Thursday June 11th:
We didn’t sleep on the first International flight because we arrived in the Netherlands at 5 a.m their time and 10 pm Nebraska time. The end of the flight was my favorite as it was very early morning and out our side of the plane it was very dark black except for the beautiful moon. We were above the clouds and I have never seen the moon so clearly before. It was shining down on the tops of the scattered clouds below making them a very faint dark pink. Beautiful! Out the other side of the plane was a sunrise that started out a dark red color, then purple, then orange, yellow into the bright blue sky.
“My faithfulness and my steadfast love shall be with him. And in my name shall his horn be exalted. I will set his hand on the sea and his right hand on the rivers. He shall cry to me, ‘You are my Father, my God, and the Rock of my salvation.’ And I will make him the firstborn, the highest of the kings of the earth. My steadfast love I will keep for him forever, and my covenant will stand firm for him. I will establish his offspring forever and his throne as the days of the heavens. If his children forsake my law and do not walk according to my rules, if they violate my statutes and do not keep my commandments, then I will punish their transgression with the rod and their iniquity with stripes, but I will not remove from him my steadfast love or be false to my faithfulness. I will not violate my covenant or alter the word that went for the from my lips. Once for all I have sworn by my holiness; I will not lie to David. His offspring shall endure forever, his throne as long as the sun before me. Like the moon it shall be established forever, a faithful witness in the skies.”
Our 4 hour layover was rough because it was getting very late by our body clocks, but the Dutch workers at the airport were so very friendly it was refreshing for sure - a stark contrast from the American airport workers and attendants J I am shamelessly “people-watching” and am fascinated by looking at all the different faces that the Lord has made. I love that you can make a good guess about where a person is from by their distinct facial features. I did decide that when I get to heaven I am going to find Dutch friends because I LOVE to hear them talk! Ha ha! While we were waiting for our flight to Addis we struck up a conversation with a little Ethiopian girl who was waiting along with her mama and brother. She actually lived in Texas, but was flying back to visit friends. Craig is great with kids and she and he were having quite the conversation about anything and everything. It made me smile because she reminded me of Juliana.
Right now we are sitting in Khartoum, Sudan for a refueling stop. It is 110 degrees outside, though it is comfortable in the plane. As you can see in the picture above the landscape is very barren - VERY different than the parts of Ethiopia we saw. We will stay here about an hour and some people will get on and some will get off. I can’t help but think about the believers that are being persecuted as we speak right here in Sudan. According to Voice of the Martyrs there are around 300 Christians being kept prisoner in trailers (like the back of a semi) in the desert heat. As we have been flying over the deserts I have been praying for their souls to be encouraged and their hearts to be satisfied by the Lord…and that they would be freed soon. Watching out the window on this flight we have seen such a variety of landscapes. The beautiful green mountains and coastline of Italy, miles and miles and miles of deserts, a distant thunderstorm at eye level from the window of the plane as we were flying into Addis Ababa - Amazing!. All these things are messages to us, Dereje, of a God who has made a way for us to know him. He didn’t have to do this for us! Along with His word, all of creation testifies to His unending love for us which is expressed in its fullness in the gospel. The same people who are persecuting Christians in this very area stare blindly every day at the sands of the desert which God says number less than the souls He is going to save for eternal life.
We arrived at the airport and stood in line for about an hour and a half to get our travel visas and to get through customs. It took us another hour and a half at least to find our bags and try to track down our missing stroller or “baybay trolley” as they call it. Funny story - they never did find our stroller while we were at the airport and since it was just an umbrella stroller we decided to just forget about it and buy another someday when we got home. We were soooo very tired that night and a bed was MUCH more important than a silly stroller. So we said goodbye to the stroller and after we got home, on July 1st, I got a call from the Netherlands here at home that our stroller was in Amsterdam and they were sending it to Omaha. Too funny!
The drive to the hotel was our first introduction to driving (or I should say riding) in Ethiopia. The side of the road you drive on is just a suggestion, as are stop signs. There was one intersection we drove through that was just a huge open space with about 5 outlets - no lines, no lights, nothing’ but open space. When you come up alongside another car on the roadand you want to pass, or maybe just drive beside them, you beep your horn. You also do this if you get behind some donkeys, sheep, goats, or cows - yeah, in the city!. Now these are not angry beeps, mind you, just “Hi, I’m here” kind of beeps. I never saw an angry driver, though there were many situations I saw that would have spelled disaster in the U.S. It was crazy, but it was also incredibly interesting to see how it all worked - and it really did work! A definite testimony to the graciousness and patience of the Ethiopian people! Several of our fellow travelers watched very nervously and I just thought getting to ride along in Addis was incredibly entertaining J We were in good hands with Holt and their traffic rules are just simply a different way of doing things! There were not many cars on the road by then because it was getting late, and we arrived at the hotel after watching the nighttime scenery: palm trees, dirt sidewalks, and armed gaurds stationed along the road. Our hotel was surrounded by a gate which is the norm for buildings and houses in Addis. Our guide explained that this is partly for safety, but also is partly just a cultural thing - building a gate around your house or shop is just what you do. For both the care center (where the kids were) and the hotel there was a man whose job it was to watch the gate and open it for you when you want to enter or leave. There were also guys there to carry our hotel suitcases up to our rooms. This is something that is very different than in the US. In Ethiopia you tip EVERYBODY. And I mean everybody. This is how many people make a living and I don’t think I ever got used to it or had a good feel what to tip people. Addis is situated at a high altitude and along with no mosquitos and beautiful weather (50-60’s at night and high of 80’s) comes difficulty climbing stairs - we were out of breath climbing up to the 2nd floor with NO luggage. Too funny! I think we did have electricity when we arrived, because it was very late, and we got settled into our room. Our room was actually very pretty, but the bed was the hardest I’ve ever come across in my almost 29 years. We actually looked under the blankets to see IF there was a mattress. By the second night we figured out that we could double all the blankets so that we could sleep. It took us about 3 days to somewhat adjust to the time change (Addis is 8 hours ahead of Nebraska) and to not have that incredible slump mid day where we were barely functional. The hotel does have Coca-Cola (in bottles), which we did not think to ask for until the end of the trip J
We didn’t sleep on the first International flight because we arrived in the Netherlands at 5 a.m their time and 10 pm Nebraska time. The end of the flight was my favorite as it was very early morning and out our side of the plane it was very dark black except for the beautiful moon. We were above the clouds and I have never seen the moon so clearly before. It was shining down on the tops of the scattered clouds below making them a very faint dark pink. Beautiful! Out the other side of the plane was a sunrise that started out a dark red color, then purple, then orange, yellow into the bright blue sky.
“My faithfulness and my steadfast love shall be with him. And in my name shall his horn be exalted. I will set his hand on the sea and his right hand on the rivers. He shall cry to me, ‘You are my Father, my God, and the Rock of my salvation.’ And I will make him the firstborn, the highest of the kings of the earth. My steadfast love I will keep for him forever, and my covenant will stand firm for him. I will establish his offspring forever and his throne as the days of the heavens. If his children forsake my law and do not walk according to my rules, if they violate my statutes and do not keep my commandments, then I will punish their transgression with the rod and their iniquity with stripes, but I will not remove from him my steadfast love or be false to my faithfulness. I will not violate my covenant or alter the word that went for the from my lips. Once for all I have sworn by my holiness; I will not lie to David. His offspring shall endure forever, his throne as long as the sun before me. Like the moon it shall be established forever, a faithful witness in the skies.”
Our 4 hour layover was rough because it was getting very late by our body clocks, but the Dutch workers at the airport were so very friendly it was refreshing for sure - a stark contrast from the American airport workers and attendants J I am shamelessly “people-watching” and am fascinated by looking at all the different faces that the Lord has made. I love that you can make a good guess about where a person is from by their distinct facial features. I did decide that when I get to heaven I am going to find Dutch friends because I LOVE to hear them talk! Ha ha! While we were waiting for our flight to Addis we struck up a conversation with a little Ethiopian girl who was waiting along with her mama and brother. She actually lived in Texas, but was flying back to visit friends. Craig is great with kids and she and he were having quite the conversation about anything and everything. It made me smile because she reminded me of Juliana.
Right now we are sitting in Khartoum, Sudan for a refueling stop. It is 110 degrees outside, though it is comfortable in the plane. As you can see in the picture above the landscape is very barren - VERY different than the parts of Ethiopia we saw. We will stay here about an hour and some people will get on and some will get off. I can’t help but think about the believers that are being persecuted as we speak right here in Sudan. According to Voice of the Martyrs there are around 300 Christians being kept prisoner in trailers (like the back of a semi) in the desert heat. As we have been flying over the deserts I have been praying for their souls to be encouraged and their hearts to be satisfied by the Lord…and that they would be freed soon. Watching out the window on this flight we have seen such a variety of landscapes. The beautiful green mountains and coastline of Italy, miles and miles and miles of deserts, a distant thunderstorm at eye level from the window of the plane as we were flying into Addis Ababa - Amazing!. All these things are messages to us, Dereje, of a God who has made a way for us to know him. He didn’t have to do this for us! Along with His word, all of creation testifies to His unending love for us which is expressed in its fullness in the gospel. The same people who are persecuting Christians in this very area stare blindly every day at the sands of the desert which God says number less than the souls He is going to save for eternal life.
We arrived at the airport and stood in line for about an hour and a half to get our travel visas and to get through customs. It took us another hour and a half at least to find our bags and try to track down our missing stroller or “baybay trolley” as they call it. Funny story - they never did find our stroller while we were at the airport and since it was just an umbrella stroller we decided to just forget about it and buy another someday when we got home. We were soooo very tired that night and a bed was MUCH more important than a silly stroller. So we said goodbye to the stroller and after we got home, on July 1st, I got a call from the Netherlands here at home that our stroller was in Amsterdam and they were sending it to Omaha. Too funny!
The drive to the hotel was our first introduction to driving (or I should say riding) in Ethiopia. The side of the road you drive on is just a suggestion, as are stop signs. There was one intersection we drove through that was just a huge open space with about 5 outlets - no lines, no lights, nothing’ but open space. When you come up alongside another car on the roadand you want to pass, or maybe just drive beside them, you beep your horn. You also do this if you get behind some donkeys, sheep, goats, or cows - yeah, in the city!. Now these are not angry beeps, mind you, just “Hi, I’m here” kind of beeps. I never saw an angry driver, though there were many situations I saw that would have spelled disaster in the U.S. It was crazy, but it was also incredibly interesting to see how it all worked - and it really did work! A definite testimony to the graciousness and patience of the Ethiopian people! Several of our fellow travelers watched very nervously and I just thought getting to ride along in Addis was incredibly entertaining J We were in good hands with Holt and their traffic rules are just simply a different way of doing things! There were not many cars on the road by then because it was getting late, and we arrived at the hotel after watching the nighttime scenery: palm trees, dirt sidewalks, and armed gaurds stationed along the road. Our hotel was surrounded by a gate which is the norm for buildings and houses in Addis. Our guide explained that this is partly for safety, but also is partly just a cultural thing - building a gate around your house or shop is just what you do. For both the care center (where the kids were) and the hotel there was a man whose job it was to watch the gate and open it for you when you want to enter or leave. There were also guys there to carry our hotel suitcases up to our rooms. This is something that is very different than in the US. In Ethiopia you tip EVERYBODY. And I mean everybody. This is how many people make a living and I don’t think I ever got used to it or had a good feel what to tip people. Addis is situated at a high altitude and along with no mosquitos and beautiful weather (50-60’s at night and high of 80’s) comes difficulty climbing stairs - we were out of breath climbing up to the 2nd floor with NO luggage. Too funny! I think we did have electricity when we arrived, because it was very late, and we got settled into our room. Our room was actually very pretty, but the bed was the hardest I’ve ever come across in my almost 29 years. We actually looked under the blankets to see IF there was a mattress. By the second night we figured out that we could double all the blankets so that we could sleep. It took us about 3 days to somewhat adjust to the time change (Addis is 8 hours ahead of Nebraska) and to not have that incredible slump mid day where we were barely functional. The hotel does have Coca-Cola (in bottles), which we did not think to ask for until the end of the trip J
A view from the hotel in the morning.
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