After breakfast Sunday morning, we walked about a mile up to the community church. The service was conducted in Amharic, Ethiopia’s national language. Most of the early part of the service consisted of vibrant singing. The youth were very active, swaying and jumping inches off the ground to the beat of the music, but everybody participated enthusiastically. About an hour into the service, the minister introduced our group and asked for someone to speak for the group. Randall introduced all of us and gave a brief message about its being Father’s Day in America, and tying this into the message of Jesus that we are all one family under the fatherhood of God. Beza followed his brief talk with a beautiful song that everyone appreciated.
An early lunch concluded our stay at Project Mercy. We expressed our thanks and appreciation to staff before loading up the Project Mercy bus. We arrived in Addis Ababa several hours later to stop at Marta’s home before going on to the airport. Marta had several other guests visiting from the USA. Ever the gracious hostess, even in her late 80s, Marta greeted all of us warmly, and introduced us to her other guests. We enjoyed visiting with them during tea-time. Then it was time to head for the airport.
Our flight out of Addis was scheduled close to 11 PM, but it was delayed for nearly two hours to allow late arrivals from other connecting in-country flights to make this once daily flight to the USA. Finally airborne a little after midnight, we flew for nearly 16 hours to Dulles International Airport in Washington DC, with a brief stop in Dublin, Ireland for refueling. We had chased the sun from Dublin on, so it was still fairly early Monday morning when we arrived. It had been a marvelous two-week experience for all of us!
