Five Talents More

I woke up on Wednesday, February 9th in my little bed freezing cold. I made a quick note to myself to get an extra blanket. I got up and was the last of 3 guys to use the shower. Note to self…be the first to be up and use the shower if you want to have warm water. Water pressure was also non-existent. As the cold water trickled out of the shower head I remained warm by moving very quickly. We learned earlier to avoid letting any local water even touch your mouth since you could easily get sick from it, so this required a bottle of water for rinsing your toothbrush as well. Thankfully the compound was well equipped with bottled spring water which we drank everyday.

That morning I also prayed again with Pastor Kenny. I was reminded of a verse that I had shared with my church men’s group the weekend before leaving on this trip. Little did I know that I would be leaning on the truth of that verse for most of the trip.

1 Peter 5: 6-11
⁶Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God so that at the proper time he may exalt you, ⁷ casting all your anxieties on him, because he cares for you. ⁸ Be sober-minded; be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour. ⁹ Resist him, firm in your faith, knowing that the same kinds of suffering are being experienced by your brotherhood throughout the world. ¹⁰And after you have suffered a little while, the God of all grace, who has called you to his eternal glory in Christ, will himself restore, confirm, strengthen, and establish you. ¹¹ To him be the dominion forever and ever. Amen.

After breakfast I was on a mission to get a cellphone that I could use to make international calls home.  I wanted to have the flexibility to call Jolee at any time. Ethiopia was 9 hours ahead of Minneapolis, so I had a window between 4pm and Midnight to call her each day and check in. One of our drivers, a local christian taxi driver named Helena was hired to haul our team around while we were there. He took me into town and I dropped $50 US dollars on a cheap cellphone and another $50 dollars on a phone card that served me well during the entire trip.

We met at Minneapolis International airport on February 7th at 12:30 to begin our journey. It was  cold out as usual. Jolee, Greta, Caleb and Joshua dropped me off at the ticket counter and our group of 9 travelers and our families gathered to pray over us and see us off. As we boarded the plane I was nervous. This would be my first experience traveling internationally. Yes, I have been to Cancun, St. John, Canada, and various other sunny tourist destinations outside of the US, but this was my first time overseas. It would be a 20+ hour trip from Minneapolis to Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. Our first leg of the trip was to fly on a KLM Royal Dutch Airline 8.5 hours from Mpls to Amsterdam, Holland. The planes we would travel to Ethiopia and back were all widebody jets fully equipt with personal entertainment systems built into the seat. So most of us were able to pass the time away either reading or watching the dozens of movies that were available to us. We arrived safely at 3 am Amsterdam time and hung out in the airport for a 5 hour layover. The 8 people who accompanied me on the trip from Bethlehem Baptist church included: Tamara Rasmussen, Dave Englund, Elise, Emma Button, Alemnesh, Darlene, Mike Meyer, and Pastor Kenny Stokes. The people I knew well prior to going on the trip were Tamara, Dave, Mike, Alemnesh and Pastor Kenny, so it was nice to have so many familiar faces with me on this adventure.

That first day I wrote the following in my journal: “I miss my wife and kids already. I also know that this trip will be one of the biggest challenges of my life. I am more scared than I am excited, but I am trusting God that He will uphold me by the power of His mighty right hand. Father, I am scared to death to be half a world away from the stable world that I know. Please strengthen me…even now I write this with tears. Please give Jolee, Greta, Caleb, Joshua, and I the strength we need to live for you and serve you!”

We then boarded our KLM flight from Amsterdam to Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. The flight was roughly 9 hours with a 1 hour stop in Khartoum, Sudan. Our stop in Sudan was to quickly pick up and drop off passengers, so everyone else stayed on the plane. A few hours later we finally arrived in Addis Ababa. It was late at night and we were met by several people from the Addis Kidan Church – and Alemnesh, who had left for Addis Ababa several weeks prior to the rest of us on the team. As we traveled to the church compound where we would stay most of the trip, I was amazed by the number of delapitated tin structures and store fronts that lined the streets. Most of them transformed into tin residences where many Ethiopian people would live most of their lives. We traveled about 25 minutes from the airport through Addis Ababa – which is a very large city with an estimated population between 2 and 3 million – and arrived at the tall, metal gate of a large compound in a densely populated area. The compound was a well maintained place with several nice buildings surrounded by tall, cylinder block cement walls with barbwire at the top. The single level buildings we stayed in were also nicely furnished (considering where we were at) and also featured bars on the doors and windows for protection. It was the closest thing I have experienced to being in a prison, except the bars and barbwire weren’t meant to keep us in, but trouble out.

That first night in Addis Ababa was one of the hardest nights of my life. After having a quick meal, Dave and I were assigned to a tiny room that had two beds shoehorned into it, and a very narrow path between them to a door that could only open half way before hitting my bed. I knew this was going to be a test for me in itself. Shortly after cramming my luggage precariously at the foot of my bed and crawling in, the power in the city went off. This, I came to learn later, was not terribly uncommon in Addis Ababa – and most 3rd world countries. As I lay in bed in the pitch dark in my tiny room a melting pot of emotions poured over me. Here I was in a prison like compound, in a country on the other side of the world where very few speak English, Egypt and the middle east was coming apart at the seams with riots and voilent protests, and I began experiencing what many would refer to as culture shock. I felt a rush through me to get up and do something or go somewhere…anywhere but there.  As I jumped up out of bed and as I stepped out of my dwarf sized room I almost ran over Pastor Kenny. Kenny just came out of his room with a small flashlight and was quick to give me a greeting. Knowing that I was about to jump out of my skin, I asked him if he would be willing to pray for me. The next several minutes were truly a gift from God. Kenny recommended we pray together and then try to use his cellphone to call Jolee. This wasn’t previously an option for me since I knew my own cellphone wouldn’t work there. In fact, Kenny and I didn’t know for certain that his iPhone would even work. We tried calling out but that didn’t work. Then Kenny recommended we try texting Jolee and asking her to call his phone. This felt like a long shot to me, but we tried it and sure enough, minutes later a call came in…it was Jolee! Talking to her and Caleb felt like a lifeline of hope and stability in a giant sea of uneasiness. Shortly thereafter we were off the phone and I was back in my tiny room fading off to sleep after taking a dramamine to make me drowsy. Welcome to Ethiopia Mike!