5am

5am was such a significant time in Ethiopia. It was at this time, almost every morning I was there, that I was awoken by the Muslim call to prayer- magnified by loud speakers across the city, echoed by a roosters crowing. There are 28 million Muslims in Ethiopia, I just found out, so I imagine that in any city in Ethiopia, this would be the standard alarm clock. The fact that Ethiopia is like a country that never sleeps, doesn't really allow for the need of an alarm clock, so I suppose it all makes sense.

This recent 5am wake up call, however, was a little closer to home. It was actually a wake up call preceded by a kiss. The kiss may have been a bufferer for news to come or it could have been a "thank God your still alive" kiss. It came on the morning after I had just had my graduation from Equippers College and all sign posts in MY life were pointing to the next destination. Where sermon after sermon, book after book, and devotion after devotion, screamed out to ME - "GO!"

It was something that had yet to be heard in the ears of Asaua though. So when he woke me up at 5am, on the morning of the 27th of March 2011, with the words "We need to GO to Africa! I had a dream..." I was very, very excited! So excited, that for the next week, I could barely sleep. Yes there could have been a mix of emotions, but after experiencing almost all of them - from fear, to nervousness, from doubt to anxiety, I now only had room for EXCITEMENT.

This GO-ing, means that we will be selling up, taking our children away from their grandparents, friends, schools and family, having them immunised and getting a one year visa (for now) and flying together across two continents to arrive in Ethiopia - a world apart from what they currently know.

Yes there are risks in going. But there are also risks in staying - Risking not doing the will of God, risking missing out on tremendous blessings, risking regretting for the rest of our lives what we have always felt in our hearts to do - and most of all, risking not being possibly the only people that may touch the lives of thousands of people who are still left untouched by the hand of Love.

This is a MASSIVE faith step for us. Faith that God will supply EVERY possible need that there is to fill. But we have a MASSIVE faith in a MASSIVE God who is more than able to fill those needs and to bring about the completion of what He began in our hearts to accomplish.

I'm so looking forward to reuniting with our friends there. I'm so excited about finally doing what I said I would do 27 years ago. We are so looking forward to doing it TOGETHER as a family who have been appointed for such a time as this.

Please pray for us :)