You say "Goodbye" and I say "Hello".....

Derrick here writing the blog tonight. Although this is my second time being in Ethiopia to work on the Bright Hope School Project, I’ve been able to manage avoiding the blogging duties up until now. As my wife can easily attest, I’m not the blogger of the family.

As I’ve come to expect while being in Ethiopia, today was very rewarding, a little bit random, and somewhat unexpected.

First of all, it was very awesome to see all of the progress that has been accomplished at the school over the past 6 months first-hand. They have completed the section of the wall that we started in November, are in the process of completing the construction of the 2 chicken houses, and have completed another significant portion of the foundation for the wall on the back-side of the school. It was also very good to see some of the folks that I met on our last trip and how excited they were that not only were we there, but that we had come back for a second time.

As the title suggests, today was a day of hellos as well as goodbyes. While it was the first day at the jobsite for the team from Harvest, it was the last day for the team from Journey, as they will be leaving for home tomorrow. We spent the morning working on the wall and re-aquainting ourselves with the process, which was very similar to the activities we did during the last trip; hauling rock, cement, sand, and mixing cement (just for the record, the rocks have NOT gotten any lighter!). The first day on the jobsite was significantly more efficient than the first time around, as the team from Journey has been able to get the process streamlined over the past week. After lunch, the staff of Bright Hope School held a coffee ceremony in honor of the team from Journey for the past week’s work, which we all participated in (complete with popcorn, music, collo, and of course coffee). We then got back to work for an hour or so, before we were forced to quit due to a tremendous downpour. We took advantage of the downtime to participate in an hour-long lesson in Amharic from one of the teachers (complete with handouts, quizzes, and classroom speaking).

After work, we came back to the Guest House and were fortunate enough to have dinner with our friend Sami (who we met on the last trip here) along with the pastor of Bright Hope Church, which is located very near the school we are working at. Sami and his pastor both shared their story on how they came to the Cora district and how they came to know Jesus. They also shared some of the ministries their church provides to that community. It was very encouraging and also very challenging on a personal level to hear how they are meeting the needs of their community in a very real and practical way.

Well, I need to get to bed, so I’ll end. Thank you all for your prayers and support!

Oh, and a very special hello to Madison, Breanne, and Aliya. Mommy and Daddy love you very much and can’t wait to see you again in a few days!

Derrick