My last trip to Ethiopia left me dry. Every day, I asked God, “Why do you have me here?” And every day . . . Nothing.
Nothing, that was, until on our last day when six of us visited the Sisters of Charity Hospital for the Destitute and Dying.
August 2007: our last night in Ethiopia. The Ghion Hotel, although in various states of disrepair throughout its interior, offered a surprising expanse of gardens. And like the hotel, the gardens varied in condition and care. Still, there was an unkempt beauty to the grounds, a place where Mexican sage, cactus, daisies, and elephant grass grew (and apparently thrived) together in massive clumps. On the last night of our trip, three team members and I walked the grounds, a thin mist blanketing the lamps that lined the paths.
The love of God is shed abroad in our hearts. I joined the MPPC Missions Team in October 2005 and traveled to New Orleans to serve Katrina victims. At that time, I was invited to travel Ethiopia to participate in providing medical services to the HIV/AIDS beneficiaries. I had always dreamed of visiting Africa and traveling as a missionary. I was very happy to accept the invitation and challenge.
In the summers of 2007 and 2009 I was blessed to participate in educational mission trips to Ethiopia. Both times our team’s primary mission was to share teaching strategies with Ethiopian educators. We did not presume to know more than they—we just hoped we had something to offer. What we were so fortunate to receive was a mutual blessing.
I’ve heard many travelers say it, and Tony Bennett sang it: “I left my heart in San Francisco.” While there’s truth in that for me as my husband (Whit) and I, newly married, moved from San Francisco to Dallas late last fall; I would also admit that I left part of my heart in Ethiopia.
