerful cleaning rat feces out of my kitchen cupboards and bedrooms. I can't be cheerful about a rat nest in my stove that takes an hour to remove. Four dishcloths pulled inside. Four sides of insulation urine saturated and then dried. Each time I lit the stove, the smell nearly knocked us out. Another hour to clean the inner metal of the oven in hopes that vinegar is stronger than ammonia. 

I can't be cheerful having to hold my breath when entering my pantry. It will take weeks to clean it so that it is useable again. Games, jars, spices, canned goods, medicine covered in dried feces and urine. I tried to laugh as my husband joked about rats' bladder issues. It was really hard. I can't naturally be cheerful about the huge amount of work it is to take everything out of storage.  

But "God's mercies are new every morning." It means that every day begins new. Fresh. Clean. Like my house. There is still an odor in the kitchen when I light my stove. There will be for awhile. But it's okay. It's not the same as yesterday. I don't have to go through the same troubles again. 

"Each day has enough troubles of its own." Imagine if we had to store up all of yesterday's troubles (and the days' preceding that) along with today's. We would surely despair. But we don't. We are not even discouraged. We expect trouble and we can meet these troubles with joy because one day there will be no more. For now. He's with us and that is enough. 

Am I happy to be back? I am. Gumuz women stopping by with a greeting and a pumpkin. Seeing newborn babies prayed for while in the womb. Visiting a home and coming home with cobs of maize. Singing Gumuz gospel songs in church. Dancing with the women. Working, serving, sharing, loving, receiving. 

 We hosted 7 men from 3 churches in the Toronto area for the last 24 hours. In parting, one of the pastors said, "This is not an easy place to live. I think you were created for living in this place. It's like God made you specifically for this." Humbling words. Made to live in a hard place. Really Lord? Sometimes, I am ready to quit. Yet, it is true. I was made for this. If I am not, I shouldn't be here. 

I am tired and yet I thrive. It's really hard and yet really good. It's home again. Better. We are happy to be here. We are happy to need him. His mercies are new every morning. 

The final leg: part 4

Here we are, finding our way through the mucky road after last night's rain (no time to upload pics). We are travelling a road that most people only travel by foot. We are watching men throw rocks off of trucks into the muck making it possible for vehicles to pass.

Yesterday, we travelled 7 hours on new and old pavement. Pavement with drop offs, dips and turns. Pavement with dangerous embankments through mountain passes. Pavement touched by many more feet and hooves than rubber tires. Pavement that has been prayed over and sung over. Favorite spots to picnic in and stretch our legs. Baboon places and waterfall places. Places were we have been sick and places where we have cried.

But all of this. The pain of saying goodbye, the days and hours of packing and travelling. It is worth it. It was worth it when our children sat around the supper table and asked, “Are we going to come back to Ethiopia after these two years? We really miss our friends and family but we like being missionaries.” And they all decided. All 5 of them. This is what we should do. We should be missionaries.

Really? For our children to not only accept our life of ministry but embrace it. That is a gift.

We are returning to a people that we love because God first loved us. We are returning to a place we call home. Through my children, I can see that the journey past and the journey present has prepared us to give our hearts again.

May we be generous and wise. May we be ready at all times to share the reason for the hope that we have. May we seek to love the Lord with all our heart, soul and mind and love our neighbour as we love ourselves.

The journey part 3: jetlag and repacking

So we landed and it was morning and I foolishly thought if we could keep our bodies awake until evening, we would sleep through the night and wake in the morning. Jetlag should be a breeze. But it never is and there were no real surprises. It took 8 days. One day for each hour of time change. Some of the kids made it through sooner.

But there were blessings in the jetlag that I hadn't really appreciated in the past. Instead of wishing my circumstances were different, I chose to embrace the experience. Middle of the night storytelling and snacks with the little ones and early morning devotions. Time in the Word in the wee hours of the night when all were asleep. These were gifts. Brief gifts to be endured or enjoyed for only a brief time. And THIS made them sweet.

The packing continued. The boxes and trunks brought from our homeland now had to be reduced by one third. More hours looking at stuff and wondering why I thought bringing all this stuff was a good thing. Surely we could live with fewer possessions. So why then was it so hard to decide what to leave behind?

I must admit to hitting a point of despair when my husband graciously informed me that I needed to reduce the number of trunks from 8 to 6. Really? I can't do it. Physically I could, emotionally I was finished. Finished looking through stuff and making decisions about what was most important. I am not the kind of person that enjoys spending hours in the house. I enjoy people so it was time to do something else.

Time in the sunshine and time playing soccer. Fun with chattering children. Chatting with the neighbours. Smells of cookies baking and pizza making. Okay. I am ready.

And I did it. Everything that I deemed necessary for the next two months found a place in the landcruiser and honestly, we could do with less. For two months, we will savor the treats from home like bacon bits, chocolate chips and taco seasoning. Children will read books and then read them again. We will ration the sugar, ground beef, cheese, vegetables and eggs purchased in Addis. We will share what we have with others and we will know. We could live with a lot less.

The journey part two

God's mercies are new each morning. I find particular joy in that statement because I am not a morning person. I need a lot of extra mercy in the morning especially when I have to wake up 5 children, see them dressed, fed and ready for a shuttle at 7:15am. Ever minute counts with international travel and our shuttle arrived 30 minutes late because it took another group ahead of us. God's mercies are new every morning.

With the 8 of us and our luggage loaded, we were on our way. Our shuttle bus driver assured us that 2 hours was plenty of time. But I knew. We needed every minute. And we had 30 less than we needed.

It took a full hour checking our bags. It took us another hour to go through security. All our carryons needed to be checked twice because of a swab that came back positive. Boarding was in progress. We were cleared and we ran. I laugh now. Memories. We were making a lot of them. Kids on moving runways. Kids jumping off and celebrating the success of not falling flat on their faces. Arriving at the gate and finding we were the second last to arrive but the plane was still waiting. 15 hours and we didn't need to run anywhere.

More memories: Kids' movies and odd food at odd hours. Thunderstorms over Rome. God calming the storm before we landed. Technical problems in Rome. Sleeping on empty seats. Receiving kind words by fellow passengers. “Your kids travelled amazing.” Yeah they really did. They didn't whine or complain. They didn't argue or scream. Actually we seem to function best when we are squished into small places like airplanes and landcruisers.

The roughest flight we have ever been on. Three children quietly throwing up. No tears. No complaints because this is what we do. We travel and it isn't usually easy. We were the very last off a flight that ended up being 17 hours long. It was morning in Addis Ababa. God's mercies are new every morning even when we get two mornings in less than 24 hours.

The visa line was long but we were immediately ushered to the front. We were then ushered to the front of the customs line and our bags were the first off the plane. Not one bag was checked. No questions asked. Petros was waiting for us. Unbelievable. We were last ALL day long and here we were among the first. By God's grace and grace extended to us from strangers all along the way. We made it and we celebrated!

I wonder. Did I just get a glimpse of heaven? Will those whose journey is toughest, also celebrate the most joyfully? I wanted to shout for everyone to hear. Did you see what we just did? We are done and we made it! The real journey's end is going to be so much better.

The journey: part one

 

10 days ago we boarded the plane to leave our homeland again. This is a journey that we are well familar with. The heartwrenching goodbyes, the tedious job of packing and repacking so that every free pound has been packed into a trunk or box.

Then the trip to the airport, where dear ones come to say farewell while our bags are checked and our tickets are issued. Yet this time, it was different. Maybe it was the fact that our niece was travelling with us. Maybe it was because we were only flying to Toronto and overnighting in a hotel. Maybe it was because it was an afternoon flight and we had time for lunch before. Somehow the final minutes weren't quite as painful. The tears had already been spent and now it was time to travel. And there were eight of us. Certainly it would be less stressful this time. Our kids are older and each one is able to walk and talk. An extra pair of adult hands.

We travelled well to Toronto and even enjoyed our 3 hour flight despite the fact that even snacks must be purchased. Surprised but thankful that I was actually prepared with snacks. For if my children are well fed and rested, they travel well. But then there was the matter of getting ourselves from the Toronto airport to the hotel. It sounded so simple on paper. A shuttle would pick us up and take us to our hotel. Done.

Wrong. We had to pick up all 18 pieces of luggage. We had to call the shuttle bus. We had to find the loading area and this airport was not small. Since I had no Canadian cell plan, I used the wireless network to text my mom who then called the shuttle. They would arrive in 45 minutes. Perfect! We had our bags so we would certainly be waiting at our appointed place. Wrong again.

It took us 1 hour and 15 minutes to load our luggage onto our carts, find an elevator, push our 8 carts of luggage, find bathrooms and keep the little ones with us. The shuttle was waiting. My husband with his still strong back was able to load all that luggage onto the shuttle and 15 minutes later unload it at the hotel. We were ready for bed but there was still the matter of food. A phone call and 30 minutes later: pizza and chicken wings for a 9pm supper. What a great last Canadian meal! We were finally in our beds at 10pm and I wondered. Why did it look so simple on paper?

But we are real people with real little children. We need time to buy carts, time to load carts, time to talk, time to give out treats, time to visit the bathroom, time to learn to push 2 large carts of luggage at the same time. Time to laugh. Time to meet people and receive the blessing of extra hands or a kind word.

But it wasn't over. The journey was just beginning.