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