Charis Around the World

Tidbits from Ebony
by Elizabeth Carmichael

Traveling

The roads through this country are much like the one these little boys are crossing!
 Our journey took nine hours from the capital to the Northern City.

Hello and Happy New Year, Charis Family!!

I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas and New Year holiday! I had a truly precious time with some friends in another city. Travel in Ebony is anything, but easy. I couldn't resist, however, when an old friend from Candybar invited me to travel North to a city I'd never seen before.

I had to fly from Glory Land to the capital of Ebony. There, I met up with my traveling companions and we hopped in a taxi to head through the mountains and plains to the Northern City. We hit the peak of the mountain pass around 7a.m., just when the sun was shining brightly on the peaks. It was amazing! I was listening to Handle's Messiah the whole way and I had a truly wonderful worship experience looking at those mountains! The people and places we saw through the rest of the trip were truly beautiful. I felt honored and joyful at the opportunity to drive clear across the northern expanse of this country.

We stayed in a little mud house with a wooden frame and a roof made of wood and thatch material. It was so cozy! Like staying in a little cabin! It was like being in a completely different country than Glory Land! We walked around the city for hours and hours, faces uncovered, speaking openly in English, unafraid that someone might want to harm us simply because we are foreigners.

We visited a very special mosque that is famous in that town. We also drove far north and walked around in some fields. What a blessed time! On Christmas day, we spread out our cooking through TWO neighboring homes. We actually had a REAL turkey! It was delicious.

On the day we were set to leave, we spent three hours at the local airstrip just waiting for our plane to arrive and take us back to the capital. It never came. We were inconvenienced, but not entirely sad or disappointed. We got to spend another day together! The next day, we flew to the capital and parted ways.

Now, I am back in Glory Land, diving into work and relationships once again. But, I am thoroughly refreshed by the wonderful time I had over Christmas. This week I will probably be spending several days with a local Pushpin family in order to learn more about their culture and acquire more language. Please pray that I would be a blessing and encouragement to the ladies and children of that house. I probably won't interact with any men while I am there. Please also ask that the Father would bless my language ability, protect us all, and bring about His purposes in that household and in my life.

All my love, E.C.

This picture is of a famous game played in Central Asia. It is a cross between polo, football and the rodeo.   These players ride on horses to capture a beheaded goat from other players. It is very....interesting. Hundreds and hundreds of people come out to watch the game each week. We tried to watch this game on Christmas morning, but they had cancelled it for the week because of a special Cousin holiday.

This is not the exact mosque my friends and I went to visit, but it is very similar. Cousin people across the country travel to mosques such as these in search of healing, special blessings, to put curses upon enemies, etc. It is considered a "place of power," especially on holidays. The holiday that occurred over our Christmas week was a commemoration of the death of two young men who are a part of the lineage of Cousin people and the religion itself. Cousin families commemorate these deaths differently. Some just observe a few days of silence. Others, travel to "power sites" such as the mosque depicted here. Some people publicly flog themselves in the streets. Sometimes women join in by wailing loudly. It is a time of mourning and remembrance for the Cousin people.