Love Does

Last week we headed south to Ziway with a short term mission team from Illinois and California to see Misgana Ministry run by Gary and Peggy Ifft. The ministry consists of three schools and Samuel’s Home, a home for orphans.   Each facility is amazing, spotlessly clean, well run, a HAPPY & SAFE place for the children.  There are children from Christian, Orthodox, no religion, and Muslim families, as well as the orphans from Samuel’s Home who attend the school.  The children are learning 3 languages, Bible verses and songs, along with their math, science, etc. as well as hand washing before meals and after going to the bathroom.
The children are fed breakfast and lunch each day.  The menu is a two week rotating menu that allows for two days a week Ethiopian food at lunch, which is the kid’s favorite days, the rest of the time very balanced, healthy meals of vegetables, meat and grains.  Peggy is a nutritionist by trade and is able to feed four kids for 25 cents a day great meals that are fresh and healthy. The grains are even ground at a near by mill ( we got to watch the process at the mill which was very interesting and old fashioned.)  We ate lunch with the kids for two days man was the food good.  What those kids eat at school puts to shame the lunches given to the kids in the states for lunch.
We had a great time while visiting the schools and the home.   What God is doing is so over the top, even the Muslim parents are excited about what their children are learning in school and the difference the school and the Word of God is making in their children’s lives.
Now for the ride home…..I think we have told you about the road and how dangerous it is with animals, people and other vehicles going every which way on the road.  Well we are cursing down the road at 60-70 miles per hour in our 16 passenger van when from the last seat in the van Leigh yells at the top of her lungs,  “Camels……. CAMELS…….…STOP….. STOP.” There was indeed camels, as a matter of a fact about a hundred of them.  So our driver slammed on the breaks and head the van for the side of the road.  When we were stopped the sliding door opened and we began to pile out of the van.  Kate stayed in the van saying in a soft voice, ” I don’t think this is such a good idea.”
Peter the professional photographer with the team was the first to navigate across the “high way of death” and I was right behind him, with others following at different intervals.  I had just taken a couple of photos when to my HOROR, a camel herdsman came from out of no where, I really mean NOWHERE, he wasn’t there just two seconds before.  He was running mock ten at us dust was flying around as his feet hit the ground, his snow white knee length robe trimmed in African print was flying out behind him like Superman’s cape, his eyes were shooting fiery daggers and in his hand that was raised above his head he held a eight foot LARGE staff.   Something in me made me put my camera away as I stared in horror thinking he was going to take Peters head OFF.  Then all of a sudden there was another herdsman who materialized out of nowhere, on second he wasn’t there and then there he was.  About this time our driver arrived on the scene and put himself between the 1st herdsman and Peter.  Someone brought over some money to offer but the herdsman hit it out of our driver’s hand.  While all this was going on we started retreating to the safety of the van.
The conversation between the driver and the herdsman was tense and we learned the herdsman meant to do bodily harm to us, our driver informed them that they would have to go through him first as we were guests and he would not allow them to treat us that way. When we got back to town and were telling the story to others we learned that we were indeed very lucky as the herdsmen are feared, ruthless, would just as soon use a machete on you or shoot you, the police won’t even deal with them because they are so feared.  We also learned the reason behind NO pictures is that they believe if you take a picture of their camel it will die.  Praise God for His protection over us.
About ten minutes later as we are racing down the road laughing and talking about the camel experience when there was a LOUD explosion and I had Kate in my lap, she had been sitting on the wheel well.   As my mind finally wrapped it’s self around what was going on I realized we had just had a blow-out, so I continued to hold on to Kate wondering if we were going to roll over.  Our driver who I think went to school at the Indianapolis 500 driving school, pulled the van to the side of the highway of death and saved us.  Everyone piled out of the van and into the pucker brush.  While the Indy pit crew went to work.  They had the tire off, changed and the shredded tire stowed away in about 5-7 minutes.  The thought running through their heads as they work….We’r gong to die, WE ARE GOING TO DIE right here on the highway of death.   Meanwhile as all of this is going on Peter, the photographer had again made his way to the other side of the highway and was taking pictures of people passing by. This time he asked permission of his subjects.
We made it home without any more excitement, but with lots to talk about.  I think I have the only picture of the camels.

Ethiopia January 13th 2012

There is an African proverb that say, “It take a village to raise a child.”  This is the story of Jerainya, a 14 year old boy who comes from the southern region of Ethiopia.

Two years ago some men from another tribe Killed his mother and 17 year old sister with machetes as he watch, then came after him, but Jerainya escaped, hiding and running until he came to the road and found a bus, the driver, after hearing that men were trying to kill him gave Jerainya a free ride towards Addis Abba.

Jerainya lived on the streets of Addis Abba for two years, begging for food and money, sleeping where ever
he could. At one point while begging he told a man he was hungry so the man gave him 50 birr, which is equivalent to $3.00
in American money. Jerainya took the money to a store, gave it to the manager to keep and told him he would come each day to buy food with it. He was able to eat for a week on this amount of money.

At some point during his time on the street Jerainya was raped. Life had to be very hard for a little boy who had just lost his entire family on his own on the street without any money, or anyone to take care of him.

Meanwhile God was at work. Aki (the manager of the guest house we are staying in) and a friend were praying and fasting asking God what He would have them do. A few days later was when Aki saw Jerainya for the first time, in a riverbed below the bridge that he was walking over. Jerainya was naked covered in dried mud and eating dirt, wide eyed and acting crazy. Aki took Jerainya to a bath house cleaned him up had someone go and buy clothes for him, then took Jerainya home and fed him. That was two months ago, in the last two months Jerainya has accepted Jesus as savior, he is eating like a horse, healthy, happy, laughing, and learning to speak Amharic and English. He will start school at the beginning of the next school year, after he has had some tutoring, as he has never been to school. He will continue to live at the guest house with Aki, Joe, and the staff who have all adopted him and are loving on him and caring for him for now. Hence the proverb: the village is raising the child.

It is such a joy to see what God is doing in this little boy’s life bringing healing to the pain and trauma Jerainya has experienced.

Jerainya means: To live forever. How perfect, now he belongs to the Lord and will live forever.

– Sandy

Let all that I am praise the Lord;
with my whole heart, I will praise his holy name.

Let all that I am praise the Lord;
may I never forget the good things he does for me.

He forgives all my sins and heals all my diseases.

He redeems me from death and crowns me with tender mercies.

He fills my life with good things.
My youth is renewed like the eagle’s!

The Lord give righteousness and justice to all who are treated unfairly.

Let all that I am praise the Lord.

I could not make this stuff up. Thank GOD He’s in control, because it’s become glaringly apparent that I/we have NONE.

7:00 AM – Beginning yesterday (Jan 12) we get up early-ish (skip breakfast and buna) so we can meet Sami in Mexico (a part of Addis). We get a spot on a big bus and we’re excited. It’s hard to get to Mexico via taxi in the morning because it’s so busy. This bus takes like 45 minutes to go 2 miles and we are late. We can’t find Sami, he still doesn’t have a phone, the number he had yesterday he didn’t have now, and he doesn’t have my phone. We walk all over looking and decide to get some donuts and coffee at a place I’ve wanted to try for the last few years. It was a very tasty sugar load.

9:30 AM – Sami gets ahold of us and gives us directions to where they are. They have a copy of the rental agreement for their office (a missing piece to shoes stuck in customs), but a original was required. Murad had to bring it from across the city. Also, they were charged 250 birr (instead of 25 birr) for the signing of one document so they wait to log a formal complaint.

10:30 AM – There is one more signature required, but because the organization that Great Hope Church RENTS from is missing the ORIGINAL memo that established them as an NGO (FORTY years ago) the government official refuses to sign. The men try and try to convince this man that this is not necessary.

In the meantime, we go to get a new SIM card for my phone. The one I bought last May will let me text and receive calls, but it won’t let me make a phone call. We really have no idea what we’re doing and I was hoping someone in the government office (yes, phones are also run by the government) will speak a little English. They do, and I sit down to get a new card (with my same number), but my card isn’t registered with them. WHY?? He asks if I have the receipt from purchasing this card 9 months ago, which I do (randomly), but it’s at home in MT. So I have to get a new SIM (new number), which requires us to go get two passport photos taken and a copy of my passport. We find a place to take the pictures, the guy takes a good picture, goes to print the picture and…the power goes out. Membrat yelem.

11:30 AM – The photo shop decides to pull out their generator so we get our pictures printed, I get my new SIM card and we head back to the government offices where everyone (Sami, Murad, Tenow, Commander and one other man) are still waiting. I cut the SIM into a mini SIM and now my phone works great! Exabir yemesken (thank God!).

12:00 PM – We go to lunch bc gov. offices are closed for lunch.

1:00 – 3:00 PM – We wait. I bought a pair of black stretchy pants in here for a reasonable price. Not Hybesha (Ethiopian) price, but close enough 😉

3:00 PM – We ask the head of the department for help. We plead with him, we beg. He won’t make the decision without his colleagues. But first, he must conduct four interviews for an internal position.

3:15 – 4:30 PM – We wait.

4:30 PM – We beg, we plead, we beg, we plead.

4:55 PM – They give us the signature.

We buy over-priced supplies to make home-made pizza back at the guest house and retreat to our home for a fun evening with friends. For a whole lot of nothing, it was exhausting.

TODAY

7:00 AM – Aki and I left to take care of my visa before our 10 AM meeting with Tefera (Bright Hope/CHI). The immigration office actually opened at 8:30, so we had time for a piece of bread and tea before we started the shenanigans. By the time we got there at 8:00 AM (Taxis are full in the AM), there were THOUSANDS of people in line all around the immigration offices. It was crazy. I was thinking that if we had to stand in line, we wouldn’t even get close to the door before 5:00 PM, but the foreign office was different and we didn’t have to wait in line – I was first!

8:30 AM – I’m very hopeful because the woman I saw first just gave me a sheet of paper to fill out like it was no big deal to extend my visa. I fill it out and then go to room 77 to wait in line, then to room 80, where they’re in a meeting for 30 mins. The man there does NOT like that I’ve been in and out of Ethiopia so many times over the last two years, he doesn’t think I’ve left since MAY (despite the stamp that says I left MAY 31), and skeptically asks me if I’m SURE I’m not making any money in Ethiopia. SERIOUSLY??? MONEY IS FLOWING OUT MY EARS TO EVERY STINKING GOVERNMENT OFFICE IN ADDIS ABABA!! He says he’ll only extend my visa TEN days. I’m here for 13 more. He tells me to change my ticket (I refrained from telling him that the ticket cost more than he makes in 6 months). I BEG him, plead with him, argue with him and basically, finally, tell him he’s being outrageous to not give me THREE extra days and really throw a fit. He sends me to room 12. On our way to room 12, a man standing around asks me what I’m looking for, we tell him and he turns out to be the next level up the ladder. He basically agrees with the man before and says I should only have 10 days. He asks why I’m here and I tell him to report back on some projects we’ve supported the last two years. To take some pictures. He says I need a different visa for that. I asked, “To take pictures?? So, if I go to Lalibella (huge tourist attraction) and take pictures, should I also get a work visa for that)?” He says it’s different, I say it’s not and go back to begging. I’m in tears at this point. I’ve never asked for something like this. He gives me FIFTEEN days. I think he just wanted to see me cry. He sends me back to office 80, where I enjoy telling the jerk official there that I got 15 days despite his efforts. He sends me to room 77, they scribble something, send me to room 79 to pay, but room 77 missed something, so I go back. Room 77 fixes their mistake and sends me back to room 79, where I find out that I must pay in USD. THANK GOD I had a stray 20 (I rarely have extra cash in my wallet) or I would have been back at square one. Finding an ATM that works in Addis is time consuming and difficult. Anyway, it’s all wrapped up and I go back to the office to pick up my passport (with enclosed visa) on Monday. For now it’s just me and my copy.

11:00 AM – I’m an hour late for my meeting with Tefera, but he’s sweet and understands the government shenanigans of Ethiopia. We visit a school near Bright Hope that is GREAT. I will tell more about that in the next blog. In a lot of ways, it’s what I envision Bright Hope becoming over the next few years. Clearly they have a great administration and some good ideas. They don’t have KG (kindergarden) and they want to build 5 buildings, which is why we were invited to come and see. The BEST part is that they have already raised 85,000 birr from their own students/community. They are very serious and that’s fun to see.

After Baslios (that school), we go to Biruh Tesfa (Bright Hope) so Sandy can see the project and so I can see Mezgabu. It was hard for Tefera, but he really wanted to go. Mezgabu was also very sad about Tefera’s change of employment with CHI but it was good to see him. They have completely finished the wall and there is an area for the tinish sooks (little stores) that will ideally sell the veggies, water and chickens/eggs. They have not dug the 2nd well and I’m not 100% sure about the status on that, but I’ll check with Corey from the States. They just sold all their chickens (326) for the Christmas festivities. Chickens are about 85 birr and new chicks are the same, so they’re getting 325 new baby chicks soon! Apparently a chicken’s egg-laying capacity goes down as they age, so they don’t really want chickens more than a year and a half old. I think it was fun for Sandy to see the project we talk about so much at church…even though it was a quick visit.

2:00 PM – We need to get to the airport to meet Sami and the gang to get the shoes. They have completed the TIN# process and have a new certificate. YAY!

2:30 PM – Our taxi breaks down in the middle of the road going to Mexico. We get out and walk the rest of the way.

2:45 PM – It occurs to me that I need my passport to get into the airport (weird rules). My passport is in immigration. UG. I have to go ALL THE WAY back to the guest house to get a copy of my passport and PRAY that’s enough. We end up hiring a small taxi to drive us directly to Bole (the airport) for 170 birr, which isn’t a great deal but was totally worth it.

3:30 PM – We get to the airport and we’re all excited! Sami et al. have been waiting for over an hour in the parking lot, but they understand Hybesha time and don’t mind too much (so thankful for all those boys).

3:40 PM – We find out we need ANOTHER LETTER from myself, telling them that I’m coming. Freakin ridiculous. So, we type up a letter on the little laptop the boys happened to have (super lucky) and Sami convinced a random airport official to let us print two copies off in her office. Thank GOD. I sign the two letters and take them to customs.

4:00 PM – The guy looks through every form ten times and then asks Sami to go make copies of half of them. I have no idea where he went to do that but then he comes back, the official tries to staple them all together, but there are too many. HA. THEN, he decides he wants to know if the shoes are leather or synthetic. We tell him they’re just like Sandy’s plain athletic shoes and that is not good enough. We have to got get all the bags out of storage and tell him. We are led to a random 30’x30′ room that is dark (no lights) with bags just stacked all over the place. To find the ones underneath, they just toss others aside.

Interjection: I pretty much beat it into our teams’ heads that they should not be bothered by inefficiencies and weird processes because that’s just the way it is and it’s not going to change for you/us, the Americans. Let me tell you, this place is the MODEL of inefficiency. I just about lost it today and had to remember my own advice, although I’ve NEVER experienced something like this. Thank GOD there aren’t bribes.

4:25 PM – Just like we said, the sweet girl tells the official that they are all mixed. Just normal athletic shoes.

4:30 PM – We go to pay for the shoes and the TIN number for the NGO that is Great Hope Church is NOT yet in their system. We have to go to the customs headquarters where they will enter the TIN into the system. Just like that, our weekend plans change and we will TRY AGAIN on Tuesday when Sandy and I get back from Ziway. I am becoming a libertarian.

We’ve had a LOT of fun in the midst of the shenanigans and I’m SO thankful for Sandy the super prayer, Joe the steady and our many Hybesha friends who help us all day every day. God is good and He knows when/if we will get the shoes next week. I’m thankful for the ride and I’m thankful to be loved!

So yesterday we met with Tefera. Tefera has led the project at Bright Hope (Biruh Tesfa) from the CHI (Children’s Hope International) side. He was the Ethiopian contact for the US Office and the project development director. I was really surprised by our meeting.

First, when I got here I texted Tefera to say hi and Merry Christmas, and his reply wasn’t really what I was expecting – it was curt, which isn’t how we normally interact. Also, I had been trying to communicate with him via email over the last few months about the project(s) at Bright Hope but he hadn’t been responding – also unlike him. This is one of the big reasons we’re here, because communication with project/development leaders has been nearly impossible over the last 6 months, which makes it really hard to lay a foundation for the future of Journey’s involvement in Ethiopia.

Well, yesterday I found out that on the day Sandy and I arrive, Tefera’s sister died. I think she had a heart attack in the middle of the night. It was completely unexpected and he is really grieving that unexpected loss. I really can’t believe he didn’t tell me this when we were setting up the meeting.

Secondly, Tefera is no longer working with CHI. CHI hired a new country director in July and they do not see eye to eye. He feels that he’s tried his best to work with her and finally she let him go. He was stunned and frankly, so am I. He’s really become someone I’ve grown to trust and appreciate. I don’t know any of the details, so I’m sure there’s more to the story, but the short end to it is that he is not overseeing the projects at Bright Hope any longer. Huge bummer.

So Joe, Sandy, Tefera and I spent time over macchiatos talking about his sister, the quick change of events in his life, and his ideas/knowledge of other schools in the city who might be interested in community development projects like Bright Hope. I was unaware of another school in the Korah area (no one has mentioned this before) called Basilios. Apparently it almost borders the dump and Ring Road. According to Tefera, it’s smaller than Bright Hope but a few months ago their staff or administrators had been by Bright Hope to see the progress of the project and expressed interest in similar community development. This sparked our interest, so we will go visit it tomorrow. Sandy will also get to see the project at Bright Hope and Joe and I will get to see our friends there. I’m super excited!

Today we’ll work on getting the shoes out of customs, fixing my Ethiopia SIM card for my phone and ridding the living room furniture of termites 😉 I’ve never seen these little buggers before, but they are a PAIN! I can hear them chewing on the eucalyptis shelves next to the couch when I’m reading in the AM. Customs could take all day again, so we’ll let you know how that goes. Thanks for your prayers!

You make beautiful things / You make beautiful things out of the dust / You make beautiful things out of us