Roth Amstutz Christmas Letter

Peace prevails in this pleasant room at the Mennonite Guest House in Nairobi, Kenya. I may have been wound up a bit tightly lately by all the cares of the world, our jobs and our lives. So now I am unspooling . . .

It was the many hours of work that wound us up, both Wanda and me. The many meetings with so many folks who all seem to have good causes. The many hours looking at proposals and at budget numbers. The many hours of dealing with ‘a situation’. Then there were the many hours where someone in the house was experiencing illness. Bugs, amoebas, viruses, bacterias . . . somehow they managed to slip through our defenses. The worry of watching a loved one in pain or suffering from nausea, diarrhea, headaches, fever, etc., can wear one down.

So the retreat at Brackenhurst (a Baptist facility) was the beginning of the unwinding and the days of rest & relaxation at the Mennonite Guest House was the continuing of the unwinding. To hear the voices of loved ones far away on Skype has added to that peace. And the openness of time has brought on the peaceful, easy feeling.

This Christmas will feel different from last Christmas. We now have one Christmas in Addis under our belts so we know what it will feel like. We will feel the separation from family but we won’t be alone. There are too many good friends who will celebrate with us together. Our house will be filled with laughter and voices of Christmas present. Memories to be created in the moment.

Now a word about our girls: Amani, Abigail and Sophia continue to grow in mind and spirit (growth in stature has been incremental thanks to the Amstutz DNA. But don’t worry, one of these years they’ll shoot up). Amani loves to read and is very conscientious in her studies. Abby is not far behind but she is more the social of the two. Sophia is doing well in her studies this year but isn’t much into reading at the moment. However she is still the little teacher and we can hear her teaching a virtual reality class in her room, often consisting of names of classmates past and present.

2008 – Ah, but what about the year, you say? What about 2008 past? Yes, it was a full rich year. As a family we did our share of traveling together. We all went to the MCC East Africa Regional Meetings (EARM) in southern Sudan in the spring and Arusha, Tanzania in the fall. We went on a safari in Tanzania, an experience of a lifetime. We drove the northern tour of Ethiopia and learned why most folks fly to the ancient and great cities of Lalibela, Axum and Gonder. The roads were rough and the travel was hard on the family but it was a tremendous experience which none of us will forget. Oh yes, the girls will store it away as another experience, just as I did of our family vacations as a boy, but someday they will pull it out of their memories and, with prompting of photos, remember that most singular tour. And of course we’re now in Kenya. What a privilege it is to travel, to meet colleagues and friends and to discover new places.

Our pets have kept our family occupied. Our two dogs, two cats, rabbit and turtle have kept the girls company and kept us busy feeding them and keeping them healthy. Coca and Peanut are the ‘guard’ dogs. They keep watch in the sense that they raise a ruckus whenever someone comes into the compound. Coca might defend/ attack in a pinch but Peanut would surely turn tail and run. Fortunately we have not had to face such a situation yet. Spot and Princess Waffles are our two cats. Spot is a laid back male and PW is a slightly neurotic female and together they make a nice pair. Will there be kittens in the future? After one fiasco (both kittens died, PW is not mother material), we hope not. Cindy the rabbit just keeps getting bigger and bigger in his cage. The question is whether he is a pet or culinary feast, right now the former only. And there is the turtle which I love the most because Yertle the turtle is maintenance free.

The girls have settled into Bingham and now know what to expect at school. This fall hasn’t been easy because of all the school they have missed by either traveling with us (one week in Tanzania and one week here to Nairobi) or because of illness. We hope they will have a better track record in the spring. We have enjoyed meeting a few more families at Bingham, particularly one family, the Johnsons, who play Rook and Dutch Blitz like we do! What a pleasant surprise to find that out! We’ve also played Frisbee football on Saturdays with them as well.

Wanda and I have been happy to see MCC partners accomplish a number of the goals set to feed the hungry, comfort the ill and give hope to the poor and disadvantaged. We have been especially happy to see some of the peace projects paying huge and immediate dividends in the communities where our partners are working. But we continue to find challenges with getting the information about the projects back to us and on to Akron or Winnipeg. Sometimes it is benign neglect, sometimes it is more intentional. We struggle with that. I have more gray hairs now than I did a year ago.

Meserete Kristos Church is our main partner, although we have others as well. MKC is the “Mennonite” connection in country and the leadership continues to learn about MCC and the Mennonites in North America even as we learn more about who MKC is. We have made many good friends in the church, most of those are people we work with either in the head office or in their relief and development agency wing (RDA). Our other church connection has been the International Lutheran Church (ILC) on Sundays where the service is in English and we connect with fellow believers who are mostly ex-pats from around the world. Wanda and I have occasionally led worship services there and have enjoyed that familiar feeling of being up front. But mostly we are content to sit in the pew with our girls and be in the congregation on a Sunday morning.

Ethiopia remains a country to be explored by us. From the Bale Mountains in the south, to the Simien Mountains in the north. From Wollega in the west to Afar in the east. Ethiopia has its share of problems, both political and economic. The country is progressing when it comes to infrastructure and parts of the economy but regressing when it comes to elections, government and politics. We can hope for stability, peace, progress, good government to bring hope, justice and liberty to all in the future.