Job is the director of Emmanuel Orphanage located 2 hours south of Addis. He started as a missionary in an area that is 99% Muslim. There were 2 Christians when he arrived and now it’s up to 600. This man walks by faith. He started it when 2 kids were brought to his church, that were orphaned and the grandmother couldn’t afford any food for them. He began it by giving 25% of his own salary to care for these kids. They currently care for 45 kids and also do outreach from time to time with about 80 others that come for school supplies, tuition, etc. When he first started this facility (built by a random donation), they opened the doors and were flooded with 380 kids. After a year, they realized that there was no way that it could be sustained and they had to select and reduce the size down to 122 kids. His staff of 9 only gets paid when they have funds available and when they do it’s less than $30/month. They are not set up to handle infants, however recently 3 tiny babies were left at their gates.
What strikes me as I walk through the small church they have on the property is that their faith is unshakeable. On these walls made of mud, dung and straw there are Scriptures full of faith – a reflection of their hearts. No sense of entitlement, simply the call of God being walked out in some of the hardest circumstances I’ve ever seen. The director and the residents just brought each of us a Coca Cola, which I’m sure is more than a luxury for them, yet they served us with joy. No victim mentality. Seeds have been sown and I know their harvest is coming. I believe that God will use them to bring prosperity to this area because He can trust them with anything. Eden will be restored in this place.
As a good bye, we all joined together in the small church. The kids don choir robes and the child choir leader leads us all in a powerful time of Amharic worship. The presence of God is palpable. Now, we navigate the dusty streets filled with donkeys and women carrying chickens only scratches the surfaceand head to lunch at the Negash Lodge…where we are sure to not think about our food, but about the lives, love and faith we just encountered.
Lunch was in an amazing setting, a beautiful safari style lodge. We ate out on the grounds near the pool, but not before feeding some monkeys. As we were leaving, we ran into a group from Compassion International, as well as Wes Stafford, the founder of Compassion.
We end our day at Promising, a brand new organization that needs some help getting off the ground to help orphans, street kids and those below the poverty level. On the way back to the Ethiopia Guest Home, we stopped at a soccer ministry outreach that the manager of the Guest Home started. After a long day, we are excited and ready to spend some time relaxing at the guest home and get some rest.
Our morning began with much too little sleep, but the coffee and eggs tasted great! So did the fresh mango juice, which incidentally got accidentally dumped all over my shirt, arm and pants. After a quick change of clothes, we finished breakfast and got the gift and supply packets ready for the 2 locations we would visit today.
Our first stop was at Hope for the Hopeless, never in my life have I seen an orphanage so well structured and honestly, so very relevant in their approach. The location we visited is a drop in center and is the first step in their program of helping street kids and houses up to 15 kids at a time. Their staff literally goes out and finds kids on the streets and brings them in. I got a whole new revelation and insight into the parable of the Good Shepherd…it’s a parable, but can be taken literally. During the first phase, the kids are allowed to come in and are provided with food, baths, education, medicine, discipleship and amazingly even counseling to help them overcome the abuse, havoc and hardships that the streets have wreaked on them. They are the victims of sexual abuse, rape, hunger, fighting, disease, etc. They can leave if they so chose, but their training helps them socially prepare for the next phase, which would bring them to the orphanage. But the staff have to see incredible changes before they allow that transition. It’s really a brilliant concept so that the orphanage phase is not total chaos. At the orphanage, they are prepared either to go into foster homes and enjoy life with a family or to be reunited with their living family if the situation is safe. The diligence of the staff is astounding. They know every detail of each kids’ situation from history, pictures, vaccinations, etc. that they take into evaluation and seek what is best for the child.
We got to meet the 13 current residents and they were so grateful, polite and gracious. There were 11 boys and 2 girls. One of the girls, Meron, is so full of joy. When she arrived to the drop in center, she didn’t talk or eat for almost 3 months. But through the staff’s persistence and love, her story of redemption is being told to the world as part of Tom Davis’ book, Red Letters. One boy that we met was just about 9 or 10 years old and had in the last few months traveled over 500 kilometers by himself from his village to escape his drunken, abusive father…he now has also been granted hope for the future. We met a boy who arrived yesterday into the home and already was soaking it all in.We played with them, hugged on them and prayed with them. The grace, faith, excellence and commitment of the staff to their calling blew us away. We wanted to help this location out somehow as a team, but weren’t quite sure exactly what need to meet. We prayed about it then said our good byes and carried on to lunch and then our next orphanage.
Peter Aberra is Children’s Hopechest’s in-country director and in addition to that role, his passion is also to reach the kids of his nation. A product of World Vision, his testimony is incredible to hear as he came from an Orthodox background, but through the love and service of World Vision – he came to know Christ. As a sponsored child, he knew first hand the impact that being sponsored can make. Now, he runs Compassion Family International that helps 50 kids. During the day, his staff cares for 25 young kids through meals, discipleship and education. In the afternoons after school, they also care for 25 10-16 year olds.
We came to with no expectations, but to hear and obey the voice of God. For our hearts to be broken for what breaks His. As we spent time there hearing the vision, playing with the kids and meeting the staff…my heart broke. There was one sweet 3 and a half year old that captured my heart…the bait, if you will. She is exactly in the age range of what we have applied for in our adoption paperwork. We spent time together and each moment my heart and mind consumed with helping this child. More BIG news to come in regards to our involvement with CFI….stay tuned!
While at CFI, I got to talk to Becca and Sakari on the phone and wish Becca a happy birthday! It was great to hear their voices – Sakari has seen some pics of me on a blog and told Becca, “Oooooohhh, Daddy’s with the kids!) We heard the needs of the orphanage and took up a collection and gathered enough funds to buy 13 mattresses, blankets and extra food. After another incredible coffee ceremony, we finished up our time with the kids and decided as a group to go back to Hope for the Hopeless to give them some food and additional funds for future meals. Our team felt and urgency. At the end of the day, when we delivered the food and money from the team for Hope for the Hopeless, we found out that the staff had been praying for food and the director got a call from the orphanage (which houses almost 200 kids!) saying they had no more. He looked at their account and they had NO money or resources left to feed the kids. When the food and money was presented to them, it was nothing short of miraculous. He shared their situation and then we prayed together as a team alongside the kids and staff. After the prayer, the director went around and hugged and thanked everyone…such an authentic servant, the hands and feet of Jesus. Then a profound silence hit the area…people started crying. It was one of those moments in life that will forever be emblazoned on my heart. It was sacred. It was intense. It was holy. All we could do was stand still in awe of our God.
Up before the crack of dawn, our team headed out towards Kombolcha around 5:30 in the morning. We were told it would be a 6 hour drive, but knowing African time I decided to add another 2 hours for good measure so we could be mentally prepared. What I was not prepared for was that many of the roads would be under construction…or maybe upheaval would be more appropriate. It was a great drive, our 2 vans caravanned together most of the way. We had a great group traveling together and really enjoyed the company and the gorgeous scenery, people, birds, animals and culture of . On our first trip to in 2006, we got to travel about 6 or 7 hours south to Awassa, but this time we headed north of Addis.
It was truly an adventurous excursion, the drive (just 180 miles) ended up taking 11 hours of almost non-stop bumping – I don’t mean subtle bumps, but more like jarring explosions of tires against disrupted and cavernous pavement. When we’d hit a stretch of smooth blacktop, the whole van would sign with visible relief until it began again. By the time we got back we all felt like every one of our vertebrae had been fused into one large bone. There were also a few head, neck and shoulder injuries. However, the views, the company and the people of made this trek worth it all.
Our first adventure was getting stuck in mudover a foot deep and immediately a stranger stopped to help us out. We saw so much countryside and topography: Mountains, valleys, plains, forests, deserts, tunnels, farmlands, etc. We traveled up to 10,000 ft.is definitely the most beautiful country that I have ever been to and the people take it up to a whole other level. When driving by, they wave and smile so genuinely that you feel like you’re taking a drive through the neighborhood that you grew up in where everyone looks out for each other. In one of the towns, we saw so many donkeys carrying loads (literally hundreds, possibly thousands) that we collectively decided that it was the donkey capital of the world. In other areas, the burden carrying beast of choice were camels – we saw several packs of camels. We enjoyed a picnic lunch a top a hill that overlooked the most gorgeous and expansive view of .
When we finally arrived in Kombolcha, we drove straight to the orphanage that is run by the only evangelical church in the city – GraceBaptistChurch. They provide schooling for almost 1,200 students, 120 of which are the poorest of the poor and most are also single or double orphans with no real family to live with and if they. This location was in much need and hadn’t had a visitor in over 8 years! They were gracious and thrilled to see us. We heard the pastor’s vision and hear his heart. He got started by seeing the needs in their community and just started to do anything he could do to help. He’s been faithful in that area for over 30 years. They have had sporadic sponsorship but recently all support has ended and the only thing they can do is to provide school uniforms (for some it’s their only clothes), discipleship and education. They had a sponsor to provide these kids with one meal a day, but no longer receive that so these children have no choice but to fend for themselves hoping to find scraps in trash or where ever they can find anything that can be construed as food. After a couple hours of being with the staff and the kids, we headed to the Sunnyside Hotel for dinner and to turn in for the night.
The next morning, we headed straight back after breakfast and had a blast with the kids. They were so well behaved and grateful with no sense of entitlement. What a welcome relief from how so many of us can live! One of my favorite things that our pastor said over the years of his life was that ungratefulness is one of the ugliest things that we encounter in the world. . In stark contrast, gratefulness such as we have seen on this trip is beautiful beyond words. It has become one of my highest priorities in raising our kids that they learn gratefulness and have an innate reaction of thankfulness. We set the kids up in 4 groups, 2 outside playing games and 2 inside doing crafts, listening to a Bible story and learning action songs. Each group of kids got to spend about 20 minutes at each station and they loved every minute of it- so did we! We are hoping that these kids will get sponsors soon and be able to have a meal provided daily. After a full and fun day, we loaded up to make the pilgrimage back to Addis. The adventures continued as we drove. The first event of note is that as we’re cruising along there are herds of goats, cows, etc. in the farmlands and plains, all of us hear a big thud-thud! We look back and realize that we had hit what we originally thought was a goat. It was huge, but come to find out it was a small cow! What??! We hit a cow. Our driver did all he could do to avoid it, but the cow just wasn’t paying attention to the honking and we even swerved to miss it. It didn’t die, but from the back window we saw it try to get back up unsuccessfully. We’re still unsure of the fate of the cow. As we discussed it later, our driver was talking about the incident and was sharing his perspective as he was “pushing the cow”. Pushing the cow is our van mates’ new favorite phrase.
Within a couple hours after the goat/cow fiasco, while on a nice stretch of paved road, our van dies. Completely just stopped. So we all piled out into the pitch black of the countryside waving our phones, iPods and anything that had a light on it so as to avoid being rammed into but other drivers. Thankfully, it started back up and we got home without any other trouble. We got to watch the moon rise over Africa and never in my life have I seen the moon so huge and beautiful. The skies’ darkness was the perfect backdrop to the brightest stars I have ever seen.
The final excitement on the outskirts of Addis was that one of our translators/guides started pointing out the window. We scrambled to look out to see a hyena run into the brush. Not even minutes later, we saw a few more just standing on the side of the road. They were massive! So on our drive, not only did we get to see like never before but we also had an off road excursion, created some road kill, had a star gazing party and a safari. It’s been a great 2 days and hope that we make it back to Kombolcha again some day soon.
Bouncing along in our assigned van on day 4 (Dec. 4th) of our vision trip to Ethiopia, it occurs to me that this is the first spare minute that we have had to actually sit and put “pen to paper”. We’ve had plenty of time to think, pray and cry about what our response will be to what we have seen and experienced, but with technology not being quite what we are accustomed to, we feel crippled by our inability to communicate well with our extended world…it’s not necessarily a bad thing.
Josh and I arrived the morning of December 1st and waited at the airport for the rest of the team to arrive from WashingtonDC. We spent the first hour or so trying to locate our contacts, but I was immediately reminded of the incredible hospitality of the Ethiopian people. Two people allowed us to use their cell phones to touch base with our contacts…it still took a while for them to find us, but in the meantime a staff member from the Hilton (where we stayed the last 2 times we were here) talked with us and let us sit in his office and he followed up with our contacts and driver to make sure that we were taken care of. He even remembered me from our previous visits!
We ended up waiting about 3 hours for everyone to get in and then we headed over to the Ethiopia Guest Home – what a great facility!!! I recommend everyone that goes to Addis Ababa to stay there! The staff truly go above and beyond…they pay attention to the tiny details such as remembering that I had requested an in country cell phone, readjusting our beds to make them more comfortable and even taking our welcome flower bouquets and putting them in vases in our rooms.
After lunch, the team started to get to know each other and we prepared for our first ministry day at an orphanage and drop in center in Kore – Elolam Orphanage.Several children do have the opportunity to be adopted out through that program, but they also have micro-businesses set up for the single parents who bring their children to the drop in center. There were about 12 that lived there and the others were part of the drop in center that provided a meal daily and an education. We spent a couple hours there with the kids, participated in the coffee ceremony and then headed back to the guest house to rest up for our next day which would be an early one – a “6 hour” drive to Kombolcha…
P.S. I will post pictures when I return home that correspond with each blog, been having to clean up space on my hard drive…been taking soooo many! But for now, please check out Tom Davis’ blog and Facebook for pictures and videos of the team.
LondonHeathrowAirport…sitting down eating some potato skins for dinner and decided it was time to post some pictures and an update. Me and the local wireless internet provider have had issues the whole stay here…it likes Josh, but not me. I just bought 90 minutes of user time and it won't let me on, so you may read this later than when I'm typing it. We are waiting to board our flight to Ethiopia and just had to drop 70 pounds…not weight but money to get supplies and my things to Ethiopia. Turns out that Ethiopian allows 2 suitcases but if you book through BMI Airlines then you can only do 1, unless you want to pay 150 pounds (around $250 US dollars)…no thanks. So, I crammed as much stuff as possible into my suitcase and Josh did into his carryon but we still had to throw some things away…sadly. It ended up being over an hour of an ordeal…yelling staff, stupid Ethiopian Airlines rules, etc. Now I remember why I have an aversion to that airline. I've also had to condense my carryons and cram things more than ever before…they say they will charge us at the gate for more than 1 carryon…and if it's over 7kg, oh…it's over 7 kgs…can't believe how much I've been able to cram, but not without having to throw out my duffel bag. I hate airlines sometimes. But this is in stark contrast to our trip to London and our wonderful time…so for the time being, I'm going to this happy place.
This is just a mini-version of our 2 days in the UK…we started off with the touristy thing to do…the bus tour! It's a great way to see the main highlights of the city within a few hours and then you get to go onto the really good stuff of exploring neighborhoods and back streets. We saw the main things like Big Ben, the London Eye, Buckingham Palace, Westminster Abby, Tower of London, London Bridge, St. Paul's Cathedral, etc. It was great…it was cold, rainy and windy, but great! After we did the tour, we hit up H&M, Primark and several other stores for fun. I had a Dark Cherry Mocha at Starbucks and we continued to explore. We ate lunch at a great pub down the street from our hotel called Marlborough Head and we of course, had to have the experience of having fish and chips. It was memorable.
London is incredible and so easy to get around! We love the Tube (Underground/ Subway) and how it's so accessible and user friendly to visitors. We spent a lot of the day just walking around enjoying the city – so much charm, culture with a twist of modern. Our hotel, the Thistle Marble Arch couldn't have been in a better location and our room was on the top floor, on the corner with windows almost all around. We washed up a bit and headed back out after we had the chance to catch up with our family. We ate dinner several blocks down at an Indian restaurant that we discovered on one of our side street excursions…it was the MOST incredible food that we'd both had in a long time! It was unreal how amazing it was!!! Of course, I took pictures of the food. After dinner, we came back to the hotel to just relax and get some rest.
We got up today (Monday, the 30th) around 9am and got all our stuff together and checked out of the hotel and decided to go check out some more of London. We headed to Borough Market near the London Bridge where I bought some fresh buffalo mozzarella to be consumed later. We later decided to skip the Notting Hill area, as we were carrying soooo much stuff and it was out of the way to the airport. We sat at a place called the Blue Eyed Maid and ordered tea, but it never showed up. We just sat for about 20 minutes and watched the cricket match between South Africa and England. Then we left and went down a block or so and had tea and croissants at a great local deli. Later, we headed to Covent Garden and the SoHo area of London and walked around enjoying the culture and the people. We met a man in a store who dropped my change on the floor and called himself a "cotton headed ninny muggin". It was the highlight of the day…anyone ever see the movie "Elf"? We checked out some bookstores, etc and then decided to head to the Knightsbridge area to check out Harrod's. It was overwhelming and with how much we were carrying we just opted to slip in and out. Their holiday theme was the Wizard of Oz – all their huge display windows were in that theme. We had lunch across the street at a Tea House – well, we had tea and I broke out the fresh mozzarella I purchased at Borough Market. Then it was time to head to the airport and as we crossed in front of Harrod's to go to the Tube station, we walked right past Winona Rider (really, it was her). On the train ride to the airport…we watched the sun set and it was only 4pm…now here we sit waiting for our flight to Africa…and so grateful that we had an amazing experience in London.
I leave for Ethiopia right after Thanksgiving - leaving Saturday, the 28th. I'm going to do my best to post as much as internet access permits...updates and hopefully pictures. Happy Thanksgiving!
You guys are amazing...thanks to all of you who took the challenge to help us sell shirts in your areas of influence...keep selling! We want to spread the message of adoption as far as possible! Keep us posted on your progress and anyone else is welcome to join the challenge, we even have order forms if you'd like.
We've had a busy few weeks, surprise! We've had lovely friends come and visit, family in town, work, adoption paperwork, fundraising, fundraising and um, fundraising :) Our friends Sarah and Vanessa Jensen came to visit on their way moving from Cali to Nashville and got to hang for about 6 days. It was fun and they are also amazing photographers and did about 3 photo shoots for us while they were here - we're grateful to them for ALL their generosity! I'm gonna post just one pic from the shoots (there were soooo many, that I'm sure it will take a while to sort and edit) as a teaser...
Update on adoption: Our homestudy (social worker's report) is almost complete...having to re-do some paperwork due to some silly mistakes, but we're thankful to our agency and our social worker for catching these "little" things that could become a pain and problem later. We're thrilled to announce that we've been able to raise a little over $8,000 in the last couple months - a huge miracle! We have $32,000 or so to go but it was a huge boost to know that we've made a dent in it!
I forgot to post some pics of Sakari going in a few weeks ago to get x-rays as her TB test came back positive. Turns out since she'd been vaccinated in Ethiopia for TB as a preventative measure, all her future TB tests will also come back positive for TB. So for our paperwork, we got her chest x-rays - she is such a trooper and she is walking this journey daily with us to her future siblings. She does not have TB, which we knew but now all our paperwork is clear on the medical front. She prays for them every night and though we haven't been able to journal nearly as much for these next two - it doesn't diminish our excitement and love for our future kiddos.
I (Caleb) leave in just over a week for Ethiopia to go serve in some orphanages, so glad that my brother Josh is going to join me this time! We've got a day and a half in London to hang out and have some fun on our way there. I'm hoping to get some decent web access in Ethiopia and I hope to blog and post pics from Africa...
Caleb, Becca and Sakari David (with 2 more from Ethiopia on the way)
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Caleb, Becca and Sakari
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