Be Here now!

Be here now!

            I just have a hard time believing that God would mean for this amazing experience to be cut so short. Is our work finished? More importantly…is His work finished? When ‘Project Ethiopia’ was first presented to me over a casual meal conversation at a friend’s wedding reception, the thought was that my minimum commitment term would be two years. That’s a long time, I thought. I prayed and I prayed. Was THIS God’s will for me? A year later as the conversation became more real, I was told that I would only be asked for a one year teaching commitment. That’s still a pretty long time, I thought. Again, I prayed and prayed. Was THIS God’s will for me? After announcing my resignation at the college and breaking the news to my loved ones that I would be leaving, I learned that the school I was going to teach at would not be opening this year and that my term had been shortened to ten months. Again, I prayed and prayed. God – this IS your will for me, right? We knew coming into this venture that there were no promises or guarantees about the length of our stay. We could stay the full ten months…or only ten weeks…or only ten days. We came here sharing the mentality that each day is a gift and we’d better make the most of it while we have it.

            Months before I left home to come here, a wonderful friend gave me the best advice. She said to “BE HERE NOW.” What she meant was that I needed to truly embrace everyone and everything around me in the time that I had left. “Truly LIVE each minute…regret nothing. Don’t ‘check out’ here because your mind is already in Ethiopia.” I think knowing that I had the chance to love on people and share GOOD goodbyes before I left has really helped me enjoy my time here even more. Since coming to Ethiopia, I’ve completely lost all sense of time and calendar days. If you asked me how long our team has been here, there’s no way I would give you an accurate response without looking at a calendar…but that’s something that I haven’t really done since I’ve been here. I thought I would just be counting down the days until I got to return home, but instead I’ve been completely lost in time here. In such a short time I’ve experienced so much, learned so much and grown so much more than I guess I expected to.

            Over the past month it seems that we have been knocked down so many times. There is so much that we have yet to learn about this process…and so much that has changed even since we’ve been here. We’ve faced so much opposition regarding the school, obtaining our canister of supplies, receiving our work permits as well as other things. With each day and each meeting, the news we have received has been so discouraging. Knowing and trusting in the fact that God was and is completely in control…completely sovereign…completely faithful renews our hope each time. Today we sat down to discuss the reality of what could happen in the next month. Our visas run out at the beginning of November and without the work permits, we could be forced leave here and go home. Whoa! Three months in Ethiopia is just not long enough! I just have a hard time believing that God would mean for this amazing experience to be cut so short. Is our work finished? More importantly…is His work finished? Again, I am praying and praying. God, what is YOUR will…for me…for the team…for this project…

            At this point I don’t know what will happen, but I do know one thing: I find myself treasuring the advice of my friend now even more… “BE HERE NOW. Truly embrace everyone and everything around you in the time that you have left. Truly LIVE each minute…regret nothing. Don’t check out here because your mind is already in Dahlonega.”

“So do not throw away your confidence; it will be richly rewarded. You need to persevere so that when you have done the will of God, you will receive what he has promised.” Hebrews 10:35-36