January 12, 2014

Today, Sunday, we were able to worship at Covenant Church with our friends.  David came at 9:30 to bring us to church and we were ready to go.  We had had pancakes, oatmeal, and banana bread for breakfast, which we hoped would hold us until lunch, since church services are around 3 hours long, here.

The church is one big open room with wooden benches.  A sign on the wall tells us to turn off our phones - in Amharic.  The band and choir have started by the time we get there, though not many people have arrived.  We sit and watch as they sing praise songs and the people sing along.  The woman in the choir - 4 of them - are in white robes with pale yellow stolls.  The songs are not as upbeat as I expected, but quite calming.  People continue to file in as the time passes.

 

When the pastor comes to the pulpit he holds a time of prayer and blessing for a man dedicating himself to ministry then there is another song - this one more upbeat - and he begins his message.  Tez has come to sit with us and write the English translation in a notebook as Pastor Yonas speaks.  We are thankful to have the translation.

He teaches on sacrifice for the Lord and gives an excellent message.  We get the main points on paper.  The service concludes after about 3 hours, the time has gone more quickly than we expected.  As we wait to find out what is next, Krysta and I explore the grounds a little bit.  We find the offices and the Sunday School rooms.  This is a large compound.

 

We visit some and are introduced to David's wife, Mekanus, and daughter, Kaharium.  We have brought a gift for her from our bags.  We have included one of Kaili's teddy bears.  It seems right to give it to this special girl.

 

We head for lunch after church and have invited the pastors to join us.  Yonas, Bazabe, and Menalik as well as Yonas' wife Rita.  We have a lovely lunch.  They are so kind and like to joke with us.  Yonas shows us his wonderful sense of humor.

 

We don't have a plan for the rest of the day.  We need to relax after several busy days.  David brings us back to the house and goes home to his family.

We want to walk around the neighborhood so we head out to do that.  The street nearby is busy and has many shops and cafes.  There is much to see, but we don't go far.  We are looking for a few things to bring with us to Ambo tomorrow, but we don't have much luck.  Ferenge get charged more than we are willing to pay. 

We weren't sure what these things were.  Some kind of breaded, fried meat. 
When we asked Hanna about them she gave us strict instructions not to eat them!

 

 

All we bought was some sprite for the fridge

 

Back at the house we ask for popcorn and smoothies for dinner.  we have had a late lunch so don't need much.  As we eat we talk about our day and read through the notes Tez gave us.  We have many laughs over our basket of popcorn. 

Jen and Kristen enjoying their popcorn and mango smoothies