The Joy of saying Yes

In the spring of my Senior year, when this journey really started, I had no idea what this year would hold. And now, as I begin to “look back” on it all, my heart is wrecked with all sorts of emotions but mostly gratitude. A year ago I was in a Social Justice class dreaming of helping women who were slaves to prostitution. A year ago I wrote a paper about how my views of prostitutes changed after watching the documentary “Very Young Girls.”  A year ago I texted my dad in the middle of class, with tears in my eyes saying “I don’t think I am supposed to go to college” The quiet journey of packing up my life and moving to Africa started to unfold in March of 2013. And now, in March of 2014 as I live the reality of serving women who were once in prostitution I am blown away!! The Lord is so gracious and kind.

His holy orchestration of every detail about this year is mind blowing. In August, weeks before I moved I had no house or roommate. Hours after arriving in Ethiopia he provided an amazing house, far past my expectations of what I would have here. He provided a friend to live with me, Rahel. Even days before leaving, I struggled to find the words to tell people exactly what I was doing in Ethiopia. But this is the crazy, adventure of saying yes to Jesus. You don’t always get the details, you sometimes just get the call.

The more I learn to trust God the more I realize that He will provide radical opportunities if I just say yes. One example…a week after I got back to Ethiopia, my “boss” (I don’t know any other word, but basically the woman who gives me projects/assignments) said “Becca we need you to teach a class to woman who know zero English, and its an hour away” I was hesitant to say yes, but I am so thankful I did. This class is full of hilarious, curious, smart women. The Lord has blessed this class and provided me with so much patience and kindness for them. I look forward to Thursdays, I absolutely love going to Sires to hang out with and teach these women. 3 months ago they couldn’t say Hello and now they are reading children’s books perfectly. Amazing, right? It is all a testament to the Lords remarkable ability to work when you say yes to his callings. This is joy!!!

It is a beautiful and scary thing to listen to the Spirit’s woos that come in our life. It isn’t always easy. It isn’t always the popular thing. I was one of three students in my graduating class who didn’t go to college. But I have learned time and time again that it is so worth it to say yes.

Exciting things are happening here! I leave for Kenya in 5 days. I am working on multiple video projects. Classes are wonderful and fun, like always. Thank you for your continued support and kind words!!

Love from Addis,

Becca

Update!

I feel incredibly blessed for the life that the Lord has given me. I would have never imagined that my 19^th birthday would be celebrated in Africa, but I am so thankful that it was. Thank you to everyone who wrote me such sweet words on my birthday, it made it that much sweeter!
I’ve been back in Ethiopia for 2 months and I have 2 more to go, which seems very surreal. Just a second ago I was in my dad’s office at the end of August talking about how it would all go so quickly...and it sure has!

2 months left and I feel like I am turning the corner for the final stretch. Here is what that looks like…

• -       The women I have been teaching have finished the first half of their program and now move into the skills training portion of it. My final class with them was this past Friday…bittersweet! I am very proud of how far they have come. The first month of their program multiple woman dropped out which was a big discouragement. These final 15 have worked hard and are now in their final stretch as well.
• -       I have lesson plans for all of my other classes up until the day I leave so for Kindergarten up to 12 it is just teaching those lessons and preparing my heart to leave these kids who I love SO stinking much.
• -       My amazing parents surprised me with my life long dream a SAFARI. So in late March Rahel and I will board a plane and head to Kenya! I can’t believe it and as I type this I am getting giddy.
• -       I am not a videographer by any means but I do enjoy it so I have taken on a couple of video projects. The first is a video for our sponsorship program that is in the works. Basically it is just catching some really cute faces on video. Which is awesome and pretty easy. The second is a video of the women I have been teaching. Which is not so easy. It requires them to do some English speaking which they are not really comfortable with. The rest of the video is just candid shots, which is also hard because the minute I take out my camera they freak out haha! So pray for that. The third project is every Sunday morning for the next 8 weeks. I am documenting counseling training that is happening at IEC, the church I attend. Excited but nervous because these videos will then be used from now on when they train people…so better not mess up ha!
• -       When I got back in January I started teaching a new class in Sires which is a WAR project about an hour away. These women had no English in their vocab. Where did I start? Well I sang the ABC’s in front of them, which was humbling. Since then they have made remarkable progress. In my last class they were reading BOB books perfectly, which was a sweet moment as those were the books I learned to read with. I really enjoy that class, and getting to Sires is an adventure in itself. Meron and I take 3 mini busses and walk for about 20 minutes for a total commute of about an hour (on a good day).
• A week ago Rahel, Meron, my new friend Hannah and I drove an hour outside of Addis to go to this wild life park for rescued animals. The drive there was hilarious, we hired this driver who had very little knowledge of the city so we were constantly stopping to ask if we were going in the right direction. We arrived at the park and our very old but cute guide said “We walk a lot.” And from there we basically hiked into the mountainside, which was also hilarious because Rahel and Meron were in dresses. After 20 minutes of trekking we reached the cheetahs. Then more trekking and we reached the lions. They had 12 lions that were separated into 6 different encaged areas. Hannah and I walked over to one cage where the lions were resting about 15 feet from the fence. They saw us and straight CHARGED at us. Hannah and I screamed and turned to start running…then we realized that the double wire fence would probably keep them in there just fine. The lions then continued to roar at us for 5 minutes. It was wild. Check out the video on my facebook. We then headed over to the monkeys. This next story will probably be one of my favorites to tell for a long time. I wish you could have seen it. I was pretty bummed at all of the cages and fences that kept us far away, so I asked if I could hop the wood fence to get closer to the monkeys. There was still a wire fence between us but the monkeys could stick their arms through it. Rahel starts snapping some awesome pictures, I’m throwing up the hang loose sign and just loving the moment. Hannah then decides to hop the fence; I step out of the way so she can begin her monkey photo shoot. Within seconds a monkey grabs her hair through the fence and Hannah screams ballistically. I am standing there, watching it all go down, paralyzed with “I don’t know what the heck I should do right now.” It then grabs her tank top strap and rips it into two pieces. It finally lets go of her and we all start dying in laughter. It was one of the craziest things I have ever seen go down. And now Hannah has such a rad and legit story to tell. We reenacted it for the rest of the day and I can still see Hannah’s face when the psychopath monkey latched onto her head. So so hilarious. Hannah wasn’t hurt but a giant clump of her hair is now forever in the monkey exhibit. Such a fun and bizarre day.
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  the beginning of the hike to Born Free

  
  
  
  

  

  Our last class together. They are beauties!!!

  
  

  

  More of the sweets I taught.

Born Free is up in the countryside of Ethiopia.
Such a beautiful area of this country.

Love from Addis,

Becca