What incredible days I've been having here. Saturday was devoted to celebrating Lauren's 21st birthday and her recent Children's pastoral position at Victory! I'm so proud of her. She's my inspiration and joy in so many ways...
Lauren and her friends...
Got to spend some time with the girls in my life also :) What beautiful women of God. We've been through a lot together...
Valerie, Joelle, Lauren, My and Allie!
God is so good... I'm burning just thinking about Him. He's everything. Can you grasp that?? E V E R Y T H I N G ! ! ! I can't imagine living life without Him and cry for the people who do so. Like my Samuel says, "The Bible is not a story of the power of God... it IS the POWER!" I'm not interested in debates, religion, a mix of spirituality, condemnation or judgment. I just want to preach Jesus. His presence changes atmospheres, lives and eternities in just one brief moment. I want to be a presence carrier! I spent a lot of time talking about these things tonight with my dear sister Kristin.... while going through old photos of the two of us in 5th, 6th, 7th, 8th... grade together, at prom, posing in cowgirl boots in sandboxes, making music videos to old RelientK and Temptations songs.... don't you just love covenant friends like that?? Thank you for sharing your life with me all these years! You are an incredible woman of God and I'm incredibly anxious to see your future unfold all over the world!
Me and my sis Mandy went to the coolest little cafe in downtown Lexington this afternoon. It's called "Third Street Stuff" and is totally random and wonderful...
This was the magnetic wall full of words, letters and phrases...
My big sis!
The best part was my Hazelnut Latte coffee cup of the world map. Harar, Ethiopia was accidentally and perfectly smudged... it made my day! The little things in life truly do mean the most! It made me miss my home tonight... my hubby, our family of Ethiopians, my disciples... the nations... I love to be a God Adventurer.
Then we found a map with stickers to mark where each customer comes from... Africa was empty! I also gave them one BIRR to stick on their ceiling with all the other world currencies they're collecting. Left my mark in Lexington!
Tomorrow my lil brother and I are driving back to Ohio. Everything is always bittersweet about traveling. I'm in love with my niece and nephews here and long to be with them again someday...
Me and the boys... eating Ice Cream! I haven't eaten real American ice cream in about 1 1/2 years! So sad.
Came home tonight and Levi stood up by himself for the first time. It was only a few seconds and he was terrible wobbly, but still so perfect! I'm madly in love!
God's so good to me. I've been experiencing crazy culture shock back here in the states... it's incredible the way the world turns with all of it's people groups, nations, traditions and cultures. How can people live in total ignorance of the other half of the world and the commission we've been commanded?? I'm African on the inside. I want to dance and shout, dress in vibrant scarves and eat strange foods with my fingers on the floors of my best friend's homes. I feel too uncivilized for the manners of the West. I'm longing to preach on our dusty streets again soon. But until then... I just long for my family. One more week of soaking this all in so that I can go pour it out again.... not to mention one more week of blogspot and wifi! I haven't blogged this much in ages!
Woke up the sound of my husbands wonderful voice on the phone in Ethiopia this morning. Love to wake up to him! Then I spent some time meditating on Philippians... I love the Word
s of God...
Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice! Let your gentle spirit be known to all men, the Lord is near. Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be make known to God. And the peace of God which surpasses all comprehension, will guard your hears and your minds in Christ Jesus. Finally, brethren, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is of good repute, if there is any excellence and if anything worthy of praise, dwell on these things.
We each carry an atmosphere around us. A soul forecast that touches the people we come close to. Sometimes with just a "hello" I can tell if a person is giving off life and blessing or death and cursing. There are only 2 options - life or death - and a swirl of both at the same time just doesn't work, it's disgusting.
I want to always be a lifegiver. A person who makes others feel uplifted when they're around me. A person who speaks faith and encouragement when there's nothing left to hope for. A person who calls things that are not, as though they were. That happens when we DWELL on the things of Christ, when we dwell in the presence and atmosphere of our Creator and Savior. He is: truth, justice, righteousness, purity, love, strength, excellence, life. When I'm around the opposites of these qualities, I feel like someone is puking all over me. I feel sick.
Today I just wanted to give off the aroma of my Jesus...
I went out with my little niece Eliya! First it was Starbucks for a pumpkin spice latte and then shopping...
Levi hung out with us for a while too!
Thanks Jesus for letting me live in the atmosphere of all that You are!
Today was perfection really. I read the sweet Word of God and then spent too much time in deep conversation over coffee with dad in the kitchen. After jumping into clothes and running out the door, I made my way to the salon. I always feel like a new woman when I getting my hair done... hallelujah! Then I was off to shopping with mama... again, hallelujah! There's nothing like indulging in a sales rack after living in Africa for 1 year!
Lunch was incredible... Middle Eastern Cuisine with Mama and Daddy... in the sunshine...
I have the best fam in the universe.
I know, we look like sisters...
Soon we're eating stuffed peppers and Coconut coffee - but not together. Feels so good to be re-cooperating, relaxing and enjoying life with the ones I love. Wish my lover was here... miss you Samuel!
One thing wrapped up tightly in my luggage bound for USA was injera. Yumm...
Dad, Mama, Joelle, Lauren and myself... sat in a circle around one big plate on the floor and dug in with our fingers! I LOOOOVE bringing little pieces of my HOME, back home :)
Loves of my life!
Our traditional Ethiopian bread - spongy and sour! My fav!
Being home at Victory this morning was INCREDIBLE. What a wonderful home church I have... I was overwhelmed with it all. Not to mention all the white forengies - we need some Ethiopians in Eastern Ohio! The afternoon was spent with grandmas and great grandmas, uncles, aunts, cousins and more, eating an entire Thanksgiving meal! They take such good care of me. I'm a blessed girl. Tomorrow it's off to get my hair done with mama and shopping........
Harar Church was incredible this morning! My Samuel preached Jesus and 4 people received Him as their Savior! HALLELUJAH!
Goodnight America and world... my mind's on the nations tonight.
I’m addicted to my husband. Obsessed. Madly and mindlessly in love. Can I just brag on him?? He’s strong, so strong in every way. Everything he does is driven by a deep passion and love for God. Everything. He’s hilarious, seriously the funniest person I’ve ever talked to. He is sensitive and sweet in all the ways I desire. He loves to sing to me… songs that usually drive me crazy, but he sings them relentlessly, and I love that. He calls me the sweetest and most endearing names that usually make no sense, but I still melt when I hear them - I think we speak our own language together. He LOVES to preach. He’s the most anointed, most incredible preacher I’ve ever heard. His lifestyle is preaching Jesus. On Thursday we were relaxing at a pool for a few hours. When we went to our locker rooms before leaving, I could overhear him next door, preaching Jesus to a Muslim guy. He’s my inspiration. I want to be like Samuel.
On Friday night Samuel got us an incredible suite in Dire Dawa… I loved it! We snuggled and talked while watching a great thunderstorm outside our huge half-circle wall of windows, we saw a movie, ate an Indian dinner and fell asleep in each other’s arms. God loves marriage. I love marriage. Samuel was God’s perfect gift to me!
The wedding of the century!
Yesterday was our one year anniversary! I spent most of it alone in an airport for 9 hours… on my way to America, but my heart is still a mushy ball of emotion that if poked, would waterfall into a pool of tears at my feet. I always get lovesick when I’m away from him. Our dating experience was spent on different continents... I have always despised being away from Samuel but learned to thrive on emails and brief phone calls. It was like that up until one week before our wedding. Yesterday we had another goodbye. Of course it’s different now… I’ll only be gone for 2 weeks and we still belong to each other no matter what part of the world we find ourselves in… but I’m sad. I miss my alskling.
The Word of God is full of romance. Seriously – God IS love. Can you grasp that?? The love that I feel for my Samuel is only a mirror reflection of the sweet love of our God. I want to submerge myself if this blissful passion… I want to be soaked through…. I want to indulge myself in it...
I love you Samuel Strandberg. Thank you for taking care of me, for making me feel like a queen. I love to be your Mrs. Let’s share decades of anniversaries together…. Decades all smothered in the kisses of each other and our King!
(I apologize in advance for my strange-sounding English. I've been away from America for so long... I'm now speaking such a blend of languages with funny accents - atleast you can't hear the accents on a blog...)
A year ago... I wasn't breathing. It was the week before my wedding. Well actually, four days to be exact. It was September 12th, the day my love would fly from Africa to Pittsburgh. Don't ask me how I did it - how my family did it - how it all worked out... I still don't know. When God calls two people to share life together, it just happens.
Samuel has been the base leader in Ethiopia for several years now. In 2008 when I showed up with all my suitcases as a journalist from USA, traveling to several countries with the goal of writing a book for Mission SOS, both of our lives were inevitably transformed. If you ask us separately what happened during that month, you may hear slightly different stories... but nonetheless we shared some late night cups of coffee, some walks thorough the city and lots of questions. I suppose the most significant things didn't happen though until after I left Africa. He began sending me emails and I later came to find that he sat waiting for replies all day... I suppose I was playing the mysterious girl. But neither one of us could get the other one off our mind.
Not long after we said goodbye in the airport of Addis Ababa, he came to America. And he called my dad..... need I say more??
We had three dates together that weekend. One of them was 12 hours long in downtown Pittsburgh. If you ask Samuel when he knew that he would marry me, he would say on that date.... he realized that we literally talked for 12-hours straight... and still didn't want to say goodnight when the day was done. It was wonderful. But before I knew it, he was boarding his plane back to Africa and we wouldn't see each other for 2 more months when he came again to teach at the SOS Bible school in Pitt. We decided to pray and fast about each other and our future for those 2 months... and write a lot of emails.
It's amazing the things you learn about a person through letters. I think you learn the deep things more quickly than "typical" relationships that may take huge periods of time just to break through the shells and the fluff of it all. I longed for my inbox to tell me I had new mail. I was clinging on his words. I did pray, fast and cry out for wisdom from God those months. I prayed really hard. And I felt peace. It's strange because part of me didn't want to feel peace... but I did. I knew Samuel would be my husband one day and I knew we would spend our lives in the nations, chasing the unreached multitudes of the world. But then April came.
The first few days were naturally a little awkward but like the girl that I can sometimes be, my emotions began to flail. I remember calling Joelle on the first night "Joellllllle... I don't think he likes me.... he changed his mind... nothingggg is ever going to happennnn"... (O thank God for Joelle!) But finally we spilled our hearts. It was perfect. We knew.
He came home to my family for dinner that afternoon and we went to the Yergans for dessert. Everyone loved him. It's so easy to love him. He asked me to come stay with his family in Sweden in June. Ummmm yesss! Then he left. I was so sad when I dropped him off at the airport that I wasn't paying attention on my drive home and ended up with no gas, no map, no phone battery and no food in the middle of nowhere in West Virginia. Four hours later I pulled up my drive and cried. I was heart sick. Two more months of emails awaited us and a few occasional phone calls...
June was wonderful. I fell in love with a Swedish family. They welcomed me and wiped away my anxious fears with the most tender love. Love. Samuel told me he loved me in Sweden... sitting by the ocean. I began to feel butterflies in the pit of my stomach for the first time over him. I was turning into a little girl again... speechless, spontaneous, out of my mind in love. Leaving was the worst romance film you ever could have seen... we hugged in the airport and then boarded opposite gates leading to planes going in opposite directions. Heart ache again..
I came home that time with so many unanswered questions. When will we marry? When will he propose? When will I be able to get back to the land that I love... Africa? I just wanted to be on the mission field with him! Three months later, on September 12th, I made two trips to the airport. The first one was to pick up ALL the Strandbergs from Sweden and Thailand and the second one was to get my Samuel. I curled my hair perfectly, reapplied my makeup nine million times, couldn't eat anything, whispered to myself "just breathe..." GAH! This was our wedding week! (When you have such long-distance relationships... things happen quickly while they can!!)
That night Samuel took my car keys. He drove me to the top of Mount Washington with 100 Chinese tourists -- they weren't really in the plan but we pretended we didn't see them all surrounding us. He got down on one knee............. and I said "Yes!"
... GREAT day! We fika-ed, laughed, I cut Sam's hair (and his ear - sorry babe), Sam preached in the bus station, I preached in house church, Sarah prayed over our incredible women, Mohammed started an experiment on a cockroach, we ate dorowat in celebration of the Ethiopian new year (finally 2003!!!), bona ceremony, got to love on a lot of the best people on the planet, danced in Selam's house, walked arm-in-arm with my best friends under the African stars...
perfect.
PS - I leave in ONE week for the USofA! I cry every time I leave my Ethiopia and this is the first time I'm leaving my hubby! ON the day of our 1st year anniversary... oooooo......longing for my mama and daddy, my covies, VCC, KY and chai tea lattes...
I sat on the street this morning… talking to lots of random people, asking as many as I could find to come to our women’s house church tonight.Usually we gather at Selam’s house in Bote but today we decided to gather at another disciple’s house out on the outskirts of the old city, Jugul. The “old city” is a walled-in section of Harar about 1 ½ sq kilometers. Within it’s walls you will find 99 mosques. Yes 99 within that little circumference of land! It’s sick! Not to mention the fact that we’re right smack dab in the middle of Ramadan… the Muslims annual time of fasting where many will gather for times of prayer in the specific “holy” places where the prophet Mohammed once dwelt. Harar is one of those places.
Nonetheless, Selam and I set out in the early afternoon in hopes of gathering our disciples and new friends to the meeting. On our list of prospective members we had: a prostitute, homeless, orphan, sinners and saved girls of all ages…. It was going to be a great night! Along the streets though, and when we finally gathered together on that dirt floor, no one showed up. My heart sank a little. I tried so hard. Except for one of her neighbor guys who sat silent on the floor next to me chewing on drugs, it was just the three of us women. God, what are You going to do tonight?
Almost on cue… As the coffee boiled on the fire between us and I passed around the bread I baked earlier in the day, a big man came through the door and lunged himself onto the bed. He was bulging with muscle and wore thick silver chains around his neck and wrists and big gold rings on his fingers. He carried a huge bag of kat with him too, obviously planning to sit in on our meeting while chewing himself into intoxication. Oh no, I thought instinctively. It usually isn’t a good sign when big powerful men come in and start stirring up conversations with a bunch of women. The first several moments were fine, he told stories of his life as the hyena man – where he takes teams of (usually) foreigners (but all the Ethiopians knows him anyway) out back and personally calls his hyena friends by name. Then he lies down and begins to feed them strings of raw meat through a stick in his mouth or just by hand as they crawl up on his lap! Amazing. Then he started to argue for a few minutes with Selam… his beliefs against ours. You see he has been a religious Orthodox follower for a very long time. I believe there can be many Orthodox people around the world who genuinely have a deep love and relationship with God, but here in Ethiopia it’s a bit different. Here it is a powerful idol-worshipping religion that preaches against us “Pentes” (Pentecostals). An Orthodox person is more afraid of a member turning to a living relationship with God rather than that person converting to Islamism. As missionaries on the Horn of Africa we usually find ourselves standing between these two extremes…. The Muslims and the Orthodox. And simply put, neither one likes what we’re preaching at all. However, before I could contemplate what was going on, God was swinging huge doors open before my face!
“What’s the difference between all the religions of the world?” He asked me. “Everyone from every religion thinks that their path will lead them to God or to a good after-life,” I replied, “but the Bible says that the only way to the Father in heaven is through JESUS. And He has nothing to do with religion. He’s a Father and He longs for relationship.” There were many moments when I just couldn’t get my thoughts or my words to match up, I don’t know what I’m saying right now…there were so many distractions and his mobile kept ringing. Suddenly though, he shouted through the line “I’m in an important program right now.. I can’t talk!” I love moments like that! Now this man’s eyes were glued to me. He was drawing the living water out from somewhere deep within my spirit. I couldn’t get it out fast enough! Finally I asked, “Do you want to receive Jesus?” and with big red eyes beaming through to me without a blink, he nodded his head. He confessed his sins and proclaimed Jesus as the Lord and Savior of his life!
The moment we said “Amen” and he opened his eyes again, there was something different in them. He still held the bag of leaves in his hand but his eyes were shining life.This muscular man the size of a professional American football player had sparkling eyes! “You are a new man!” I shouted. Haha! He couldn’t say anything, just grinned and starred on for more. It was time for Holy Spirit. “Jesus has equipped you for life, now you must be filled up with the power of His Spirit so that you will be ready to live on this earth.” I literally was shaking all over my body when I laid my hands on him the second time. I couldn’t stop but I didn’t care. The power of God was filling him up like a lightning bolt, and I felt it as a witness!
This man is a key person. I’ve been praying for key people – the ones that know everyone, the ones everyone knows, the ones who will reach entire regions with the gospel in ways that we couldn’t do. Prophetic pictures and words keep floating through my mind over this man and his destiny… I’m burning on the inside.
After 2 hours, we went out back so I could meet his friends. The hyenas. I’ve fed them before – with the other hyena man – but this was by far the greatest experience yet! I got down on a small tarp with a basket of meat in my lap as the enormous ugly beasts surrounded me from all sides. Every few seconds when the lightning flashed I could see just how far back the pack went. You have no idea what you’re up against in the dark! It’s so fun to adventure in spirit and life with Jesus.
I walked away from that place in the rain, still shaking, though from the transformation of that man or from the adrenalin of feeding wild African beasts, I may never know... but I imagine it was the hangover of God’s gospel and His powerful Spirit. The man’s name is Muloguita – directly translated meaning, FULL GOD. My heart will be smiling tonight as I drift away to dream. Thanks Jesus.
What are You up to tomorrow??
On the way home after meeting up with Samuel, we found a body lying in the middle of the road. It was still raining and completely black out because there was no electricity but we saw him from the headlights of all the minibuses and Bajaj’s that were passing him by. Someone took the time to place a brickin front of him to try to stop a car from running him over... but no one cared to help. I thought he was dead. There were tables of people drinking and eating on the sidewalk just one yard away... he was just their entertainment. They were all taking pictures of his body with their camera phones.
Samuel got so angry and asked someone to help him carry the man to safety. He was breathing but had blood all over his face.The people just laughed. Then he yelled at them and said in Amerinja "what kindof people are you??" I love when he stands up in holy indignation! So the two of us dragged him off the street while dozens of people videotaped us with their mobiles. I was shocked. The man was homeless and drunk and soaking from the rain. Who can leave a person to die in the middle of the street??? It's insane! We got him to some police and they said that they would take care of him. I hope they really did.This just proves that our work here is never finished. Even after an incredible night... the work must go on. People need transformed.
I felt like I was walking out the story of the good Samaritan. People of the Islamic, Orthodox and Atheist religions felt like they didn’t need to do anything. But God is love. I’m desperate on that.
“For the oppression of the poor, for the sighing of the needy, now I will arise,” says the Lord, “I will set him in the safety for which he yearns.” –Psalm 12:5
“The Lord will also be a refuge for the oppressed, a refuge in times of trouble. And those who know Your name will put their trust in You; for You Lord have not forsaken those who seek You.” –Psalm 9:9-10
Hi there! This post is brought to you, not by Gabrielle but her big sister, Mandy.
Gab's power and internet is sketchy right now so she asked me to post for her.
The other night, Gabby was excited to be heading out to house church and preaching the gospel. She had plans to see the Hyena Man. Not only did she see him, she got to witness to him and pray the salvation prayer with him!!! God is so good!
Here's my wild and crazy sister with her brand new brother:
And, I hope Gab doesn't mind I added a link over there to the left so you can subscribe to her blog. Now you'll know right away when blogger is working in Ethiopia!
