Less of me and more of Christ!

Many international students move to the U.S. to pursue higher education and follow their own American Dreams.  I did the same almost 14 years ago to pursue my call into full time ministry.  This journey has been multi faceted, as I have not only experienced a culture shock, homesickness and loneliness but also a forced identity as I carried a lot of underrepresented identities in the American Evangelical Church.   When I first came at the age of 19, I knew myself as a young girl who was passionately pursuing Christ and on a journey with the Lord, stepping out in faith to follow wherever He lead. The sky was the limit, the world was mine to discover, explore and conquer and America was the best place to do it because I believed it’s where all my dreams would come true. My family sent me with all their hopes, dreams and unconditional love poured into me and with confidence that I was going to change the world.  I left hopeful and excited trusting God as I entered the unknown, with full

Praying for My Bridge Building Heart Carrying the righteous anger of God and speaking hard truth with love in this fallen flesh of mine is a difficult balance to keep. When I feel the indignation of the Lord, my flesh wants to break out in total rebellion of those who provoked injustice and I want to take vengeance into my own hands, which in my case is mainly telling people off BUT, the sweet spirit of Jesus faithfully reminds me  “ Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave it to the wrath of God, for it is written, “Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord.” Romans 12:19 Then it becomes my choice to trust that my creator, the Just God who shared this very attribute with me is more angry than I am, it’s more of his offense than mine and He will deal with it better than I could ever attempt.  It is then, that my heart experiences growth in trusting God’s goodness and the infallible truth of His word that it will not return void. So I choose to speak, and wa

I haven't posted on my blog for about 4 years,  so many life changes including being a working momma has kept me busy. But last week I read an article on TGC which is by the way one of my favorite ministries that I highly admire, but it disappointed me so much that I had to share with the world why I whole heartedly disagree.... so here is my response to this article https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/article/why-africa-still-needs-western-workers Dear TGC, I’m writing to inform you of the huge and damaging impact your recent article about why Africa needs western workers can have on myself, and my African community, please carefully read my response and reply accordingly. 1 st ) I am an Ethiopian who came to the U.S. to pursue my full time ministry calling, went to a large Christian University and have worked for 3 mega churches which are majority white Churches.   I tell you this to say that I have the honor of discipling westerners (to use the Article’s terms) and

Wow, this is embarrassing. I haven’t posted a single blog in 2012, well I have but not on this blog, it was a year filled with wedding planning and getting ready for marriage, then getting married and figuring out how to be one when you have 2 completely different people involved in a marriage.   We’re still figuring it out but I’m at a place where I can resume blogging again J To be honest, it’s for my own spiritual health that I write out my thoughts and the latest things God’s taught me have been hard.   I’m just looking at the world around me and am scared of what’s becoming of our society. In the name of civilization we’ve adopted a Universalist worldview which has confused the heck out of most of us. If we don’t have right and wrong anymore how in the world will we be able to function in this world? I was taught to tell apart truth from false but this popular culture is pushing me to accept the fact that everyone is “right” in their own ways. NO way! Only God is right,

"  Therefore we are always confident and know that as long as we are at home in the body we are away from the Lord. For we live by faith, not by sight. We are confident, I say, and would prefer to be away from the body and at home with the Lord.  So we make it our goal to please him, whether we are at home in the body or away from it. For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each of us may receive what is due us for the things done while in the body, whether good or bad." 2 Corinthians 5:6-10 When I read this scripture this morning, my heart stopped, it's like a new revelation, yes I do good because my goal is to please Him who died for me.  I am in full time ministry because nothing brings me joy more than seeing people come to know Christ, or praying for the Lost in great anticipation of God's answer to my prayers and having the honor of at times being an answer to others prayers.  The way we feel at Home is by doing God's work in

Living for the Lord (his unseen kingdom) is a life of faith AND it often gets HARD.  It's hard to live a life that can in no way be controlled, manipulated, guided by one's own intellect, power or money.  It's a life of completet and utter surrender.  Surrender sounds like a very easy thing to do when we sing about it or talk about BUT it means being helpless or better yet powerless in the hands of another power, it's the act of submiting under another power.  In our case, in the hands of our creator, GOD.  It's giving our power and control up and submiting to the knowledge & power of the Lord and it's HARD.  I want it in theory but in reality, I don't like it. It goes against everything my flesh desires, it goes against everything I was trained or "educated" to live my life.  It's HARD and could make one feel helpless and powerless.  If God wants us to surrender everything that we could ever want to do for ourselves to him, how do we em