A lot to be thankful for!

It’s been a great month – I’ve been so blessed with many visitors (some planned, some unplanned).  My latest was one of my besties Rachael who came for two weeks.  It was so wonderful to see a familiar face and show her the work that I am doing here, introduce her to all my friends and family here and share my life with someone from back home.  

Rachael and I enjoying one of the many yummy Italian restaurants.

We even snuck away to Egypt for 4 days (it was safe while we were there, but unfortunately there has been some activity due to the recent elections)!   We got to visit the pyramids a la camel, tour Cairo and visit Alexandria.  It was a trip of a lifetime!

Rachael, me, Moses and Michael Jackson (the camels. of course!)

Enjoying some Pizza Hut while staring at the Pyramids at sunset  with Rachael - does life get any better?? 

Rachael got to share some of my joys and frustrations with living and serving here.  Some days are great and others are discouraging.  We have been having a lot of concern as of late with the women of Entoto.  A lot of legal issues blew up at once and resulted in a lack of trust across all parties.  Please cover the community of Entoto, our ministry, the women that work for us and the staff and volunteers in your prayers.  We will continue to trust God that His power is greater than any of us (or any government).

I celebrated Thanksgiving, as close to American style as possible, as well.  Eden and I invited 22 friends over for dinner - no turkey though – rumor is one store imports them for about $100 so we had chicken. J  But we got to have all the delicious sides and yummy pies.  The day was filled with lots of cooking, laughter and gratitude, just like home.  J

Thanksgiving Dinner

This past weekend, I participated in the Great Ethiopian Run, the largest organized race in Africa, along with other staff and volunteers from Entoto Outreach.  We sponsored five of the Entoto kids and a few volunteers to participate in the race with the Entoto staff team.  It was a great day! 

The staff, volunteers and students of Beza Entoto Outreach before the big race!

I ran (err…walked) the 10K with one of our star students from Entoto, Ganet, who is one of our middle school students who participates in Kids’ Club on Saturday afternoons, but has started to volunteer with the younger kids in the mornings.  It is great to see some of our own students give back to their own community, leading games and activities for the younger children.

Ganet and I after the race with our medals!

Some of you have begun to ask, what's next?  I have committed to staying here in Addis with my current position until April and everyone here says "Stay!" and everyone at home, says "Come back!".  My heart does the same flip flop about four times a day as well so I will continue to pray and think about what's best for this community and for me.  If I do decide to stay, I will need to raise the additional funds to cover not only my living costs, but also the work and initiatives of the ministry, so that is a definite consideration as well.  If you want to give me encouragement to stay, please donate here:  https://secure.qgiv.com/for/?key=bezafund.  If you want to give me encouragement to come home, you can send letters telling me how much you miss me here (Lisa Steinhoff, c/o BCDA, PO Box 1186-1250, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia).  Feel free to make your opinion known.  :)

Much love,

Lisa