Greetings from Ethiopia! Our Ethiopian adventure has begun! The first indication that this was not just an ordinary adventure began at the San Francisco Airport on Thursday. While most of the team encountered little problems with luggage check in, Bennie, Theo, Demetra and Alissa spent a fair amount of time deliberating with the Lufthansa ticketing agent over the weight of their carry-on's. Apparently, there was much disagreement over whether Bennie, Theo, Demetra and Alissa’s book bags and carry-on's exceeded the weight limit. At the heart of the controversy was Bennie’s pink bag of toiletries, which the Lufthansa agent felt was much too heavy to be included as part of Bennie’s carry-on. Much frantic emptying of the backpacks and its contents ensued as the epic event that all travelers face – man vs. “just how much stuff in our carry-on's and get away with” – took place. But in the end, man prevailed and the team was able to bring onto the plane all our carry-on items. On our flight from Frankfurt, Germany, to Addis, we met a number of students from University of Illinois, Urbana-Champagne, who were spending five weeks traveling in Ethiopia to do evangelistic work. We also met a couple, Gary and Laura, from Danville Community Presbyterian Church, who are also on a short-term mission project teaching at a seminary in Addis Ababa.

Three countries, 24 hours, two incredibly long flights later, we arrived in Addis Ababa Friday evening around 9pm local time, along with our 21 pieces of luggage. We had a brief scare at the Addis Ababa airport at the baggage claim. One piece of Grant’s luggage (which contained two printers and teaching supplies) went MIA. Almost an hour later, Grant managed to track down the man who picked up his luggage by mistake and Grant was able to reclaim his luggage. After we picked up our luggage, customs waved us through without any questions or issues, where we were greeted warmly by Dr. Minas and the Hope Enterprise staff. The Hope Enterprise staff then drove us from the Addis Ababa airport to the SIM guesthouse, where 10 weary travelers arrived around 11:00pm local time. After quickly moving our luggage to our rooms, settling in, and requisite “Good nights, see you in the morning” we experienced the highlight of our day: going to sleep not sitting up.

All things considered, our Ethiopian Adventure has started off beautifully with little hiccups. With the exception of the brief luggage scares, we are thankful for God’s goodness and travel mercy on the team. We are also thankful that the team is coming together and growing closer to each other in the spirit of community, unity and love.

Please continue to pray for the team as we continue to adjust and settle in our environment--especially our bodies and health. We would like to ask that you pray especially for two members of the team who are experiencing altitude sickness and a chest cold. Please pray that God’s healing touch will be upon them and their health will be restored to fullness. We also appreciate your prayers as we finalize our activities and teaching plans for our upcoming week in Dese.