Missing Ethiopia

A lot of things have happened in the past week or so that have made me really miss Ethiopia. First off of course is that this time last year I was starting to prepare to go. I was trying to finish up my fundraising and getting this ready to go. We flew out July 5th (I believe that was the date) so right now I would have been just a few weeks away from leaving the country.

The missing Ethiopia really started to happen around last Thursday as my friend Amanda was preparing to leave for China again.

Amanda and Autumn at Snookie's during her going away dinner/dessert

She went to China last year with Intervarsity and now is going on more of a school trip. Anyway on Thursday while she was thinking about her last trip Courtney and I started talking more about Ethiopia. That just got me thinking more and more about how much I miss the country, the people I met in Ethiopia, as well as bonding with the members of my team. It's great to continue to think about the country, but sometimes I really just want to be back there. I want to be with the kids at KVI and see their faces everyday.

How can you not miss these faces?

or these ones?

I also was reminded how much I miss Ethiopia as well as the people that I went with when I saw Mandy at the farmer's market on Saturday. I was just walking down the street and heard my name then I saw her. It was great to hug her and talk for a couple of minutes. I wish we could have caught up more (which I really hope to do sometime this summer since she lives nearby) but the farmer's market is not really the location for this.

I think I also really miss the constant focus on God. In foreign countries, on mission trips, etc. The main focus is doing God's will and drawing closer to him for comfort, strength, etc. My mind was consistently focused on God. As I've been home through school and everything else I slowly draw further and further away from that connection with God. I know in my head he's always there, but to intentionally focus on Him I haven't been very good at. I also think this summer with my schedule and not having IV and DG bible study weekly to think about my relationship with God has been bad. I've been going to church, but that's only 1 thing a week and I haven't tried to do much else. I'm really going to try and be more intentional with reading my Bible, praying, and/or journaling the rest of the summer and hopefully it'll be succesfull.

Overall I miss Ethiopia-the people, the relationship, etc. I'm honestly jealous of my roommate Lindsay's brother who goes to Creighton and will be going to Ethiopia this summer with IV. I know that the experience I had in Ethiopia will never be repeated, but one can hope can't they?

If you're just now reading my blog, which I highly doubt as I think Traci's the only one that still reads it and haven't looked at my Ethiopia blog and would like more info about my trip then check out my blog from the trip.

I'll leave you with another picture!