Hello to all :)

There seems to be so many words to say...

First comes first, outreach is over. My three months spent in Africa is finished. This in and of itself seems so crazy to think about. There is so much on my mind. I am attempting to process all that God has done in these past three months, and also in the past six months of my life. My heart is excited for what the last twenty days in Germany will hold, and I am thinking ahead to how I am supposed to say goodbye to my friends that I have come to deeply love and cherish in YWAM. Then after that I will hopefully be able to spend some solid quality time with my mom as she comes to take a long-deserved vacation in Holland. After that, finally, I will be heading home! Yet time is so short and I have such little time at home before I head off to school in Alberta. It feels like I will only be able to say hello then time for goodbyes will come again. I am getting ahead of myself though. Back to what God has on hand for me now!

Since I wrote last, I was heading back to Ethiopia. We flew from Nairobi, Kenya, to Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. It all went well and it was so good to rejoin with the rest of the team that stayed in Ethiopia the entire time. The last few weeks of outreach were spent solely in Ethiopia with the whole team together again. We had started together in Ethiopia and it was a good finish to end together in Ethiopia. The Kenya/Uganda team had the opportunity to join in on the ministries that the Ethiopia team had started. Much of my focus was on the Jaja community, which is a small and unknown section of Addis Ababa where the majority of those who live there are HIV+. I would go down into the village, which was about a ten minute walk from the house we were living in, and would hang out with the kids there, playing football, duck duck goose, singing, and even just sitting with them. A lot of these kids should have been in school but because of no money for fees and no food for nutrition, many of them stayed home. I would also get to know the women there and they would kindly invite me into their home and would offer me coffee. In the past few weeks I have drank more coffee than I ever would have liked to and am quite enjoying not having to drink any coffee. Anyways, those last three weeks went by in a flash. I became really connected with the Jaja people and it was a wonderful experience. Saying goodbye to the women there and also to all the kids was incredibly difficult. That was the part of the outreach I had never considered and there were many tears shed. Yet I know that even though I am gone, Jesus is still taking care of them and my prayer is that my life showed them something that makes them know Jesus’ great love for them.

In the last few days of outreach, my team and I headed a few hours out of Addis Ababa and went to a lake, just to have some time to relax and reflect before we went back to Germany. Those couple days were awesome and very relaxing. The lake we were at is the only swimmable one in Ethiopia, so I took advantage of that and swam. If I closed my eyes and imagined really hard, I almost felt like I was back home swimming in a lake in Canada. But then I would open my eyes and see palm trees and I would remember where I am; oh how I look forward to being back in Canada!

After those days at the lake, we drove back to Addis, and it was the last night to be in Africa. At 11 in the morning the next day, on Saturday, we boarded a plane bound for Frankfurt, Germany, and in the late afternoon we safely arrived there. We then took the train from Frankfurt to where our base is located, and finally got there at 3 in the morning on Sunday. So I have only been in Germany for about two days. That is crazy to think about. Everything here in Germany is already back to normal: I have eaten yogurt again for breakfast, I was able to play the piano, I have a bed to sleep in a hot shower to take, and I am even back to my work duty of cleaning the stairs every day. It is gorgeous here and so green; I love it! I relish the luxury of being able to walk by myself and to enjoy the nature.

You’re probably wondering if I am culture-shocking or what I am feeling now that I am in Germany after 3 months in Africa, and to be honest, I am wondering the same thing. I don’t think that whole fact has quite hit me yet, some parts of my day feel like a dream. I am thankful for my time in Africa and I am so glad to be back. I will spend only 20 days here at my YWAM base in Herrnhut and I pray to God that I will not waste a single moment of these days. I am very much looking forward to going back home, because while Germany is amazing, it is not quite Canada. I pray you are all well, and I will be seeing you soon!

Love always,

Fina