Smith Diary

New Video...

Thu, 27 Oct 2011 12:09:25 -0500

We left Langano the end of June and are back in our “Texas home”. It has been life-giving to be around friends and family who we have known for years. We have been very blessed with new friendships in Ethiopia, but there is also just something about being with people that have known us forever. Waking up to the sound of airplanes instead of moneys and baboons has also been quite a change!

While in the US, Shane will continue to work on many of the administrative responsibilities for Langano and is focused on preparing and integrating new team members that will be joining us. He is also support-raising (raising money for the other Langano ministries in addition to our own support ). Speaking engagements and meetings take up most of his time. Since we have been home, we have spent time in Oregon, Colorado, Arkansas and North Carolina. Allyson is working part-time as a nursing instructor. The kids are in three different schools and are all adjusting quite well. So far life in the states has pretty much been exhausting! As we continue to settle into life here for the school year, we are committed to stabilizing our family and getting quality time together. We are also learning more about prayer. We entered Langano woefully unprepared for the battle we were entering into and we are arming up and preparing to go back strong.

It was encouraging to hear how camps went this summer. Yonas did an excellent job and from all the reports, it sounds like it all went off without a hitch. We really miss our co-workers back at Langano. It will be great to be with them again next spring.

For now, we will leave you with a video that highlights our work in Langano. It was done by a good friend of ours, Austin Mann.

"I Also Am Amazing"

Sat, 26 Mar 2011 14:11:11 -0500

The past few months have been some of the toughest ones we have experienced here in Ethiopia. We are so thankful that so many of you are actively engaged with us in what we do here and are praying for the people of Langano. It’s hard to imagine how we could press on living here without everyone’s support. The heaviness and feeling of oppression that surrounds us where we live is almost to the point of unbearable right now. So much of what goes on here we are not able to post on our website.

Shane and Yonas have been stretched thin trying to keep up with the day to day crises. Shane has been working to write a new government which has proven to take more time than we expected. We are also still in the midst of the ongoing court cases, both of which received verdicts that we are appealing. With so many of our other teammates gone, Shane has had to take on a lot of other responsibilities - he is overseeing the school in Joan’s absence, camp development in Jake’s absence, and Dan and Kim are leaving for 2 months this Thursday. At that point we will be the only ones on the station. Thank you for your prayers!

Below is a recap of the past few months.... we realize it is heavy on the medical stories this time.

Lollipop

Wed, 8 Dec 2010 00:30:36 -0600

When will we settle into a routine? I think that is the million dollar question. Life here in Ethiopia is exhausting, yet full and rewarding. Each one of us is longing for some stability, but we are slowly coming to the realization that this is our “new normal”... living out of suitcases half the time... new beds... new people. Living in rural Ethiopia as Westerners, and keeping up with “business” as well as ministry is simply a tiring way of life. While constantly being on the go has been hard on us, we also have had such incredible opportunities that we are so thankful for. We also have such a peace that we are exactly where God has asked us to be at this time. It makes it all tolerable!

Electric Avenue

Wed, 1 Sep 2010 09:53:36 -0500

Yes, it’s true - we now have electricity at Langano! History has been made. The funny thing is that as this is being written, our electricity has been out more than half a day. Oh well. At least we have it most of the time now. It has definitely changed our lives. We can now wash dishes with hot water that comes out of the tap (we used to have to boil water every time). We can also run a load of laundry and know that it will finish (before we could only run it the 2 hours that the generator was on). We can actually stay up past 9 o’clock and do work around the house. Now the bugs just hang around the lights instead of around our headlamps, so we aren’t eating nearly as many bugs. What an incredible blessing! We still catch ourselves stumbling around in the dark at night, forgetting that we can just flip on the switch. In a couple of months we may forget what it was like B.E. (Before Electricity)...

A little side-note to our new “electric” status: Our house was originally wired a little wacky, so there is no ground wire. We found this out the hard way when Mia put her hand on a pole outside our house and got electrocuted. It was so bad that it made her face contort all up and scared us half to death. Later that day, Shane was trying to place some more rat poison under our eaves. He leaned his arm on our tin roof, got the jolt of a lifetime, and almost fell off the ladder. Our entire roof is basically a live wire! We are working on trying to rewire things. Until then, please be in prayer for our safety since our house is pretty much a hazard right now.

Night Birds

Sat, 3 Jul 2010 12:04:16 -0500

Well, it’s not often that you can say you took the roof off your house... but we did this week! We have had animals shuffling around and squeaking in our attic and finally after two weeks of no sleep, enough was enough! After setting every kind of trap imaginable and trying everything else - all to no avail - our only option left was to remove our roof and come in from the top. Our “mouse” problem ended up being a “night bird” problem. That’s what the Ethiopians call bats. Once the bats were removed and the roof was back on everyone took a quick break to eat lunch. After lunch they went out and cemented in the holes that the bats had been coming in to keep them out once and for all. But, guess what?? During lunch those insane animals flew right back into their old spot without us knowing... and we ended up cementing them inside our roof! So, now we are just hoping they will die soon and that they won’t stink too badly. That should be the end of our night birds. Ha!

Holy Cow Camel!

Thu, 1 Apr 2010 06:47:54 -0500

It has been so busy around here that we can barely keep up. We have had lots happen since our last update, so we will try to get you caught up on life at Langano...

Succeed, Prosper and Dominate

Fri, 15 Jan 2010 08:01:29 -0600

It’s hard to believe it is already 2010! We have had a few very full months since being back in Africa after our visit home. We’ll try to give you a quick snapshot from the past 2 months...