A time to celebrate...

This is Eric, myself and our friend Mewaei after church last week. Mewaei just finished nursing school and defended his thesis which Eric and I had the opportunity to be there for. Mewaei has been very faithful at church and has really been a big blessing to us. We are very excited for his graduation and what the Lord has in store.

መልካም አዲስ ዓመት!

Happy New Year 2004, Ethiopia!

Today is New Year's Day here in Ethiopia and the year is 2004...sounds strange, we know.

Ethiopia has its own ancient calendar - called the Ge'ez calendar. The Ethiopian Calendar has more in common with the Coptic Egyptian Calendar. The Ethiopic and Coptic calendars have 13 months, 12 of 30 days each and an intercalary month at the end of the year of 5 or 6 days depending whether the year is a leap year or not. The Ethiopian calendar is much more similar to the Egyptian Coptic calendar having a year of 13 months, 365 days and 366 days in a leap year (every fourth year) and it is heavily influenced by the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church, which follows its ancient calendar rules and beliefs. The year starts on 11 September in the Gregorian Calendar or on the 12th in (Gregorian) Leap Years - like this year.

We had a great day celebrating the new year with friends and even dressed Jackson in Ethiopian traditional clothing for today...

This is the road going to the church building. As you can see, the first truck full of sand could not make it. the second truck was supposed to pull it out, but also got stuck. Chances are that tomorrow morning when we go to church they will still be there.