Greetings from Ethiopia

Greetings from Ethiopia. We are in Soddo Wallaito a large town of 70k or so about  4-5 hrs south  of the capital Addis Ababa. I am working Soddo Christian Hospital. This is a hospital that has been in its present form of existence since 2006. It serves millions of people in Southern Ethiopia. People come from hours away to be treated by the skilled and compassionate missionary doctors that serve here. Iam priveleged

to be filling in for  a few short weeks for Dr Anderson, from what I can tell a significantly overworked Orthopedic surgeon, while spends some well deserved time with his family in the states.

Soddo Chrstian Hospital is an incredibly busy place medically and surgically but also on fire for the souls of the people all over Ethiopia.

The doctors and staff here are very in tune to presenting the Gospel to their patients whether their background is Muslim, Christian or otherwise. There are patients in the hospital now that have led been led to Christ by the Spirit led pastoral staff of the hospital.My first day I met a young man still in care at the hospital whose whole job was to memorize the Quran that was led to christ in the hospital.

Act 2 experience:

I went to Ethiopian church today. The building was filled to the last seat in what was a sanctuary that helld 1200 to 1500. There were young and old in  the seats around me all excited to be there. There were some of the events you see and hear in church back home, an occasional cell phone ringing, restless children a random crying from a baby in the congregation, but oh when the ppraise team sang and the preacher spoke the word of God I could feel the rush of the spirit in the place. Even though the words were Armaic and I didn't understand I was humbled by the Spirit. I could almost feel the bewiderment of the visitors of Jerusalem on the day of Pentacost when the Spirit moved over the Apostles. Six or seven dedicated their lives to Christ at the end of the service. What a great experience to see God at work and to see He doesn't need my ears to speak to my heart.

Dr Rudolph

Continue to pray, the first couple of days have been very busy with patients and settling in.

Rhett and son in law Vincent, made it to Soddo Christian Hospital with all medical supplies in tact.    Praise be to God!   Continue to pray.  You can read more about where Dr. Rudolph is serving by going going to www.soddo.org/.   More post to come as we hear more from Dr. Rhett.

Thanks to all for your prayers.

Emily

After traveling all day, the 6 of us finally made it to the guest house in Kampala! We left around 1030, took a quick break at Karuma Falls to see the Nile and eat lunch, and got here around 6. 

We are hanging out here tonight, and tomorrow we have devotions with the Archbishop, then last minute tour/shopping around Kampala, then we fly out around 11 tomorrow night!

here are a few more pictures!

Walt helping with balloon animals at the orphanage!

Peter preachin it! 

The whole crew plus some! near Keyo Parish

Cindy teaching on identity at St. Philips.

One of our friends at Our Father's House

The Peters!

The blessing of the Bishop's guest house.

"St. Johns Guest House"

Father Greg dancing with some clergy.

Our friends Samuel (the diocesan youth minister) and Lydia and their boys.

The team in front of the guest house.

Breezy! missing us already.

Cute friends with Mama Edith at Our Father's House.

Peter and Reverend John Charles.

An elephant!

Last day!

we just finished our last healing prayer training session at St. Philip's Cathedral. It was awesome, the Holy Spirit was definitely moving and doing amazing things. The healing prayer conferences have produced a lot of fruit! we've seen physical, mental, relational, and spiritual healings. we have all been challenged and blessed in this, and are excited to share our stories with you when we get home!

Today was our last full day in Gulu. Tonight we have the blessing of the guest house and a farewell party, and in the morning we leave for Kampala. We'll be there for a day, spend a night at the guest house, and we leave to come home on Friday!

Wish we could write more, but we are all exhausted and pressed for time. keep prayers coming, especially for safe travels and for the Rothermel family that is remaining for about two weeks.
can't wait to see you all!

Update from Beth

Just heard from Greg! They have finished day two of their three day healing mission, and he said that each day it keeps getting better! They have seen the Lord do amazing things, and are expectant for tomorrow's final day! So he has asked us to pray! Tomorrow will be their last day in Gulu, heading back to Kampala on Thursday for an overnight, and then fly out on Friday....praying for all of the connections to connect! He says that everyone is well and strong, in the Lord! God is so good!

Blessings,

Beth

more pictures!

Reverend John Charles at the Women's Conference.

Sylvia Mary

Peter reunited with Willy!

 Our amazing translator, Reverend Eunice!

P6 at Our Father's House Orphanage.

The Rothermels with Reverend Zachary Otto.

Our friend Reverend John Charles.

This is the site where the first missionaries came to Uganda.

SO sorry we haven't been able to keep up with the blog!
We arrived safely in Gulu on Tuesday and have been staying at the Bishop's compound in the new guest house! It is great! But we haven't had any power for a few days, so the computers died. That, on top of lots of other technical difficulties, made it pretty much impossible to blog. But now we're at Paraa Safari Lodge for the night, where we have wifi. This post is just some pictures, and hopefully some more will be up soon.

The kids at the Chain Foundation in Mukono sang us some welcome songs (and songs about education...its been stuck in all of our heads all week). These three kids are three of the visually impaired.

They loved to dance and performed a few dances for us.

Cute kid!

Praying for the staff at Chain Foundation.

Peter R. was the first to speak on discipleship! Just getting prayed up!

 Allison Barfoot paid us an encouraging visit before we left Kampala for Gulu.  Susan Morris (next to Cindy Pennington in the front) has been our liaison in Uganda.

All the clergy gathered at the Diocesan offices in Gulu for a discipleship training conference the men on our team helped lead. This is a group picture!

Karen headed up a women's conference (very last minute but it worked out well) that all of the ladies got to help out with.

Karen and Peter with some of the kids from Our Father's House Orphanage in Gulu.

Father Greg teaching at the discipleship conference.

Thanks for your patience and prayers! Please keep them coming! We hope to get you more updates soon, but for now, know that all is well and we are seeing the Lord do so much in these people and in this community.