The wheels keep turning

So back on the bus I went from what was obviously an earth shattering moment. I can't even describe truly what I was feeling, thinking or doing. It was so surreal to me and I just kind of plopped down in my seat stunned by the intensity of this "high" I was feeling.

I can't remember the exact sequence of events but I'm going to share as I think I remember the order of what took place next. As I was sitting on the bus, Simon came back to sit next to me and shared that he was happy that I embraced the opportunity to pray for the deformed man and he told me the night before he had a vision that he should pray for a crippled man and he thought he had missed his chance because he had seen a crippled man earlier from the bus, much like my initial reaction, the Spirit moved him at a moment when he felt he couldn't respond. He was bummed he thought he missed his opportunity to act upon God's will and while we were in conversation about this Amanda yelled out to Simon from the front of the bus telling us to look out the window ~ as we all glanced out the left side of the bus this is the sight that our eyes fell upon:

Here Simon was blessed with a 2nd chance to fulfill that deep calling to pray for a crippled man. I still had not truly calmed all the energy flowing through me like electricity so I immediately wanted to jump off the bus and go with Simon to pray for this man. Here we were stuck in the middle of absolute chaos, which is also known as Ethiopian rush hour; Simon was trying to figure out if he could just jump off the bus and run and Akim was trying his best to just keep Simon on the bus. Well Simon went for it and I followed right on his heels, we ran through the stalled traffic to reach this man and knelt down to pray for him. The intensity was growing each time one of these moments presented itself. The tingling in my hands was nearly unbearable by this time, I prayed silently to myself begging the Lord to heal this man and Simon showered this man in his beautiful prayers. There was an obvious language barrier between us but the man just rocked back & forth quietly mumbling with his crippled hands folded up to form the shape of a cup to accept whatever donations he might receive as his only means of survival. He had some coins (which equal less than pennies in the US) in his hands and so Simon blessed him with some money after we prayed. Language barrier or not, it was obvious we connected with this man. He felt our sincerity, he seen our hearts and God touched us all in one shared moment, there was no need for words.

So here we were in the heart of the city, the chaos, the people and life in Addis Ababa was truly surrounding us on all sides! We crossed the street in an attempt to find the bus and I realized I was completely and totally lost!! I had no clue which way our bus even went after we leaped off ~ that was a "minor" detail I forgot to pay attention to!! The sidewalks were jammed with busy people hurrying along in 100 different directions, there was no order just pure chaos and I've never felt more alive in my life! I honestly didn't care where the bus was, I didn't care if we stayed lost for hours on the street! I felt right at home and I was excited to just wander seeking out God's chosen so I could pray my little heart out until I had nothing left to pour out of my soul. This was it ~ this is what I was made for, this is why I was here, just wandering aimlessly lost on the street seeking out 'the least of these' fit my heart & soul like a perfect glove. I was enthralled to be in the middle of Addis, immersed deep in the culture, surrounded by God's loving hands. My energy level and excitement was nearly explosive as my mind raced and my eyes danced along the streets for faces to connect with and in the blink of an eye there was Akim jumping right in Simon's view calling us back to the bus. So that was it, my time on the streets was over before it even began...back on the bus I went and home to the guest house.

After we returned to the guest home we all changed and got ready to go out for a traditional Ethiopian meal. That was a grand experience and a nice way to even out the heaviness of all the despair that filled our eyes and hearts each day. The restaurant was beautiful, elegance Ethiopian style is so enriching. I'm not a fan of the food so I'll skip that review but I will elaborate on the amazing dancers and entertainment! These people can do things with their body that are fit for the Guinness Book! And as always ~ their natural ability for rhythm puts our "white skills" to shame! For the first time on this trip I understood Amanda's policy of stating there was to be "no fraternizing with the locals". Initially I thought this was an absurd point to have to make for a missionary group, shouldn't that go without saying? Plus, I was married so that rule didn't truly affect me anyway since I kinda lived by that vow already but something happened when those dancers filed out onto the stage and this handsome fellow with a larger than life perfect smile kept flashing his beautiful brown eyes at me like a professional flirt ~ I had to confess to Donny I was finding myself in the midst of an Ethiopian CRUSH! :) Oh my these dancers were breathtakingly gorgeous, the men and the women both...Ethiopian genes are like the grand prize winners for being easy on the eyes! Add in their never-ending hospitality doused in charm so thick it wraps you in a blanket of goose bumps and you'll find yourself smack dab in the middle of an embarrassing CRUSH too! I felt like I was drooling over some teen heart-throb at a pop concert! But these Ethiopians have a way of doing that to ya when you'd least expect it! Luckily for me, Donny had to agree they were very gorgeous people so I'm thinking he might have had a crush of his own budding! ha ha! I even took a wonderful video of their dancing skills and of course my "hunk" to show off, but just as I was entranced by his amazing dance some white kid I know named SIMON jumped right on the stage to give his best shot at a traditional style dance-off?! This very Simon also swore us not to leak the video on the web...so I can't even show off my footage unless I get a release from Simon!

And that was our first 2 days in Ethiopia! Only took me 3 weeks to share! Next up is Rwanda ~ hold onto your seats my friends, the ride get more intense with altitude!!