No time to be tired, however, the team will hit the ground right away!
I thought I'd give you a little look at what the itinerary is for this years team. They are prepared, however, for that "plan" to be completely wrecked and re-written at the discretion of the one we serve - Jesus!
Thursday - October 11
- Thursday - arrive - 8:00am. Get settled into Guest House, grab a quick bite to eat.
- Thursday afternoon - Serving and seeing the projects of Bring Love In. A ministry run by Levi and Jessie Benkert. ( Read their story in their book “No Greater Love”.) This ministry is a beautiful example of James 1:27 as they partner Widows in the community with orphans, creating complete family units and homes!
- Purchase 5 goats and deliver them to Korah for the next day.
Friday - October 12
- Day in Korah with Project 61 and Great Hope Ministry. The team will have the opportunity to provide a feast for the children who come in to the shelter/church for lunch and love on the families that the Lord puts in their path. Meat is a treat (those 5 goats mentioned above). Korah (pronounced Kor-A by the locals)was started as a Leper colony 80 years ago as a way to avoid possibly infecting others. It became known as a cursed and forgotten place. Eventually the city garbage dump was placed in Korah as well. It became a place affected by disease, poverty, and a whole host of social problems. It was a place of isolation and despair. Eventually the city grew around Korah, yet Korah still maintained its image of being a forgotten and cursed place where the people who grew up there found it difficult to escape and those who lived there found it difficult to not be discriminated against as they sought work in other parts of the city. Today, Korah is home to over 120,000 people – many of them the poorest of the poor of Addis Ababa. Disease is still prevalent – leprosy, TB HIV/AIDS, and respiratory problems. The vulnerable suffer – the elderly, the widows, and the children. There is a high rate of orphans – some of which scavenge their food from the local garbage dump. Clean water an sanitary conditions are hard to find. Unemployment is very high. Single moms make their living begging or selling small piles of bananas or finding anything of minimal value in the dump – and they take their children with them for the whole day while they do it. Many children do not have opportunities to get a good education- even if they could attend school, they would not have the money to buy a uniform that they need to purchase to attend. There is little “natural” hope to have if one lives Korah. Yet, despite all of this … God is at work and He is bringing his Hope to people through several amazing ministries working within Korah, one of which is Project 61 and Great Hope Ministry.
Saturday - October 13
- Morning - Serving and helping with a "Community Party" alongside "No Ordinary Love" ministries. - No Ordinary Love is a ministry created and run by some of our friends - a precious couple from San Antonio, Texas - Jimmy and Rachel Gross. Go check out No Ordinary Love and read about the beautiful ministry of their children's Home and Community shelter.
- Afternoon - Visiting and shopping at "FashionABLE". FashionABLE creates a sustainable business for women in Africa. Their commitment as a non-profit is to the development of people — fashionABLE works with women who have been exploited due to the effects of poverty. So, when you purchase a scarf you are providing jobs, and then we send the profits back to holistically rehabilitate more women. This is the beauty of non-profit….Scarves provide jobs, profits provide restoration. In Ethiopia, prostitution is often linked with deep levels of generational poverty and financial hopelessness. Lacking meaningful resources and a sense of hope, many women resort to prostitution as a means of supporting themselves and their families. These women are often desperate to leave the sex industry but remain trapped by a lack of opportunity and rehabilitative support.
“Women At Risk” is an organization they have partnered with to rehabilitate former sex workers. This work requires not only getting these women off the streets, but also providing them counseling and helping them find alternate means of income – this is why they created fashionABLE. Their ultimate goal is to help these women become healthy and productive members of society.
Headquarters for scarf production are in Addis Ababa, the capital city. Scarves are made by women in the program, as well as other Ethiopian sources that include women and men, to help meet demand. While being supported by those sources, fashionABLE is continually funding the training of more women in order to employ as many women as demand will allow. All the while, they are meeting the mission that your purchase of a fashionABLE scarf continues to create sustainable business for more women in Africa.
SSunday - October 14
- Church and travel day to Awassa, Ethiopia - Warancha CarePoint (it's a 5 or so hour drive depending on who you ask. It's all "ish" time in Africa anyways)
Monday- October 15
- Day 1 - Warancha CarePoint. - This is the focus of our trip - to love our 278 children that daily come to receive care and education. We have only 62 children of the 278 sponsored. If you are interested in sponsoring a child, please click on the tab "Warancha" and scroll to "Sponsoring". We'd love to get you started at becoming a part of our family!
Tuesday - October 16
- Morning - Fun at Warancha with the kids
- Morning - Shalom Children's Hope - This is the orphanage that our son, Zebene is from. The team will be getting the opportunity to bring in much needed supplies of diapers and formula. As well, they will get to love on the children that call Shalom home. During this morning, Doug (my husband) will get to visit with our son's birth mother again as our agency is bringing her over for "a visit". I am so excited that the Lord is allowing us to connect again with her and share with her how well our son (hers and ours) is doing.
Wednesday - October 17
- Morning - Providing Goat Feast for children of Warancha
- Afternoon - Warancha
Thursday - October 18
- Morning - Warancha - play and Goodbye's
- Afternoon - travel back to Addis Ababa
- Dinner - Traditional Ethiopian dinner with dancing
Friday - October 19
- Morning - Visit the "Fistula Hospital". Go watch "A walk to Beautiful" to learn about Dr. Catherine Hamlin and the Fistula Hospital. Maybe the team will be blessed enough to even meet her ... she is a living angel!
- Afternoon - Shopping at the Post Office
- 9pm - depart Addis - bound for home.
Saturday - October 20
- Team will arrive home in the evening.
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