God Smiles…
Well, everything has shifted here at the Tol house: We are full tilt in travel mode because we received our travel call yesterday! We will be leaving for Ethiopia on January 31st and returning on January 9th. (Flights are still pending, but that’s what we’re hoping for.) It’s incredibly surreal to finally be planning this trip that we’ve looked forward to for nearly two years.
In the midst of all our preparations and plans, we’ve noticed God’s fingerprints all over the place. Here are a few of the fun coincidences that must bring a smile to God’s face:
1. Christmas! Several months ago I got this kind of crazy idea in my head to buy a bunch of toys from Oriental Trading Company that needed to be assembled/painted/sewn together. I thought it would be fun to get a bunch of friends and family to help me work on them, pour love into them, and then bring them over to some of the kids in the orphanages when we visit Ethiopia. So, over the past weeks I’ve had lots of helpers (35+ at last count) help me with sewing puppets, painting race cars, making teddy bears, and stringing beads on little bracelets. I have quite the collection of toys to pass out!
Now when I started hearing from others who’ve traveled, a lot of them seemed to bring more “practical” items (diapers/toothbrushes/medicines/etc.) I was feeling a little bad about all my frivolous toys. But here’s the fun part: We will be in Ethiopia during their Christmas. Since they use a different calendar, they celebrate Christmas on Jan. 7, which means we will be passing out all those little toys right around Christmastime! And I have sneaking suspicion God had that in mind all along when he planted that crazy toy idea in my heart.
2. Immigration Papers. Okay, let me start this by giving you a random fact about Amy: I served as an intern for Congressman Hoekstra’s office my fall semester of college. I got to do various interesting tasks, but a good deal of the work that got passed my way involved filing papers and entering data for their Immigration Liason.
Now, fast forward ten years to yesterday. We got a travel call to visit the US Embassy in Ethiopia on January 5. Great news, EXCEPT that there was still a form we needed processed by Citizen and Immigration Services (CIS). We needed that form approved in order to travel, and fast. Without speedy approval, we would’ve had to delay our travel plans.
So… it was time to get some congressional help in beseeching the good folks at CIS to hurry along on approving this form. I called the office, and lo and behold, I’m suddenly talking to the very person I used to work for as an intern. Only this time, I’M the one needing congressional help with CIS! We had a good laugh about that one. But thankfully, everything got straightened out very quickly and we now are clear to travel next week!
3. Coffee. So here’s a little thing. I’m a little addicted to coffee. It’s hard for me to kick things in gear without my morning dose of sweet caffeine. And so, as I thought about travels to Ethiopia, I was curious how available my morning cup of joe would be. It IS the land where coffee was “discovered”, so I wasn’t too concerned. But still… coffee is an important part of my physical and emotional well-being.
So we’re staying at a guesthouse in Addis Ababa, and here’s part of the description of their amenities: “Coffee available at any time.” Any time! Oh glory! I will be fully caffeinated on this amazing African adventure we are about to embark on!
All these wonderful, sweet “coincidences” remind us that God has had his hands in these plans all along. I’m still humbled to think how he has chosen to knit our little family together. And though I’m feeling some nervousness about all the travel plans and adjustments to come, it’s so reassuring to know that God is smiling on us as we go. We covet your prayers for peace, health, and sleep as we prepare to bring Annie home.
Note: I’m hoping to create a “prayer requests” post later this week for those of you who want to be our prayer warriors while we travel and adjust. Check back in a few days if you’re interested.
Ethiopia Facts: Christianity
Here’s a post I’ve been wanting to write for some time. I’ve been reading about Ethiopia’s connections to Christianity, and I’m fascinated by what I’ve learned.
First of all, I’ll admit to being very ignorant about the religious landscape of Ethiopia before we decided to adopt from there. I very naively assumed the country was probably Islamic, or filled with tribal religious. While there is a large Muslim population in the country (35-45%, depending which figure you read), I was surprised to discover that Christianity is actually the predominant religion, with about 61% of the population as adherents.
Ethiopia is the second oldest Christian state in the world, after Armenia. The Christian church can be traced to ancient times, and believers have been living out their faith in this land for thousands of years. The Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church is the only church in Sub-Saharan Africa that existed prior to colonization. It was the state church of Ethiopia untile 1974 and it’s closely related to the Coptic Church of Egypt.
(Interesting sidenote: Ethiopia is one of only two countries in Africa that were not colonized. Italy attempted to colonize during WW2, but was fought off with the help of the British.)
Ethiopia has some interesting connections to the Bible—many based on legend, rather than biblical account. But they are interesting, nonetheless. And they explain why Christianity has been so strong in Ethiopia over the years. Here’s a few key points:
Queen of Sheba—Historians agree that the Queen of Sheba who visited Solomon most likely came from the area that is now Ethiopia. (In biblical times, the region was known as “Cush.”) The account can be found in 1 Kings 10:1-13, which describes the Queen of Sheba coming to ask Solomon difficult questions. She is impressed with his wisdom and proclaims praise to God.
According to Ethiopian tradition, the queen—whose name was Makeda—became pregnant by Solomon. She gave birth to a son, who became the first king of Ethiopia, Menelik 1. This Solomonic dynasty ruled over Ethiopia for the over 2900 years. (From what I’ve read, there was a “short” interruption in this line for about 130 years just prior to 1270 AD.) This actually makes Ethiopia’s ruling dynasty the oldest in the world, along with Japan’s. Emperor Haile Selassie was the last of this dynasty, deposed in 1974.
Obviously, the claims of Sheba and Solomon having a child together have no basis in the Bible. But I’m still intrigued by the Queen’s visit. As I read the biblical account, this appeared to more than just another political conference. She seemed to be on a sincere quest for wisdom—and apparently left with a real appreciation and belief in God.
The Ark—The Ethiopian Orthodox Church claims to possess the Ark of the Covenant at a church in Axum. There is no physical or historical evidence for this claim, although from what I’ve read, it’s not completely beyond the realm of possibility.
strong>Pontius Pilate—Pastor George recently mentioned the Ethiopian belief that Pontius Pilate actually converted to Christianity later in life and settled with his wife in Ethiopia. I couldn’t find much info about this online, but I did learn that the Ethiopian Orthodox Church considers both Pilate and his wife to be saints. I share Pastor George’s hope that the legend is real—that Pilate was forever impacted by his famous encounter with Jesus and eventually came to believe.
The Ethiopian Eunuch—Mentioned in Acts 8:23-40, this man was a chief officer of Ethiopia under the reign of Queen Candace. It’s interesting to note that “This man had gone to Jerusalem to worship, and on his way home was sitting in his chariot reading the book of Isaiah the prophet” (vv. 27-28). Apparently, there were sincere believers in Ethiopia at this time who traveled to the Temple to worship God. (Faith brought home by the Queen of Sheba, perhaps?)
Philip talked with this man, who was full of questions. When Philip shared the truth about Jesus with him, the eunuch asked to be baptized immediately. Unlike some of the “legends” of the Ethiopian church, this particular account is in the inspired Word of God.
It’s amazing to me that God has been at work in Ethiopia for literally thousands of years! Sometimes, with all the focus on Israel in my studies of the Old Testament, I can forget that God sought the hearts of those outside the Promised Land as well. I love the rich biblical tradition that can be found in Ethiopia. Aside from the more questionable “legends” of the Ethiopian Orthodox church, the Bible does record the accounts of Sheba and the Ethiopian Eunuch. Both came to the Holy Land with questions about truth—seeking wisdom, seeking God. Both were ministered to by God’s people. And both left rejoicing in God. What a beautiful spiritual heritage for believers of Ethiopia to build upon!
What a privilege to “adopt” this heritage for our own family.
图片! Abbildungen! Картинки! 그림! Pictures!
My creativity is a bit wanting tonight, so I thought I’d let Google shiny new translate tool do the work for me.
And, yes, this post is all about pictures. Pictures of Noah, actually. I (finally) got around to editing up a bunch of photos from this summer. Click on the pictures to see more.
Hanging out at the playground
Hanging out in South Holland
Hanging out at the soccer because Amy and Brian wanted some 18 months pictures even though Nojo’s over 19 months old. Oops.
Not bad, if I do say so myself.
Fun at the Park
While Daddy’s been busy at the Gospelcom Conference, Noah and Mommy got to spend some extra time together on Wednesday night. We grabbed the camera and headed to Noah’s favorite “park”, which is actually the playground at Holland Christian’s Maplewood Elementary school (also Brian’s old stomping grounds as a boy.)
We’ve spent lots of time playing here during the summer, but I hadn’t captured any of these moments on film. So finally, here’s some video of Noah doing what Noah does best: having fun at the park!
Noah loves this car, and it’s usually one of the first things he runs to when we get to the playground. He’s also starting to say some words, as you’ll see in this video. His most prominent words to date are “Bye,” “Duck,” and “Bath.”
And one more fun video shows how Noah loves to go down the slide:
iPhone Crazynesss
Howdy Ho, blog friends. Brian here. I had a brief post for all you techies out there:
During our recent trip to Chicago we stopped by a mall to take a break. We ended up on the second story catwalk, trying to find a reasonable lunch option (yeah, fat chance of that), and looking down we found ourselves staring at a large crowd of well-dressed twenty/thirtysomething geeks:
Looking right, we saw what drew the crowd:
That’s right: we had stumbled into the middle of the iPhone waiting line. I figured there were 120 people in line. At $500 a phone, that picture at the top represents $60,000 waiting to escape. Crazy world we live in…
Nojo vs. Walgreens
Ok, so, Nojo’s cute and all, but this is just downright funny:
Sunday afternoon we shot Noah’s 1 year (well, 1 year plus a few weeks) pictures. As with all his pictures to-day, we’ve been taking them ourselves instead of paying Sears for overpriced shots of a fuzzy baby crying. These homemade photo shoots have so-far turned out fairly well… we’ve been happy with them, at least.
Anyways, for the past year I’ve been posting the shots to Flickr, and Amy’s uploaded them to Snapfish.com, mostly so our families can print off pictures at Walgreens. This has worked especially well for my side of the family: we post them from Holland, my Mom prints them off to their local Walgreens in Chicago, and also orders a few for my Grandparents at their local store in G.R.
That’s worked well — until today. Mom called me this afternoon, and the conversation went something like this:
Mom: Hi Bri. Love the pictures, but they’re a bit too good.
Me: … Huh?
Mom: Yeah, the clerk in Grand Rapids says he won’t print them off without getting proof you took them. They want (a) a copyright release on your “official” photographers letterhead, (b) the original film negative, or (c) the original camera so they can see that you took them.
Me: … ! Huh? You got to be kidding me.
Mom: Nope, really.
Me: … Huh?
I have to be honest, that did stroke my ego a bit in the right direction. But Walgreens, come on, honestly, who does that?!? That’s just nuts. Basically they’re just loosing business, since we’ll just use another service to print off the photos. I appreciate their concern for trying to obey copyright, but they really have to make it easier to prove ownership.
Anyways, even though you can’t print them off at Walgreens, at least you can enjoy them online.
First Birthday Party Pictures
Ah, the joys of being one. It’s so much better than being, say, four months old. You can crawl. You can pull books off bookshelves. And you can’t yet talk, so nobody expects you to behave. In fact, quite the contrary. People laugh when you play with your food. They smile that “ah, that’s cute” look when you throw your toys around your room. And you still get diaper changes. No potty training here!
I tell you, One is a pretty cool age.
So it’s only fair we share that coolness with the rest of the world. So, click the image above, and enjoy Nojo’s first birthday party!
Update: It appears flickr.com, the site I used to archive my photos, is experiencing some odd behavior. If you’re seeing weird pictures of trees and supermodels instead of Noah, that’s the cause. I’ll update when things are resolved.
Update 2: Flickr fixed the problem, although you’ll probably need to “clear your cache” as we like to say in the business. If you’re still seeing odd pictures, hold down the shift key and click “reload” on your browser. If you’re still seeing problems, you should clear your browser cache. Here’s how to do that on a bunch of browsers.
Say Cheese!
They say a picture’s worth a thousand words, so I’ll let the photos do the talking today. Enjoy!
Papa Bear’s chair was too hard. Mama Bear’s chair was too soft. But Baby Noah found a chair that’s just right!
Noah likes to stand at the window and look at all the snow.
Is He Old Enough to Drive Already?
Here’s Noah taking a spin on his new car. It happens to be quite enviro-friendly as it runs on mommy power rather than gasoline. Unfortunately this fuel source has its down sides: It tends to run out after just a few laps around the house.
And here’s one more picture of our cute little guy.
Happy as can be.
Noah’s Nine Month Pictures
I (finally) uploaded Nojo’s nine month pictures. I might be biased, but I really think it’s his best work yet. Gone is the novice smile of three month and the unsure sitting of six months. Here we have Noah taking the bull by the horns and really putting his heart into it — you can tell he really wants to become a professional baby. For example, take a look at “blue steel,” “the knowing look,” and — my personal favorite — “Aw shucks, Dad, you’re the greatest..”
But seriously, it takes a lot of preparation to get these great shots. Hours of napping. A dozen or so strategically placed stuffed animals. And frantic parents, wildly waving their hands and smiling until their teeth hurt. Really, it’s a tough business. But then again, have you seen the competition? 
