Holidays and the Desert

Hi Friends,

It has been a few weeks since I’ve written an update. The holidays have gotten me off of my schedule. For those of you I didn’t have a chance to send greetings to, Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! I had a wonderful Christmas in Addis Ababa with Bob & Jane & their son, a missionary family from Seattle and another girl, Marcie who is helping with an agriculture project in the southwest. It was fun with a tree and presents to unwrap, a Christmas chicken and stuffing, pie (my contribution) and a puzzle to do.

 

Shortly after Christmas SIM Ethiopia had a conference for all missionaries in a resort place called Sodere where we all got to ring in the new year. It is a sweet place with African sounds like monkeys in the middle of the night. All of the water supply comes from a hot spring so all of the water from the Olympic-sized pool (which is as hot as a hot tub on the first day) to the toilet water is quite hot. The monkeys are a big part of life there…I tried to open the door to air out my musty room and to unload things from my landcruiser and the monkeys kept sneaking in the room when I turned my back. In all they stole 4 pieces of candy and a banana (the 1^st monkey took those in the gold shiny wrapper first then the next one took the candy in the clear wrapper and the third monkey tried to take all 3 bananas in a bag, but only ended up getting away with one). After that I dug out some squirt guns (brought from the States just for this occasion) and that helped keep the monkeys at bay. I must admit that the monkeys were quite entertaining to watch—jumping through the trees and peering in through my window to see what treats they could find. OH yeah, we had the Christian author Philip Yancy come and share with us on prayer during our retreat. I was impressed that he could not only write, but was also an interesting and challenging speaker. I remember his summary of the three things Jesus taught on prayer from the first night: Keep it simple, keep it honest and keep it up. Good words to remember and to follow.

 

I am currently trying to finish paperwork for my project in the next couple weeks and then a short term couple (Jensen & Meghan) will come to help me for a month in Yabello. (They arrive Jan 13). I really need to get the paperwork done by that time so I’m hoping that I can be focused. Before I get going on the paperwork I was invited to go along to visit some desert people in the northeast. There is currently a drought in that area and I expect it to be hot, dry and barren with skinny camels.  I have never been to the real desert before so I am excited to go. It is only a short 2 day trip so I leave tomorrow & I’ll be back on Tuesday.  If you could keep me in your prayers I would appreciate it…my back is a little sore from sitting in a conference all of last week so I’m praying that the drive won’t bother it too much.

 

Blessings to you in 2010,

Dr. Denise