November 2007
Note from Dee: “I wrote this letter on Nov. 7th before returning to Ethiopia. I am still awaiting word on my Affiliate Application with CBF, a global mission organization that could serve as my “umbrella agency”. I will keep you posted on that development.”)
Please allow me this November 2007 to share with you what I have been thanking God for during this past year. Though I am back in Ethiopia and not celebrating the traditional Thanksgiving, I thank God for His second greatest gift: my friends and family.
Some of the special blessings I have experienced this past year include:
The opportunity to develop a relationship with an elder of my church in Yetebon, Ethiopia, as she taught me Amharic while teaching me how to weave a grass rug. But, even better, she taught me humility during the time we shared our faith as we met daily in her deteriorating grass hut with its dirt floor, a fire-ring for a stove, no electricity, and no running water.
The three boys in the village of Butajira with whom I developed a motherly relationship. Every time I would go to the village they would rush to my car to beg for coins and tell me how hungry they were. Eventually, they were coming to help me carry my computer bag or to take shoes to shine and held their hand out, not for money, but rather to hold one of my hands. Today, they are enrolled in school, have new uniforms, school supplies and two snacks each day.
The privilege of working with Project Mercy. For three years I had been working with the same eight teachers who are now sustaining the kindergarten we set up. God led us and blessed us with all the materials, methods, and strategies for making the curriculum not only developmentally appropriate but culturally appropriate, as well. He “shoed” the flies away and brought a healthy alertness and the energy needed for learning into the lives of 600+ children Many of these lambs came into His Kingdom through their Vacation Bible School experience.
The privilege of traveling back to Ethiopia to enter into the lives of students at a Bible College in Ethiopia. They will soon be joining the Lord’s army to take His light to other mission fields (the U.S., included); to the far corners of the world and to countries where American missionaries are not welcomed. God will equip them in many ways, including the universal language of English He will enable me to teach to them.
A better understanding of “Missions:” It is a Global Mission; God’s church as “the missionary to the World.” Walls have come down between denominations of Christ. As a result of all the searches of mission agencies I have done this year, I return to the field better equipped to work cooperatively and collectively with everyone who is helping make a change in the lives of those who are hungry, in poor health, naked, and homeless.
I am most grateful for those who pray for me, support my ministry, encourage me, challenge me, mentor me, and nurture me, as well as family who pay for transportation for me to visit my children and grandbaby, and insists on providing a time and place of rest The summer I spent in the US this year was longer than usual, while I waited for the guest house to be built at the Hosanna Kale Heywet Bible College. But, it was for a good reason to prepare my heart!
In His Service,
Dee Donalson
Please allow me this November 2007 to share with you what I have been thanking God for during this past year. Though I am back in Ethiopia and not celebrating the traditional Thanksgiving, I thank God for His second greatest gift: my friends and family.Some of the special blessings I have experienced this past year include:
The opportunity to develop a relationship with an elder of my church in Yetebon, Ethiopia, as she taught me Amharic while teaching me how to weave a grass rug. But, even better, she taught me humility during the time we shared our faith as we met daily in her deteriorating grass hut with its dirt floor, a fire-ring for a stove, no electricity, and no running water.
The three boys in the village of Butajira with whom I developed a motherly relationship. Every time I would go to the village they would rush to my car to beg for coins and tell me how hungry they were. Eventually, they were coming to help me carry my computer bag or to take shoes to shine and held their hand out, not for money, but rather to hold one of my hands. Today, they are enrolled in school, have new uniforms, school supplies and two snacks each day.The privilege of working with Project Mercy. For three years I had been working with the same eight teachers who are now sustaining the kindergarten we set up. God led us and blessed us with all the materials, methods, and strategies for making the curriculum not only developmentally appropriate but culturally appropriate, as well. He “shoed” the flies away and brought a healthy alertness and the energy needed for learning into the lives of 600+ children Many of these lambs came into His Kingdom through their Vacation Bible School experience.
The privilege of traveling back to Ethiopia to enter into the lives of students at a Bible College in Ethiopia. They will soon be joining the Lord’s army to take His light to other mission fields (the U.S., included); to the far corners of the world and to countries where American missionaries are not welcomed. God will equip them in many ways, including the universal language of English He will enable me to teach to them.
A better understanding of “Missions:” It is a Global Mission; God’s church as “the missionary to the World.” Walls have come down between denominations of Christ. As a result of all the searches of mission agencies I have done this year, I return to the field better equipped to work cooperatively and collectively with everyone who is helping make a change in the lives of those who are hungry, in poor health, naked, and homeless.
In His Service,
Dee Donalson
posted by John | 7:31 AM
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