Gettin' married!

I am so relieved that I am able to post this blog!!  I haven’t been able to post until now as there were people that had to be told before I posted this publicly.  But I am SO happy that I am able to do it now.  I am getting married on April 21st!!!!  I am marrying a wonderful, beautiful, godly man named Mussie (Moses) in English and I am so blessed that God chose me to be Mussie’s wife.  

About two years ago I started praying for my future spouse.  Of course, I didn’t know who that person was at the time but I prayed for him a lot.  I prayed that God would mold him into a strong Christian that wanted to do nothing but serve God first.  I prayed that he would have a gentle sweet spirit.  I prayed that he would be funny.  I prayed that he would have common interests as me.  I prayed that other than God this man would love me and cherish me and respect me.  I prayed that he would want a family.  I prayed that he would want to take in orphans.  I prayed that he would have a generous, servant’s heart.  I prayed that we would have a common vision from God.  I prayed that we would want to serve in the same ministry.  I prayed that we would be able to pray together.  I prayed that I would be a good helper for him.  I prayed that I would be able to serve alongside him.

God has answered all of those prayer requests by bringing me Mussie.  I even got answers to things that I didn’t even pray for!  Mussie Teshome Haile is the Assistant Director of Blessing the Children in Ethiopia.  I met Mussie in October 2010 when I first visited Ethiopia.  While we kept in touch occassionally during the year I was back in the USA those interactions were only ministry related.  I didn’t know that God was bringing me back to Ethiopia to not only serve Him but to also become Mussie’s wife.  This is something that God did in our lives that was a huge surprise for both of us.

As I have been telling people, I have somewhat been on the defensive-believing that it is my job to convince people of my truth.  It is not my job to convince you that this is of God.  I don’t want that to sound harsh but it has been my experience in life that no matter what you tell people, they will form their own judgements and opinions.  All I can do is explain my story and pray that God reveals His plans to those affected.

God used many prophecies to reveal His plan to me and Mussie.  He spoke to us separately and He also spoke to us together.  When I received the first prophecy I didn’t want to believe it.  It sounded so crazy to me-that God would want me to marry someone after only knowing him for a short amount of time.  I ignored the prophecy and tried to put it out of my mind.  That worked for a few weeks but as we all know, you can’t hide from God and His plans.  I had to confront this scary prophecy and I had to decide what I was to do about it.  The woman that spoke the prophecy over me reminded me of it again a few weeks later.  

I took some time to fast and pray about all of this.  I really needed God’s help.  God had been consistently leading me to the book of Ruth.  I knew Ruth’s story but I had honestly never really paid much attention to that book in the Bible.  I read the book of Ruth approximately 20 times and I was getting frustrated because I didn’t understand why God kept prodding me to read and study it.  One day, I was so emotionally and spiritually drained that I cried out to God and told Him that I didn’t understand what He wanted from me and I didn’t understand what He was trying to say to me.  The next time I read Ruth it all became so clear.  I won’t go into all of those details but God really opened up my eyes to Ruth and Boaz’s story and it I then understood what God was trying to show me.

I know some of you may not believe in the gifts of the Spirit or maybe you technically believe in them but there are some things that you think are too big or too important to leave to prophecies.  I understand these thoughts and feelings-I have had them before.  I understand that it is scary to some when they hear of me marrying, what they consider to be a stranger, a person from a third world country.  I understand these concerns and I thank you for loving me enough to be concerned.  And when I think about all of this from just the human side of my brain, as I like to call it, it does sound scary and it does sound crazy.  I realize that it does.  But when I look at all of this from God’s point of view; from the eyes that God has given me to see Mussie with and to see our future with-nothing sounds more right.  

I have been informed by some people that this decision may affect my financial support and that I should think twice about it.  I realize that some of my financial supporters may not agree with my decision and choose to no longer support what I do here.  I, of course, don’t want that to happen but I know that God will provide for all of my needs.  I have faith that God has worked out all of the details.  There have been too many times in my life-specifically during this Ethiopian journey-that God has provided in times where at first it looked like He wouldn’t.  

I am very grateful to all of my financial/prayer supporters and of course I pray that these supporters stand behind me even after I get married.  However, if you are a financial supporter and you choose to no longer support me there will be no hard feelings.  I understand that this is a lot to process and I understand that you may believe I had ulterior motives in moving to Ethiopia.  I will pray that God shows His truth to you.

Even though I am getting married and even though I am marrying an employee of BCI I still have monthly financial needs.  The missions do not stop just because I get married.  I still will have living expenses, insurance, and etc that need to be paid each month.  I am still waiting to find out from BCI how much my monthly payment will go down each month.  I am currently living in the BCI guesthouse but when I move out I will no longer have to pay for that-although I am having to rent a house to live in so I still will have rent each month.  As soon as I find out my new financial monthly need I will let you know.

Some people that I have told have been concerned about the cultural differences between myself and Mussie.  While it is true that our cultures are very different I believe God has prepared us to work through such differences.  Mussie’s family has worked with missionaries for approximately 30 years so Mussie has grown up around the Western culture.  Mussie and his family are very Westernized as well.  I think that when people think of an Ethiopian they only understand what they have seen on TV or read in the newspaper.  While those descriptions are true of most rural Ethiopians, it is inaccurate when describing a city Ethiopian.   Mussie and his family have lived outside of the capital of Ethiopia for about 30 years so they are more Westernized than most Ethiopians.  

This is not to say that there are not differences and of course there will be misunderstandings about culture along the way but that can be said of many couples.  A person from New York City that marries someone from small town, Arkansas will have “cultural” differences to deal with.  I know it is not the same but I am trying to say that even if you marry someone from your own culture there will still be lifestyle differences.

I am most concerned about Kingdom culture.  When looking at a spouse we should be looking to see if this person fits into God’s culture and lives by God’s standards and I can say that Mussie does.  The environment that I am in here in Ethiopia is one that fosters closeness and bonding.  It is amazing to me how quickly I bond with people here.  I know some will say that I haven’t known him long enough to know if he will make a good husband.  But because of our working situations here I have been able to see Mussie in a variety of tough situations and I am proud to call him my finance.  God knows if Mussie is right for me and I have God’s approval (and direction) so that is all I need.

Mussie and I have prayed relentlessly that God will be seen in all of this and we have faith that He will.  You may not agree with this now, but I have faith that eventually you will come to see that no matter how crazy it sounds-this is God’s plan.  

This should go without saying but I realize that not everyone that supports me financially or everyone that reads this blog knows me personally so I want to say it:  absolutely none of the money that has been donated for my missions work here in Ethiopia will go to pay for the wedding.  Mussie and I will be using personal money that we both had saved.  The money that is donated goes to my living expenses and to help those in need.  None of that money will be used for the wedding or honeymoon.

I have also been asked “why the rush?”.  There actually is no rush we are just following God’s timing and April is when we feel that God would have us to marry.

I appreciate all of my supporters-whether the form of support is through finances or prayer, I am very much grateful for all of it.  The prayers get me through tough days, keeps me safe and healthy, and show me where God would have me to serve and show me how God wants me to react in certain situations.  The finances make my everyday life here possible.  It also makes feeding orphans, paying rent, paying doctor bills, buying Bibles, buying shoes and clothes possible.  I thank you for all the ways that I am able to serve the Lord here.  It is because of my supporters that I am able to do it all.

If you have any questions you would like to ask me about all of this you can contact me at jonnettbarrick@yahoo.com.

Blessings!

Kenya

So last week I had the opportunity to take a trip to Kenya.  I can’t believe it has only been a week since I left Debre Zeyit because it literally feels like two months.

It all started with this scenario in the Kenya airport:

Karen and I are walking over to get our Kenyan visa and a lady stops us and says “We are checking yellow fever certificates.”

I look at Karen and say “Enday?”  (which is Amharic for basically ‘ohmigosh’ or ‘wow’ or something of that affect-I don’t actually think you are supposed to use it as a question, but I do).  Then I ask Karen if she has hers (secretly hoping she doesn’t because I don’t want to be the only moron that doesn’t have hers).  Thankfully, Karen says no she doesn’t have hers (you like how selfish I am?).  So we stand there like complete idiots wondering if we are about to quarantined or something.  So I tell the airport lady that we don’t have ours and she asks us where we are coming from.  We say “Ethiopia” and I felt a bit of judgement and hate coming off of her.  She asks us how long we have been there I say “Four Months” and Karen says “One and a half years”.  More disdain and hate from airport lady is flung our way.

She tells us to follow her and the other group of ill-prepared travelers.  We sit outside of an office and she calls people in one by one and they aren’t staying in there too long so we think we will be on our way shortly.  Until she calls “next” and Karen and I go in together.  We then get this big long hate speech about how she let the other people slide because they were only passing through Ethiopia but because we have chosen to live there she can’t possible let us walk into her country without the certificates.  Meanwhile, Karen and I are not fighting with her, we just want to handle this as quickly as possible.  She continues her tirade about Ethiopia having an endemic of yellow fever and she doesn’t even know what to do with us.  She tells us we have to get the shot, we say okay, she tells us how much, we say we don’t have any shillings, she tells us where to get some, so we traipse all over the airport trying to find a place to exchange money, finally find it, money exchanger lady asks us for our passports, we say the shot lady kept it, money exchanger lady gives us a death look but exchanges our money anyway, we go back to shot lady, only to discover she is not actually shot lady, the real shot lady comes, shoots us, we go back to the not really shot lady, stands there while she yells at a man who has no certificate and other airport personnel, she signs our certificates, we proceed to the visa line, only to be ridiculed by the visa dude for not having our original yellow fever certificates with us.

So we finally get through the visa line, go downstairs, find our luggage, only to discover that we don’t have anyone waiting for us.  We make some phone calls and discover that our ride left us because we never came out.  She, thankfully, came back and we were on our way!

We stayed in the guesthouse of a non-profit that rescues street kids in Nairobi.  They go to the slums to minister to the boys and they work a points system.  The boys can earn points for a variety of good behavior.  Once they have enough points they are moved to a farm in a more rural part of the region.  On the farm the boys are given an education with a lot of it focused on agriculture.  They are trained in all things agricultural in hopes that they will find a job one day.  And to help in finding jobs there are farmers that work with this project and when the boys graduate these farmers employ a lot of the boys.  It is a wonderful project and I enjoyed spending time with the boys.  We had a praise and worship session with the boys and it was so wonderful.  I took pictures and video but because of the sensitive matter of these boys prior lives I will not post them.  Most of the boys were involved in gangs and there is still animosity going on.

Kenya is an interesting place.  Nairobi is a very built-up city.  It feels first-world, not third-world.  Nairobi was kind of weird for me though because it felt like I was in Florida and DC at the same time!  In Nairobi we went to the elephant orphanage, the giraffe park (where I kissed a giraffe), and went to an actual mall (we don’t have those in Ethiopia).  

A few days into the trip we drove to Mombasa and were very excited to see the beach.  Mombasa was SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO hot and humid!  It was ridiculous!  I couldn’t believe how much I was sweating!  The first night we were there we went to the beach and Karen and I rode a camel on the beach.  That was so cool.  The next day our main plan was to lay on the beach all day.  Well, I bought sunscreen in Mombasa because I forgot it at home and let’s just say that it was useless!  We laid out in the sun for 2 hours and both got burnt.  I mean, burnt.  So the next day we were in pain.  We laid around with ice on our backs and just moaned and cried.  We took a night bus from Mombasa back to Nairobi overnight and got back to Nairobi and we just wanted to go home.  But our flight wasn’t for two days.  So we basically hung out at the guesthouse moaning.  

The trip to Kenya wasn’t what I expected but I did have fun seeing elephants, kissing a giraffe, riding a camel, riding a motorbike ‘cause taxi was too expensive, and checking out the ministry down here.  There was definitely some uncomfortable parts of the trip, ridiculous Indian Ocean sunburn, unimaginable heat and humidity but I God confirmed something during this trip.

Debre Zeyit is definitely my home.  I can’t really blame my not-so-great trip on Kenya.  Kenya is actually a great place but it isn’t my place.  There are things in Kenya that people may define as “better” than Ethiopia.  Like, there aren’t squatty potties everywhere, you can actually flush toilet paper, the food shopping has more variety but Kenya doesn’t have my heart.  God has definitely made Ethiopia my home and even though things are cleaner and prettier in Kenya it can never capture my heart like Ethiopia has.  

What I miss about Ethiopia:

*The cool mornings.

*Running in the mornings.

*Spicy foods.

*Fiker & Rebirra.

*All 145 kids in the BCI program.

*Evening prayer with my favorite habesha.

*Sleeping mosquito free.

*Dimples.

*New Zealand.

*Wind.

*Amharic.

*Couch mountain.

*Buna!!!!!!!

*Having goats follow me.

*Moose.

*Bajaj.

*BCI staff.

*Morning devotions with BCI staff.

*The shower in the guesthouse (it is great, even though it doesn’t have a shower curtain).

*My purple blanket.

*My fan.

*And just the feeling of “I’m home”.

Thank you to Margaret, Robin, Yolanda, and Miriam for showing us around!  You do a great job here with those boys.  I pray blessings over your life and ministries!

It has been fun Kenya, and I will miss my new giraffe boyfriend, but I can’t wait to get home tonight.

World Together Children's Choir

A few weeks back I had the opportunity to attend the National Theatre in Addis Ababa and watch the World Together Children's Choir sing.  I used to love to go to plays, musicals, and concerts in America so I wanted to check one out in Ethiopia.  I am so glad that I did!  We took a van-full of 10 people and drove into the city to watch the choir.

They started the show with an Ethiopian montage.  There are approximately 85 different tribes in Ethiopia and they all have their own diverse culture, customs, singing, and dancing.  It was really cool to see a performance that combined a few of these tribes.

They sang songs from different parts of the world such as Germany, Russia, and the Netherlands.  It was really interesting to see a choir of Ethiopian children yodeling!!  They finished the performance with "Heal the World" by Michael Jackson and "O Happy Day".  "O Happy Day" was a different version than I have ever heard but it was so cool.

I really had a great time at the concert and I tried to upload video so you could enjoy it as well but there was an issue.  So you can go to my facebook group:

http://www.facebook.com/groups/185514348167457/

Semester Break Program at BCI Academy

BCI Academy was on semester break February 6th-10th.  But that didn’t stop the missionaries from having fun with and ministering to the children.  The long-term missionaries that are currently in Ethiopia planned a fun-filled program for grades 5-7 that was held on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday.

The days were scheduled with activities that included praise and worship, a sermon, ice-breaker games, crafts, challenges, and sports competitions.  There were approximately 60 children that came out to participate in this special program.  The children were divided into four teams that they would stick with throughout the three day program.  The children were asked to pick a team name and to also create a team chant.  The teams were called:  Abraham, David, Samson, and Exodus. 

The children were told that they would work as a team throughout the entire three day program and at the end of the program there would be a prize for the winning team.  The teams were able to earn points for good behavior such as: being quiet, teamwork, helping others, winning challenges, etc.  However, the teams were also able to lose points.  They could lose points for not wearing their team wristbands, fighting, being disruptive, etc.

Each morning was started with prayer, praise and worship, and a sermon.  The children sang songs in Amharic and also English.  The children really got into the worship with clapping and raising their hands in worship to God.  The praise and worship was followed by a sermon.  On Tuesday, twenty-eight children went forward to give their lives completely to Christ.  What an amazing way to start our semester break program!  The children were also very receptive to the preaching and they asked questions and lead good discussion about what they learned.

Team challenges were done throughout the day to build excitement for the overall team challenge and to build team rapport.  The teams were given assignments that they had to perform and points were given out to the winners.  The hardest challenge that the teams had to perform really taught the children what it meant to work as a team and it taught them problem-solving skills as well.  In this challenge, two adults held a jump rope chest high and the children had to get all of their team members, plus their assigned social worker, over the jump rope in the shortest amount of time possible.  There were many different strategies used to complete this challenge.

Some teams decided to just throw over their smallest team members, others decided to run and jump over the jump rope, others decided to use each other as human steps and walk over the rope.  Even though their were many ways to accomplish this task, each team ending up finishing the challenge and they were very excited that they were able to accomplish this.  When the challenge was first assigned some of the children thought it was impossible and some of the children were scared to go over the rope because it was so high.  But each child learned that even though you think something is impossible or even though you are scared, as long as you work together as a team-you can accomplish your goals.

On Tuesday and Wednesday, the children were separated into boys and girls and the social workers led discussions that were entitled “Life Skills Training”.  There were a variety of topics in these discussions and the social workers allowed the children to ask as many questions as they wanted.  The boys talked about what it meant to be a responsible man and the changes that their bodies are going through.  The girls also talked about the changes in their bodies and also how important it is to stick to your goals and not to get distracted by having boyfriends at such young ages.  Their was a lot of good discussion in these groups and the children enjoyed being able to talk freely and openly.

On Thursday the children went on a field trip to Kiriftu Lake in Debre Zeit.  The children were very excited about this field trip and it sure showed in their grand entrance.  Without being asked, two teams decided that they wanted to dress in their team colors for the last day of the team competitions.  Of course these two teams earned extra points for their dedication to their teams!  Also, the children ran down a big hill that leads to the lake chanting their team chants.  What a way to start the day!

The children did many more games and activities “field-day” style.  There were human pyramids, piggyback races, and other similar games.  Then the children got to go on a hike around Kiriftu Lake.  The children definitely loved this part of the day.  They stuck with their teams and sang songs while hiking the trails.  What a way to praise and worship-by singing songs to God while walking through His beautiful creation!

The day ended with the awards ceremony.  Prizes were given out to the team captains, the mvps of each team, and of course to the winning team.  And the winning team was. . . .David!  Each team member received gifts which included personal hygiene products and art supplies.  The missionaries gave a small gift to every child that attended the program because every child was on his/her best behavior and every child participated well and tried really hard in all of the team challenges.

The semester break program was a great way to allow the children to have fun and to take a break from school.  It was also a great way for the missionaries to be able to spend time with the children in a social setting and to be able to get to know them better.  Also, some of the children didn’t know each other that well before the three day program but because of the team challenges, they have made new friends. 

The semester break program was a huge success and the missionaries are looking forward to the next opportunity to minister to the children in a similar way!