Tuesday

Whoops.  Sorry for the long break.  I was in Michigan and then in Wyoming avoiding this oven that is Illinois.  Now that it's cooled off to more reasonable temperatures, I'm back for the long haul.  Hopefully, I can finish this up in the next two weeks and haven't forgotten too much already.

On Tuesday morning, we got up and took a hike up Couch Mountain.  This mountain overlooks the city of Debre Zeyit.  It's not a huge or extremely difficult mountain to conquer but the thin air did get to us pretty fast.  We made it to the top and spent several minutes looking out over the city while Mussie pointed out a few landmarks.  We saw a pig farm and I think the main road.  It was hard to really understand when we had only been there 2 days.  There were skinny cows grazing along the side and a few skulls being bleached in the sun.  After catching our breath, we took some time to prayer over the city and our upcoming time there.  It was a really neat and special way to start the trip.

After we made the much easier climb down the mountain, we went on a church tour.  BCI works with 5 different churches.  There is a social worker that works through each church.  The churches are all fairly big well established churches in the city.  Many of them have outreach churches and church plants throughout the city.  The one below is one of the nicest buildings of the five.  It was built with money from a Dutch missionary.  The rest are mostly open air with tin roofs and canvas sides.  They all have wood benches and most have rock or gravel floors inside.  However, it doesn't stop the people from filling the aisles and pews every Sunday.  The church we spent the most time at was one called Zion.  It is located on the same street as "prostitute row."  It is across the street from the many bars where men can go in and order a drink and woman.  The pastor and his wife have been there from the very beginning and have a very strong sense of purpose in where God has put them and their church.  They have several outreaches there including a bible study, healing service, teaching crafts, and a cafe.  They are serving Christ just as Jesus did among the "least of these"and making a huge difference for Him in a place most people would avoid.  It's a special place to visit.  The first picture is the inside of Zion and the second two are the inside and outside of Misgana.  I didn't have pictures of Emmanuel and there will be more of Lem Lem and MKC later.  

After visiting the churches, we had lunch at the Ethiopian Air Force officers club.  It was on a really pretty lake and was considered very upscale.  After we ate, we went down to take a few more pictures of the lake and some Ethiopian teenage girls came up and wanted pictures with us.  We were white celebrities. Haha!

They laughed and laughed and laughed at us as we used our 2 days worth of Amaharic to try to communicate with them.  Mostly we just kept saying "Konju" or beautiful trying to tell them how pretty they were.  Teenagers in America and Ethiopia really aren't that much different.