Saturday evening, 7/18/15, Updated by team member, Debbie Wyne

There are five of us on the team: Lori, who is our team leader and has been here 4 times previously, Brenda and her high school aged daughter, Rachel, Sarah (another high school student), and myself (I was here for the first time in February).

After a loooong day of travel, we spend a few hours at The Amenities hotel in Addis Ababa freshening up and having a bite to eat. We are joined at breakfast by a few staff members from Hope Enterprises. Hope is the Ethiopian organization that CPC partners with to develop and implement the Sintaro Village project. Hope’s General Secretary, Dr. Lemma, joins us for breakfast, along with Pastor Mattewos, and Worede, who is the Project Manager for Sintaro Village. It’s good to be reunited with Worede because he was with us each day on our last trip to Sintaro a few months ago.

During breakfast, Dr. Lemma gives those who are new to the project some background and an overview of who Hope is and what their role is. We discuss some plans for the week and ask some clarifying questions to prepare for the days ahead. We are excited to learn that Hope is sending us with some trees to plant on the school grounds! Unfortunately, there is also disheartening news that Worede is not well and will not be joining us for the week. He promises to follow doctors orders to get some rest, but also indicates that if he is feeling up to it, that he will try to make the trip to Awasa and join us in the village later in the week. He has put so much time and effort into this project, and I know he is really hoping to be present when the water from the newly dug well begins flowing and we can celebrate God’s provision!

The weather is mild today. Apparently it rained really hard last night, but so far today it is dry and a fairly comfortable temperature for travel. As the day progresses, our driver turns on the AC, but all it does it blow tepid air, so we open the windows instead. Our drivers name is Job. He is a Christian man who has been working as a driver for 24 years. He speaks broken English and he and I begin to forge a friendship. He wants to know about my family so I show him a picture and explain who everyone is. Some of you may know that I raise puppies-in-training for Guide Dogs for the Blind, and one of my pups is in the photo with my family. Job is intrigued by this but explains that in America dogs are prized and here they are not. I think it baffles him to know that someone who is visually impaired would entrust their life to a dog!

After several hours of travel, we stop for lunch at the Sabana resort. We are more than ready for real food and we all eat well. After lunch, many of us are having trouble keeping our eyes open and we doze off and on.

Finally, we arrive at our hotel in Awasa. Although we had reservations, it seems they have given our rooms away and they scramble to put enough roll away beds in rooms for us to all sleep. It is 7:30pm, and it’s 43 hours since we left home. I don’t think the bed will matter much. Once we are laying horizontally, I think we will all sleep very well!

Praise God for safe travels thus far! Please pray for continued health and restorative sleep for us all tonight. Tomorrow we head to Sintaro Village!

Saturday morning, 7/18/15 Updated by team member, Debbie Wyne

The journey begins! The first leg of our flight is from SFO to LAX, and then we walk to the international terminal, get boarding passes and go through security again. Once we board the flight, we land in Dublin, Ireland and have a couple of hours where we stay on the plane and get to see Ireland, and even smell the air through the airplane door, but we don’t get to set foot in the country. After refueling, cleaning and stocking the plane with supplies and boarding additional passengers, we leave Dublin and continue our journey to Addis.

Twenty-nine and a half hours after the team has initially gathered together, we arrive in Addis and in no time we pass through customs and obtain our Visas. We see that all of our luggage has arrived, and soon we are joined by Pastor Matthew. Pastor Matthew is with Hope Enterprises and will be with us throughout the week. I’m truly looking forward to getting to know him because I can already sense that he is a strong man of God. A few minutes later and we are on the bus on our way to freshen up at The Amenities hotel. We are tired, but excited to be here! Welcome to Africa!

The team leaves today to begin the looooong journey to Sintaro Village!  Looking at the weather forecast for the area, it looks like they will be fully experiencing the “rainy season”! Thunderstorms and heavy rain are predicted every single day!  Please be praying for traveling mercies.