Moving Mountains
Abuna Yemata Guh
It feels like we are at the Base Camp of Mount Everest. The journey ahead feels both daunting and exhilarating. We have come so far over the past year and a half. Months of preparation. Years of hoping and dreaming. All this has brought us to this point, but now we face the behemoth itself. The hardest climb still lies ahead.
Reflecting on the impossible feats that have already brought us to this point fills us with awe. Luis completed his MBA this past fall, taking the last four of his master's classes simultaneously while we traveled to see family across the country in California and across the world in Korea. Our kids were accepted into the international school for the next year after initial rejection, followed by a series of rigorous tests (that tested us as parents as well). We have reached 78% of our needed monthly support and 99% of our projected outgoing costs! Considering we started the year at 17% of our monthly and 10% of our outgoing, that is amazing.
Ethiopia feels so close and yet so far at the same time. We can almost make it out on the horizon, tantalizingly close yet shrouded in uncertainty. We are less than 90 days away from hopefully landing in the country. I say “hopefully” because our organization won’t let us buy our plane tickets until we reach 90% of our monthly support, with the expectation of being at 100% prior to actually embarking.
Impossible things that need to happen:
With less than 90 days until our hoped-for arrival, we are faced with a checklist of impossibilities that only divine intervention can surmount.
The process for my Ethiopian medical license so that we will have a visa to enter the country. Our documents are currently stuck in the labyrinth of the federal government’s authentication process. Hopefully, they will come through so that we can then send it to the Ethiopian government to start their process.
Our home to sell: The market has slowed a bit, and there are many new homes on the market, but we are praying and hoping that somebody will come to love the house that has been so good to our family for the last 6 years.
Our prerequisites: Luis and I must complete a total of 7 Bible courses together before we leave. (This one has just been answered as we are writing this!)
We need to pack up/sort our belongings as we prepare to spend the next two years in Ethiopia before coming back on home leave in summer 2026. (Bringing with us homeschool supplies for our second year in country, clothes to accommodate growing children, and things we will need to set up a household… why has teleportation not been invented yet?!?).
My parents are coming with us!!! (That deserves three cheers). They will lend their decades of experience working in cross-cultural settings and will be a huge asset to our family. However, their pathway to obtaining a visa is unclear. We are reaching out to a local seminary where my dad could potentially teach Hebrew and Greek, but there are no solid leads.
Now this one is not impossible physically speaking, but the emotional weight of saying goodbye. We plan to leave Myrtle Beach at the end of June. This is the only home my kids have memories of. I brought two of my babies home and we have so many friends who have become family here. Thankfully, Myrtle Beach will be our home base that we will return to in the future, but it doesn’t negate the sorrow and the emotional weight of bidding farewell to so many of you that we have grown to love.
Finally, the last seemingly impossible thing at this moment is finding a home for our 11-year-old dog, Layla. She is precious to our family, but we do not have the ability to take her with us. She is the one who is on constant baby duty, watching after our kids like they are her own. Sneaking up to their room in the middle of the night or during naptime to keep guard over her littles. A good home for her would be a huge comfort for our family.
Even in the face of these seemingly insurmountable obstacles, we find solace in the promise of a God who specializes in the impossible. With each step forward, we cling to His words of assurance:
“Jesus looked at them and said, ‘With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.’” (Matthew 19:26)
As we press on, buoyed by His strength and guided by His hand, we trust that every mountain will be moved, every valley bridged. For in the end, it is not the height of the peaks we conquer, but the depth of our faith that propels us forward.
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