Dear Family and friends, September 5, 2011
I have been back in the States for just under two months and I think about Ethiopia everyday: the people, my students, the food, language, city, etc. I count myself more than blessed to have lived and served in Addis Ababa at Bingham Academy this past academic year. THANK YOU for your love, prayers and support as many lives were changed for eternity, including mine. It is cliché to say, but it truly is more blessed to give than to receive, and I have been humbled being on both sides. Having the opportunity to both poor into lives as the “giver”, and by both the generosity from the nationals and friends there, and from your sacrifice of finances and prayer, being the “receiver” to make this past year even possible. God is so good and I am in awe. “As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.” (Is. 55:9)
3 of the biggest lessons I learned in new ways from living in Ethiopia this past year:
1. All that we have; money, clothes, food and time, is from the Lord and belongs to the Lord. It’s easier to not be possessive when we hold things with open hands in the first place.
2. I work to serve the Lord and fulfill the calling he has placed on my life. Not for any boss, man, or money.
3. People, no matter what their environment is, yearn for love, something to be hopeful in and purposeful in. That is why the poorest of the poor can be more content than the wealthy.
Now, I am in San Diego. I am still discerning how to specifically pursue the health professions and for a number of reasons I chose San Diego. For starters I plan to work as a massage therapist and possibly at a shoe store until I narrow down what I want to pursue. I will hopefully be moving into an apartment soon, with my friend I met in Ethiopia who is from Monterey!
Praise and Prayer Requests:
-The opportunity to have lived and served in a culture so different from my own; to experience a different land, challenges, love, and generosity; to use my knowledge and education to teach PE, athletic skills, and the connection the value of our physical discipline has to our spiritual discipline to kids from all over the world; to teach English and to play with street kids.
-For the right job(s) to come through.
-To move into an apartment we like asap.
THANK YOU all for your investment in the Kingdom this past year. This is an old song, but listen to it as a “Thank you” from my students and kids I worked with in Ethiopia. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1lVzeS5i8WQ&feature=related
God bless! Keep in touch.
Rachel Valliere
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