Ethiopia in April!

We have just made another trip to Ethiopia in Mayof 2011. We were able to go this time as a family for 3 weeks.  This trip was so amazing on many different levels. It was great for us to be able to bring our three kids to show them all what God is doing and let them share in it, and feel apart of it.

We also brought another key person along with us to help us with insight in furthering our ministry to the women. Jill Hall, is a good friend from Hosanna Church, she works for the EFCA, and Global Finger Prints as a Missionary and has studied and helped with Micro-financing in other countries. It was wonderful to have her come with us as she was able to see the women and have insight into our next steps. She also helped me do a one day conference in Hosanna Ethiopia for the women. There were about 90 women who participated. It was good to connect with them as women and share with them the Fathers Love. It was fun as Jill and I both had prepared messages and we spoke back to back and with out rehearsing or preparing together had a message that flowed beautifully. God was present and we were able to demonstrate to them how much the Father Loves them and how much we loved them as well as how to love themselves. All of which were new concepts as they have lived a life of survival and have been used and mistreated. Love is simply foreign to them. We were able to hear a testimony of a women of the life she lived and how she was helped out of a life of prostitution, something she needed to do to survive. She was told, like the other women that Jesus loves her and desires much more for her. She told this as tears rolled down her face, I just wanted to hold her and realized the pain these women live in everyday. My heart was breaking and I am so thankful that we are able to continue to walk this road together with them.We ended with washing their feet, one of the biggest acts of Love in which Jesus demonstrated to His disciples. They had never experienced this before, and were extremely touched I could sense this was a very humbling experience for them. It was a blessings to look into these women's eyes as we were washing their feet and pray prayers of blessings over them. I was overcome with how much the Father loves them, and ached for them to know.

At this time we have had some key meetings in Ethiopia with those we may partner with to help us start a Micro-financing program. This will allow the women to start a small business and pay it back in a year. Our hope is to get them to be mentored by our friends and young pastors whom we will be sponsoring and the women will help us with other projects such as the orphans. It will be a natural flow, and cycle in which each will pour into another. This will bring our several areas of ministry together, all helping another and becoming sustainable within each other.

While we were doing the women's conference Randy and the kids ministered to the children of the women. There were about 60 of them. They played games, soccer, parachute games and just showing them love. The kids themselves were in such great need and you could tell they lived a hard life.

Right now as we prepare to start a micro-financing program our priority is to continue to teach them Biblical values, and the knowledge of Gods love for them. I will be preparing Bible studies for the women, and children biweekly so they continue to learn and we continue to stay connected with them.  It is imperative that we continue to pour into them  the Fathers Love even before we help them out financially.

Also in Hosanna, we met with some of the 180 orphans. We saw the area in which they lived, and met some of the people who are helping to take care of them. We were able to pray with them for their future and Gods leading for us to bring help and aide to these precious little ones who were very sickly and malnourished. This was another key piece to for us to go on this trip to meet with key leaders in helping us partner to get a sponsorship program going to get them fed daily, clothing and medical help that is needed. We are very excited to watch God move in these children's lives. This was one of the most moving and gut wrenching part of the trip to see the severity of these children who have been left orphaned and hungry. But God says, " I WILL NOT LEAVE YOU AS ORPHANS, I WILL COME TO YOU". He has come and we will not stop until we see them safe secure, and knowing who they are in His eyes... they will know.

Pastor Abinet is on the right, he has been taking care of and ministering to the 180 orphans with little help. The women in the picture has been taking care of these street orphans taking the most needy into her home.

Praying a blessing over these little ones and for our future relationship with them. What precious darlings, my heart ached when we left.

Another very encouraging part of our time in Hosanna was seeing that the two churches in which we have been working with have already started working together. We saw this as something God wanted to do, and we were working towards a plan on how to get them to do this. Well, God is at work there so much that He has already done this, this is encouraging as we see this partnership key in the 5 areas we are working in. The Pastors are rallying together to help each other, as well as the Police Chief and Police department. Wow! How awesome to see us being able to be working with all these leaders and they all be working together all for one purpose, to listen to the Lord and and seek him in glorify his name in doing what He has called us all to. This tells us that Gods hand is in this and He is in the midst of bringing Pastors, leaders and Police officials together for long term sustainable impact that will change Hosanna and beyond.

The kids getting ready to lead worship with Pastor Abinet in the Adis Kadan Baptist Church.

I was asked to give a message at the church service this Sunday morning.

Solomon is on the left, he is the President of the Mekene Yesus Church in Hosanna and a very dear friend.

This is the home of Mekonen and Abebech the Pastors of the Addis Kadan Baptist Church in Hosanna. We  love them.... like family. Mekonen's brother had just died this was a solemn but precious visit. 

Police Commander Adise. What a wonderful man who has let the Lord use him to dramatically change the police department and people of the town of Hosanna.

Commander Adise after receiving his new Apple Valley Mn. Police hat given to him by Police Captain John Bermel. Police Officer John Bermel was with me on the prior trip giving a police Conference to the officers in and around the town of Hosanna. See below post for story.

Commander Adise and the Police Department at early morning prayer meeting held every day before starting work.

Commander Adise and Solomon, President Of Mekene Yesus Lutheran Church. Good friends, leading Hosanna to a better future.

The rest of our trip was spent getting to know our daughter. The kids were able to meet for the first time and it was priceless. We have been on a long journey through this adoption and trying to bring her home. There has been many obstacles that have delayed us. We have been very close several times to bringing her home to have our court dates cancelled. This has been extremely hard. We were able to go to her grandmothers home and meet the grandmother... what a precious lady who loves the Lord with her whole heart, and loves her granddaughter enough to let her go to have a life where she will be feed, nurtured and loved. We also met our daughters brothers and found the youngest one to be very sickly and starving. We found out later that the grandmother was giving him up for adoption as well as he will not make it where he is at for much longer. We then realized why the all the struggles with this adoption... we knew we were to adopt him as well. So when we finally get to bring our daughter home, we are double blessed to be able to bring him home at the same time. Wow, we always knew that there was another boy we were to adopt as between us and several others there were 4 dreams of us adopting a little boy. We just had no idea it would be her brother. :)

We believe God has had us on this journey for a bigger reason then just to adopt these two precious children. We know that this journey has taught us so much about adoption, the process in Ethiopia, and above all the desperate situation these children are in and the seeing first hand the longing in the children's faces at the orphanage each time we have been there. We believe that God is teaching us many things in this area as we will quite possibly need to know them in our ministry in Ethiopia and possibly having a deeper bigger impact in the areas of orphans and adoption.

Please keep us in your prayers in all of these areas. Our desire is that God leads in all of this that self diminishes and we resolve to letting God do in us what he needs so He can do in Ethiopia what He needs through us.

Many blessings,
Marybeth