Time To Worship

This is my second Sunday in Addis Ababa and we will go to the International Church for worship. The singing in this church is vibrant. Not only do the people really sing out but the acoustics are bright. The floor is marble and there are high wooden arches with a gazebo style skylight where all the beams are tied together. It is modern architecture that incorporates some of the traditional 4 clover shapes into its windows and doorways.

Every morning at 5 am the orthodox chanting begins and it can be heard everywhere throughout the city. I had to wake early this morning to make sure Seppo was awake because the International Church has grown so large that they have to hold two worship services one at 8am and the second at 11am. When I crossed the courtyard to the gate all of the early morning sounds, birds, dogs, monkeys, insects...people seemed to be making a sweet melody in concert with the orthodox chanters. No one was formally participating in this interesting choir but nonetheless it was a choir singing in the early morning dawn. We will go to the 11am service and this will be Sitota's first time in church. She is demonstrating her love for music more and more so it will be interesting to see her respond to congregational singing.

Tomorrow we are planning a two day trip into the country side south of Addis Ababa to a place called Nazaret. This is supposedly a very beautiful lush and high area overlooking the lowlands of Ethiopia. Due to Malaria conditions in the lowlands we will only go a little further to Sodera where their are the equivalent of the Banff Hot Springs. We hope to try these out as well. On our return we will spend some time in the community of Debre Zeyit where one of the local churches is involved with community outreach and development.

Once back home to our compound we will have a few opportunities on Wednesday and Thursday to make final contact with all our new found friends before getting ready to leave very early Friday morning. We will stay in London for three days to visit with Satu's Mom and Dad and sister Raili from Finland. None of us can believe how the time has gone by so quickly. We hope to return to Bright Future with a slide show of all the children before leaving. Last night we worked on it a bit and the pictures of the children and their enthusiasm are amazing. When we return hopefully we can post a link to that slide show.

Well the sun is fully risen here, the chanting has ceased and the coffee is brewed so we will talk to you all later.

David, Satu, Seppo, Erik and Maija-Sitota