I'm really poor lately at keeping up my blog, but I feel like the news I have this week is so important that I need to get it out to everyone very fast. It is one of the following scenarios:
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1. I'm going back to school to get my PhD so I can teach at BYU-I
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2. I'm pregnant!
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3. Alan and I are seriously thinking of moving to Ethiopia
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Pause and think, which would be the most crazy and unlikely. OK time is up. Those of you who guessed #1 or #2 are WRONG! So it must be Ethiopia. I know, you're in shock, but it is true. We have been approached by Andrew's close friend, Wes, who is employed as the project manager of a humanitarian venture that a succesful businessman from Logan has started. Alan has been asked to be a farm advisor to a new large farm that he is starting. He has already done alot of work with housing for orphanages, started a dairy farm in Ethiopia, and now wants to develop a large dry farm. Alan met with him on Tuesday in Logan and now he would like Alan to go over to Ethiopia on October 24, stay for a month, help on some preliminary tasks and research and get a real good idea of what this project will be all about. Also to see if Alan and I can take living in Ethiopia for two years. If we decide to do it, he would expect Alan to go over and stay starting in February. The farms are an 8,000 and a 27,000 acres of dry-land grain which produces seed for the government and Alan will be the so called expert on farming. I could, if I want, help start a school for the farming children. The Ethiopians have a very poor diet and do not eat a lot of good wholesome grains like wheat and barley and their government is trying to introduce grains into their diet. Most Ethiopians do not live through their mid fifties, and there are many orphans because of starvation and Aids. Alan is really positive in his thinking and I feel good about it too. I know some of you might think it is a crazy idea and so different for us, but we are really wanting to do this. I want all of you to be very positive about this and try to see the good that we could be doing as a couple for a very needy nation.
I really hope that you will support us at this time and that you will pray for this to succeed. We really want it to.
The church is very new and small there. Only about 900 members total in the country. Elder Oaks just recently visited the capital and dedicated it for the preaching of the gospel. So the church is there, and we can be part of that growth too.
Maybe some of you will be thinking of what this could mean for you, as in visits to Africa. Egypt and Kenya are very close and Rome is the stop-over to Ethiopia. Well, I know this news is a total shock, but it will be a good thing for us. Only two years. Think of it as a mission. 
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This is a video of the project agronomist at one of the farming villages who will be working with Alan.
6 comments:
Inconceivable!
I normally don't feel calm about people changing. When sara read me your blog, i didn't feel any panic, I felt good. I want to know what ways I can help you. I have always felt a very close connection to the african continent. I know because of things in my patriarchal blessing that I need to help you. i am willing to go with you, and I feel extremely blessed that you are my family. I will pray for you, and I am so glad that you will be able to do this. All my love, whit
Of course we support you. This will be a wonderful opportunity for you and for all the people you can influence and teach. I started crying when I read your blog and then started crying even harder when I read Whitney's offer to go with you. I don't know anything about her patriarchal blessing but it was still so generous. We will add our prayers to yours. I hope that you will know soon that this is what you are to do.
What can I even say, wow! What an opportunity. I can't say that I'm not just a little nervous for you both, but again, what an opportunity. I love reading Zack's letters. He has a wonderful maturity about him now. Keep us apprised.
my first thought, i admit, was about how much i will miss you. that felt really selfish. i know this could be a great opportunity for you to do tremendous good in the world. i am actually excited for you and a bit envious also. i've always pictured dennis and me going somewhere on a mission where we could do service for people. what could be better service than feeding them and teaching them? well, maybe taking care of their illnesses and building things like houses and wells and sewers and stuff would be as good, which is what i imagined dennis and i would do. i hope someday we get a chance like that. i'm sure both of you and the people in ethiopia will be blessed for this.
but that doesn't change the fact that i will miss you.
I think it is very cool! At first I didn't fully pay attention to the introduction of your three possibilities, so I had thought those were three things you were looking forward to...well the pregnancy one really had me thinking so I had to read on to understand in full! LOL. Gma and Gpa stopped in Pocatello to take me to breakfast on their way through and told me about Ethiopia and I thought it would be way fun for you guys! Well, fun *and* a great experience. :) If I don't see you before you head for your "preliminary experience", good luck with that and have fun for a month!
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