One of the hardest things about meeting with the poorest of the poor here in Ethiopia is figuring out what to say.  There’s tremendous pressure (often self imposed) to say just the right thing to bring a bit of light and hope into the lives of those we meet.  But how can we really succeed when the people have less than nothing, have seemingly unfair illnesses, and an endless list of challenges stacked one on the other?  Words simply feel inadequate.  While the people are inspiring with the depth of their faith in the face of insurmountable odds and speak frequently of how blessed they feel just to have us in their homes, for me our presence just doesn’t feel like enough.  As a result, I’ve been thinking often of what to say, how to say it, and how to communicate the love and compassion we feel in the short period of time we have with each family.

Two of my greatest loves are bird watching and traveling.  Both bring contentment to my soul and make me feel alive.  I have been fortunate enough to travel all over the world, learning about different cultures, seeing new things, and discovering a wider variety of birds than I ever thought imaginable.  But every place I’ve been to date has one bird in common…the simple sparrow.  I look for it everywhere I go and have yet to uncover a destination that doesn’t boast a variety of this understated and often-overlooked bird.

The other day when I spotted one here in Ethiopia it reminded me of a verse in the Bible quoting Jesus speaking: 

“Are not two sparrows sold for a penny?  Yet not one of them will fall to the ground outside your Father’s care.  And even the very hairs on your head are numbered.  So don’t be afraid; you are worth more than many sparrows.”  Matthew 10: 29-31

It doesn’t seem like simple coincidence that the bird mentioned in this verse can be found the world over, and in fact seems to be the one bird the world has in common.  While it may have a variety of names, people know what a sparrow is; how common, how simple, and how ignored.  It gives universality, perspective, and power to this verse for every person in the world, and maybe provides me with the answer for what to say to those who feel overlooked, unimportant, forgotten, and afraid.  For at its heart, the message we’re trying to convey to the people here is that they are loved, have tremendous worth, and that through Jesus there is no need to fear.  Neither He, nor we as His hands and feet have forgotten them. 

They may just be words, but they are words with tremendous value, depth, meaning, and importance.  For if our Father loves the common and simple sparrow enough to know when each one falls, the depth of His love for all of us is unfathomable, immeasurable, and incomparable.  And as much as I love the sparrow, my prayer for the remainder of our time here is that I can convey this very idea through words and deeds to these beautiful people who are worth so much more.          

-Sara  

Yesterday was our third day in Ethiopia. Time is really strange on this trip. I would never have thought it possible that there could be such a combination of feeling like we’ve been here for weeks instead of days yet still feeling like the time is going by far too quickly. It feels like weeks because of all that we’ve experienced in such a short time span, but it’s too fast because we can all feel the end of our 2 weeks here approaching.

Anyway, elastic time aside, I want to tell you a story. It’s a bit long so you might want to get some water and/or hit the bathroom before you dig in. This story isn’t all rainbows and unicorns, though there is joy in it.  It’s about taking action and unforeseen consequences.  It’s about serving people in the face of the enemy. It’s about disappointment and our response to it. And at the end of day, it’s really all about love and what that means when we put it into practice.

When yesterday began, it was much like the beginning of previous days, though I think there was a lot of hope in the house yesterday. After all we were waking up to Addis having fun outside with Jerainya and Misganao, and there was quite literally a miraculous difference in him in less than 24 hours. From writhing on the street due to malnutrition to being a healthy, thriving, and intelligent 14 year old boy. It was amazing.

So, we had our time of reading our Bibles, writing in our journals, and chatting in the morning. This isn’t a dictated thing. It’s just something that’s naturally happened somehow. I think it’s a family thing. And, yes, it really feels like everyone on the team is family. Certainly, as a guy amongst a team of all women (my wife being one of them) except for Noah, I’ve been party to several conversations that I would never expect in such a situation apart from family – and maybe not even then. We breakfasted together on some awesome crepe-like things, finished getting dressed and ready for the day, and then headed off to Shetai’s house.

On day one, Aki took a few of us to visit her. Shetai is a widow with a son named Alaza who is 10 years old. Both have HIV. Shetai’s husband died 10 years ago from HIV when Alaza was only 2 months old. They have been on their own since then. We asked Shetai what we could pray for with her. She told us about her physical needs, most of which were obvious due to the chilly, rainy day. You see Shetai lives in a plastic house. Plastic houses are structures that have been put together with scrap material that have been scrounged together. It basically consists of a few wooden support posts with a bunch of scrap pieces of plastic, tarps, and assorted other material wrapped around the outside. The roof is a few pieces of wood with a mish-mash of more plastic and a few junk pieces of tin. Her physical needs were obvious because on that day it was cold and damp inside her house, and the rain was pouring through places in the roof in the tiny section of her house that served as a bedroom. She also told us through tears that she felt hopeless because she knew that someday she would die, and she feared for her son and wanted him to have a future. Needless to say, that was a difficult experience.

When we told Kate about Shetai in the evening of day one, we began to hatch a plan to at least do something about her immediate physical needs, especially since the rainy season is on its way here. Kate started orchestrating a project to go and do something about Shetai’s house. This included having Shetai go and get approval from the government to actually do work on the house. She did indeed get approval with the stipulation that we couldn’t really change the house. We could only improve the roof.

That brings us back to day 3. We were off to Shetai’s house to get measurements and determine what kind of materials we would need in order to improve the roof. As we stood inside her home and looked at things, it became obvious that we would need to do some major work on the bedroom side of the house in order to make any kind of lasting improvement. We would have to re-enforce the roof on that side so that the plastic could be stretched over it without having the many sagging spots that were causing most of the existing leaks. We also needed to put more of a slope in that side so the water would run off better. We split into 2 teams, one to stay and clear out the house and prepare for the work and one to go and get materials. Those of us at the house started working with Shetai, her son, and some other people from the community to pull everything out of the house. That didn’t take very long. Then we began pulling off the existing plastic so we could re-cover everything in a more durable fashion. The other team arrived with the materials. It was obvious that we wouldn’t be able to re-enforce the roof without pulling the bedroom part of the house apart, so we did that. We cut new support posts and put them down into holes in the ground, started to frame up the roof, and put some braces in to support the vertical posts to prevent the house from eventually listing to one side or the other. Several people from the community were helping us with the construction as well.

As we were finishing up the roof framing and continuing to look at ways to brace the structure, a woman came up loudly telling everyone that the construction had to stop. Masti, one of our translators, was quite irritated that we were getting interrupted while just trying to help. He went up to the woman and asked for ID. She pulled out government identification, which pretty much meant that we had no choice. We had to stop. We waited for a few minutes while the government official talked to the local police and told them that we had to stop. The police then came and made us leave the site while Shetai, the government official, Aki, and Yosi went down to the government office for this part of Addis. The rest of us, very frustrated and sad at having been forced to stop, left to go get lunch. Personally, I was having a very hard time dealing with things and not being overwhelmed by anger.

About the time our food was coming out at the restaurant, Aki and Yosi showed up with bad news. The landowner adjacent to Shetai’s house had shown up at the government office as well to make the claim that he wanted to put in a gate to his property where Shetai’s house was. He had apparently been lobbying for this for some time already. Since Shetai’s house was basically an unapproved structure on land not “owned” by her (owned is in quotes because land ownership is a fuzzy thing here), the government said that she not only had to stop the improvement but she also had to move out of the place. We had gone from starting a project to help someone be warm and dry in the morning to that person being essentially homeless. For me, it was a pretty dark moment, most certainly the darkest moment of this trip so far.

As we finished lunch, we headed back to the Guest House. Between the restaurant and there, we decided to go back to get the building materials to hold at the Guest House until we could find a use for them. We were also trying to figure out some short-term solution to Shetai’s housing which was obviously not ideal, but it was our only option at that point. Some of us headed back to Shetai’s along with Aki and Yosi to get the materials and to give Aki and Yosi a chance to talk to Shetai about moving into a place where we’d pay for rent for some period of time, at least a month but probably more like a year.  Also, around this time, Addis left to take care of some things that he needed to do. That will be important later.

As we arrived, Shetai invited us into the remnants of her house. She pointed out that she’d patched up what was formerly the little divider between her entryway/common space to make a quasi-wall. As we all sat down on pillows and blankets she had arranged for seating, Shetai said that there was good news. She began to share with Aki and Yosi (which they translated to us) that the community was behind her, including the local police force. In fact, the police force told her that she should stay.

So, sitting there in this house that was now half of the already small size that it was before, looking at bare sky through holes in the roof and the very large open spaces left between the existing walls and the roof, Shetai said that she wanted to stay where she was. She said she could tack up some of the plastic material that we bought a little bit along to cover the open spaces and hopefully protect from the rain. She wanted to stay until she was provided with a government house, which would have affordable rent. We asked a ton of questions trying to understand if she was going to be ok. Aki assured us that this was best, and I trust him. But we also agreed that we would kind of wait a couple of days and see what happens and send some food and blankets back to help get her through the night.

Then she proceeded to apologize to us that we had to go through this and then she blessed us. Seriously. She’s sitting in something that barely constitutes a house that is even worse after our involvement and she’s blessing us. The time at lunch, hearing that Shetai was probably out on the street was the darkest moment, but this was the most emotional by far for me. Aki asked me to pray, and I was struggling to even get words out. But I did my best to cry out to God to provide a way forward, whatever that might be.

We went back to the Guest House and gave the blankets and food to Alaza and some friends to take back. After that, apart from showering and giving Leslie the story of what happened, I just laid on the bed and zoned out for a bit. For dinner, some of the amazing staff here cooked a rice dish and Kate invited some of the local children in to eat with us. It being Alex’s birthday, the children also sang happy birthday to her and cake was had by all.

After dinner, it was time to finally process the day. We gathered together as a group and tried to make sense of everything that had happened. The project we’d started at the beginning of the day had backfired, to say the least. Addis had left and had still not returned which raised all kinds of questions of where he was and what was going on. Things just didn’t seem to be going right. We had some pretty fulfilling and deep discussion of things, and then we prayed. We prayed for all of the people we’ve encountered so far individually including praying again for a way forward for Shetai and praying for Addis’s safety and that he might return if this was the best place for him.

Then we started getting ready for bed. Shortly after that, Kate knocked on our door and told us that Addis had returned! I know that every single person on the team was praising God at the moment of finding that out. I certainly was. Not only because it meant that Addis was definitely not out on the street, but also because it gave us something good at the end of the day to hang onto.

I think somewhere far above I promised that this story was about something. That may be unclear so far just based on the facts. But now I want to tell you what this day meant to me and what I came away with. It would be easy in the midst of having things going wrong to question whether we should even be doing this. Was it really worth the risk to help Shetai? Should we have just revived Addis and handed him some food and water instead of investing in him the way that we did?

That’s where the lesson hit home for me. 2000 or so years ago, when Jesus was walking the earth in human form, would he have said no to helping when it might result in failure? Would he have said no if he thought there was a chance that things could get worse? I don’t think so. I think he would have jumped in. But after having jumped in, I know that he wouldn’t give up. The enemy is at work. We know that. But in our American culture, where we are blessed with a pretty neat and orderly life, it’s easy to begin to be blind to that. Just because we suffer obstacles and major disappointments at the hands of the enemy doesn’t mean we stop trying to help. Sure, we didn’t get a nice picture at the end of the day of a completed house and the warm fuzzy feeling that goes with it. But we won’t give up on Shetai. We will keep at it for as long as it takes. We will continue to pray for the best path forward for her, and we will seek God’s guidance for ways we can take action on her behalf.

And we will get up tomorrow and do it all over again because that’s what He did.

John 16:33 – “I have told you all this so that you may have peace in me. Here on earth you will have many trials and sorrows. But take heart, because I have overcome the world.”

-Eddie

You are the air I breathe.
Still you move inside of me,
You are the song I sing.

With every breath I breathe,
with every song I sing,
I want ot shout it out,
Lord, I am listening.

To every word you speak,
I’ll go where you will lead.
To love the least of these,
It’s my greatest offering.

I am the least of these.

I am so glad that today is my day to blog because I couldn’t have asked for a better experience to share with y’all! The Lord put someone in our path yesterday that we could have never expected or planned for, Addis Adam. He has been a huge blessing to our team, and I get to share his story with you!

Yesterday was a beautiful blue bird day. Our whole team went to lunch in the city together and invited some locals that we met on the street to come share the meal with us. Picture this: When we walked up to the restaurant, there was a huge skinned animal hanging in the front window with a butcherman grinning and hacking at some raw meat. It didn’t exactly make my mouth water..  We ordered tibs and angera (a local favorite) with our beloved translators and the locals. Despite my picky eating habits, tibs and angera is actually pretty basic food (beef strips and spongy type bread) and I really enjoyed it. Although, the best part of lunch would have to be the local people that ate with us; it was really neat to share a meal with them and hear each of their stories.

After lunch we headed out of the downtown area of the city toward a woman’s home that we heard from one of our translators needed prayer. I found out later that as our team was walking through the city, Kate and one of our translators, Aki, were praying that the Lord would put someone in our path today that needed our help. All of the sudden as we walked along a main highway, we encountered someone crumpled in the middle of the sidewalk with their entire body shaking. As we came closer to them, it looked like it was an old man in his 60’s or 70’s. Our translator, Yosi, went to him to see what was wrong and when he turned him over on his back it caught me completely of guard to see that whom we thought was an old man was actually a young boy. He was unconscious and looked like he was seizing. Our translators quickly carried him off of the sidewalk unto a patch of grass and began to help him regain consciousness and gave him water.

Locals began to crowd around and help as much as they could; I remained in the back of the crowd trying to remain composed and just pray that God would help us help this young boy. As I stood there in shock of everything going on around me, I became overwhelmed with emotion and heartache for this boy. I have two younger brothers and to think that someone around their age could be in that state brought me so much overwhelming sadness and anger that something like this is so common here.

After the boy had gained consciousness and stopped shaking, Kate told us that she and Yosi were going to take him to the hospital and asked if anyone would like to come along. I really didn’t want to leave him so I decided to go with them along with my teammates Eddie and Leslie. We walked to a clinic that Kate and Yosi were familiar with located in the same area as Amazing Grace Guest House. Along our walk to the clinic, Kate and Yosi found out that this young boy is named Addis Adam and he is 14 years old. They also tried to find out how he came to be on the streets and why he collapsed but struggled to find out exactly what had happened. Though, it was evident that Addis had been on the streets for some time now and didn’t know where to go next.

At the hospital Addis got different tests and and an xray of his arm that we later found out had been broken a couple of years ago and had healed the wrong way. While everyone waited in the clinic for results, Kate and I went and picked out some pants and a shirt for Addis. It felt so good to know that we were able to just do something for him even if it was something small like that. After we came back from shopping, we sat in the clinic for a while longer waiting on the test results. I got to sit by Addis while we waited, and we all finally got him to smile. He has the biggest dimples and one of the most beautiful smiles I have ever seen.

After the results came back, the doctor explained that Addis had collapsed because of dehydration and malnutrition and that he also had a bladder infection. It was a relief to know that we could cure both of those things with medicine, food, and water. After we got Addis his medicine we asked him if he would like to join us for dinner tonight and come stay at our house and he said “yes.”

That night was amazing. Addis put on his new clothes and shoes once we got to the guest house and literally looked like a different person. He just seemed so incredibly happy and his joy seemed to spread throughout our entire team. Before dinner we played games with all of the kids in the neighborhood and Addis showed off his soccer skills. I sat watching him for a while thinking to myself, “I wander when the last time was that he felt safe and was just able to play and be a kid.” Probably 10 times throughout the night I went up to him and smiled and gave him an awkward side hug. He probably thinks I am a complete weirdo, but I just can’t help but love on this kid!

The Lord is blessing our team in incredible ways. We have only been in Ethiopia for two full days, and I feel like we have experienced so much and are already making a difference in this city! Our prayer is that God will continue to lead us to the people that he wants us to serve. Will you please join us in that prayer?

Much love from Ethiopia!

Alex

PS Today is my birthday.. and I have a feeling it is going to be one I will never forget EVER. Can’t wait to see what is in store!

Yesterday was the beginning of our journey here in Addis. We woke up to the sound of rain hitting the roof, birds chirping, and synagogue music playing. Our team started the morning off with some tasty coffee, Bible reading, journaling, and great company along with an amazing spicy egg and toast breakfast. Just having a simple meal and interacting with the people at the guesthouse was more than we could ask for. After breakfast, we made our way outside to the courtyard to play some soccer and a little table tennis… Let’s just say the Ethiopians kicked our butts at them all! We had no chance.

That afternoon, time seemed to stand still. It was like God wanted us to be patient for what was next, and didn’t want us to skip a beat on being present and relaxing with what and who we were with at the time.

That afternoon we broke into three groups with our translators Aki, Josi and Masti. One group traveled to the city of Korah near Bright Hope School where Masti was from, and the other two stayed within the area surrounding the guesthouse. We were graced with a challenge to speak our story and the word with complete strangers that day. I thought to myself, are you crazy Kate Townley? You want us, as a team, to speak our story and the word to people we can’t even understand?

At first it was very challenging to get past what we saw and smelled to think of anything except sorrow. Once we got into people’s homes and heard their story and struggles, the anxious feeling went away. Knowing in your heart that we are no different and are all here on this earth God created for the same reason was the most relieving feeling He could ever give me. It was such a blessing to see their way of life and admire their faith after everything they’ve been through. After praying for a family and walking out of their mud house into the rain, nothing seemed crazy at that point. Everything seemed right. He wanted us to be here.

After wrapping up the afternoon with some crazy taxi rides, we made our to a restaurant called Chocolate, which by the way, has the best macchiato coffee drink ever. America is totally missing the boat on this one.  We grabbed some pizza and made our way back to the guesthouse to unwind and talk about how each group was challenged and how our experiences grew our faith.

All it took was one afternoon

[One challenge]

[One greeting]

[One Faith]

To see and feel a difference in life on earth.

Some first time nuggets:

* While walking through the city, pedestrians do NOT have the right away. Being on your toes is a must!

* When eating, if someone wants to feed you, let him or her. It’s a sign of friendship, even if they feed you too much and want to choke.

* Lastly, if you don’t know the language, try it and if you butcher every word, at least you will get a smile and probably make someone’s day.

Love Always,
Iowa

We have arrived in rainy Ethiopia after 30+ hours of travel. As morning dawns and we see the country for the first time in the light, the overwhelming feeling among the group is one of great anticipation and expectation. There’s something quite powerful about removing yourself from your comfort zone and stepping out into new places surrounded by new people and the possibility of new experiences. It places your senses on high alert and forces you to be more present in the current moment.

Our day-to-day lives seduce us into the comfort of familiar routines and life’s distractions, causing us to miss the miraculous moments in the world around us. When you travel, especially to places so drastically different from the one in which we live, it can be like stepping into another dimension, one in which at least for me, God is a bit easier to see, feel, and hear.

The weeks leading up to our departure were busy and emotional for me on a personal level. As a result, I stepped on to the plane both exhausted and anxious that I wouldn’t be able to leave the concerns of life behind and be fully present in all this trip has to offer. Yet as we lifted into the Montana sky, those cares fell away, replaced by the calming of God’s presence. This happens often to me when I travel, it’s why I love to go, for unfortunately sometimes it takes going to the other side of the world to quiet my heart and mind enough to be fully present in the world around me.

Throughout the day, we descended to the city of Minneapolis, the city of Amsterdam, and even into the country of Sudan for a brief refueling. Each time, our bird’s eye view from the plane highlighted the vast expanse of the cities below. Homes stretched from horizon to horizon, each filled with people, people known and deeply loved by our magnificent God. I was struck by the awesomeness of His power and the breadth of His reach, knowing the Bible speaks often of how God cares deeply for the concerns and fears of each member of His creation, paying such close attention He knows the number of hairs on each head…there were a lot of heads! I couldn’t wrap my head around the vastness of His love and power, couldn’t fully understand how He could know everyone intimately in the plane around me, in the homes below me, and even in the places outside the far reach of what I could see. I felt dwarfed by His omnipotence.

Turning from the window, briefly distracted by a small voice nearby, I bumped into God in a different way, within the eyes of a child nearby. She was patiently saying and waving goodbye to all the passengers around her as we prepared to debark. What caught my attention was her acceptance of everyone around her. Surrounded by a variety of people of all shapes, colors, ages, and nationalities, she embraced them all, making sure each one received their own wave. In that moment I glimpsed another side of my savior, the part of Him who comes to dwell among us, loving and accepting each of us regardless of history, creed, nationality or beliefs. The side that reminds me that I am treasured, that my relationship with Him is intimate and important, that my vast and powerful God is personally reachable and present all around me…if I pay attention.

Today is a brand new day, the start of two weeks of being fully present in the world and people around me, and of expecting to meet God in both big and small moments. A mere forty-eight hours into our journey, we have already witnessed God’s miraculous intervention in an eleventh hour passport delivery only He could have orchestrated, experienced His loving care as He brought us all safely to the other side of the world, had a front row seat to the vastness of His creation and to the intimate way He reaches out to each one of us through the voice of a child.

So today I rise with a tremendous feeling of expectation for what this time will bring each member of the group, the miracles we will surely witness, the lives we will touch, the ways our own lives will be transformed, and the moments we will interact personally with our God and savior.

Yes, it’s a brand new day and we are ready to seize all that it will bring.

-Sara