Sunday

How appropriate that our first full day here is a day of worship.  We are filled with love for our Savior and gratitude for this opportunity to serve Him by serving others.  

We joined the International Evangelical Church in Addis Ababa today, and we were reminded in song and sermon of the goodness and kindness of our God.  We sang "Good, Good Father," together with believers from many lands as this church is a church home for many missionaries as well as some of the local community.  As I pondered the goodness of our Father, I thought of it in the light of what Alison had shared during devotions.  The truth of the Gospel is true for us and also for every single mother in Ethiopia.  He loves us the same.   We are praying that we can experience and explore and share that love this week.  

The sermon was about how an encounter with Jesus can disorient us.  We can certainly identify with disorientation after our 36 hour journey and interruption in not just our normal daily routines, but also our eating and sleeping schedule and our experience of so many new things.  We want to be disoriented so we can re-orient to God's work and allow Him to use us as catalysts for His work this week.

We had lunch at a restaurant and learned some more about Ethiopian culture at a museum at the university.  33 soccer balls have been inflated, 22 45-50 lb bags of donations have been emptied and sorted, and we are getting ready to meet 12 Compassion-sponsored children tomorrow.  We are so thankful for your prayers and your love!  

Our prayer for you, borrowed from Paul...

we "pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge-that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God."

Let us also introduce you to our team:

Team Leader Alison and her son Will from Ohio

Leah and her son Ben from Ohio

Jadyn from Ohio

Chas and Hannah, a father/daughter duo from Kentucky

Shannon and Mitchell from Massachusetts

and engaged couple, Bethany and Matt from Arizona

Off We Go

We are finishing up packing and making plans for everything to run smoothly at home while we are away!  Our team of eleven will all officially meet for the first time Friday morning at the Boston airport!

We are all excited about the journey ahead...much to learn and experience!  Short term missions many times have a goal to go and accomplish a task.  Our goal is a little different...it is to be with the people of Ethiopia...to learn more about them and their culture...to show them love and kindness.  Yes, this is an orphan ministry...but our primary goal is to see how we can help support families to prevent a child from becoming a poverty orphan.  An orphanage is not where a child belongs.  A child belongs with a family.  Unfortunately we live in a broken world.  We are traveling to Ethiopia knowing that we can't fix things.  We are going so that we can learn and so that we can show love.  Our prayer is that we can do more help than harm...as we know that there is a very fine line between the two.  On this trip we will be spending a lot of our time with ministries that are working hard to keep families together.  They are supporting families right where they are so that another child is not orphaned due to poverty.  We want to learn how to help better.  We want to tell their stories so that friends and family at home can see ways that they can help. 

 But what about the children already living in an orphanage?  These innocent lives that have been stripped from everything familiar?  It is surely no fault of their own that they are in this position.  We will visit them.  We will try to connect, even if only for a short time.  We pray that God will multiply our hugs and smiles and will help them to feel His love through us.  We will try to help meet their most basic needs thanks to so many generous friends and family.  

Please join us in praying for the amazing people we will meet.  Pray for unity, safety and good health for the team!  

 We can make our plans, but the LORD determines our steps. 

Proverbs 16:9