This entry will be short as I am a day behind. Today is Thursday, but I haven't yet written about Wednesday.
Each day after we finish our activities and return to the guest house for the night, we have a group meeting. We discuss the day just finished and the plan for the day upcoming, and everyone shares their high point of the day and their low point. Here are my high and low for yesterday, Wednesday.
Yesterday morning we were back at CFI. After the first day, the kids have been waiting for us each day at the gate. They run into your arms and hug you, so glad we are back. Some of them will wade through the group looking for that one special adult, the one who held them all morning yesterday or played ball with them. Even though Zoe, Terri, and I have worked with the women almost exclusively, we each are still part of the swarm of arriving each morning.
On Tuesday, as we were leaving for CFI, Zoe came out to the van asking if it was okay to go to CFI without her passport as she hadn't been able to quickly find it. We left, and she came with us, and when we got back to the guest house that night she still couldn't find it. Michelle, being the able leader that she is, realized that Timkit (Epiphany in Ethiopia) began on Wednesday, and that if Zoe was going to have to go to the U.S. Embassy to try to get a new passport, she was going to have to right away. Offices would be open Wednesday and maybe a half day on Thursday and then closed till next week. Not good if you need a whole passport processed by Saturday night!
When we came back from CFI to have lunch, I was so heavy for Zoe. After lunch, the group was headed for Bright Hope School, and Zoe was going to the U.S. Embassy. Elizabeth, Peter's wife, who is American and has had to deal with the U.S. Embassy here, was going with Zoe. I felt so burdended to pray for Zoe, for the passport, for it to be found. Yet, I couldn't find a time or a group to join me. Finally, as we were walking out the door to Bright Hope School, I just grabbed Michelle and Zoe, and we prayed together. We boldly asked that the passport be found and that it be found right away - before Zoe even got on her way to the Embassy. We were confident in God's grace, His mercy, and His power.
We left the guest house. I kept hoping the guest house manager would run out the door at the last minute waving the passport in the air. She didn't. We made a stop at Peter & Elizabeth's house, so Elizabeth could get her passport. It suddenly occurred to me that Zoe's passport could be there. She had been in Peter and Elizabeth's house earlier this week. It wasn't. We talked on the way to Bright Hope and there was conversation that Zoe's passport could be there. Ephrim dropped the group at Bright Hope and drove off with Zoe and Elizabeth. I prayed. I hoped. We spent a couple of hours at the school. Bright Hope is a government (public) school on the edge of Korah. Korah is a community that was formed on the edge of the city trash dump. It was started by lepers coming in from the countryside. They were shunned from their neighborhoods and hoped to find medical care and opportunity to support themselves in Addis, the big city. They found neither. They were ostracized in the city as well, and formed a small community at the city trash dump where they could scavenge the trash for food and things they could sell. I had heard about Korah, and we were supposed to visit the trash dump last year, but couldn't. It was sobering to be there. Korah has existed long enough now that a third generation has been born there from the original families. Besides leprosy, the community also now suffers severely with AIDS. Although Bright Hope is a government school (government schools are technically free, but require payment for uniforms and school supplies), 1500 children from Korah attend there totally free. 300 of those children suffer from AIDS and are also given a free lunch. It is an amazing place, with its own vegetable garden and chicken farm.
As I stepped out of the director's office at Bright Hope, I saw Michelle, who said to me, "Zoe wants to hug your neck!" My response: "Zoe's here?" With a huge smile, Michelle told me Zoe was there and had found her passport! I wanted to scream!!! I love it when God makes Himself known. He invites us in the Bible in the last chapter of Malachi, to "try Me and see if I won't open the floodgates of heaven and pour out a blessing on you." We did, and He did. It is humbling and exciting to tell God out loud that you need Him and you trust Him and to ask Him to apply His hand to you. It is breathtaking when He answers and does just that. Zoe finding her passport, or more accurately, God directing Zoe to exactly where her passport was located, was my high for the day.
As we left Bright Hope, we were driven by the city dump. I had caught a glimpse of it last year, in a sight that is seared into my mind and heart forever. The sight this year was much the same. Big backhoes were moving trash around in an area that was obviously used for new dumps. As these enormous machines worked, as huge birds circled overheard, dozens of people scrambled over the trash. They carried large shawls on their backs, and most of their shawls were full. I cannot describe to you the feeling of watching fellow human beings digging in huge mounds of garbage for their very survival. The feeling, indescribable as it is, only deepens when you think that they do it every day, and that it is all the hope they have of doing anything. Watching those people in that place was my low.
You don't forget images like that, and you shouldn't. I hope I never do. I also hope I never lose the sick feeling in my stomach when I think of it. I pray it spurs me ever on to do something. You also don't forget highs like that. That kind of God high is the only thing that makes that kind of low bearable. It is the only hope we have. It is the only hope they have. It is power in the midst of impossible tragedy and suffering. I pray that we learn ever more to request it and to rely on it.
Please pray for us as we continue seeking opportunities to bless, ways to make things better here, and wisdom to depend entirely on God who is the only One powerful enough to do something about it.
Each day after we finish our activities and return to the guest house for the night, we have a group meeting. We discuss the day just finished and the plan for the day upcoming, and everyone shares their high point of the day and their low point. Here are my high and low for yesterday, Wednesday.
Yesterday morning we were back at CFI. After the first day, the kids have been waiting for us each day at the gate. They run into your arms and hug you, so glad we are back. Some of them will wade through the group looking for that one special adult, the one who held them all morning yesterday or played ball with them. Even though Zoe, Terri, and I have worked with the women almost exclusively, we each are still part of the swarm of arriving each morning.
On Tuesday, as we were leaving for CFI, Zoe came out to the van asking if it was okay to go to CFI without her passport as she hadn't been able to quickly find it. We left, and she came with us, and when we got back to the guest house that night she still couldn't find it. Michelle, being the able leader that she is, realized that Timkit (Epiphany in Ethiopia) began on Wednesday, and that if Zoe was going to have to go to the U.S. Embassy to try to get a new passport, she was going to have to right away. Offices would be open Wednesday and maybe a half day on Thursday and then closed till next week. Not good if you need a whole passport processed by Saturday night!
When we came back from CFI to have lunch, I was so heavy for Zoe. After lunch, the group was headed for Bright Hope School, and Zoe was going to the U.S. Embassy. Elizabeth, Peter's wife, who is American and has had to deal with the U.S. Embassy here, was going with Zoe. I felt so burdended to pray for Zoe, for the passport, for it to be found. Yet, I couldn't find a time or a group to join me. Finally, as we were walking out the door to Bright Hope School, I just grabbed Michelle and Zoe, and we prayed together. We boldly asked that the passport be found and that it be found right away - before Zoe even got on her way to the Embassy. We were confident in God's grace, His mercy, and His power.
We left the guest house. I kept hoping the guest house manager would run out the door at the last minute waving the passport in the air. She didn't. We made a stop at Peter & Elizabeth's house, so Elizabeth could get her passport. It suddenly occurred to me that Zoe's passport could be there. She had been in Peter and Elizabeth's house earlier this week. It wasn't. We talked on the way to Bright Hope and there was conversation that Zoe's passport could be there. Ephrim dropped the group at Bright Hope and drove off with Zoe and Elizabeth. I prayed. I hoped. We spent a couple of hours at the school. Bright Hope is a government (public) school on the edge of Korah. Korah is a community that was formed on the edge of the city trash dump. It was started by lepers coming in from the countryside. They were shunned from their neighborhoods and hoped to find medical care and opportunity to support themselves in Addis, the big city. They found neither. They were ostracized in the city as well, and formed a small community at the city trash dump where they could scavenge the trash for food and things they could sell. I had heard about Korah, and we were supposed to visit the trash dump last year, but couldn't. It was sobering to be there. Korah has existed long enough now that a third generation has been born there from the original families. Besides leprosy, the community also now suffers severely with AIDS. Although Bright Hope is a government school (government schools are technically free, but require payment for uniforms and school supplies), 1500 children from Korah attend there totally free. 300 of those children suffer from AIDS and are also given a free lunch. It is an amazing place, with its own vegetable garden and chicken farm.
As I stepped out of the director's office at Bright Hope, I saw Michelle, who said to me, "Zoe wants to hug your neck!" My response: "Zoe's here?" With a huge smile, Michelle told me Zoe was there and had found her passport! I wanted to scream!!! I love it when God makes Himself known. He invites us in the Bible in the last chapter of Malachi, to "try Me and see if I won't open the floodgates of heaven and pour out a blessing on you." We did, and He did. It is humbling and exciting to tell God out loud that you need Him and you trust Him and to ask Him to apply His hand to you. It is breathtaking when He answers and does just that. Zoe finding her passport, or more accurately, God directing Zoe to exactly where her passport was located, was my high for the day.
As we left Bright Hope, we were driven by the city dump. I had caught a glimpse of it last year, in a sight that is seared into my mind and heart forever. The sight this year was much the same. Big backhoes were moving trash around in an area that was obviously used for new dumps. As these enormous machines worked, as huge birds circled overheard, dozens of people scrambled over the trash. They carried large shawls on their backs, and most of their shawls were full. I cannot describe to you the feeling of watching fellow human beings digging in huge mounds of garbage for their very survival. The feeling, indescribable as it is, only deepens when you think that they do it every day, and that it is all the hope they have of doing anything. Watching those people in that place was my low.
You don't forget images like that, and you shouldn't. I hope I never do. I also hope I never lose the sick feeling in my stomach when I think of it. I pray it spurs me ever on to do something. You also don't forget highs like that. That kind of God high is the only thing that makes that kind of low bearable. It is the only hope we have. It is the only hope they have. It is power in the midst of impossible tragedy and suffering. I pray that we learn ever more to request it and to rely on it.
Please pray for us as we continue seeking opportunities to bless, ways to make things better here, and wisdom to depend entirely on God who is the only One powerful enough to do something about it.
Praise God for His Faithfulness (the passport).
ReplyDeleteMay God energize and bless you all as you minister in His Name. :-)
Love,
Denise