Building Bridges! Hosanna Ethiopia

How can I even begin to describe the beautiful and busy Sunday we just had?

This morning all fourteen of us from Hosanna (Lakeville, MN) participated in a service at the children’s center; Larry and John spoke the message, Marybeth said a prayer, and the women all sang ‘Hosanna’.

After that, all the women headed over to another church service, where all eleven of us sang ‘Hosanna’ again, followed by ‘All My Fountains’. Marybeth gave the message and spoke about following your God given passions and dreaming BIG with God.  The unique part of this service was that a couple from the church also was married at the end of the service, so we were guests at a glory-filled Ethiopian wedding! Meanwhile, the three men went to the prison with the commander and visited with some jailed police who really impacted the Hosanna (Lakeville, MN) men with their story; they were imprisoned for protecting themselves - here in Ethiopia, you can only defend in the means you have been attacked.

All this made for a very touching beginning to what would become a very long day.

After the services, the women went back to the children’s center and passed out as many gifts as we possibly could before the sun set, and then had to call it a day. It was a very strenuous process, being that all the sponsors created one individual bag per child, and each had to be distributed to the correct one! Needless to say, with 300 children to hand out gifts too, we had a tiring afternoon. Thanks to our fantastic guides/helpers, we were able to get a lot done still, and will return tomorrow to pass out the rest. So far, the children have been overjoyed to receive all their bags and gifts – we can’t wait to share the pictures! Most of our team members got to give their sponsored children their gift directly, and got wonderful pictures with them! It was just as exciting! We know that all your prayers have and will continue to help us to get everything accomplished that God has set before us.

Tomorrow, after handing out the rest of the children’s gifts from their sponsors, we will meet with the head office of the Makana Yesus Church and meet the sponsored Seminarians that we have sponsored through Hosanna church. We then will begin our two-day women’s program. We are looking forward to it immensely and cannot wait to share the details soon!

Please keep our team and all the people we meet in your prayers!

Blessings to you all!

Tara Cormican