Ethiopia Journey Inspires Teacher to Do More

Nathan Livesay, a teacher at Sumter High School and former basketball coach, spent nearly two weeks of his Winter Break in Ethiopia with Journey 117, a ministry of World Orphans.

BY JADE ANDERSON janderson@theitem.com  The Item

A trip out of the country can change a person.
“I wouldn’t trade those two weeks for a state championship,” said Nathan Livesay, a former Sumter High School basketball coach.
Last month, the English and credit recovery teacher traveled to Ethiopia with World Orphans, an organization that brings churches in Third World countries together with American churches to help supply basic needs of the children being cared for by the indigenous churches. He learned about the organization through the Willow Creek Global Leadership Development Summit simulcast held at Alice Drive Baptist Church in the fall.
“I was reading the statistics about HIV and AIDS, about people dying in extreme poverty, and the numbers really bothered me,” Livesay said. “I was compelled to go on this trip to put a name and face with the statistics. … Even with basketball, I’ve always had a heart for kids that don’t always have everything they need.”

Homelessness…

Blog post by Amalia K., Team Ethiopia 2011

As a child my family and I would always go to NYC to visit friends. Every single time I was there I always noticed the streets fill with people who had nowhere to live, the homeless. My family would always stay at a homeless shelter when we went visited because my mother was very good friends with the people who ran the place. While staying there I would have breakfast, lunch and dinner with the homeless.  Even though I was young, when I would see children homeless on the streets my heart would break for them. During my many visits to NYC I wouldn’t only watch the homeless but I would watch the business men, the beautiful people carrying designer bags, wearing $1,000 shoes and the fabulous train of Limo driving through the city. As I watched the upper-class, I noticed that they didn’t notice the homeless, the ones who has nothing, the ones who smelled bad, and the ones wearing dirty clothing. I was so disturbed by this. I would get so frustrated with them because it was like they saw right through these fellow humans. It was as if you lived on the streets you become invisible to the world around you.  I didn’t understand how they didn’t even notice the poor. I even noticed that the visitors who came to New York City would go across the street to avoid walking past a homeless person, they would hold their children close and look at the less fortune humans as aliens. It was as if just because they were homeless they weren’t as human as the rest of us.

Aging out of the System….Then What?

Blog post by Janice O., Team Uganda 2011             

A child growing up in a loving home has hopes, dreams and desires of the life they will eventually live, the person they will become some day, and their future as a happy adult.  How is that different from an orphan child in Africa? In Africa 11 million children die each year before the age of 5.  Many of these orphan children don’t think of their future adult lives, because most are thinking of when they will eat their next meal, where they will sleep tonight, or how they will survive another day.  There are approximately 143 million orphans worldwide and in Africa, 2,102,400 children are becoming orphans each year.  The lucky ones may enter into an orphanage system, to be cared for by strangers with the hopes of being adopted some day by a loving, caring family.   With only 250,000 African adoptions annually, there is a desperate need for a change. 

Incompetent Leaders in Our Fallen World

Blog post by Luke S., Team Haiti 2011 

Jesus speaks of the responsibilities which stem from positions of power in Luke 12:48 (NIV), “From everyone who has been given much, much will be demanded; and from the one who has been entrusted with much, much more will be asked.”  Or to go with the more popular way of saying it today thanks to Uncle Ben (Spiderman): “With great power comes great responsibility.” This adage has been around for centuries and still as prevalent today as it was in the time of Jesus.  Sadly in our fallen world we do not have competent leaders that use this power responsibly. Their primary responsibility lies in protecting the citizens of the nation that elected them to office.  When looking at the numerous countries around the world today that are living in poverty, one cannot help but ask how did things get so bad?  In many cases around the globe, the leader (or leaders) of a country is the one responsible for their country’s misfortunes.  For example, former Haitian President Jean-Bertrand Aristide’s party stole $21 million from Haiti’s poor economy.  The $21 million allegedly was pumped into private firms, which had ties to Aristide’s “charities.”  The fraudulent leadership by Aristide continued to increase poverty rates in an already poverty-stricken nation.  This of course then leads to a wide array of issues, one of which is orphans.  This is a top-down affect and when counterfeit leaders are put into positions of authority, the sad and real consequences are soon to follow, such as producing orphans in the streets.

Luke S. will be serving on the Haiti Journey 117 Team leaving in May 2011.

Illiteracy and the Cycle of Poverty

Blog post by Callie H., Team Haiti 2011

The inability to read and write plays a large role in the cycle of poverty. Illiteracy limits ones involvement in social and political life and can prevent employment. This can stall one’s ability to break out of poverty if education and/or employment is never obtained. This is an issue all across the world in over 22 countries.  771 million people in the world can not read or write, 64% are women. Illiteracy is also the root for crime, forced labor, child soldiers, and other forms of injustice and poverty.

Children, Bible Camp, & the Country of My Ancestors

Blog post by Penny S., Team Moldova 2011

When I was 12 years old I felt God calling me to foreign missions. When I was 41 I went on my first foreign mission trip. You’ll understand now why my life verse is Isaiah 55:8, “For your ways are not My ways, neither are your thoughts My thoughts, declares the Lord.” His timing is certainly different from my timing…only by 29 years!