I have been so blessed in my time here--even more so than I deserve. But I can tell you this much... It is not because of anything I did, but rather because I serve a God of grace who accepted my willing and obedient heart. The love that I have for the children at the orphanage and along the streets is not a love that I could have created of my own doing; it was God given and came from the overflowing love that He has filled my life with.
In coming to Ethiopia, I had a degree of qualification for working with and loving these young children, but to a large degree I was not at all qualified for the work that was ahead of me. I never studied cross-cultural ministries, I simply fell in love with it. I had no experience with orphans or social work, and the extent of my medical capabilities reached just about as far as the closest box of bandaids and tube of Neosporin. And yet God looked down upon me and saw something He could use: He saw a willingness to serve.
I have learned throughout this year, as I prepped and landed on the mission field, that something magical happens when we say "Yes, Lord." God starts moving in ways we never could have dreamed of. It was as if, by simply offering myself to God He began doing things in me, through me, and around me that could only be explained by His faithfulness even in this fallen world.
