I’m Back…But…

This trip was seriously an eye opener. I learned so many stories from kids that are heartbreaking but seeing their joy through the experience was something that hit me. One boy, he was wearing a tye dye shirt, came to the Hope for the Hopeless orphanage after his father left the family and his mother was too poor to care for him. He came to know Jesus as his Lord and Savior. He had come from a muslim family. A couple years later his mother came to take him home but this boy decided to stay at the orphanage because he would rather have Jesus. It was such a cool testimony that he was willing to give up his family to have a relationship with Jesus Christ. This trip was filled with many tears both from happiness and from heartbreak. It was sad to leave the kids behind

by Bethany A., written the day after she returned from Ethiopia

Training Camp for Ethiopia

Team Arrival and 1^st Day of Training Camp

By Kevin S.

After months of conferences calls and Facebook stalking, we finally meet.  It was pretty easy to spot one another as we modeled our yellow shirts (except the guys who couldn’t squeeze their physiques into the girly-sized tees) and lugged our over-sized totes around the airport.  But, there we were…a team of 9 (not including our fearless training camp leaders Jesse and Emily).

Our team? Diverse, yet chosen.  Chosen to do great things.  Perfect? Hardly such.  Flawed actually.  We’re not particularly qualified…no one is a prodigy of the mission field…we’re just willing.  Willing to be exposed by God.  Willing to be used.  Willing to learn.  Willing to “drop our nets” and follow.  Willing to chuck entitlement…comfort…the American Dream out the window in search of a JOURNEY.  A Journey where we stop doing wrong…where we learn to do right….where we encourage the oppressed…where we defend the orphan…and where we plead for the widow.  Some say it’s a journey for the strong, but I wonder if the strong can survive such a journey.  Rather, I say this journey is for those who are weak yet discover their strength in Christ…May we rediscover in our weakness “Who We Are” and “What We Are Doing Here”.

So, we set sail on this JOURNEY.  Around the corner nobody knows.  Are there plans?  Sure, our plans.  But as we discover who we are and what we are doing here, plans change.  We change.  In some ways our eyes are opened to things we never imagined…we see ourselves under a different microscope…good things…bad things.  In other ways our eyes are closed as we take part in this journey…closed to the life of self-centeredness…comfort…entitlement.  May we never open those eyes again.

So, I LOVE my team.  Strikingly similar to the disciples in the Bible.  Imperfect people following a perfect God.  Do we have a lot to learn?  Absolutely.  So, we’ll learn together.  Tania, Danielle, Nathan, Lindsay, Bre, Bethany, Carly, and Amalia…joining me on this journey of grace.  A journey not to earn God’s love, but a journey because of God’s love.  May His love permeate from us…may His glory sweep through us…may He be glorified…and may His Kingdom expand to the ends of the earth.

Poverty…what an emotional word!

Blog post by Danielle B., Team Ethiopia 2011

Poverty…The state of one who lacks a certain amount of material possessions or money

Absolute Poverty…The inability to afford basic human needs; clean and fresh water, food, health care, education, clothing, shelter

Relative Poverty…The lacking of a usual or socially acceptable level of resources or income as compared with others within a society or country.

Poverty…what an emotional word! I don’t know about you, but that word just makes my mind go in circles. Poverty! How can it possibly be that 1.7 billion people are estimated to live in absolute poverty today!?! I mean really, I look at everything my family and I have; a house with stable walls that doesn’t leak air, a pool with 15,000 gallon of clear water in it, a frig that is over flowing with way too much food, way too many cars, way too many Lego’s, etc. (I just get exhausted thinking about all the material things I have!) And then I think back on that word, POVERTY!  I just don’t get it, but I am trying my best to at least try to understand.

The last couple of months I have really been seeking to understand what the real meaning of poverty is and how God sees poverty. I have learned that many of us, good-will as we have tried to be,  have totally distorted the meaning of poverty and how we are to go about helping. My recent trip to Guatemala really opened my eyes to this.

Fairy Tale…

“For I know the plans I have for you…”

As a little girl, I have always loved watching fairy tales and believed one day this would happen to me. Even though, I know I am still young, I could be married to a good man today. A man who was tall, dark and handsome. A great athlete who was very charming. We would have had a good marriage, a good life, a nice home and I’m sure beautiful children. But something happened to me. I opened the word of God! I fell in love! The stories in the Bible seemed just like the fairy tales I read and watched as a little girl except this time the story was about God. Having a relationship with God was something I could have? What a fairy tale! The closer relationship I built with God, I knew he had different plans for my life, I eventually broke off my relationship with the good guy! I knew God wanted to be the author of my fairy tale! So, hear I am today wanting to start a new journey in my life, and discovering the purpose God has for me. I’m thrilled to have the opportunity to travel to Ethiopia and share the love of Jesus! I know that the Lord will reveal more of Himself and His plan for my life during this trip and the weeks to follow.

Ready and willing….

Blog post by Carly C., Team Ethiopia 2011

My story.

I grew up in a Christian family and went to church regularly until I was in 5th grade. My mom and brothers and I moved after she and my step dad got married and we stopped going to church regularly. For most of middle school and high school I still lived a good moral life but not for the right reasons. I was doing it more as a moral standard and not because I had a close relationship with Jesus. Because of this, the summer before my senior year I was involved in a lifestyle that was not right and I began to hang out with the ‘wrong crowd’.

The start of my senior year of high school, I found out that my best friend and boyfriend at the time had betrayed me in the most hurtful way; I was devastated. Because I was a ‘Christian’ I knew that I would have to forgive them. But I had never been in a situation like that and I thought I could just forgive them when I was ready. I felt that if I forgave them it was the same as saying what they did to me was ok. Being in this situation and not knowing exactly what to do, I called my uncle, who is the strongest Christian I know. I knew he could guide me in the right thing to do.  After my uncle talked and prayed with me and explained what the Bible says about forgiveness, I knew I had to immediately forgive them both for the wrong they had done. That same week, I went to Wednesday night youth group and out of all things the youth pastor could have talked about –forgiveness was the topic. God used that night to speak to me and break me. That night God truly revealed himself to me and from that point forward, I was changed forever.

Not only did God use this devastating situation to reveal himself to me, but through it, he saved one of the friends that had hurt me. We are now great friends and go to church together, fellowship together and worship together. It’s amazing to realize how far God has brought me and others in the last couple of years.

My senior year of high school I was given the opportunity to go on a mission trip to Peru during my Spring Break. That was an incredible and moving experience and it was there where my passion for missions and people truly blossomed and began to grow. I was able to see and experience lives being changed and people being saved. I cannot wait to go to Ethiopia and see God do amazing things there as well. I am so ready and willing for God to use me to spread his glory and name to the people in Ethiopia!

Carly C. will be serving on the Ethiopia Journey 117 Team leaving in December 2011.

Loving His People

Blog post by Amalia K., Team Ethiopia 2011

 

Amalia K. will be serving on the Ethiopia Journey 117 Team leaving in December 2011.

Compelled to do something…

Blog post by Nathan L., Team Ethiopia 2011

I am making this trip because I am compelled to do something. I have lived most of my life with tunnel vision – thinking, doing, and saying the things that benefit me and my family.  This tunnel vision extended to my Christian life as I have lived as if Christianity was all about me. I was comfortable and choosing to ignore the fact that my entire has life has been blessed beyond belief.  I have never known hunger, I have never know homelessness, I have never known poverty – I have never known anything other than having more than enough of anything I wanted or needed.  To make matters worse, despite the fact that I have always been incredibly blessed, because our perspective is skewed by the culture we live I have always thought of myself of being less than rich because I didn’t make as much money, or take the same kind of vacations, or drive the same kind of car someone else might have.

Our Faith and His Faithfulness

Blog post by Angela B., Team Moldova 2011 

“When our faith intersects with God’s faithfulness, miracles can happen.”  My pastor spoke that phrase on September 13, 2009 and it has been part of my journey ever since.  It was then I realized that God’s faithfulness was there, but my faith needed some work.