ready for the fight.

My latest story begins last night, and it wasn't looking like it was going to be a very good one. Thankfully I am now on the other side of it, and can now tell you that this story has a happy ending.

Our project leaders, the DeGarmo's, are staying in the STINT house in Gerji, which is about two miles away from our hotel, and we go there twice a week for dinner. Last night was a STINT house night, so we set out in the rain to catch a taxi and arrived at the house to find that the power was out. So by candlelight, we sat around the living room to listen to Mehiret's testimony while we waited to eat. Mehiret is the director of the Great Commission Ministry here in Addis, and his story is a powerful one. But while we sat there in the dark listening to him speak, I suddenly felt extremely oppressed. You may know the feeling: suddenly your heart is heavy, and a hundred lies are pouring into your head. Doubts were running through me like wildfire, my soul felt completely crushed, and I had to go to the third floor bathroom to try and clear my head. I kept thinking things like, "Why am I here? I'm not going to do anything worthwhile. I can't help anyone," and other equally ridiculous things that didn't even have anything to do with project.

Throughout dinner and another testimony, and all during the walk back to the hotel (in the rain), this terrible feeling wouldn't go away. I knew in my head that none of what I was feeling was the truth, but it felt like a weight that I couldn't lift off of myself.

I prayed until I fell asleep and then spent all this morning praying even more, rebuking the lies and praying that my allergies wouldn't prevent me from going out this afternoon. You see, today was the day that the film track would finally get to go out with the campus track to talk to people outside the university, and I was beginning to have an idea that the enemy was trying to prevent me from going. At the very least, he was doing what he could to steal my joy, and at first he was doing a pretty good job.

We all met up at lunchtime and divided into teams of four. Kelsey, my Bible study leader, loaded me up with cough drops, and my partner, Emilee, found me some non-drowsy cold medicine. With that and all the tea I've been drinking, I decided I was feeling well enough to go.

We started out at the Discipleship House before we actually went out into the city. As soon as we got there, a group of kids ran into the courtyard and started talking to Emilee, since she sees them every few days. When I went over to meet them, a little girl ran up, grabbed my hands, and just started jumping up and down, giggling and turning us in a circle. The rest of them caught on and all wanted a turn jumping in circles until the boys on my team started a game of soccer (football, that is) in the courtyard. The first two girls I met, Hannah and Beth, hung on to my hands while trying to kick the ball at the same time. Needless to say, my heart was captured instantly.

We sat down by the wall and they played with my hair, with my lion necklace, and asked me my name. I told them, "Lauren."
They said, "Lay-on."
"Lauren."
"Li-on."
And I said, "Close enough."

Another group from my team arrived, and the girls left to greet them. An older girl, about eleven, suddenly ran over to me and gave me an enormous hug. She hung on to my arms and asked my name, then hugged me again and said, "I love you so much!"
She spoke some English, so she asked me about my family and told me that Hannah was her sister. Then she tried to teach me to count in Amharic, and she kept her arms around me until I had to leave. The other kids wanted to sit in my lap, play clapping games, touch my necklace; they wanted affection so incredibly much.

So then it was time to go out. Ephraim and Iamb were our translators, and they led us to a park across from the university entrance. Ephraim is possibly the sweetest person I've ever met, and his love for Jesus is visible on his face when he talks about Him. I was very glad he was in my group. We approached the first man we saw, sitting on a bench, and asked if we could show him one of the short films we had on an iPod touch. He agreed, and we spent the next hour talking with them. He was quiet, but he listened as we went through our tract and talked about the film, nodding and looking serious. Finally he said that he wanted to accept Jesus, but that he had a problem with stealing and wasn't sure if he could overcome it. Ephraim talked to him for a long time, and he finally told us that he wanted to pray with us, and meet someone later to know more. He prayed the prayer in the tract with Ephraim, and said he was happy about his decision.

Another man in the park had been watching us, and we approached him next. We went through the tract with him and explained the gospel, and I could see the interest growing on his face. He told us that he was living "like a pagan," but he didn't want to live that way anymore; that he wanted a fresh start in life.
"You know the dry bones in Ezekiel?" he said. "I am like that, but I want to rise up."
Though we didn't ask, I was curious about his life's story, because he had large Amharic letters burned across his right arm. After we prayed with him, the smile across his face was enormous, and he looked so happy I nearly cried. He sat in the park for about an hour, just flipping through the booklet we gave him, smiling and crying and listening to us talk to other people.

My next experience was the most interesting of all. There were two groups who wanted to talk to us, so Emilee and Iamb went to one, and Ephraim and I stayed with the other. We were talking to four students who knew some English, and two of them already knew a little about the gospel. After Ephraim went through our tract someone else wanted to know what we were talking about, so he left me with the students.

The first thing they asked me was where the booklet came from, and if it was part of the Bible. Then they began plying me with questions about Christianity and my own faith. The one who talked the most asked me if I was a student, how long I've been a believer, and how long you have to wait to tell people about Jesus after you become a Christian. He just couldn't believe that you could go out and tell people about your faith without having been a believer for years and without knowing everything about the Bible.

Then they asked, "Does God know if you are going to Heaven or Hell when you are born?"
I said yes, but that He gives you a choice, and they had the hardest time understanding. "Why does it matter what I do with my life if He already knows what's going to happen to me?" they kept saying.
When we finally got through with that, they wanted to know, "What about people in poverty? What does God think about them?"
And after that beautiful conversation, they asked what the difference is between God and Jesus, and what it means to be saved, and how I became a Christian. One of them said he wanted to quit smoking, and would Jesus help him do that? "Does the Bible say anything about smoking?" they asked. They had so many questions, and the language barrier made it difficult, but I kept praying inside while I was talking to them and hopefully my answers made sense. Finally they said, "Okay, tell us what to do now." I asked them if they wanted to pray with me, and they said yes, but that I had to lead them in English. (One of them seemed really happy when I told him that praying was like talking to a friend, and that he could talk to Jesus all the time.) So they repeated the prayer after me, and then they said, "Okay, now you do it after us in Amharic!" So I very repeated the prayer after them in Amharic, and Ephraim made an appointment to meet with them next week to talk more.

By then we were late, and had missed the taxi that was supposed to take us back. We walked to the Discipleship house and called Aaron, who told us to wait and he would send the taxi back for us.

When we walked up, the kids saw us and came running. One of the girls threw herself into my arms, and then the others wanted to be picked up too, so I was hanging on to the girl in one harm and two little boys on the other while trying not to let my bag fall into the mud. After we called the hotel the kids were all clamoring outside the courtyard, so we spent half an hour playing with them in the muddy street. K'dst, the eleven year old, found me and hung on the entire time. Every once in awhile she would throw her arms around me and exclaim, "I love you so much!" They all just wanted to be held, wanted our hands, wanted to kiss us and keep our attention.

When the taxi arrived, it took several minutes to say goodbye to them all, because they kept coming back for another hug and reaching up to kiss my cheek and shake my hand. I just wanted to take them all home with me!

Looking back, I'm so happy that I didn't let my illness or heavy-heartedness keep me in the hotel. Most of the other teams had a discouraging report of being chased out by guards, or having unsuccessful conversations, but we prayed with about ten people today and hopefully they will all show up to meet with someone from our team next week. Most of them seemed excited to know more. I feel like this was the best day of project so far - and to think I almost missed it!

We went out to eat this evening, (I gave in and got a pizza) and my table got into some deep discussions on the rapture, and pretty much every other heavy topic in Christianity except predestination, so dinner was a blast. Everyone is upstairs watching a really bad bootleg copy of The Avengers now, but I've seen it four times and I really wanted to get this day down before I go to sleep.

The girls also taught me that lion in Amharic is "Ambe'sa," and they were really happy when I came back and still remembered it. The one word that everyone knows is "Ameseganalow," which is thank you, and I also know "Exabier" (God), "wendem," (brother) "mehiret" (mercy; we know two people with this name), and "sock" (smile).

I hope you are all well, and that you were able to get through this extremely long post. Thank you for your prayers; as you can see, they are needed and highly important.