Funderburks - Ethiopia

Michael and Jana Funderburk and their daughter Ruthie, members of NSP, moved to Addis Ababa, Ethiopia in the summer of 2009 to serve as coordinators for an international adoption agency. While not technically "missionaries" of the church they are certainly missionaries serving the work of God's kingdom in a needy place as they help to place children with adoptive families.

Read the Funderburk's latest update below:

On the front porch of our Ethiopian home.Dear friends and family,

Hello from East Africa!  We miss you!  I certainly thought we would've sent out a little newsletter like this one before now.  The last three months have flown by—our brains have been full of new work, new friends, new house, new church, new city in Africa, new language, and new driving style.  In fact, driving is probably the most exhausting, culture-shocky thing we do here. Um, it's a little crazy!  I'm not actually even doing it—just being in the passenger seat is tiring!

We love our church—we are attending St. Matthew's Anglican.  The current rector is friends with and sat under John Stott for years in England.  We love him.  His name is Godfrey---"You can't really shorten it," he says.  His wife's name is Daphne.  They really couldn't be more British.  Our church is full of people from all over.  One of the priests is Sudanese and there are many Sudanese refugees in the congregation.   For all our New St. Peter's friends: last Sunday we sang "From the Squalor of a Borrowed Stable."  I felt at home and homesick at the same time.

Some new experiences for the Funderburks:  Around our neighborhood...watch out for hyenas!

--The call to prayer (Ethiopian Orthodox prayer) starts at 4 a.m. in our neighborhood.  Rise and shine!
--We've been warned not to stroll around our neighborhood after 7 p.m. lest we be eaten by hyenas.  We hear them almost every night.
--While out and about, we see young men bowing toward Mecca---on the edge of Megenagna traffic circle as cars whizz by.
--We love our always-changing view of the Entoto Mountains from our bedroom window.
     
    
News!  We have more news than we thought we would have at this point.  But God seems to have a different plan.  From the time we arrived here, Michael and I have been drawn to a little girl in our agency's care.  We found out she wasn't matched with a family.  And over time, we've realized that WE want to be her family.  So, here we go again! Please keep us in your prayers as we start this journey again.

Please also pray for the many children in our agency's care (and in Ethiopia as a whole) who are alone and grieving;  that God will comfort their hearts and give them hope, that He will continue to bring some of them loving, stable families.   The older children in our care, in particular, are more difficult to place simply because they are older.  Please pray that God will bring them committed families.

The first wash for our dog newly adopted from the roadside!The sorrow and loss Ethiopian people regularly face is difficult to take in.  It's a lot to process.   Regarding the things we've seen and heard since we've been here, I feel pretty speechless at this point. We hope and pray that God will stretch us and grow us while we are here.   We trust in His goodness and sovereignty in all things, even in the face of great suffering.  

We'd love to hear from you sometime over email.  We miss you and love you.

With love,

Jana
For Jana, Michael, and Ruthie