January 20, 2006
Friends,
We hope that you all enjoyed a wonderful Christmas. We celebrated
two Christmases here, a family celebration on the traditional
American and European date of December 25, and then another Christmas
celebration with our Ethiopian friends on January 7, the date
they celebrate our Savior’s birth here, based on the Ethiopian
calendar.
Janelle writes
It is now finals week for the students, which means grading week.
I am very busy trying to give students an update of their grade
before they take their final exams. Even with the lack of sleep
I am still healthy. Thank you for your nice letters, emails, and
cards. I have been terrible at getting back to you, not because
I don’t appreciate you or your news, but because I have
been very busy. For some reason, I thought that I would have spare
time here. Why did I think that teaching four classes a day here
would be any less time-consuming than teaching in America? Carolee
really likes to help me grade papers, so when she sees me sitting
at the desk she says, “up, up.” I know if I allow
her in my lap she will leave her markings all over the page, so
most of my grading is done during her sleeping hours. Our students
are very studious right now; there is no one playing football
(soccer) or basketball, and the library is full. We are thankful
for a grant from the PCUSA to buy 300 dictionaries for students
to check out for the year. We still need 150 more so that all
students can check out a dictionary for the whole year.
Mike writes
I have been doing quite a bit of construction management in the
past month, working with the staff of the Western Wollega Bethel
Synod and the Gidada Bible School in the planning and construction
of a girl’s dormitory building at Gidada Bible School. Gidada
Bible School is anticipating a rapid increase in the number of
women training to become pastors in the coming years, and is planning
ahead of time to meet the needs of this new group of leaders-to-be.
The dorm has been financed by people from Presbyterian Churches
in Ohio and Pennsylvania, two groups of which will also be coming
to Dembi Dollo at the end of January to assist with construction.
Planning for the project here has been both an interesting and
challenging experience. There are a great number of delays that
you encounter each day here that, for an American, require a considerable
amount of adjustment of timeline expectations. Because Dembi Dollo
is located so far from Addis Ababa or any other large city, just
about everything has to be imported. It therefore requires a great
deal of coordination and negotiation with suppliers, people to
bring the supplies by truck, and laborers to make locally what
cannot reasonably be brought in. This all takes a lot of time.
We Americans are so used to instant communication, with our business
luxuries such as email, voice mail, fax machines, pagers, and
even telephones. Communication in rural Ethiopia, on the other
hand, is often via personal messenger, which can be very time
consuming. Also, there seems to be a construction boom occurring
throughout Ethiopia, and supplies of anything concrete or iron
are hard to come by. I have therefore learned the necessity of
getting on waiting lists as soon as possible! But all in good
time—here we have many more opportunites to build relationships
with people in the course of work than we do in the United States.
I really look forward to the arrival of the two groups from the
United States and watching them relate to the staff and workers
at Gidada Bible School, the Western Wollega Bethel Synod, and
the people of Dembi Dollo. There is so much opportunity to learn
about God’s tremendous graciousness in our lives when we
work in relationship with other brothers and sisters in Christ.
Please pray for us that as we build this dorm together, we also
build up one another in faith and love.
Carolee writes
I am now 20 months old, and it is high time to assert my independence
and charm! Mommy and Daddy say I am really a ham, but it is just
so much fun to make everyone laugh, especially since I get so
much attention from all of the students and staff here at Bethel
Evangelical Secondary School. One of my favorite things to do
is to run up and down the aisles at the cafeteria at lunch or
dinner, when all of the students smile and talk to me. I have
many friends here, including Iftu, who is my age and just moved
here with her family (her dad is a new Math teacher at BESS).
We all hang out together and get into all kinds of mischief. Mommy
and Daddy say that I am learning Afan Oromo (Oromifa language)
and English quickly now. My favorite words in English are book,
go-go (go outside to play), six, eight, book, and shokit (chocolate,
which Mom and Dad don’t give me nearly enough of). I can
also say my ABC’s now: “A-B-C-B-G.” My favorite
Afan Oromo words are babo (dabo, or bread), luku
(chicken, which come to visit every day outside the kitchen
window), and faya (greeting that means “good health,”
during which I also bow my head).
Prayer requests
- That we would continue to build upon the many relationships
we have made here with students and staff, encouraging others
in their faith as they encourage us.
- For peace throughout Ethiopia, which seems to be continuing
on a path toward ever more confrontation between the government
and the people.
- That all children in Ethiopia would have access to good education.
- For continued good health.
- For God’s guidance on how to show His love to those
who we come in contact with.
Please note our new email address: mikemac [at] ethionet.et.
If you write to us at this email and you don’t here from
us within about two weeks your email may not have gotten through.
Then try writing a letter through our postal address, which is
correct on our home page.
Janelle and Mike McCarty
The 2006 Mission Yearbook for Prayer & Study, p. 330
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