Bringing Hope!

After about a week and half of ATL, I moved on to another ministry site.  While here, I’ve learned a lot about hard work.  I haven’t done much manual labor on the race besides painting in Rwanda, but these past few weeks have given me a fair share. 

Let’s start with grass cutting! Having a landscaping business at home should make me a pro, right?  Well, instead of using a lawn mower and weed whacker, I used a sickle.  Let me tell you, a 6-7 hour day of using a hand tool to cut grass is hard work.  But it’s been so good to see the progress that a group of people can make in this amount of time!  Sometimes, the guard that walks around the compound even joins in (and shows us up!)  He’s obviously a pro and has probably done this his entire life.  To watch him work is magical. 

Besides grass cutting, I also helped turn the ground for the garden.  We used hoes to make rows for the garden beds.  Let me remind you that it’s rainy season.  Sometimes the ground was soft, sometimes it was muddy.  Every time you swung your hoe into the ground, mud would spray up on you.  It was hard work—no machinery like a rototiller here.  Again, this work was so good!  When our 6 rows were dug, we felt accomplished and I felt energized! 

Because of the rain we haven’t been able to work at the reforestation site (where they plant seedlings).  We were able to go visit it one morning and walk up the mountain that is nearby and pray over the site and village that we are in.  It was a beautiful time.  I led the devotion on the mountain top about worshiping God and his majesty through our actions and how we live out our lives.  We marveled at his creativity…then we sang two songs and prayed for the next 30 minutes.  We prayed for the land to be prosperous, for the people to develop a relationship with Christ, and for everything in between!

KIDS!  If you believe it or not, kids can be hard work too! 🙂  We lead ministry with them.  They can be rambunctious, not want to participate, or have a ton of energy at all the wrong times.  But it’s a blessing to minister to them.  Friday nights we hold movie nights and just love on them…hold them…and enjoy fellowship.  My team taught them about creation one day.  We went down to wrangle the kids from the houses.  I made sure we brought the 3 young kids (some with disabilities) to join the rest of crew.  We read the story of creation and for each day had them find a picture we had drawn about what God created on each day.  We sang songs with them like “Who’s the King of the Jungle?” and the “Hippopotamus song”.  Then we played games with them.  The two boys with more severe physical disabilities: we got out pom poms and worked on counting, colors, and sensory.  It was such a sweet time.  We ended our time by everyone creating their own “creation” picture. 

Through all these ministries…whether physical labor, working with the kids, having quality time by watching a movie together, talking and sharing in life with the cooks, sharing testimonies with the staff… we are shining  like Christ and revealing HIS beauty! 

“For the word of God is alive and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart.  Hebrews 4:12

We are taking every moment captive and bringing HOPE to Ethiopia!