McMahon October 2022

Melkam Addis Amet! Happy Ethiopian New Year! As I write this, I hear frogs and crickets filling the night air with lively sounds, the air is cool and crisp, and the whole country is experiencing the vibrant green that beautifies and ensures another harvest season. I am relishing this quiet moment.

Ringing in the Ethiopian New Year with an early morning visit from the girls and their Rafiki mothers

Contrastingly, this summer has been anything but uneventful. It started with a visit to the Home Office for my first Enrichment as a Rafiki Missionary, which included encouraging teaching and poignant safety training for our African contexts. Then I was able to visit many of you during a trip to Massachusetts and my home church. How wonderful it was to catch up and fill you in with what I’ve been doing over the past two years. It was also a delight to enjoy my fill of ocean air and ice cream.

On a schooner in Gloucester, Massachusetts with my mom and two sisters during an impromptu visit

After my return to Ethiopia, we were able to send all fifty-one of our resident students to spend time with extended family or Village employees during their extended rainy season break from school. This visit is integral to their development as members of their families and as Ethiopian citizens. They are even ambassadors for God, since most of them have a deep desire for their families to know and love God as they themselves do. I really love getting to hear their stories when they return about how they got to share lessons from the Bible and watch how Jesus is changing their families’ lives through their influence. Please pray with me for lasting changes in our students’ families starting with Modjo and reaching to the rest of Ethiopia for Christ.

Enjoying an American treat of s’mores during school break

Without the children at the Village, the other missionaries and I were able to spend an intensive 4-week training with our teachers. They all began a transactional English course and a Christian classical methods course. I also provided a music course to the preschool teachers and other interested teachers. It was so much fun to emphasize the integration of music with other subjects such as science, literature, and movement all under the umbrella of discovering the joy of the Lord through His creation. Whether they are preschool teachers who will begin implementing this curriculum this year or teachers of older grades, it is my hope they all will be inspired to teach with a big picture in mind—engaging students’ whole mind and heart for their good and God’s glory.

And just like that, school has started this week and all the business that comes with that. In addition to teaching first through third grade music classes, I am also teaching those same students art, phonics, and penmanship. I am already getting to know them better and I look forward to seeing them progress in so many areas.

A well-earned dinner with the eighth graders for finishing their National Exams! My fellow missionary, Esther, and her mother, Melanie, got to join in

Thank you for your continued support in so many ways. I would not be here without you. Use the prayer requests listed above to guide you as you think of me and the work here.

Thank you so much. Please email me back if you also have prayer requests that I can pray for you about.

Prayer Requests

• to put God first every day.
• for stamina and wisdom as I teach.
• for high-quality, trustworthy employees to fill spots in the preschool and ChildCare program.
• for my fellow missionaries Amy and Esther as they work to renew work permits and resident IDs. There has been unprecedented difficulty in doing so.
• for peace in this country and especially that godly Christian leaders (such as pastors) would act for what is right. 

Please also pray that the Lord will provide more Rafiki Missionaries and more day student sponsors so that we can bring Bible study and classical Christian education to more needy children. Perhaps He is calling you to be the answer to one of those prayers? Visit www.RafikiFoundation.org to learn more.

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