"I'm going to Ethiopia" (1st email) and the recap (2nd email)

I just realized that I never posted the email that I sent out a week before leaving for Ethiopia. While I'm thinking about it, I guess I should post the email I sent out upon returning home as well.

March 16 
I'm going to Ethiopia! I know, what a way to start an email. :)
It seems like ever since I started going to college, and then began working full time, I haven't been keeping in very good touch with some of my really good friends. But I love it that we might not be completely up to date on each others lives, and yet we can pick up where we left off with no momentum lost.
Last September I started attending Covenant Life Church with my family. In November it was announced that they were accepting applications for a medical missions trip to Ethiopia. My mom leaned over and nudged me and I replied that a nurse assistant is hardly a medical professional, andI wasn't a member. But I ended up applying anyway because its my dream to serve God through medicine even though I only have book knowledge of such a life, and no practical experience with medical missions. In December I became a member of Covenant Life, and around the same time was asked to join the Medical team that was being formed for Ethiopia. Since then it has been a whirlwind of vaccines, team meetings, and pill packing for the pharmacy we plan to run while there. This morning when I opened my computer at work my Outlook agenda buzzed with a calendar reminder - "Due in 48hours: Ethiopia trip".
I'm thrilled. This is a huge opportunity for a little kid like me to be a part of. This enormous endeavor to bring the gospel and medical attention to a foreign country.
So I want to thank you for loving God, His work, and His people. I am confident that you will pray for me, and I am so grateful for this.
The church we will be stationed at was established 8 years ago and a bible study that started with four people has now grown to a congregation of 2,500 meeting on Wednesdays, Fridays and Sundays. They are doing a great work. And I have no comprehension of the toil involved on the part of the believers that are diligently sowing seeds everyday. I am so naive and unfamiliar to the concept of soul-saving. I can count on one hand the people I have shared the gospel with. I hope this trip changes that for me. And not just me, but all the team members. I'm praying that we will come back to the States, eager to share the gospel with the many people in our colleges and corporate spheres that are as lost as the nonbelievers in Ethiopia. Would you pray that for us?
Thank you for loving me and supporting me. I am so blessed to know that you will be interceding on our behalf.
I'll be back in roughly two weeks... can't wait to share with you then!
Love to you all! - Kiersten

Prayer Requests:

- That God would give those we work with a heart to know Him; that He is the Lord! (Jer 24:7a).
- That the Spirit of the Lord would be upon our team, that we would effectively minister, both Spiritually and
   medicinally. (Lu 4:18-19).
- That the Grace of God would abound in our team. (2 Cor 9:8)
- That Jesus Christ would bind Satan from attacking us and hindering the work.

March 31
Its going to be hard to recap a week of clinics, counseling, pharmacy 101, and entertaining. Yes, the little Ethiopian children found me quite amusing. I guess a good place to start would be to thank God. For his protection of us, his blessing on our work, his grace abounding in my team mates, and his gift of salvation to those that believed.
We arrived in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, Sunday morning, after a 15 hour flight. Our team of 14 dispersed into little groups of three and four in attempts not to attract attention as we made it through customs. One group didn't make it, and their drugs for the pharmacy got confiscated. After a short delay we piled our luggage onto the top of the bus, and began gathering our first impressions of Ethiopia. Its a beautiful country, low on the standard of living, but rich in cultural heritage and hospitality.
Sunday afternoon we unpacked and categorized everything the we brought over for the pharmacy. After dinner we met with the Mission to the World team that we would be serving with, and got the low down on the AIDS/HIV program and beneficiaries. Monday and Tuesday were a blur as we set up clinic at the church, and cared for nearly 200 patients. Wednesday was a change of pace and profession, as doctors and nurses alike lost scrubs and stethoscopes and made "house" visits to the poorest of the poor for the sole purpose of encouragement and fellowship.
Thursday we set up clinic in a more rural part of the city, and saw the bulk of our HIV+ patients. Friday we were back at the church. The morning was spent caring for new patients and in the afternoon patients from earlier in the week returned to receive check ups.
Each day we worked in clinics from 8:30am to 5pm. Mornings started off with team worship and devotions, followed by a quick breakfast. A dangerous bus ride later, we were at either the church or office, setting up clinic. Lunch breaks were spent locating the nearest coffee house- where macchiatos sold for roughly 30 cents! Afternoons were always busy with people lining up hours before their "appointment". Evenings were spent waiting in line for showers, enjoying scrumptious food, and when I, the youngest member of the team, could coerce every one else into it, rousing games of Taboo.
Saturday was our day off. We souvenir shopped at a Bazaar that supported non-government organizations by selling their wares, and in the afternoon we drove up to the mountains to visit the oldest church in Addis.
Sunday morning we attended church at the City church that had hosted our clinics. That was an unusual experience. The worship was wonderful. However, for the remainder of the 90 minute service, I realized my translator spoke very little English.
Sunday afternoon we packed up and left for the airport.
I realize this brief summary has left out so much of the good stuff. You know, the fourteen orphans that we cared for that didn't have appointments. And the Muslim man that excitedly told me he had just received Christ after one of the nurses had prayed with him.
People have asked what the highlight of the trip was for me. I'm competitive, I'm just saying. And my team won the Taboo championship. That was a highlight. But when asked what impacted me the most, I think about Danny. He is a young Ethiopian man who is educated, speaks English, and loves God. Passionately. He is a project manager for the AIDS/HIV program that we were serving with. He was our translator the day we made house visits, and he was crowd control all week at the clinics. I was impressed that this young man who could leave his country and make a living in a more material land chose to stay and serve as a prophet to his own. There is recognition for those who serve overseas, but very little acknowledgement to those who consider their own neighborhood their mission field. One of the HIV+ single women that we visited adamantly declared that the success of her two little children in school was all due to Danny. "He has been like a dad for them" she had said. Meeting with her kids after school, loving them, and teaching them about God. I don't know why, but something about seeing a humble servant working faithfully where there is no praise, impacted me more than anything else.
I've had aspirations of being a globe-trotting humanitarian. I'm starting to pray that God will use me right where I am.
Thank you for your love. And thank you for your prayers. God is answering them.

YOU can make a difference in Ethiopia

How to support the work of Mission to the World in their efforts to care for those afflicted by AIDS:

http://www.mtwact.org/

Highlights from Ethiopia

  One of the many beautiful little kids that we had the privilege of serving.

 This was one of the non-sacrificial moments of the missions trip. Starbucks needs to get a load of this - 30 cents for a Macchiato!

 Katie Barnett entertained children as they waited for care.

 This woman, Ganet, was very hospitable to four of us from the team, as we crowded into her one-room home for a time of prayer and fellowship.

 On our second home visit we were treated to authentic Ethiopian coffee. Coffee is a huge part of the culture, and they have "coffee ceremonies" where they roast the fresh beans, grind them with a pestle, boil them in water, and then pour the sieved blend into little teacups.

 This lovely muslim woman is faithful to overcome discrimination against AIDS victims, as she moves beyond bitterness and works to spread awareness of precautions designed to prevent transmission of HIV.
                                       
 This is the entrance to an "apartment building" that houses about a dozen families.

 Dr. Andy Kim,  the Pediatrician of our team.

 Don't let the bored look fool you. This little guy came alive when I tried to take his vitals. He bit my finger mid-pulse oscillation.

 Waiting for care... we saw roughly 90 patients a day.

 Natalie Beall, RN, teaching Katie Barnett something or other about nursing :)

 Our "waiting room" full of triaged patients.

 Scott Jones worked tirelessly in our makeshift pharmacy, taking breaks to pray for believers and those who were open to the gospel.

 Yes, I have got to say that I was very proud to see the Army athletics emblem all the way over in Ethiopia!

                                                             

 Saturday was our day off. We drove up to the mountains and visited Empress Titu's palace and grave, among other things.

 Our first evening in Addis was spent unloading and organizing the drugs we had brought over.

 Scott Jones, our pharmacist for the week.

 Doc Mays headed up the medical end of this missions trip marvelously.

Kakra and Andy performed minor surgeries in our substitutionary OR - a bedroom.

We have a marvelous group of people going to Ethiopia! This is only some of them, and they are gifted professionals and godly Christians. I am so grateful to be a part of this team.

My prayer as I prepare for Ethiopia

Speak, O Lord - Keith Getty

Speak, O Lord, as we come to You
To receive the food of Your Holy Word.
Take Your truth, plant it deep in us;
Shape and fashion us in Your likeness,
That the light of Christ might be seen today
In our acts of love and our deeds of faith.
Speak, O Lord, and fulfill in us
All Your purposes for Your glory.

Teach us, Lord, full obedience,
Holy reverence, true humility;
Test our thoughts and our attitudes
In the radiance of Your purity.
Cause our faith to rise; cause our eyes to see
Your majestic love and authority.
Words of pow'r that can never fail—
Let their truth prevail over unbelief.

Speak, O Lord, and renew our minds;
Help us grasp the heights of Your plans for us—
Truths unchanged from the dawn of time
That will echo down through eternity.
And by grace we'll stand on Your promises,
And by faith we'll walk as You walk with us.
Speak, O Lord, till Your church is built
And the earth is filled with Your glory.

We sang this song at church last Sunday. It says beautifully and poetically everything that I want to say to God, yet could never have articulated on my own. A love for God's word, and the faithful obedience to be a doer and not a hearer only, a pure heart that is spoken truth to from a renewed mind; this is what I want, Jesus!
It is so hard for me to focus on what is important. Its like I don't realize the awesomeness of the glory of God, the gift of salvation, the abundance of Grace. I get so caught up in little earthly pleasures and pursuits that I often miss out on Jesus.
I want a fire in my heart for the gospel, the pursuit of holiness, the love of Christ, the desire to pursue lost souls, and the passion to live irrevocably for the glory of God. Its my prayer that God will use this trip to Ethiopia to ignite a flame in my heart that will grow into this burning fire that is unquenchable by the lies of soceity, the lures of the pleasures of this world, and the calls of compromise.
"My determination is to be my utmost for His Highest."