It’s time for Afreeka!! Zaminamina waka waka eh eh! Wow, it is crazy that Asia is already done and we are in month 5 of the Race almost to month 6 in just a few short weeks—-what a perfect time to learn how to live in the present!
TEAM KESTREL// First stop is Ethiopia with my new Team Kestrel! This is a fun combo team of two of my girls from my last team, Chosin (Caitie and Erika) and two from a different team, Wild (Gabby and Hailey). ((Scroll down to meet these lovely women)) Why the name kestrel? Well, it isn’t because my bag is a Kestrel although that is a funny quirk as well. As we were praying, Caitie got a vision of a bird of prey flying. Then Gabby got some words that connected with it, and I was kinda geeking out over the fact that I have had a vision lately of me taking hold of the wings to be able to fly into freedom. SO IT ALL CONNECTS. Caitie thought of a falcon, but not many of us were gunho about that name, so she looked up different kinds of Falcons and Kestrel came up and we all were for it! BUT we wanted to look up the meanings more… Kestrel symbolizes victory, success, and rising above challenging situations. It signifies wisdom, vision, and protection as well as being able to control speed and movement, patience and recognizing opportunities and acting upon them at only the correct moment. This being a season for healing and forgiveness for us was also spoken over this team. Day after day I realize just how important words are; the power of life or death is truly in the tongue.
THE AWAKENING// After a 4ish hour flight to the Istanbul airport, 12 hour layover, and another 4ish hour flight to Addis Ababa, we pilled into two busses and headed to a near hotel for the night-it being 2AM in the morning and we were heading back into the busses at 9:00AM to get to our destination for the Awakening (keep your questions; I will explain in a sec). We woke up to a bright and sunny city mainly under construction. Packing into the busses, we finally played the Waka Waka song and drove for about two hours out of the city into the stunning countryside where you could just imagine giraffes gently running in the plain, lions sleeping under the canopy trees, deer putting their heads up as you passed——unfortunately, we saw none of that, but my imagination went wild. We got to our destination, HOPEthiopia, in the countryside. Oh, what a blessing it was to walk on DIRT and smell the fresh air, the sun on your skin and the warm breeze blow your hair (weird feeling with my hair being short now, just saying). We were to meet up with another World Race squad, Gap W, which is a very different trip than our 11n11. Gap Year goes to three different countries and spends three months in each of those countries; they are also much more structured than 11n11. They also are aged 18-21, not our 21-35. But they were such a mature group of men and women of God, such strong faith; it was amazing to see and get to know those 40+ brothers and sisters in Christ. We, as racers took over the agenda for the next few days in different teams—intercession, worship, evangelism, hospitality, and storytelling. Over those few days we did SO much worship, often going overtime. One night we did a full night of prayer and worship. Everyone had slots that night to wake up and just pray over the land, then at 6:00AM we all did a sunrise worship as the clouds were there holding rain and the loud muslim call to worship being heard. The Lord was working! It is not supposed to rain in this season, but it did! This land that is so plain, that a few years ago had no life at all, was once a jungle, and it is ready to awaken both land and people. The hospitality group had us play several games to get to know each other as well as helping clean up after the almost 100 of us after meals. One day the intercession and evangelism group worked together to do a prayer walk into the villages nearby. We prayed over many people and animals, blessing, healing, and just loving on them. One evangelism team that went out (there were four of us) even helped a woman possessed with devils and helped her get connected with the local church. As we walked, the kids would come from all over and hold our hands and the littlest ones wanted to be held as we walked. We placed popsicle sticks into the ground with verses from the Bible to help awaken this land—some of the sticks the kids wanted to take home, but what amazing seeds can be planted from that! The storyteller team helped us debrief our prayer walk. It was a beautiful time of rest and renewing having so many fresh strong believers around. It felt like we knew them so well even after only three short days. But in reality, our spirits knew each other. What a mysterious but amazing comfort to feel.
ALL SQUAD// The last day of the awakening, before leaving, Tammy, our mentor, announced that Ethiopia was going to be an all squad month! We found a place, a blessing, for the whole squad to stay for the month. It was a compound behind a theological center. There were two houses for us. Unfortunately, we don’t have any kitchens, but there are MANY blessings elsewhere such as the abundance of enormous avocados, French fries with Ethiopian spice to dip in our guac and here is an amazing surprise…. I CAN EAT BREAD NOW!!! For those of you who didn’t know, I have struggled with eating gluten the last several years. If I did consume it, I would have terrible cramping pain, bloating, and would often throw up. While at the awakening, I kept hearing of a story of one of the girls getting healed from her 13 year self-diagnosed celiac and dairy issues. The last day, I met her and she found out I had the same issues and she asked me if I wanted to get healed. I hesitantly but excitedly said yes! She prayed over me and told me that it was my turn to walk in faith. It took me two days to finally have the courage to eat bread, but when I did, my team timed me (because I usually had issues within two hours) and NOTHING HAPPENED!!! Several people bought me donuts and I have been eating SO much bread in the last few weeks as well as donuts and butter and everything I can get my face in. What is CRAZY is that not only am I healed from my gluten issues, my gut is healed!! I have been losing weight even though I am eating so much. God is so good, and it is so crazy that He healed me! DONUT PIC So, besides eating all da foods, this is another ATL month, which is a huge blessing as it is our teams first month. Even though it is an all-squad month, my team has done an amazing job choosing in to each other and getting to know each other on so many levels. We have dreamed together, eaten meals together, chatted for hours about random things, laughed. I feel so loved on this team, and it feels so healthy. We have done more team ministry this month, but we have done some evangelizing. It looks different every day depending on whose day it is to lead ministry; each teammate has a day.
ETHIOPIAN CHRISTMAS// Ok, to be honest, I don’t love Christmas. I am just not a huge holiday person and big groups aren’t always my thing. Seeing people miss their families and get excited for Christmas was hard for me. It is a weird feeling that Abba and I still need to talk about more. But this Christmas was amazing. Watching “the Passion” and worshipping on Christmas Eve connected me to the real meaning of it. We did secret Santa in which every person gets a name and has to get a gift for them. Kenz Meadows got me. She is such a beauty that just glows with the love of the Lord. She knew that I needed watercolor paper cuz my paper was all used up from decorating for Christmas, and she got me pencil bags because she knew I was looking for one because mine was breaking. My team leader, Hailey, who is the best team leader ever and loves people so so well, got me coconut oil and Ethiopian spice; two things that I had been looking for for the last few weeks. Caitie made an adorable stocking and filled it with candy, and Erika gave me candy and a pair of snowflake earrings. Ugh, these people are amazing. The love that was felt throughout the whole squad that whole day was tangible. This squad is amazing. That night we feasted as a squad with quesadas cooked on the grill and consumed so much guac and salsa and peppermint bark and bananas. To close the evening several people hung out and watched some movies as we were all exhausted. ——————- Just a few more weeks to adjust to this new culture and move on to month 6 in Kenya. We have a ministry next month, and we are combining with team Abundance. Rumor has it we will be working with kids, and I am jumping off the walls excited to love on some kiddos.
——————- Let me tell you about my girl, Gabs, aside from letting me massage her back and play with her hair to my heart’s content, she is the essence of loveliness in every aspect of the word. She loves the Lord with her whole heart and her words are filled with wisdom and love. She is so joyful and her smile is contagious. I say all these things, not just because I love her bunches, but because I want you to join me and the rest of my team in prayer for God to provide the rest of the funding she needs for the Race. If you feel led to partner with this beautiful woman of God, look on the left hand side and click on her name (Gabriela Gil) and click on the donate button. PICTURES COMING SOON–world race wifi issues 😉
