The Big Apple

Our trip to New York City was perfect. We stayed at the amazing Sheraton IN the middle of Manhattan.. just one block away from Time Square and a 5 minute walk to Central Park. When we checked in we told them that we were on our honeymoon, so they gave us free access to the business lounge as well :) ... which basically just means free unlimited Starbucks, breakfast and Horsdoeuvres -- all overlooking the sky scrapes of the city! Favor!

Monday evening was spent strolling through Time Square, exploring Macy's (the largest department store on the planet) and eating at TGIF in the heart of it all. On Tuesday we took an incredible on-off tour bus through downtown NYC, shopped at Urban Outfitters, H&M, strolled China Town and SOHO, ate lunch at Subway (we've been craving that in Ethiopia), searched for leather high-top Chucks (Through the entire city. Literally like 20 stores. They've been out in Europe and Asia for a while... America is always the last to get fashion. These Converse literally arrived in NYC the day we did!!) More favor!

Wednesday was my 22nd Birthday! It began with a sunshiny (yet freezing) carriage ride through Central Park. In the afternoon we took the "Uptown Loop" tour through Harlem and the Upper East Side. Amazing. Then we went to the top of the Empire State Building... it's incredible how many movies have been filmed there... romance, tragedy(Sleepless in Seattle, King Kong...)

In the evening, Samuel hailed me my first NY cab and took me to a Blues club in Time Square. So fun...

O Yea... and we finally found the converse(Black leather high-tops!) in the basement of a souvenir shop! They're hott!

My hero and I in Central Park!

Friday was lovely. I went out with my mama.. and then came home to find the men in my life fighting. Fencing actually. Hilarious. Samuel is addicted to a new sport... they were dripping with sweat when they finished and Samuel was even gushing blood. It's crazy what guys will do for the honor and pride of a victory...

This morning my Kristin came over with a Birthday gift for me. I looove photography but have been without a camera for a while now. She got me a new one!!! Thank you thank you thank you!! I love it! God truly does give us the desires of our hearts :)

My love..

It's our last full day here in the states. Soaking up my family, Joelle and Lauren. The team in Ethiopia is having an incredible festival with Daniel this weekend... longing for my African family!! Love you and am praying and believing for incredible things on Africa's Horn! Be there soon!!!

Bona Ceremony

We had a fabulous time celebrating (our fifth) Christmas last night with the entire family! Grandma, Great Grandma, uncles, aunts, cousins... mmm.. warms my heart. Samuel and I were able to share so much about our home in Ethiopia... food, bugs, hyenas, the base, Church of Joy, our Bible students, languages...

At the end of the evening I decided to prepare a cultural BONA CEREMONY - famous roasted coffee beans prepared from scratch. Dad helped me prepare a small fire in the house, I sizzled the fresh green clusters of delight, smashed them in a wooden container and then boiled them in the famous clay coffee pot of Ethiopia. I don't understand how the girls of Africa do this with such grace... I almost burned the house down! Hilarious! Despite our thick lungs and foggy vision, the bona itself was a big hit. Mmmm good times with the whole family!

Daddy to the rescue... imagine smoke like this, filling the entire house of people... gah!

This morning we were at Victory Christian Center! How refreshing it was to see our church family. I feel like a sponge... absorbing everything I can while I'm here. Pastor Thomas and Kathie are amazing!

Samuel is booking our room for NYC this afternoon. We're leaving before the sun arrives tomorrow morning. Finally our late honeymoon :) We just want to walk through time square, empire state building, carriage ride through central park, fika... mmmmm... I love to be with my best friend. Jag alskar dig!

Life in pictures...

Skinny Cinnamon Dolce Latte... not quite like my "Stackbucks" in Harar :)

Winter morning in USA... still waiting for snowflakes!

Me and my Lauren... sweet love...

We all need friends that make our stomachs hurt after spending time together... from laughing!

Cooking at our kitchen in Pittsburgh!

With Pastor Juan and Deidre and my love... amazing!

Covenant friends and family... catching up on life and love in my home :)

My Joelle! Waiting for her to come to me in Ethiopia this MARCH!

Cov Besties!

Ethio

Thinking about my Ethiopia this morning... sometimes it's still hard to believe that Africa is my home. Yesterday Samuel and I went to an Ethiopian restaurant in Pittsburgh with Colby and Sarah.. they will be coming to be missionaries with us and the team this September for one year!! What amazing girls! My heart's longing for you! Now I have two more Americans that can keep me on track for Thanksgiving and other such celebrations... (Filip, Maja and Katish... no that is NOT funny!)

Samuel and I had dinner and fikas with Peter, Martina and the kids yesterday. Feels refreshing to be with my SOS family. Thoroughly enjoying USA!

Shower curtains

On tuesday after dropping Samuel at MCM to teach at the Bible school for the day... I was off to Youngstown! It's funny how refreshing it can be to just drive alone in a car with worship music blasting. I thoroughly enjoyed myself. Honestly, some of my most precious moments with Holy Spirit have been alone in my Buick over the years. Lovely.

Mom and I had a shopping date in the morning. I think I've forgotten how to shop... I just kind of walked around and soaked it all up. I have the most culture shock when I'm here in the Western world. Got a few cute things anyway :) Somehow as we continued through the morning, we kept accumulating new people. My dad met us at Old Navy, we took a fika at panera and then my Joelle showed up! We made a little bit of a scene to say the least.. haha. I was crying with joy!! Next we were off for new bedding and bathroom shelves that I can bring back to Ethiopia. It's a strange feeling when you realize you're shopping for such wifely things.. lol.. it was funny to have 4 people examining the shower curtains with such intensity the way we were.

Suddenly I got a call from my Lauren, she was headed up the escalator to me!! The next few minutes were like a movie as she ran up the moving stairs to my arms..hah!(Later she told me that she didn't understand why I wasn't running down to her... hah.. my Lauren..) I have the best friends in the world! It's been exactly 4 months since we bid each other farewell..

Lauren!!! With my mama and Joelle in the background...

My covies (covenant besties) joined me and Samuel back in Pittsburgh for the night. We cooked, fika-ed, caught up on life... I'm in love with you girls! Joelle leaves for India in one month for a prayer/missions trip and then will directly come to stay in Ethiopia with us for ONE MONTH! Lauren will be joining some time in the summer :) Thanks Jesus.

Soon.. I'm off to join my hubby in the Bible school and then we're having Injera for lunch with some soon-coming missionaries! Tonight we'll be with the Almqvists!! All the greatest people in the world are somehow living in my life :)

My first day...

My first day in America was fabulous. Despite our 40 hours of travel, I was up at 5.. anxious and longing for our be-lated Christmas by the lights of the Christmas tree. My mama and daddy blessed Samuel and I sooo much... clothes, shoes, books. Wow! Then we all enjoyed breakfast and my mama took me to the salon for a girl's day. After only 3 hours... I guess I have pretty long hair... I feel like a new woman! It's amazing what a little color and cut and do!

While mama and I were basking in our makeovers.. Sam, my lil bro and daddy were fencing! My dad is really good and is always trying to pick a fight, using anything he can find. Believe me, we've had many tournaments in the kitchen with knives, and pans. I'm just glad he's found a new competitor. I heard Samuel has no mercy though :)

Now Samuel and I are in Pittsburgh, staying at Allison Park's guest house. We're right down the street from Peter and Martina(So excited to spend time with them)! It was amazing to wake up this morning in our own little home on this especially dark winter morning. It's nothing like home in Ethiopia!

Samuel will be preaching at MCM ministry school today. I'm headed off to Youngstown to shop and fika with my mama... then spending the evening with my besties!!!

On our way...

Samuel and I are on our way to USA!!

The bus ride from Harar to Addis Ababa was eventful to say the least. We started the journey with Sky Bus but after 3 near-head-on-collisions... we jumped off and took a sweaty minibus the rest of the way instead.

Our flight from Addis left at 3am. Now we're sitting in Istanbul. Samuel lit up and could have ran or jumped or danced when he saw Burger King! I'm just glowing here with my soy latte :)

Can you believe I'm going to see my family and friends in USA soon??? Gahh!! I could have cried leaving Ethiopia though... Thank you Jesus, I'll be back in 2 1/2 weeks! Katrine just sent me an email about our women's house church last night.. I asked one of our Bibleschool graduates to take it over for the next 3 weeks until I come back... she was incredible! So proud of our disciples!

I have the best life in the world. I get to be a missionary, preach the Gospel, discover new cultures, watch miracles and supernatural wonders appear before my eyes from my sweet Holy Spirit, and wake up to the eyes of Samuel Strandberg every morning :) :) :) My home in Harar, Ethiopia is the most amazing place in the world. I love our team... maja, katish, erik, filip, mohammed, ashagre, katrine, naphtali :) You're the best!!

Sam will be teaching at MCM Bibleschool in Pittsburgh this week... "Healing in the Redemption and Jesus' Healing Ministry" Soooo powerful! We'll be at my home church, Victory Christian Center, for the next two sundays, catching up with my covenant besties Joelle and Lauren, celebrating Christmas with my family(the fourth this year... but who's counting???), and taking our late honeymoon in New York City!

Love you!

Wow wow! Next stop Chicago, Pittsburgh and Youngstown!!

Injera and miracles!

My lungs were thick with dusty sand Sunday afternoon. The sunbeams piercing into Church of Joy reflected the rising dirt from our many lunch-guests. My heart melted onto the floor.

My preparations for our “Christmas show” began 9am Tuesday morning and ran straight through until Sunday morning! Literally. Our goal was to have two celebration services/outreaches in our “Church of Joy” where we simply preached JESUS from birth to resurrection, including His miracle ministry when He walked the earth. What an incredible time it turned out to be!

In the afternoon, we invited the old homeless people of Harar, lepers, cripples, blind… to come for a Christmas show and free lunch! They were lined up at our Church compound 1½-hour before we began. Some of our women disciples prepared the mass of food all through Saturday morning, afternoon and night into Sunday morning! Just to give you an idea of how much food I’m talking about… they chopped 21 kilos of onion!! Gah! We wanted to give our lunch guests the absolute BEST from the service, to the drama, to the injera they feasted on at the end.

The drama began with Mary holding baby Jesus and being carried into the sanctuary on a donkey led by Joseph! Then of course a shepherd came with a baby goat on his shoulders and the wisemen came bearing gifts of gold. (We did have a camel available, but we left him out… just incase he decided not to handle the spotlight in a small building so well) Immediately the stage was cleared and a new song began… describing the entire life of Jesus. Half way through, the drama continued…

…Jesus was dragged through the sanctuary by men in black clothes, beat up, stabbedwith a crown of thorns and nailed to a cross. Every mouth in the room was hanging open as they watched the crucifixion. Of course in only a few moments they were shouting with joy when they saw Him raised from the dead! Erik, who played the part of Jesus, ran into the audience with his bloody and torn clothes hanging from his shoulders, showing them his hands that had been nailed to the cross… I loved the simplicity of our guests, they grabbed his fingers and looked up into his eyes in astonishment! Hallelujah!

Without missing a beat, a third song began and the four people dressed in black clothes on the stage transformed into bound, oppressed and desperate characters. One-by-one Jesus came to them and RESTORED blind eyes, HEALED a disease-stricken woman, gave FREEDOM and LIFE to a beggar girl addicted to Kat and finally STRAIGHTENED and STRENGTHENED a crippled man’s legs who had been crawling around with sandals on his hands… like the cripples do here. The entire room was now shouting as the lyrics of the song continued on… “Hallelujah, Hallelujah!!!”

No words can describe the gift it is to preach the entire gospel through body language, facial expressions and song. Filip played our remarkable cripple in the drama… he scooted himself around with his arms, pulling on Jesus’ legs the entire time He was focusing on healing and restoring the others. He was desperate. My heart was beating to the rhythm of his acting but my focus was however on the eyes of the 3 crippled men in our meeting who were starring toward the stage with the biggest eyes I’ve ever seen. They were identifying with the things we had prayed about, prepared and now displayed for the sake of their own lives. WOW WOW! I am so proud of everyone who helped me make this happen… our team, graduated biblestudents, soon-to-be biblestudents… you were all just dripping with the anointing and shining Jesus’ power!!!!

Maybe you’re thinking it’s kind of late for a Christmas show… not when you live in Ethiopia. Their Christmas is January 7^th! Our morning service ended with one former bibleschool graduate, Selam, singing “What Child is This?” I still have a smile on my face as I type these words… thanks Jesus for coming the way you did. Thanks for being our example. Thanks for dying and raising again. I’m so madly in love with You!

After the stage was cleared, our incredible Pastor Ashagre and my breathtaking husband, Pastor Samuel… preached salvation and healing. One man with a deaf ear was healed in Jesus’ name! Praise God!

After the bags of hot injera were passed out to more than 100 people and the entire church was cleared... I walked home through the city alone. The single moms, babies and old men returned to their "home" beneath the huge Orthodox church... they were happy. Plastic bags, emptied of all their contents were floating in the breeze. The Word was preached. The Spirit moved. Bellies were filled. Miracles happened. Miracles, miracles, miracles. So hungry for this new season!!