While we were home this summer we shared stories and pictures of our life in Ethiopia with many of you.  Some of those pictures and stories included Etagainu, our house help and friend.  We have been honored to pour into her life as she has poured herself into ours.

 Last year, she expressed her concern for her son’s education.  They live in a small town up on a hill about a 45 minute walk from Soddo and her 8 year old son, Bekolu, was attending a school there.  She told me that she found out he was not learning, but mostly playing outside all day due to the lack of direction in the school.  Within Soddo, there are some private schools who offer an education with an intentional curriculum, however, these schools are expensive and often cost about half of a monthly wage for a child’s fee. 

I wanted to share with you that Bekolu is now attending a private school in Soddo called the American International Academy.  He is in K2 (the second year of kindergarten).  Nathan and I had a chance to visit the school and meet some of the teachers.  It is a very nice school and does some of the teaching in English and most of their school activities and books are in English.  The students are still learning Amharic in school and most of them grew up learning their local language, so most will soon know 3 languages.  It was great to visit and see the opportunity here in Soddo for the children. 

So, I am writing to see if there is someone out there who would like to help Bekolu attend school.  I think this is a neat opportunity for a family with children to help from afar.  In the process of helping Bekolu your own children will learn about people in other parts of the world.  The cost is 15 USD per month for Bekolu to attend school, but I imagine the rewards will be much greater.  What an amazing opportunity for some children from the states to be able to communicate with Bekolu and write letters and color pictures back and forth. 

Again this is not a pity story, we could help him attend school and we will continue to develop our relationship with Etagainu and her family.  But I wanted to offer up this opportunity to some of you who cannot physically come, but desire to help in a personal way.  If you and your family would like to get to know Bekolu, please email me at paulandbecca@gmail.com

My plan and hope this year is to do a better job keeping up with the blog. We’ll see how it goes .

We’ve been back in Soddo for about a week and life seems to have taken off at a sprint. As Becca wrote, our trip to Addis, while long, went well and passed uneventfully. God’s provision and grace through it all was amazing. The kids did great and we passed through all the airports with no difficulties. As we stood outside the airport waiting for our ride to arrive, it was a cool evening in Addis and the airport was bustling with people from the international flights that arrive and leave each evening. The sights, sounds and smells, while so different from the US, were familiar to me and it kind of felt like home. It definitely felt more like home than I thought it would. We stayed at the familiar SIM guesthouse and left for Soddo the next day.

We arrived in Soddo late last Sunday afternoon and it was good to be home. We were all tired but the reunions were great. We enjoyed seeing the familiar families again: Duane and Jackie Anderson, Ruth Droppers and the Bowers (Harry, Stephne, Ben and Karmyn). We also enjoyed seeing the Aarsland’s again (Asle and Kari). Asle is an anesthesiologist and they’ll be with us for a year. Finally, it was great to sleep in my own bed again! Man, I’m definitely a homebody when it comes to beds… I’ve been missing that bed.

We spent Monday getting unpacked and resettled. That was all the time off I was allotted, though. I was called by the on-call resident that evening with two emergencies. There was a young woman with possible appendicitis and a man with a bowel obstruction. The reintroduction to medicine in Ethiopia was representative: weird and tragic. The young woman’s story was not really typical for appendicitis and it looked like she might have an ovarian torsion (where the ovary spins on itself and strangles itself). Either way, though, she clearly needed an operation. The man with a bowel obstruction looked bad. He had been in severe pain for three days and his vital signs were worrisome. He was very dehydrated and needed to be resuscitated some more before going to the operating room. So, we started pouring fluid into the man and took the young woman to the operating room.

In the OR, after she was asleep and her abdominal muscles were no longer tightly contracted, it was evident she had a tennis ball-sized mass in her abdomen. We opened her up and found a large, abnormal ovary that was very black and very dead. It had indeed twisted on its blood supply and died. We removed it and looked at the other ovary. It too was clearly abnormal and large. It was a tumor called a teratoma which has multiple types of tissue growing in it in a disorganized fashion. The hair growing in it gave it away. Unfortunately it meant removing that ovary as well. It left a 19-year old woman with immediate menopause and no chance of ever having children. Horrible.

I left the OR to check on the man with the obstruction and found that he had died during the first operation. The second punch in the gut. I suspect his problem was similar in that his bowel had likely twisted on itself and killed itself. That is a deadly condition to have.

The suffering in Ethiopia continues, just as it is happening in every other country in the world. The only way anyone can’t see that this is a fallen and horribly broken world is if they have no understanding of what it is supposed to be like. The Bible teaches that the world as we know it is an aberration, a fractured and broken world of conflict, both interpersonal and spiritual, that is not going to last forever. It teaches that the world as we know it is clearly set between two historical bookends: the rebellion of mankind at the fall and the return of Jesus at His second coming. The hope that Jesus has given me of the world to come helps keep me going; it helps keep it all in perspective.

The difficult truth is that, while mankind is suffering, mankind brought this on itself. Romans 1:20-21 says, “For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood through what has been made, so that they are without excuse. For even though they knew God, they did not honor Him as God or give thanks, but they became futile in their speculations, and their foolish heart was darkened.” It goes on to describe how men exchanged God for the worship of created things and how we have spiraled out of control. It ends with this: “and although they know the ordinance of God, that those who practice such things are worthy of death, they not only do the same but also give hearty approval to those who practice them.”

It’s a miserable truth and my pride makes it hard to swallow, but God in His love did not leave us there. One of my favorite verses in the Bible is in Ephesians. It’s the amazing rescue. After again describing the woeful state of mankind, Ephesians 2:4-5 says, “But God, being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ.” He made us alive together with Christ by killing Jesus in our stead. Jesus died the death of which we are worthy. That’s the great Truth I have the privilege of proclaiming here in Ethiopia.

The man who died last Monday is going to live forever. We talked with him before operating on the girl and we told him there was a chance he might die that night. We asked him if he was prepared to stand before God and he smiled and said ‘yes’. He was already depending on Jesus for his life. He believed that Jesus has died for his sins and that he had received forgiveness by that death. I wish that we could have helped him that night because life is still precious. However, for that man, the death of his body was only temporary. When Jesus comes back (and He will, make no mistake), I believe I’ll see that man alive again and we’ll enjoy eternity together.

Please pray for us as we share this Truth. God has given me the opportunities to talk to many people this week who do not know or recognize Jesus. As far as I know, none of them were receptive. But then again, no man ever saved a soul. As the apostle Paul says, some plant and others water but God brings the growth. I believe God can draw those men and women to Himself. This world will end someday but until it does, may God bring home all those that He desires.

Well, since everyone else out there has been posting pictures of their kiddos in the pumpkin patch we thought we would join in.  When we arrived back in Soddo, I discovered that our 2 pumpkin plants (planted about 6 months ago) were completely taking over our side yard.  I said to our neighbors…”have you seen our pumpkin patch?”  They were all unimpressed because they hadn’t seen any pumpkins actually in the patch.  The next day when Tomesgen, our gardener, arrived he showed me all of the pumpkins he had in our storage shed.  We had 22 pumpkins so far! 

I told him about Halloween and how in the fall in America, lots of children line up to take pictures in big patches of bright orange pumpkins (our pumpkins are green, but orange inside)…and how the leaves change from green to red when the weather gets cooler(our leaves stay green but fall off when it the rain stops).  He was very intrigued (and thought this was slightly silly)…but he humored us and made us our very own pumpkin patch and Benjamin and Karmyn came over to join in the festivities (Lydia is the white hat that Karmyn is holding)….

………………………RECIPE.……………………

The best roasted Pumpkin Seeds

I discovered the trick to tolerably chewy pumpkin seeds is to boil them first for about 5 minutes before roasting…

Clean seeds from pumpkin

Rinse with water

Boil 5 minutes

Dry on towel 5 minutes

Spread on cookie sheet

Sprinkle with worcestershire sauce, cayenne, seasoning salt (or your own variation of spices)

Stir

Bake at 350 F for about 15 minutes (some may pop in the oven, no, not like popcorn)

Enjoy

After making 6 trips between Ethiopia and America with Nathan we are thankful that this past flight was the most tolerable.  Nathan did great.  The first trick to flying with a walker and a talker is buying them a seat.  Even though Nathan isn’t quite 2 we bought him his own seat.  The problem when Nathan and I were coming back from Ethiopia in June was that the seat did not contain him.  He was always climbing all over the place and asking to “go” and get “down”.  Before our flight back I did some research (of course research for me these days does not include long forms to fill out on numerous patients…but is essentially…googling).  And what I found is you don’t have let a squirming kid sit in an airplane seat with a lap belt you can bring a……

Car Seat!

 Well, that is it.  The Car seat was the perfect solution for Nathan.  Most American kids are used to spending hours in a car seat in the car and are somewhat comfortable there.  And for the most part they know they cannot get down.  This was definitely true for Nathan.  He was not always asking to get down because he was securely fastened with movies playing in front of him, but where he couldn’t reach it.  And it was easier for him to fall asleep in his seat than in our arms or the floor.  (That is another trick to long flights…let your child sleep on the floor as long as the fastened seat belt sign isn’t on :)

One trick…that we haven’t found the answer to…is apparently there are only certain car seats that are allowed on planes, they say something about being FAA approved.  I could not find this sticker anywhere.  And further more we had to buy a no frills seat to get it to fit into the airplane seat…something to keep in mind.  We were able to bring ours on (we bought an extra one that would fit for 45 bucks at Wal-Mart…because it was the only one narrow enough.)

Hope this helps some of you out there.  It will be interesting to see how many hits we get from searching “flying with a toddler.”  We still get about 10 hits a day from people searching “tumor” and they get Paul’s post about his crazy day.

We made it home on Sunday afternoon.  The kids did great on the plane (more on the secret to happy flying toddlers later…mom’s be in suspense because it worked like a charm. I am just way to tired to write much more).  Nathan and Lydia have even been sleeping better at night than Paul and I.  We enjoyed a quiet day at home today unpacking and settling in.  Paul even showed terrific restraint by not going to the hospital….that is until about 30 minutes ago (7pm our time).  One of the residents called the house with 2 big cases that have to be done tonight.  But the restful day was nice, I just feel bad that I get to go to sleep early after fighting jet lag and he will be in the O.R.

will write to you from the other side of the atlantic…

Lord willing, we will leave tomorrow to return to Ethiopia for our second year. It’s been a wonderful first furlough back in the States and we want to express our deepest thanks and appreciation for all those who have so generously showered us with hospitality and love. We’ve enjoyed reconnecting with people, learning more about you and your lives and sharing what God has been doing in ours. This time has also been one of recharging so that we can return to the challenges and joys of life in Ethiopia. We feel as ready as we can be and are looking forward to getting back.

The family is doing well and is healthy. We are so thankful to God for our daughter, Lydia, and we rejoice that we can return to Soddo as four instead of three. She is a wonderful little girl and I’m lucky to be her dad. Nathan is doing great, too, and has grown a bunch since he left Soddo. I’m anxious for everyone there to see him again. They both had a doctor visit two days ago and they’re healthy as can be.

You should see the front side...

Yesterday Nathan and I visited the barber for a pre-trip haircut. After she finished my haircut, she asked me if I wanted her to “do my eyebrows.” I don’t really know what that means but I figure it’s got to be a milestone. I suppose they’ll soon be asking to trim my ears as well. As I look back over the years, I can’t help but be amazed at the grace and love of God for me. He’s given me an amazing, godly wife, two beautiful children, a satisfying job and a work that has drawn us all closer to Him and in which He is using us to glorify His name. Aging with Him, far from a miserable deterioration, is a wonderful move toward the beautiful conclusion promised in the cross of Jesus. I don’t know where He’ll lead us in the future or what trials we’ll face but I know that we’ll see His face someday and everything is going to end wonderfully.

As we return for another round, I just want to proclaim God’s goodness in the past and express our faith of His goodness in the future.