Ethiopian Envy

Today I was a minority. It doesn't happen very often, especially in small Midwestern towns. It happened today. Drama Ministries Ensemble (DME) performed our play "Iowa Ethiopia" at the Ethiopian church in Sioux Falls, SD. It was an amazing experience, one that I will cherish for all my life. Like our director said, so many treasures in one day.

I wish you all could have been there. I have never before understood so little of what what was being said, yet felt so in tune with what was going on around me. Does that make sense? The Holy Spirit was moving, big time. It was fantastic. We couldn't sing along, we couldn't understand, but we could praise our God as one family. It was a beautiful thing.

One of the treasures I cherish the most was the row of children that sat right behind me. I was sitting in the front row to run the slide show during the play when our director ushers the children from the back of the sanctuary to the second row. Fifteen to twenty young children all jam into one pew, soon becoming enthralled with the story they were seeing enacted. They were adorable. What really made my heart sore came at the very end of the play; to end the show, Hannah leads the congregation in reciting Psalm 23. A little boy sitting in the front row by the pastor (I think it was his son) recited the chapter right along with us, and it touched my heart. A childlike faith, that's what restored my soul today.

Sadly, the week with DME had to come to an end this afternoon. I was the first of the eight of us to leave, and I miss them already. It's hard to leave a group that have become very much like family. But, the great thing about college is there is next year, where new adventures wait for us, including a trip to Ethiopia in January. Awesome, right? So excited!

So, now I'm preparing for my next moon journey. I'm home for less than 24 hours, then I head to Omaha to spend a few days with my life long friend before flying down to Texas on Wednesday. Unpacking, cleaning, and repacking all at once turned out to be a lot more work than I expected. Lots left to do before my mom and grandma want to leave tomorrow morning... Onto my next journey, my next adventure.

Until next time, try to find the moon between the clouds.