{Pictured is Melanie, front right, with children in Ethiopia}
Last summer I traveled with a group from our church to Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. The purpose of the trip was to run a youth camp for around 100 kids that Covenant Mercies sponsors and to build relationships with a Sovereign Grace church in the city. Our group of nineteen had three Covenant Fellowship staff, three young adults, ten rising and graduated youth, and three older adults. My husband Andrew and I were two of the “old people.”
Addas Ababa was nothing like the Africa I had in my mind. It is a huge city. Think Philly but many times larger with less infrastructure, almost no traffic lights, and goats all over the place. It was quite an adventure to help lead a 3-day youth camp with 14 Ethiopian teens on our team. We played games together, sat together during ministry and teaching sessions, ate all our meals together, and slept in the same building. We were “on” all of the time and we did not speak the same language! It was the LONGEST, most intense game of charades EVER!
Saying that God worked miracles to bond us together is an understatement. The affection and understanding that we developed with little to no common language was astonishing. It is amazing to think that we could be used to help present the true gospel of Jesus Christ to these precious youth!
After camp was over, we had the tremendous privilege to worship at Trinity Fellowship Church. How my soul was fed by the praise and preaching of our sister church! We were in another quadrant of the globe in a place that was foreign in every way. Guess what. Jesus was there! In power and might, in subtlety and tenderness. My eyes were opened to see the reach of the gospel across the nations.
It is hard to express how strange and wonderful it was to be part of this mission team. My daily life here is nothing special. In fact, I live with quite a bit of mental and emotional mess. I have limited abilities and have no history of longing to reach the nations or to minister to orphans. Why would anyone in my ordinary life situation even apply to be part of something like this mission trip?
God. That is why. I had the tiniest little prompting in my heart to serve in this way and before I knew it, I was on a plane to who knew where! The things that I learned from the experience were many, but my real take-home is that we do not have to wait to have it together. We do not have to understand or to be in control. We are called to be faithful and to look to God in all things and in every way.
Hopefully God gives that whisper to your soul too. Listen. Be faithful. To him be the glory forever and ever.
