Excess

I don’t have drawers here, just a giant wardrobe without any shelves. If you open it up it you will often find a mound of clothes. Some folded, some not, some clean, some not. Tonight I couldn’t look at the pile anymore so I put it all on my bed and folded it. I brought about half of my clothes to Africa- mainly my summer stuff. As I was folding I kept folding shirt after shirt that I had never worn here. I brought 5 pairs of knee length shorts that still have the tags on them…sorry mom. I have about 5 outfits that I always wear, and apart from those items the rest just sit in my closet. Couple tonight’s epiphany of “Becca has far too much” with the fact that I am reading the book Radical and you have a very convicted girl.

I don’t really have a plan to go out tonight and just give shirts to homeless people or a shelter. I don’t know what I will do but I just have this overwhelming sense and awareness of the excess in my life that I don’t need or want at this point.

I know this is not some new revolutionary idea that Americans have too much but I challenge you to take all your clothes out, put them on your bed, and then fold them all. It’s a humbling thing to look at piles of money in the form of clothes that you probably don’t need.

A passage from David Platt’s, “Radical”

“Am I willing to live a life that is content with food and clothing, having the basic necessities of my life provided for? Or do I want more? … Do I want to indulge in more and more luxuries in my life? After all what’s wrong with luxuries? This is a key question, and if we are not careful in how we answer it, we will miss the point of what God desires us to teach us about our possessions. We don’t need to sell or give away nice clothes, nice cars, nice houses, or surplus possessions because they are inherently bad. As we have seen, wealth and possessions are not inherently evil; they are good in and of themselves. So we don’t sell them or give them away because they are sinful. …We sell them and give them away because Christ in us compels us to care for the needy around us.

…

The reality is that most everything in our lives in the American culture would be classified as a luxury, not a necessity. The point we can learn is that our perspective on our possessions radically changes when we open our eyes to the needs of the world around us. When we have the courage to look in the faces of brothers and sisters whose bodies are malnourished and whose brains are deformed because they have no food, Christ will change our desires, and we will long to sacrifice our resources for the glory of his name among them.”

Woah. Amen and Amen.

Go read this book, take a look at your life, and ask Jesus to reveal the blind spots in your life that are full of pure excess!

Rahel's Love Story

Rahel is at the salon. It is 8 pm and I am impatiently waiting for my roomie BFF to get home because when she is home the world is right. She comes home babe status after getting her hair all done up. She immediately tells me that moments ago a CUTE BOY asked her to dinner…and she said NO b/c she felt bad about how late she was getting home. Not a valid excuse. She said he was going to Time Zone -- a café that is walking distance from my house. I get my cupid pants on and insist that we go to time zone on the account that I reeeaaally wanted a cup of tea. Rahel says no way but I am an excellent persuader and minutes later we are en route to meet future husband. We are steps away from Mr. Red shirt who, by the way, is downing injera (he is white, so this is a weird site too see). I tell her we will go to the second floor so we don’t chance having to talk to him. I enter and sit at the table next to him. Rahel gives me the wide eye “I’m gonna kill you face.” I grin back. I order my tea and sip away as Rahel awkwardly sits with her back to her fiancé. I am trying to convince her to say something, anything, but she won’t budge. I finish my tea and we leave.

Rewind to a couple days ago when our guard told us that “bazoo forenj” (many white people) moved into our neighborhood. We’ve only seen one blonde oldish man in our neighborhood, crossing our fingers that there are more. Anyways there is reason to believe that Rahel’s boy might be one of the guys who lives in our neighborhood. We informed our guard that he is wearing a red t-shirt and jeans, so please keep your eyes open and report back to us in the AM.

Tonight we are praying to the good Lord that this guy lives in our neighborhood so Rahel can finally get a ring by spring. Keep your fingers crossed.

- Cupid

If you really knew me...

The kids are on their mid winter break this week and I was in charge of planning a week’s worth of programs for the kids to attend, according to grade. My idea for the high schoolers came from the MTV show “If you really knew me." A show where a team goes into High schools and ask students to finish the sentence "If you really knew me, you'd know..."

I planned the 2-hour session a little different than how MTV does it. We played five rounds. It started with basic things like, “If you really knew me, you’d know my favorite color is blue.” With each round I gave the kids prompts they could use, they progressively got more personal.

Here are some of the responses…all started with “If you really knew me, you’d know…”

-I am afraid of spiders

-I want to someday repay my parents for everything they provided for me

-I thank God everyday for my health

-I disrespect my mom too much. I’m working on it

-My biggest fear is public speaking

-My biggest fear is dying unmarried

-My relationship with my family is awful

-I wish my dad was still alive

-I feel inferior to almost everyone

-I have no confidence in myself

-I am proud of myself for getting good grades

-I feel closest to my mom

I wrote in an earlier post that self-expression is unheard of here, especially amongst youth. So for the kids to share these things with us was really a big deal for them. I am so grateful for their willingness to be vulnerable. At the end there was a bit of a silence until Goshow started to clap. We all sat and clapped with big grins… this was a big day for the kids, reason to celebrate! These kids are just amazing; they are game changers for Ethiopia. I see so much potential in each of them. Pray for these 7: Freowit, Goshow, Sammy, Dave, Zalelim, Aizlu, and Nati. Please pray for a continued willingness to share in group discussion. After seeing the success we had today, we are planning to do a lot more of these open-share type of exercises.

Love from Addis,

Becca