Letter from Janelle and Mike McCarty in Washington
August 19, 2008
Dear Friends and Family,
Janelle and Mike, with Carolee (4 years old) and Isaac (5 months old).
Hello! We pray that you are doing well and have enjoyed a refreshing summer. We have been on the road most of the summer with mission interpretation assignment (speaking with church communities). At the end of our long trip, on August 4, we rested at Janelle’s parents’ home, Farview Bed and Breakfast, in the beautiful mountain valley of Golden, British Columbia.
When we left Dembi Dollo back in February, before Isaac was born, the elders there spoke about this being the end of only one chapter of our life, and they looked forward to the other chapters where God will be at work to continue our partnership with the people of Dembi Dollo. This is a letter of closure for our work as mission co-workers with the PC(USA), but it does not end our involvement with the friends and family in Christ which we have gained by living in Ethiopia for three years.
Interpretation assignment
We were truly blessed to be able to share in worship with so many different groups throughout the past six months. We have been shown such amazing welcome and so many have helped care for our children, even to the point where a church in South Dakota threw a birthday party for Carolee! We greatly appreciate our parents who traveled with us for part of the time, Mike’s parents’ even brought along their travel trailer for our peaceful home environment on the road! For all of you we’ve visited, we greatly appreciated your open hearts and willingness to stop and think about our brothers and sisters in Ethiopia. We pray that it continues.
As we traveled 13,370 miles, from British Columbia to Montana, then from Washington to Georgia, we got creative with various traveling activities—our favorite was to stop at national parks and monuments along the way. Carolee has turned out to be a great little hiker. Isaac truly enjoys looking up at the trees and massive mountains.
Our present
We are currently transitioning back to life here and learning how to create a good routine for our kids here, how to avoid the overwhelming focus on consumerism and maximize the positive aspects of life—family time, involvement in the church family, service to others. Anyway, we’re trying to learn how to do this, but every day is a new day with new challenges and adjustments. Mike has secured a job that started this week in North Bend, Washington, as a senior planner. We are extremely thankful that this opportunity came so quickly.
Our future
We want to stay in good contact with the people of Dembi Dollo, continue to try to recruit teachers for the schools there, and work at helping in any way possible from here. We are looking forward to going back to Dembi Dollo in July or August of 2009 to lead the second summer English program. If any of you are interested in joining us, please contact us so that we can prepare thoroughly. We are hoping for three weeks in Ethiopia in order to provide a good amount of teaching time.
News from Dembi Dollo
The new director of BESS, Gemechu Zacharias, former BESS student, teacher, and dorm father.
As we spoke across the country we often told the story of an orphaned boy, Gemechu Zekarias, who was able to receive a scholarship from the Beth-el Evangelical Secondary School (BESS). Well, after a tumultuous year at BESS, the Synod has appointed him as the new director. We have been in contact with him about various ideas, and we appreciate his wholehearted approach and his love for God. This summer he was given the task of recruiting eight new full time teachers. Please pray for him in recruitment and in many other issues to deal with!
We are very pleased to let you know that Berhane Yesus Elementary School will have a volunteer teacher for one year sent through PC(USA). Her name is Sharon Curry, and we were so pleased to get to know her at the New Wilmington Mission Conference in Pennsylvania. She is enthusiastic, committed and will be a great help to the students. Her email is: sharoncurry@prodigy.net. Two or three others are thinking of going to teach for three months. This is all good news, but the people of Dembi Dollo have requested a full-time person from PC(USA) to be with them. Please pray with us for that to come about.
At the Synod level we ask prayer for the wonderful projects to continue to meet the needs of the people as so many staff members change.
Thank you so very much for your support and prayers for us over the last three years. Please continue to contact us at the address and email above. We truly look forward to hearing from you and working with you on many endeavors.
With warm gratitude,
Janelle and Mike
The 2008 Mission Yearbook for Prayer & Study, p. 12
