God's love

I have lived in Ethiopia for 10 months now.  I see poverty, desolation, and pain all around me.  I don’t understand all of the things that I see.  I don’t understand why God lets certain things happen to his children.  I don’t know why God allows some families to struggle financially while other families never have to worry about money.  Through my prayer for the families I have met in Debre Zeit, Ethiopia God has shown me that it is not for me to ask why-it is for me to do.  While I can’t financially help everyone I meet, I can be an advocate for them.

We are told many times in Scripture that we are to help the poor. In Matthew 25 we learn that if we help someone in need than we are doing it as if we are doing it unto Jesus.  That is amazing to me.  When we feed or clothe someone in need it is as if we are feeding or clothing Jesus.  I love that! 

When we do these things we show God’s love lives in us.  Contrastly, 1 John 3:17 says “But whoever has this world’s goods, and sees his brother in need, and shuts up his heart from his, how does the love of God abide in him?”  The Apostle John is telling us that if we have and we refuse to give to the poor then how can God’s love be in us?  God is a giver.  He gave His Son to us, He gives us His love, He gives us His joy, He gives us His Creation.  If we are to be like Him, how can we not give as well?

I had all of these thoughts after I met Alemayhu Abera and his family.  Alemayhu is an eight year old little boy in the BCI program.  He lives in a small house with his mother, two sisters, and brother.  His father died about four years ago after falling off of a house while doing construction.

Getahun, Alemayhu, and Assagidutch

Alemayhu’s family has struggled intensely for the past four years.  His mother walks approximately two miles one way to work where she works for 12 hours a day, seven days a week.  She works at a local factory where she cooks injera (local bread) for the factory workers.  At the end of the week she is allowed to take the injera scraps home to her family.  These are moldy, soggy scraps of injera that she collects to take home to her children, because she very limited things to feed them.  

Even though she works 84 hours a week she only makes 300 birr ($17) a month.  The rent on their house that has no kitchen, no bathroom, no running water, and no electricity is 100 birr ($5) a month.  That leaves 200 birr ($12) a month to feed and clothe a family of five.  Even though food and clothes are cheaper in Ethiopia than they are in America, it is impossible to feed and clothe a family of five off of $12 a month.  The family relies on BCI’s monthly grain support to help them eat, however, only Alemayhu is in the BCI program so the BCI support is not enough to cover the whole family.

I went to visit this family to see how we could help them.  I would like to find full sponsorship ($90/mth) for Alemayhu’s sister, Emebet.  Emebet is 10 years old.  I wasn’t able to meet her because she has been sent away for the summer to live as a servant in her teacher’s house.  Emebet attends school four miles from her house.  During the summer, she is sent to live as a servant for the teacher’s family.  Emebet does not get paid but the teacher provides a uniform and books for Emebet to be able to attend school the following year.  

If a full BCI sponsorship is found for Emebet then she will be able to enter the BCI program where she will receive a free education, monthly food support, and health care.  She will no longer have to be a servant just so she can go to school.

I also would like to find someone to help send Alemayhu’s oldest siblings to BCI Academy.  Assagidutch is 15 years old and Getahun is 14 years old.  They will be entering grades 7 and 8 next year.  Currently, they attend government school.  Government school in Ethiopia is not great.  It is only half day, whereas, BCI Academy runs all day.  Also, the class sizes in government school average 80 kids to one teacher.  The class sizes at BCI Academy average 25 students to one teacher.  The children will receive a much better education at BCI Academy then at government school.  

BCI Academy costs $208 a year for non-BCI, paying students.  If we find “education sponsors” for Assagidutch and Getahun for this coming school year then they will be able to attend BCI Academy even if they are not in the BCI program.  

Would you please prayerfully consider helping out this family?  They are the “least of these” by economic standards but their faith is so strong in God.  They praise God everytime they receive the monthly grain support from BCI and they praise God every week that the mother’s employer lets her bring home stale and moldy injera for the family to eat.

If you would like to either:

*Sponsor Emebet to enter the BCI program at $30, $60, or $90 a month.

*Help to send Assagidutch to BCI Academy next year ($208 is needed).

*Help to send Getahun to BCI Academy next year ($208 is needed).

Please email Melissa at Blessing The Children.  Her email address is melissa@blessingthechildren.org and she will help you to make payment arrangements.

Any and all help for our orphans is great appreciated.  I can’t even express to you how even a small gift can make a huge impact on their lives.  Be blessed!

New Members in God's Family

We had another great day at our Women’s Bible Study.  I really love the Bible study that I co-lead at Zion Church.  The women are great and we always have a great time together learning about God.  Yesterday I shared a message entitled “Our Identity in Christ”.  I talked about how the Hebrew boys in Daniel that were taken from their homes and brought to Babylon to serve under King Neb (I love the shortened version of his name!) were given new names.  Their old names referred to and honored God.  Their new names gave credit to Babylon’s false idols.  I may post my message about this later, but right now that is not the point of this blog.  

Yesterday, we had two new people to our study.  I met Kori earlier this week.  I heard that her daughter died of HIV complications and left behind two children for her to care for.  I decided to go visit Kori and the kids.  I had never met them before but I wanted to go visit to check on them, pray for them, and see if I could help in any way.  

Zerahun was also new to women’s Bible study.  He (yes, he) is cousins with one of our other members.  It was different having a man at women’s Bible study but if someone needs to hear God’s word, then they are welcome!!

After I shared my message about who we are in Christ and about the labels from our past that we need to get rid of, Nigist asked Kori and Zerahun if they wanted to accept Jesus Christ as their personal savior and they both said yes!  We then prayed for them and it was such a sweet time with the Lord.  They are scheduled to start Bible classes with the church next week.  Praise Jesus!!!  I wish I could hear the Angels in Heaven celebrating!  :)

A prayer realized

I don’t even know where to start with this blog.  So much has happened in the past few days and my heart is so full.  A few weeks ago I posted a blog about a little girl that I have completely fallen in love with.  Her name is Rosa and her mom, Genet was working as a prostitute.  Since November, I have had a heavy heart for Genet and Rosa.  I have prayed and cried and yelled over this situation.  I have literally felt like my heart would break because I knew Rosa was living in a brothel.  As I mentioned before, I would lay there some nights and worry about Rosa.  One night I cried out to God and asked why He would let a little girl live in a brothel.  I asked why He would let a woman feel like she has no other options but to sell her body in order to feed herself and her baby.  

God answered me and what He told me is that the world is a broken place but Christians are to be the light and Christians are called to help the least of these.  That is when I asked Genet if she wanted to leave this lifestyle and move to a new house and I told her if she did then I would help her.  I was worried about how I would do this but I shouldn’t have worried because of course God came through.  Two people have come forward that said they wanted to help.  So not only is Genet’s rent covered but now she will have extra money for food and clothes.

Michelle Tiatia is a BCI intern from New Zealand and together we started a Bible study for some of our BCI moms.  Genet has faithfully come to these studies even though she wasn’t a Christian.  I have noticed in the past two months that she sits at these studies with tears in her eyes.  I have been praying relentlessly about her salvation.  I had faith that God would use something to push Genet’s faith over the edge but I didn’t know what that would be.  

This past Thursday a group of missionaries from Illinios was to lead the women’s Bible study.  I asked one of the women to give her testimony.  I had heard her testimony before and I really wanted Genet to hear it.  This women’s journey was not the same as Genet’s but there were similar threads and I prayed and prayed that God would use her to reach Genet.

The Bible study was due to start and Genet still wasn’t there.  I sat there and prayed that God would force Genet to come to the Bible study.  She didn’t show up so we started the study with singing.  And finally Genet and Rosa came in!!!  I locked eyes with the woman that was to share her testimony, because she had never met Genet and Rosa, and nodded my head that yes, this is Genet.  

During the woman’s testimony I just continued to pray that God would give her the words to say that would touch Genet.  I don’t want to share all of her testimony here without asking her permission but the part that I wanted Genet to hear is that her pastor asked her if she was ready to accept Jesus as her personal savior and she said no because she wasn’t good enough, clean enough.  Her pastor told her that there is no such thing as cleaning up your life to come to Jesus.  He explained to her that you come as you are.  Dirty, wounded, with baggage and Jesus takes you in and cleans you, heals you, makes you whole.  At this point, everyone in the room was crying.

Nigist, BCI social worker, turned to Genet and spoke to her and asked her if she was ready to accept Jesus as her savior and to allow God to heal and clean her.  Genet said yes!!!!!!!  I was so excited I couldn’t hardly stand it.  This is what I had been praying for and it was happening.  God was doing it!

Rosa was asleep in Genet’s lap so I took her and while everyone else gathered around and prayed while Genet was accepting Christ as her savior I got the honor of holding that precious baby while her mom was changing not only her own life, but was changing Rosa’s as well.  At this point I was ‘ugly girl crying’.  You  know the kind of crying where you have tears and snot running down your face?  The kind of crying where you can barely breath so you are making hideous sobbing sounds?  Yeah, that kind of crying.  At one point I looked down at Rosa while she was sleeping peacefully and realized that I had comepletley drenched one side of her face with my tears.  I wish Rosa could have watched her mom accept Jesus but I’m sure it would have scared her to have 10 women circled around her mother crying.

After we prayed Genet went around the room and hugged everyone and when she came to me we just clutched each other, with her baby between us, and just sobbed.  It was so amazing to be able to witness her salvation.  But the more I sat there, the sadder I got.  Here we were, celebrating her new life and all I could think of is that in about 30 minutes she was going to have to go back to her house (which is a brothel) and possibly have to “work”.  

I handed Rosa to Michelle and I went outside to call Mussie.  Remember, he had no idea any of this had happened, when he answered the phone I instantly started ugly girl crying again and I was trying to explain to him what just happened.  I was begging him to help me find a place for Rosa and Genet to stay that night.  Genet had told me a few months earlier that she couldn’t be a Christian because she was a prostitute so I didn’t want her to have to go home and be forced to have sex for money.  I was worried that she would then think that because she did that, that God wouldn’t want her anymore.

One of the other women in the Bible study was also outside and she must have realized that I was trying to find a new home for Genet so she told Nigist that she had a room that Genet could rent from her.  I was so happy!  Nigist and I spoke to Genet and she said that she wanted to move to that room but she couldn’t that night because she had to settle accounts or something with the owner of the bar/brothel that she lived in.  I made her promise that she would not work that night and she agreed.  The next day, Genet and Rosa moved to the new room.

Unfortunately, Genet didn’t feel comfortable with the new room.  Mainly because there was nowhere for Rosa to play and it was on a busy road so Genet was worried about Rosa’s safey.  Genet found a different house through another one of BCI’s moms (who also used to work as a prostitute before getting saved and just so happened to have lived/worked in the same brothel that Genet just left).  Seriously, I love how God brings things full circle!  

Today we moved Genet and Rosa to their new house and it is a much better, safer place for Rosa to live.  I can’t wait to see how God uses Genet.  When she was moving out of her house/brothel her friends (most also prostitutes) came out and were crying over Genet and they were happy for her, that she was able to leave this lifestyle.  I know that some of these women want to change their situations and I know that they received hope that day.  Hope in Someone bigger than themselves.  

Please continue to pray for Rosa and Genet.  I know that this is a huge change for Genet and while we may not understand it, it will be a challenge for her not to slip back into her old lifestyle.  Please pray that God strengthens her and lifts her up.

A good day

Yesterday was a good day.  There is a little girl here that I have just really been hurting for.  I won’t mention names but I have really become attached to her and now her mother.  Her mom works as a prostitute.  In America, when we think prostitute we think of a woman standing on a street corner waiting for “clients” to come by.  Here, a lot of prostitutes work in bars.  The “clients” come in order a drink and then order sex.  The women lives in a room behind the bar and she just takes him back there to her one-room house.  

The little girl’s mom lives in a place like this.  She sells beer and herself.  As I mentioned earlier, the mom lives behind the bar-so that means the little girl lives behind the bar where the men go and she sleeps in the same bed that her mom uses with these men.  I have literally lost sleep thinking about the little girl living in a place like this.  A lot of the children I encounter here live in tough situations but this is the worst for me to accept.  

I know that the mom has chosen this job because at some point she had no other way to support her daughter but it makes me sick to think of the little girl living there.  I have horrible thoughts about some disgusting man turning on the little girl.  This is why I lose sleep.

The mother has absolutely no education.  In fact, just a month ago she started kindergarten.  That’s right, kindergarten.  It is next to impossible for her to find a job here because she can not read or write.

I don’t know how to solve all of their problems, all I know is I have to get the little girl out of this environment.  Two weeks ago, I spoke to the mother and asked her if she was able, would she like to move out and she said yes.  She said she used to be a Christian but she can’t know because she is a prostitute.  

I told her that if she was willing, I would find her a new home and I would pay the rent for her.  She is worried about how she will afford food for her daughter.  I told her that we would try to find a job for her, somehow.  But she wanted time to think about it.  I didn’t know what there was to think about but I agreed to give her time.

Yesterday, she told me that she would like my help.  She said she still doesn’t know how she will make a living but she wants to get out of that environment.  I told her I didn’t have all of the answers right now but that with God’s help we will figure it out.

I don’t know how this is going to all work out.  But I know I have to try.  This typically isn’t my way of helping.  I realize that throwing money at a problem doesn’t always fix it.  And agreeing to pay someone’s living costs until who knows when may actually make them more reliant on help instead of giving them a new chance.  And who knows, she may turn back to prostitution but I have to take a chance.  After all, Jesus took a chance on me.

"It's culture"

“It’s culture”.  For the most part, this statement annoys and frustrates me.  I think too many cultures in this world use this reasoning as an excuse to continue to do vile, hideous, and ungodly things to their people.  Sometimes the “it’s culture” statement is used in matters that in the grand scheme of the world don’t actually mean anything.  For example, Ethiopians primarily use “squatty potties”.  I, of course, prefer “western” toilets.  But is it really my place to tell people that they need to install “western” toilets in their homes, offices, or schools?  No.  Because after all “it’s culture” but more importantly, it isn’t hurting anyone (other than me, perhaps!).

Before I start in on my tirade let me just say: I love different cultures.  I love that different cultures have huge customs that are celebrated.  I love the different dress, colors, music, dances, food, and celebrations that each culture has to offer.  I wish I could travel all over the world (actually, Africa would be just fine. . .I would even start with just Ethiopia) and see how they all live.  I have heard of some pretty crazy (by my standards) things that different cultures in Ethiopia do but I would like to go and experience it.  

It makes me sad when countries lose their culture because another country (and it is usually somewhere from the Western world) moves in and takes over.  I love that Ethiopia has fought to keep their culture.  I have been to some other countries that try to look and act like America or whoever.  I think that you can learn things from different cultures and you can take something from them to enhance your own country but it just makes me sad when another country strives to become westernized and they lose themselves in the process.  This isn’t good for anyone.  It isn’t good for these particular countries and it isn’t good for the world.  

The amazing thing about this World is that there is so many different ways of doing things.  We can learn from each other.  Just because America or Canada or England does something a certain way doesn’t mean it is the right way.  Perhaps we are just the loudest?  I know America is guilty of pushing our culture on the rest of the world.  Seriously, how many big companies and aid organizations have to fail (sometimes at a huge embarrassment level) because an American shows up in some third-world country and tries to push “America” on them?  Maybe we need to take a step back and see why these countries are doing these things before we knock ‘em and try to push ourselves on them. 

Okay, I got off on a tangent.  Anyway, there are times when “it’s culture” doesn’t bother me, actually it makes me happy when different people groups fight for their culture.  However, it annoys and frustrates me when people use the “it’s culture” excuse to do things that are against God.

Beating your children, beating your wives, feeding your sons but not your daughters, not tithing, female genital mutilation, living in your posh life and ignoring the horrors of the rest of the world, “honor” killings, polygamy, and keeping up with the Joneses are a few examples of attitudes and actions around the world that people love to use the “it’s culture” statement to excuse their behavior.  I believe that it is culture but I believe it is culture of the devil-not necessarily culture of specific countries or tribes.  Sounds harsh, I know, but that is my opinion.

Let’s look at female genital mutilation (fgm): how did this start?  It doesn’t say to do it in the Bible, in the Torah, or in the Koran.  So we can hardly argue that it is religious.  From research I have read about it the sole purpose of fgm is to prevent women from enjoying sex and to prevent them from cheating on their husbands.  That sounds like a lie from the devil to me.  “If you mutilate little girls they will be good wives”.  Really?  The Bible says a good wife is to honor her husband.  Do you really think your wife will honor you if every time you have sex with her it is sheer torture for her?  Granted, the men are not the ones that are actually doing the mutilation but in these tribes the men will not marry women who have not been “cut”.  

Lest we as Americans are thinking right now “that is horrible, we don’t do anything that disgusting”.  Let’s take a look at our American culture of “more is better” or “we can never have enough”.  The Bible says in Colossians 3:5 “Put to death, therefore, whatever belongs to your earthly nature: sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires and greed, which is idolatry.”  Greed is in the same list as sexual immorality and evil desires.  How many of us have thought “well, I am not perfect but at least I haven’t cheated on my husband like Suzy Q”?  We, as Christians, like to compare our sins to others.  But on judgement day we are not going to be compared to the person in front or behind us-we are going to be compared to Jesus.  

  

In Colossians 3:5 we also see that God considers greed as idolatry.  This greed could be in relation to money, food, or possessions just as an example.  Exodus 20:3 states “you shall have no other gods before me”.  We can see clearly in Colossians that greed is considered a god before God.  Some people may think “I may be sinning because of my greed but I am not hurting anyone”.  Actually yes you are.  Because if you live in a perpetual state of greed then you can not fulfill James 1:27.  It says:  “Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world”.  If you are living in constant greed are you really helping orphans and widows?

We should not be so concerned about our own culture-we should be concerned about Kingdom Culture.  If something in our culture (or another) goes against Kingdom Culture then we should fight it.  After all, when you are standing in front of God accounting for your sins are you going to say “well that is the way we have always done it”?

What things in your culture do you need to stand up against?  I have a list of my own that I am working on.

Who to help?

Who to help?  That is a question I ask myself almost every day.  I have sponsors that support me living and serving in Ethiopia.  When I use that money, I feel a huge obligation to make sure that I use it wisely and in the way that God wants me to.  I feel pressure to honor God and the person that gave it.  I constantly worry that I will make a mistake and waste the money.  That I will bless someone with the money and they will take advantage of me and the money will be wasted. 

I use a lot of the money for food, milk, and rent for certain children and families.  I feel that this isn’t wasted as it makes the children stronger and makes sure they have a roof over their heads.  But when I feel led to spend “bigger” amounts. . . this is when I start to second guess my actions.  

Let’s face it, some people know how to use the system.  They know just what to say to get you to give them money.  They really know how to talk up their sorrows and also try to convince you that they will make good use of the money.  

But you have those select few that are already trying to help themselves and their families with what little they have.  They aren’t sitting around waiting for a hand-out.  These are the people that I want to help.  There is one woman in particular that I really, really want to help start a cafe.  Most of you already know of her.  You can read her story here:  http://jonngirlonamission.blogspot.com/2010/10/i-have-been-back-in-sc-for-4-days-now.html

Seble is one of those women who makes good use of everything that God gives her.  She has been buying things and saving up over time in preparation to open this cafe.  She hasn’t just been sitting around waiting for someone to knock on her door and say “I heard you wanted to open a cafe.  Here is some cash”.  

I met with her about a month ago to find out more about what she has in mind for this cafe.  I found out the things that she already has prepared and the things that she is still lacking.  

I went back this week with some friends of mine from Canada that have a mind for business so they could talk to her and see if I have missed anything.  I also wanted them to get a feel for her because I have had an attachment to Seble since I first met her so I didn’t want my judgement to be swayed by my love for her.

We discussed more business detailed things with her and asked her to write up a business plan.  She is more than willing to do this.  Please pray for me that the Lord would show me if, and in what capacity, He would have me to help her.

Grocery Shopping

Grocery shopping in Ethiopia is much different than how I shopped in America.  I was one of those people that HATED grocery shopping.  I mean, literally, hated.  So every two weeks when I got paid I would go to Bi-Lo or WalMart and stock up for two weeks.  During the middle of the month I would buy lots so at the beginning of the month I only had to buy a little.  There were some months that I bought enough during the middle of the month that I wouldn’t have to go at the beginning of the month (those months were my favorite).

Shopping here is a totally different experience.  First of all, I don’t have a car here so when I shop I either have to take taxi (which is a huge pain because then I am having to carry bags from shop to shop and struggle while getting in and out of the taxi.  Or I can take a bajaj (basically a personal, 3-wheeled taxi).  This is fine except for some reason I feel like I am taking too long for the bajaj driver and I am keeping him from something important (although, he gets paid by the amount of time I use him for) so I rush and sometimes forget things and then I feel bad for making them stop at so many different places.

So let me walk you through a typical “big” shopping day.  Debre Zeit basically has one huge main road that everything is off of so I go all the way to the end of town (approximately 4 miles) and hit up my favorite veggie shop.  In this shop I normally buy green beans, carrots, potatoes, beets, red onions, zucchini, eggplant, and garlic.  Sometimes they surprise me and have different items like, the other day I went absolutely crazy because they had cucumbers and white onions!!!

My fav veggie shop

Then I go to the next shop where I buy pasta, peanut butter, rice, mangos, condiments, and random stuff.  I go to the next shop where I buy a frozen chicken (if I am splurging that week ‘cause chicken is kinda expensive.  It’s about $6.50 for one small chicken).  Then I go to the next shop where I get cheese, butter, eggs, and yogurt.  Cheese is only purchased rarely because it is expensive (1lb is approximately $3.50).  I don’t buy cheese often but sometimes I give in.  

Then I go to the next vegetable shop where I buy red, yellow, and green bell peppers, green chili peppers, tomatoes, cabbage, and strawberries if they have it.  Then I go to another shop to buy bread and milk.  Then the last stop is to buy sugar and flour.  

So that is 7 stops just to buy groceries!!  It is very tiring.  And I have to do it quite often because food here doesn’t have preservatives in it (which of course is a good thing) so food spoils easily.  Plus, the veggies here are already ripe when you buy them so you have to use them pretty much within 2-3 days or they go bad.

I, however, do have the luxury of having a freezer so I am able to freeze many things to aid in their shelf life but I spend a lot of time grocery shopping.  I really don’t know how people function without a fridge, stove, or freezer.  It amazes me to think they can feed their family without the aid of a fridge, freezer, and stove!!  

Oh, and the store’s offerings are very varied so I can never go into a shop and feel as if I “must” buy something because they may or may not have it.  Meal planning is difficult!

And of course there are some things that you can not get in Debre Zeit so you have to go to Addis (the capital city which is about an hour away).  There I buy beef (again, not often because it is pricey), canned whole tomatoes, and other random food and household items that are not found in my town.  Quality meat is VERY hard to get here so that is why I treat any and all canned meat that is sent to me like gold.  Canned tuna, tuna packets, canned roast beef and gravy, canned chicken, and canned salmon are huge blessings to me!!!

After a day of shopping I am so tired and dirty I just want to lay there but then I have to cook the food I just bought!!!  I will post another blog about cooking in Ethiopia because that is also a new experience for me!!