Today we started day two with the older kids! They are so different from the younger children, but it is very nice to meet all their different personalities. The people here have so much love in their hearts it is impossible for it to not rub off on you. The biggest difference is the physical sense of love. The children always greet you with a kiss on the cheek and hug. They are so kind and caring. The simple little things they do are so different from kids in the US. A box of crayons is gold here along with any sort of ball. They have so much determination in any game, and are excited to learn ANYTHING new. I feel as though they have knowledge beyond their time, and I am very excited to be given the opportunity to work through God to help these amazing kids. I have a heavy heart tonight knowing that we are leaving in less than a week. We only have TWO days of teaching left. I know for sure I will come home with a different heart. Ethiopia’s people have touched my soul in a way I never expected. I hope that God works through me to come back to Ethiopia; there is so much to teach and learn here. Also, I will be waving with my eyebrows for the next six months because there is no way I can break this habit now! Thank you to everyone who has continually prayed for out team, and supported us to get here. God Bless!
Ethiopia has been far different than anything I anticipated. When I pictured what it would be like here I half expected a tribal scene from National Geographic, silly I know. I have met easily the kindest most open people; their love for Jesus is so evident in the way they live. Seeing so many live in poverty has taught me to appreciate the many blessings I take for granted daily back home.
We have invited two Ethiopian boys to stay with us this last week and I have been so overjoyed by their presence. Mesgana, who is 16 years old and Belayneh, who is 17 years old, both know a little English and get along well with everyone. They enjoy spending time with the team, playing card games, and joining us for our lessons during the week. I find myself in a trance staring at them as they interact with each other. These two boys are amazing and have such incredible love for Jesus and other people. They have taught me so much and I am so grateful that I met them. Both once were, or, still are “street kids.” They have so much to offer, and yet hardly have roof over their heads. Our translator Aki has been nothing short of amazing. He is a passionate man of God and it is very evident in his actions and compassion for people.
A few things I have learned on this trip are to LOVE Jesus with all of my heart and to be open about it. The second thing I have learned is to appreciate all the little things in life such as running water, a constant flow of electricity, and knowing when and where my next meal is coming from. Also, I have learned that if we all do our part we can make a difference in this world.
From our guesthouse on the outskirts of town we drove into the city of Addis Ababa to the large Beza Church. We were greeted with the typical strange looks that travelers in a foreign country get while passing through, although curious we were greeted with warmth and excitement. The church was large and full of people from all over the world. It really showed me a glimpse of what it will be like to worship God in eternity with masses of Christians from every country and ethnicity and all walks of life. Parents with their adopted children as well as locals filed in. As we found our seats the band started warming up and a mixed humming drone filled the building. Unlike most churches I have visited this worship team was huge! Two drummers, a lead guitarist, two keyboard players, a bass player, a saxophone player, three lead singers, and about ten background vocalists completed the ensemble. I knew I was in for a worship experience like never before.
A small family of five sat in front of us and I was tormented through the entire worship experience by the cutest African faces peaking up at me with the most beautiful curious eyes I have ever seen! I smiled as I realized that the three little boys were talking to me even though they were not speaking. It is something I have had to get used to during my stay in Addis. The Ethiopian people communicate with their eyebrows! They lift them to acknowledge you and they lift them to say yes! So although I couldn’t communicate in the same language with those precious kids, I could lift my eyebrows and share a smile. The worship team began to play and the African music filled the whole church. It was so fun worshiping with the congregation. It was so lively and energetic and they sang praises to God with such enthusiasm and reverence. They danced, they clapped, they lifted their hands, they shed tears, and every fiber of their bodies was engaged in worship to our Savior. It was so much fun to share in their worship and feel the Holy Spirit fill the entire place. The pastor spoke with such passion and excitement for God’s word. His message was powerful.
The pastor spoke about the amazing son-ship we share with Christ. Focusing on the courage and boldness that comes when you know who and what you are in Christ. We are truly royalty because of what God has done for us. How easy it is to forget who we are in Christ and that we carry the freedom and the boldness that is often required to share the love of Jesus with others. This message floored me and brought such a grounding strength to my soul. Sometimes is takes such courage and boldness to share our faith with others, and sometimes all it takes is a pair of eyebrows. I will be forever changed and will leave Africa so much more grounded in my faith. I will leave with a new excitement to help those in need and I will leave with a boldness that only comes from knowing who God has made me to be! Blessings
As we drove farther into the African jungle, now 3 hours into what was supposed to be a 1.5-hour drive I said aloud “this has to be it.” The girls laughed, as this was the third time I had said it. Myself, and three of my teammates were on our way to meet Lalise, my sponsored Compassion International child. Another half-hour on mud trails and we arrived in GoJo. Countless cows, sheep, goats, dogs, and baboons later we pulled into a place I pray we never forget.
Once we reached the Compassion site, I met Lalise (6 yrs), as well as her parents and other compassion staff members. After discussing what the program providers her and the family with we went through a traditional Ethiopian coffee ceremony. This included them giving me the honor of cutting into the largest loaf of bread I have ever seen. Which I of course did incorrectly…several times giving all the Ethiopians a good laugh 😉
Following the ceremony we toured the church where the children prayed and sang together. I watched them sing and dance. Their love for Jesus and each other so evident, it was impossible not to smile ear to ear. They love the God with absolute abandon. In a place where people have so little, I have learned so much. Everyone we meet here has been so wonderful and just radiates joy. I’m forever thankful for such an amazing and supportive team to be here with. We’ve been embraced freely, without any reservation or skepticism. I am so thankful for the experience of being a sponsor, and that God provided me with the opportunity of meeting Lalise, her family, and her village. I pray that I carry with me all that these amazing people have taught me. They love God and people, and that is what really matters.
God is good. It’s Saturday and the week has flown by. I’m amazed at how well things went this past week, and I know it’s only because God showed up and his Spirit filled in the holes that we weren’t expecting.
First of all, I have to start off by thanking God for our team. This team is full of amazing people who astound me everyday with their hearts for God and their surrender to Him. They are humble and loving people. Everyday I’m thankful for their flexibility and spontaneity. This is the first team to do this type of trip, and I’m grateful for their willingness to go with the flow and my sometimes lack-of-plan way of doing things. They are people that truly love to laugh, and I’ve never laughed so hard in one week ever. We are silly and joyful people, and I’m glad for the group I’m spending this time with and sharing these experiences.
Secondly, the camp this week has been far better than I ever expected. This week the group of kids we had were 10 and under, which means our oldest child was 9 and our youngest was 5 or 6. I really expected that the camp would wildly flop, that all the kids would be bored out of their mind, not learn anything and hate us. However that is hardly the case and I’m happy that we’ve had a different result. I’ve seen teachers make a genuine connection with their kids, and the kids love the heck out of their teachers. We’ve seen an amazing increase in the kids’ confidence in speaking English, and even the youngest can have a short conversation in English. It’s very exciting to see the kids grow and interact with us.
Next week we have kids 10 and older, and I have to admit that I fear we might be under-prepared. I came expecting the older kids to be at a basic English level, but based on the group this week, we will have to prepare new material this weekend to be able to offer a camp that will grow and challenge the group next week.
Keep praying that God’s Spirit speaks to us and fills us with His wisdom as we head forward into next week not knowing what to expect. I thank God each and every day for the people who have supported this trip both financially and through prayer. Your support means the world to me and the others on my team. Thank you for partnering with us.
Hi hi hi! I don’t even know where to start. My life is completely being changed by this trip. After only having them for two hours yesterday, today was our first full day with the kids 10 and under. I’m now convinced that there’s nothing better than walking into a classroom and hearing 19 Ethiopian children chanting “Miss Lexi! Miss Lexi!” I’ve been super surprised at how well some of the children can already speak English and how compliant the rest of them are to try to learn. We spent the first half of the morning split into three classes working on different greetings, colors, numbers, and body parts. They’ve caught on to a lot so far, but during the Head and Shoulders song I could tell it was time for a break when we started pointing to our toes and shouting “HEAD!”
After classroom time and a break for snacks and lunch, we got a chance to play out on the playground with the whole group. SO. MUCH. FUN. The ten of us leaders spent more than two hours being pulled in twenty different directions to push kids on the swings, climb on the jungle gym, start games of soccer, or just sit in a pile of rocks. Hands down, my favorite part of the day was teaching the kids Red Rover. Not only did they catch on super quickly, but they absolutely loved it. Videos to come J
Really, it’s been unexplainable spending time with these children and seeing their love for life, Jesus, and other people. Their happiness is contagious and they are teaching me SO much. Beyond that, I’m beyond grateful for three major things. First, our safety and travel since we have been here has been absolutely seamless. Second, our translator, Aki, is not only one of the nicest, funniest men I’ve ever met, but he has been a huge blessing to us when working with the kids. Things would utter chaos at school without him. And third, the chemistry of our team is pert near perfect. The different personalities and strengths that all of the other team members bring to the table cannot be anything but completely orchestrated by God. I can’t imagine a better group of people to be over here with. I’ve fallen asleep three nights in a row with laughing cramps; the girls on this trip are out of control.
Thank you all for your prayers and support of this trip. We cannot do what we’re doing without it.
Well good morning from Ethiopia everyone!! Well I think its actually about 10pm there but here its about 8am and we are just about to eat some breakfast. Sorry I haven’t checked in earlier but it took us a couple days to get the internet set up. Needless to say, all the flights went about as smoothly as they could have gone and we all made it here safely. Tuesday night, we checked into our amazing guest house. Waking up bright and early on Wednesday we all took some time to go check out the neighborhood and were surrounded by curious children almost as soon as we left our gate. Playing soccer in the streets with the children was so much better then I could have ever imagined! Couple hours later, we went to the Bring Love In offices and were able to meet all the amazing people that keep it running. It was awesome to be able to see how much love they have for the children and the passion they have for Bring Love In. Then we went to the school, where we were able to meet most of the kids we are going to be teaching the rest of this week and some of next week. Basically my heart has been melted. Even in a couple short hours, the team and I were all able to see the incredible capacity for joy radiating from these children. It was unlike anything I have ever experienced before. We did names and introductions, and then proceeded to play some games and just get to know and love the kids. After coming home and then taking some scary taxi rides involving 16 people and 3 americans riding in a “Blue Donkey”, or a short van, we called it a night. Today is our first full day with the kids an I can’t wait to see what God has in store for us today. Amesaygnallo (Thank you) to everyone for your continued prayer and support!
It was another day waking up to an amazing breakfast prepared by Iesha. After talking about the plan for the day’s activities, we headed out the door to Kora. Again, we were greeted by numerous children as we got closer to the church. I saw my buddy, Sisay waiting for me near the office door.
As we are getting closer to Tuesday, I have so many mixed emotions. It’s going to be so hard to leave this place and the people we’ve gotten so close to the last two weeks. Sisay is definitely one of those people. He’s been coming every day to hang out with us and his sweet spirit and big smile have become part of my day…I’m so thankful for the time I’ve had with him.
In the past two weeks, some of the kids have asked us to visit their homes. So, after lunch we stayed later than normal and some of the team went on home visits. While they were off at houses, some of us girls stayed and painted the new boys’ dorm. Walter designed
and drew the new emblem on the door. They have a program here at the church called Man Up. It’s designed to teach the boys how to be leaders and strong men. Some of them stay at the church in a dorm but they needed a new one. It was awesome to be part of making that happen. It was also awesome to be able to hang out with the young boys and watch how proud they were of their new “Man-up-cave”.
We finished painting before the group got back from home Guest House-visits. We had about a half an hour until we were supposed to all meet back up at the office so Sisay asked if I would come meet his mother. I walked with him and his friend, through the muddy streets to his house. He led me back into a fenced area and there was his mother and his little sister. I’m terrible with names, and I wish I could remember theirs, but I’ve forgotten. However, what I won’t forget is how sweet his mother was and how thankful she was that I was in her house. I also won’t forget his sister in a little shirt, no pants, and big brown eyes. I won’t forget the one bed in their small square footage of a house, the dirt floor, the one chair they have that she offered me, or the cat tied up to the coal burner.
I had to refuse coffee because there wasn’t enough time but as I got up to leave she wouldn’t stop saying thank you. Sisay kept thanking me too. I still don’t understand the thankfulness and the love I’ve gotten while being here.
Our group met back up and we started walking towards our lunch destination: Amigo Café. On the way, we encountered a man with open sores all over his body. Aki started talking with him and found out that he needed his prescription filled for the medicine needed for his disease. This became the mission while we walked to lunch. The few pharmacies we stopped at on the way didn’t have any of the medicine he needed. When we finally got to the café, we still had not tracked down the prescription he needed. Aki and Dean
went on a journey to keep looking.
At lunch, I hit a wall. This trip has been so wonderful but it has hit me emotionally in so many different ways. The newness has started to wear off and the realness of the poverty and need has really set in. Almost eight million people in this city and we are only reaching a handful. There is so much to be done here and we are leaving in just a few days. I have to remember that it takes thousands of raindrops to fill a bucket and each raindrop is important, and this raindrop of a trip has been amazing as well as important.
The macchiato helped perk me up a bit and as we were finishing up lunch. Dean and Aki returned successfully being able to find the medication the man needed, and we headed back to the guest house.
On the way back, Aki told me that his wife had fallen and had hurt her leg. He asked if I would come over and look at it and of course I agreed. So after resting a bit at the guest house, Aki, Natalie, Darian and I headed over to his compound. We are here in Ethiopia during Ramadan, so his extended family (which is Muslim) was all having dinner together celebrating the Holiday. When we got to the compound Aki knocked on the gate, after a few moments it was opened slowly, and slowly our eyes traveled down to his two year old son who had managed to open it for us.
His family welcomed us into the house with a warm greeting and immediately my eyes traveled to Aki’s wife, Rihanna, sitting on the couch in pain. It turns out that she slipped and strained her knee pretty bad. After taking care of her leg and setting up a recovery regime for her, we were fed: Bread, chai tea, lasagna…it kept coming, and it was all so yummy. This was probably one of the highlights of my day…getting to meet Aki’s children Abraham and Sarah, and his wife and loving family. We were fed some injara and after lots of hugging, finally made it back to the car.
We drove back to the guest house, and everyone was waiting for us. Tonight, we had planned a bon fire, which is a Christian tradition that they do this time of the year. I didn’t quite understand the Ethiopian tradition but it has something to do with God showing the cross to the Queen through the smoke.
While the fire blazed, the kids danced around and sang traditional songs. The fire was set up in the street right outside of the guesthouse gates and kids from all over the neighborhood joined the festivities. By this time the sun had long ago set and it was getting late.
We still hadn’t eaten dinner, so Colin quickly finished making stir fry and again we were blessed with an amazing homemade meal.
Although it’s starting to near the end and I’m fondly thinking of warm showers, clean sheets, and normal hygiene, I never want these days to end because it means the end of another day and that we’ll be leaving soon. I was more than happy to finally get some sleep though! I think I was so tired I didn’t even worry about bedbugs for the first time, I was so thankful for a bed, a roof over my head, and an awesome group of new friends.
Sometimes a day does not always go according to plan. Today was one of those days.
We started things off like that. We had a great breakfast and talked about what we wanted to teach the kids at Kora. We walked to Chocolate and caught a taxi to ALERT and walked the remaining distance to Great Hope Church. Along the way kids came up to us and had us swing them up and over the many puddles that laced the street from last night’s rain storm. The closer to the church we got, the more kids were there to welcome us.
When we were within seeing distance of the church, my favorite little girl, Hewyet, ran and jumped into my arms with the sweetest giggle anyone has ever heard. Tesfaye, one of the boys who has claimed me as his special friend, was not far behind her. He grabbed my hand and after I had put my backpack (also nicknamed the mom-bag) in the office we walked into the church.
We got the kids warmed up with a lively game of Simon Says and then Sheridan taught them how to play Twister. Our story today was how Jesus (Dean) raised Lazarus (Walter) while Mary and Martha (Lizzy and Sheridan) watched in amazement. The kids got really excited when Walter jumped up from behind the table that was acting as his tomb.
After we got them fed and said goodbye for the day (always a heart wrenching thing) we caught a taxi to a restaurant in the Mexico district called August. Dean ordered the fried fish. They were really good until Sheridan came back from the bathroom and said she had seen a bunch of dead fish in a kiddy pool of dirty water…TIA! Still, the fish tasted pretty awesome.
During lunch we usually make a game plan for the rest of the day. We had to be back at Kora by 6:00 so we didn’t really have time to go back to the guest house and play with the neighborhood kids. We juggled around several ideas and didn’t really come up with a concrete plan (not always a good sign). We started walking around and Aki showed us an old train station and a stadium. At this point I was praying fervently that we would grab a taxi to where ever our next destination was when out of the blue Tsegaye shows up in his van. He offered to take us anywhere we wanted to go and so we asked him to take us to a church that Aki had heard about.
We ended up at Praise Church. It is eight years old and is almost the mother church of Great Hope. The founders grew up in the dump and found a bible in the trash when they were seven. They decided right then and there that this was the real deal and that they wanted to do all they could bring others the light of Jesus. So, when they were 16 they started a church. They build it bit by bit with whatever funds they were able to muster and the result is a small but beautiful church run by two God fearing men. Speaking of men, they also thought up a great way to draw young men from the community into the church. They built a weight room off the church. Everything is home made from the dumb bells made out of car batteries to the eucalyptus pull up bar. It was awesome to see how they had taken what they had and put it to the best use possible. And to top it off, when we were about to leave to go the bonfire at Korah, God decided to open the flood gates and keep us at Praise Church until we had seen everything and had gotten to talk with the men about their vision for the church and what we could do to help them. What had initially been a random “Oh I guess we have time to go” thing turned into a real God moment and it was a bit humbling to realize that our plans might not have been the right ones. If we had set up a regimented plan, then the true gem of today would have been lost. Sure some of the walking around got old and a lot of us don’t really handle plan-less-ness well but at the end of the day when we were talking about our highs and lows, seeing Praise Church and hearing its story hit the majority of our team as the best part of the day. We didn’t end up going to a bonfire or hanging out with the kids a Korah that evening but God opened our eyes to a whole new area of need in Addis and I can’t make myself believe that any of it was coincidence.
Carlee
Carlee and Sheridan loving on kids!Friends who surrounded us on our visit to Shetai’s house
24 is a seemingly unimportant age. It comes with no extra rights or privileges, and often gets lost in the shuffle of days and weeks passing. If you were to ask nearly anyone what their favorite birthday was, a slim margin will say it was their 24th. But if you were to ask Darian the same qu
estion, I know what she would say; she would say that her 24th was the best birthday she’s ever had and, (in her words) the best she’ll ever have. And if I were in her shoes, I’d have to agree.
Who wouldn’t like a birthday that starts out with a handmade card signed by one’s whole team, shortly followed by a cake from Chocolate, delivered by Gerinea and Measgena for breakfast? This was shortly followed by our daily trip to Korra, where I surprised myself by being able to remember the name of one of the children. You may think that this is a small accomplishment considering we’ve been here for a week or so, but in my defense, the names here have sounds that we never use in American English, so any lack of mastery of the local names can be excused.
Following lunch at Korra, we made the taxi ride to the postal market, where there are no set prices and visitors are charged according to the color of their skin. When a price is given, it is expected that they try to get the price down as low as possible before buying. I didn’t think I would like haggling at first, but after the first few clumsy attempts, I found that I really enjoyed the process of finding a starting bid and working my way down from there.
Walt Celebrating Darian’s Birthday
The money we saved was quickly spent on our meal that night at Absinia, where our plates probably averaged around 75 birr each. It was worth it however, as the pictures and videos from the night can surely attest to. All in all, it was a very meaningful night, and while I could try to describe all that went on during the three or four hours we were there, I think I’ll let the videos of Colin and I dancing speak for themselves.
This is Africa do what Nat does. This is the rule of the trip, if Nat decides pancakes are acceptable finger food, well then you do too, if Nat decides that the oncoming truck is a suitable distance away in order to cross the street…then you do too (for the record most of her judgment calls are awesome…Colin’s are too).
On Tuesday we began our second day teaching in Korah (last week we were just hanging out there since another team from Texas was teaching) at Great Hope Church. We have begun to develop a routine; first we open with two games of Simon Says to warm them up and to familiarize them with the English names of body parts. Next we pray and Aki translates into Amharic, during the Amharic prayer the kids say Amen multiple times after any particular part of the prayer moves them. After the prayer we play hang man with the hang man phrase corresponding with a Bible verse today the phrase was, “the wise man builds his house on rock”, after which we spell the phrase out loud with them (Canadians must have taught them the English letters since they say “Zed” instead of “Z”). We then act out the story the phrase goes with in a skit, while Aki reads the bible story in Amharic, the skit today involved Dean the wise man building his house (Britney and Sheridan) on the rock (Colin) and the wind and rain (Nat and Carlee) could not knock it over, so pretty much Britney climbed on Colin’s back while he is bent over in table top position while Sheridan placed one knee on his back and her and Britney put their arms together in a “V” while Nat and Carlee danced around together making “wooshing” noises while waving their arms towards Sheridan and Britney. The wind and rain of course did not knock the wise man’s house upon the rock over, we then acted out the foolish man (Darian) building his (in this case her) house (Grace and I) on sand (Walter) and the wind and rain did knock it over, picture the same skit this time ending with Grace and I falling onto the floor. The kids watch our skits with the utmost seriousness without a smile or a giggle no matter how silly-or in this case insane-we look. After our skit we sing songs both in Amharic and English which Carlee, Britney, and Dean leading, today we sang, “the Wise Man Built his House upon the Hill“, (anyone beginning to sense a theme). After songs we do an activity today it was bracelet making, we had pre-made about a hundred three stringed multicolored strands knotted together at the end. The kids are constantly walking around with children’s shirts that they are embroidering in order to sell at the project 61 store and their artistic capabilities definitely showed, many of the kids already knew beautiful complex ways to make bracelets and the team helped show different techniques of bracelet making to the kids who were struggling. I cut the excess off bracelets so that they fit the kids better, at first the kids were not sure what the pocket knife was for after they figured it out though they began to bring me string after string to watch me cut them. Then we served lunch and said “ciao” to the kids.
After catching a taxi we headed over to August Café to eat lunch after lunch we headed back to the guesthouse where we regrouped for about fifteen minutes before heading out to see Wendeson (a man who suffers from a birth defect that causes him to be incapable of walking) Shehtai and Alezar (an HIV positive woman and her HIV positive son). Nat, Aki, and I went and visited them yesterday in order to give Shehtai and Alezar some clothing, to see her new house that the previous team that came in May (that Nat was on) had tried to build but had been stopped by a government official before completing, the house was now done and looked amazing Nat said it was a vast improvement from what she had been living in before. We also asked if it would be okay if the rest of the team came and visited her on Tuesday (today). We walked to Shehtai and Alezar’s house first and met them about ten feet from their home Alezar was wearing the sweatshirt and shoes we had given him and was excited to see Nat. We all filed into their house where we sat and talked to her about how things were going for her and asked about Alezar’s schooling. Shehtai said things were going much better and that Alezar’s schooling was going great and that he would be starting 5th grade this fall, she also said that if anything should happen to her that Alezar was ours to take care of. Since it was beginning to rain we took a short cut to Wendeson’s. Wendeson and his family were very welcoming and we gave him some clothing from Eddie and Leslie (from the May team) that he was absolutely delighted with. Colin then lifted him up and carried him outside to his wheelchair and we took him for a walk.
After dropping Wendeson at home we returned to the guesthouse the power then went out and we played cards with candles and headlamps before eating a late dinner of plain rolls and dates.-Lizzy
The only way to described this trip so far… TIA (This Is Africa)! The things I have a seen and the emotions I’ve felt and the stories I’ve heard, can’t be explained or told in words. They are things that have to be experienced, things that only happen because truly, this is Africa, and in Africa, life is very different. I have never been so in awe of life, than right now watching the Ethiopian people live their lives. So here I go trying to put into words what we are experiencing when words really don’t do it justice.
Today we woke up to our routine we’ve comfortably settled into since arriving here. Everyone met in the living room with their books, notebooks and iPods, waiting for our breakfast to be ready, while we sipped on the strong Ethiopian coffee we’ve all come to love. Today was a little different though, instead of the mild morning we are used to, it was down pouring outside and didn’t look like it’d be letting up soon. So a van was hired for our transportation instead of the 1 mile walk we normally make.
During breakfast we came up with the plan for our day and soon we were all climbing into the van waiting outside for us. We were sent off by the kids with hugs and waves and, after waiting for Colin to get outside (I’m pretty convinced he had to finish brushing his hair), we were driving down the muddy road headed to Kora.
It was still raining lightly when we arrived in Kora at Great Hope Church. The walk towards the school was muddy and we had to dodge puddles. (one of my favorite parts about the church) The kids slowly start to notice our arrival. First, one child’s face lights up and they run towards us, then another, and another, until slowly the entire road in front of us is filled with a crowd of children smiling and shouting “hello, how are you? I am fine” and running up to be the first one to hold our hand.
After returning the greetings to everyone, we headed to the main building. The “main building” is a few tree limbs and corrugated tin fixed together in the shape of a box with a concrete slab as the floor. But it’s just what we needed for today’s activities. We started off with a handful of kids who had followed us from the road. Walter lead a game of Simon Says, we sang songs, played hangman, acted out the story of Peter walking on water and played games involving balloons and animal noises…don’t ask. Before long, other kids had caught news of us being there, and the room was packed. One of the kids’ name that floated in is Sisay. He is a little guy, nine years old and reminds me a bit of my little cousin. I was informed that he has an amazing singing voice and when we asked him to sing for me, he told me he’d sing for me later. The rest of the morning he didn’t leave my side. During our conversation he said something that really struck me. Most of the kids will ask you to pray for them, and their request is always a reminder of how open we should be about our faith in prayer. But instead, Sisay told me he would pray for me, even after I went back to America. It tugged on my heart strings, that even though he was the one in physical need, he was willing to put my unobvious needs in front of his own and make a commitment like that. I’ll definitely be keeping him in my prayers, even after I go back to America.
Time went by fast this morning, and before long we were feeding them lunch. Here at the church they have a program called Project 61. It’s a project were people can sponsor kids and Great Hope Church uses the money to feed and care for them. So during lunch time we made injera for the sponsored children and they ate until they were full. We had so much left over afterwards that they went out and found other kids who were hungry, after it was all said and done I bet we fed 120 kids for close to $40.
We left the church after lunch and walked the short distance to Alert. Alert is the largest hospital in East Africa, and world renowned for its leprosy treatments. There is area of the hospital were the leprosy patients hand make scarves, bags, wooden trinkets, etc. and sell them in a gift shop. We walked past the rooms where a few of them were busy weaving. It was incredible to watch the way their hands moved, and we were told that some of them don’t even have fingers left, but still work fast.
After making some purchases from the gift shop, we all walked to the nearest bus we could track down and headed to Chocolate for a late lunch. Chocolate is a restaurant within walking distance of the guest house and has been our go-to place to eat while we’ve been here.
After filling our stomachs, we headed back to Amazing Grace, and played with the kids until dinner time. One thing about being here: we definitely get fed. Tonight the boys were in charge of making us dinner, so we sat in the living room playing games with Measgonewe and Geringa, while Colin, Dean and Walter made us some bomb spaghetti. We finished, had our devotion time with cookies and tea, and it was time for bed.
The end of another incredible day, shared with some amazing people. I am definitely looking forward to the things that are in store for us in the rest of the week.
