Almost Time

We leave again on Friday, and most of you know that I am very excited to get back on that plane. And yet, when I look back over the last nine weeks I am very thankful for this time as well. God is truly good all the time.

I am thankful for my amazing friend Cherrie who worked tirelessly while we were away, who was infinitely patient with my unending requests, and convinced me to stay and finish this task!

I am thankful that I got to spend a few days back home with our friends. I miss you all so much, and it was good to just hang out and be normal again.

I am thankful that I got to see my family while we were in TN, and so very thankful for all of the time we have gotten to spend with Corey's brother and his family while here in VA.

I am thankful, that Caleb is more prepared and more excited about going back than he was when we first left. The same for Corey and I as well.

And I thankful for the friends that we have made while we were here. Life in Darmaville is strange, but you get used to it!

The boys and I made a new very special friend. Miss Milli!! She has been a huge blessing to our family, and has made me the envy of all the other moms around here who wish they also had someone asking to watch their kids!

Our night of cultural worship. We are all in traditional clothes...except for Corey's headdress is not traditional, that is just him being goofy.
Oh and Mr. M and his wife Ms. E. They have swung our children around, and let them beat them with light sabers tirelessy!

And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose. Romans 8:28

Giving Opportunity

I still so clearly remember standing in the trash dump on January 7th of this year. I remember the smells, the noises, the exact spot where I stood, and the names of all the people standing around me. I remember God so clearly saying, “This is it, this is where I would be if I still walked the Earth, and this is where I want you to be.”

And then later as I walked into my room, and saw the outline of her sunglasses on Angela’s ash covered face, I remembered the prophetic words of Isaiah…“Bestow on them a crown of beauty instead of ashes.”

I had two boys in mind to begin the journey, a beautiful young girl had captured the heart of my friend Tabby, and another guy on our trip was partial to an older boy. And so it began, we were going to move 4 kids out of the trash dump. I don’t know how it happened, I have no good explanation other than divine intervention, but word started to spread and we started to get people committing to sponsor other children.

My initial hope was for 100 kids. But for a long time that seemed like an unattainable goal.

And when we got in a new set of profiles that almost doubled our initial list I started to worry, but thankfully the plan was not dependent on me…God had a plan and I was just along for the ride.

And as you all know, 9 months after my first trip to the trash dump on Ethiopian Christmas day, we moved 250 kids to a boarding school in the beautiful countryside.

We have had some growing pains, and faced a steep learning curve. About running a ministry, and dealing with the local culture. A major bump in the road was when the school informed us two weeks before school started that the cost of yearly tuition had increased by over $100. Now initially that took the cost of tuition alone up over the amount of the sponsorship, and I again started to get very worried.

Thankfully, we serve the One who calms the storm with a word, and the very next week the value of the local currency changed in favor of the dollar and we were back to the original amount! Not good for the local economy, but good for us.

And we have learned that one or two outfits is not nearly enough. Their clothes are constantly dirty and wearing out quickly. They do wear their uniforms to school, but only during school hours, and then they wear their personal clothes. The children all need more clothes.

Nonetheless, along with the blessing of 250 kids, comes the strain of the getting them their necessary supplies. Our teams have paid thousands of dollars in excess baggage to take over clothes, shoes, and school supplies. We will continue to pack shoes over because the quality of shoes in America is so much better, and we are so grateful for the donations of shoes that we receive from Soles for Jesus.

We have decided that it is best to buy their other necessities such as clothing, toiletries, and school supplies in their local community. Usually the items are cheaper, it supports the local economy, it saves us money in baggage fees, and it opens space for sponsors to keep sending fun packages and letters and for teams to bring over other necessary items such as medical supplies.

Therefore, we are asking for monetary donations to purchase more clothing, toiletries, and school items for the children. We are hoping to get every child another pair of pants or a skirt, and two more t-shirts. They each also need a towel, and we will continue to buy body soap, laundry soap, notebooks, and pencils for the children every two months.

All donations will go 100% to the needs of the sponsored children at the boarding school, and all donations are tax-deductible. Please mail donations to:

Project 61
PO Box 126
Thompson Station, TN 37179

Or if you are a member of my home church, you can make out your check to Project 61 and place it in the offering on Sunday morning.

One Man's Trash is Another Man's Treasure

Living with kids who used to work in the trash dump you learn a few things. Like that empty jelly jars bring 1 birr each, and empty coke bottles bring 2 birr. As you are driving through town, they will point out which trash trucks carry food, where the food came from, and the name of the driver. You also learn that the only people in Ethiopia who use trash bags are the Hilton, the Sheraton, Ethiopian airlines, and Sumer’s family.

The children living in my house are covered in scars. When you ask about them, the stories are not bicycle accidents or falling from trees like the kids in America. They are stories of standing knee deep in the trash truck carrying food from the Hilton and getting cut by the glass bottles. Stories of fights, lots of fights, dog bites, and battling the hyenas for food.

There is a new group of boys who has just started coming to the summer camp. For the past year they have been involved in another program that made promises it cannot keep. There are about 15 of these boys, and they all spend both their days and nights at the trash dump. Worldu who lives with us now, used to be one of those boys. These new kids are his best friends, and he is my son which makes them family. When I look at them I cannot imagine the lives they have known. The heartache and struggle that they face daily. Worldu convinced them to take courage, and believe in promises again, and give the church a try.

From the moment they arrived, I loved them. And I told one of the leaders, if we do not help them, who are we helping?

Isubalew is 17, he has two brothers, and both of his parents are alive. His mother cannot work, and his father lost his job awhile back. They built them a small house on the edge of the dump, and all the family work and eat there. The house is not big enough, so for the past five years Isubalew has just slept on the trash with his friends. He stopped going to school five years ago (6^th grade) as well, but you can hardly tell. The first day that he came to class he volunteered to read aloud. He was a better reader than the kids currently enrolled in 10^th grade. So much potential…wasting away.

When I asked him how he felt about school, he said that he was so excited. Waking up everyday and struggling at the trash dump, he said you don’t even dream of an opportunity like this.

Abdisu has also lived at the trash dump for the past five years. His mother works there as well, and his sister who is 10 or 11 works as a day laborer somewhere in the city. He is missing his front tooth from a fight that happened late one night, but when you talk to him about going to school, he has the most beautiful smile. He says that he is also so excited to go to school, and he wants to make me proud. He will not waste the opportunity. He just needs a sponsor.

This is the last chance for these boys. I am so thankful for them, and that God has blessed them with a chance they could only dream of.

There are 25 older boys that still need a sponsor. If you would like to sponsor Abdisu or another boy, please contact erin@p61.org . The older boys are harder to get sponsors for, but Sumer's heart is that the older boys will be the oaks of righteousness that will change their community.

A Day in the Life

Our day starts around 6:00 am (12:00 abisha time, Ethiopia has different time and dates, it is 2002 here). Caleb usually wakes up first, and then Silas and Canaan. Caleb and Silas whine about wanting to wear short pants. Not sure what their problem is with long pants, but they only want to wear shorts. However, it is the rainy season and the mornings especially are quite cold so Corey and I want them to wear long pants. It is a daily battle.

Until yesterday we had 15 people living in our house. Kayla, an amazing college student who was with us all summer, left yesterday. So we are down to 14. My original five, Alicia (Sammy’s fiancée), Firfirey, Worldu, Tesfaye, Balata, Yonas, Fitsum, Haptame, and at least one Great Hope Leader. Sometimes we have Masty (a guide at the guest house and good friend), and Surafeal (our driver) as well. Never a dull moment. But also a lot of people for breakfast. Thankfully, last week we hired a cook who now makes pancakes, eggs, and oatmeal for breakfast.

Angela commentary: I told Sumer on Saturday that she is living the life! Living the life in Africa with a cook! A cook that makes pancakes! :)

Summer camp begins at “9:00”, but really more like 10. Nonetheless, I try to get everyone out the door by 8:30. We usually need to go by the bank to exchange money, or the pharmacy to pick up a prescription, or the market to get mangoes, or the grocery store to get toilet paper on the way in. I tease our driver often that “nothing is quick in this country”, and those stops usually make us very late.

Corey and the boys stay home during the day, and we are hoping to eventually hire a nanny for the afternoons so Corey can come and teach English to the leaders. But English lessons might have to wait until September. We have a lot that is waiting until September.

Every morning when I arrive, it is like I have been gone for a year. I probably hear my name about 2000 times a day, and half of those happen when I first step out of the car. Greetings are very important here, and they have about twelve different ways of saying “how are you.” You show other people favor by the number of times that you greet them. So walking the twenty feet from the car to the church office to set down my stuff can take awhile. But those few minutes are probably my favorite time of the day. I am full, and I have lots of love to dish out. I have genuinely missed them since the day before and I am happy to look them in the eye and kiss their heads and tell them that I love them.

Summer camp tends to be different everyday depending on the visitors. Summer camp is quite the tourist attraction, and we all love when new “forenge” (foreigners) arrive. I also love that the kids tell me that I am now abisha like them (which is funny because abisha actually refers to the mocha color of their skin and you all know there is nothing mocha about my skin…just pasty white), and no longer forenge. But it is all hard to keep up with. Somebody please bring me an appointment book!

The basic day is English, Bible, music, free time, lunch, and then a sometimes a big meeting with all the kids to go over some general topics like hygiene and classroom behavior. All throughout the day there are clinic runs, and trips to the market, and home visits, and the occasional coffee ceremony where everything just stops for like an hour so we can all enjoy the most delicious sugary coffee. And on the really good days we also have sugary popcorn to go with it. I mentioned that nothing is quick in this country, but thankfully none of the locals seem to mind.

Then I pack up my seven abisha children, and Alicia, and Sammy, and whoever else is coming home with us, around 4 or 5. And by 4 or 5, I mean that I start herding them towards the car around 4, and we normally leave around 5. There are usually errands to run or people to drop off or teams to visit on the way home. We used to go out to dinner, but now we get to come home for dinner. We have had two dinners at home so far and they have both been delicious…I can get used to this! :)

At home, there is soccer playing and fighting (sometimes pretend, sometimes for real, you can't have this many kids in the house and not have some fighting) and trips to the little shops across the street that literally carry anything and everything in a store the size of a closet. Then we watch a movie, eat popcorn and drink hot tea, practice our Amharic and English alphabets, and then it is off to bed...

I never have trouble falling asleep, and I am always happy to get up and start a new day.

Starving

by Angela

Beniyam now has a sponsor. Thanks to a member on the Visiting Orphans team!

starve – verb
1. to die or perish from lack of food or nourishment.
2. to be in the process of perishing or suffering severely from hunger.
3. to suffer from extreme poverty and need.

My friend Alicia occasionally has to correct me on Sunday afternoon when I'm quick to blurt out that I'm starving and ready for lunch. If you've seen a picture of me lately, you'll quickly come to the conclusion that I'm not. She always reminds me that I'm hungry and not starving. And at that moment, I'm always reminded of the kids that go to the dump each day for food.

Photograph by Tucker Bleu Photography

Beniyam needs to go to boarding school in the fall. When you sponsor a child ($700 per year) through Project 61...

You give an Education
You give clean Food and Water
You give Clothes
You give a Bed
You give a Roof
You give a Smile
You give a Chance
You give a God
You give a Hope
You give a Future

If you would like to sponsor him, you can email our sponsorship coodinator here: erin@p61.org

The summer program officially started this week. The Visiting Orphans team has been there to help this week and a TSC team is in the air right now. Things are going well, but Sumer's summer school is competing with the dump this week. Here is a quote from Sumer's Facebook status this week:

Takley, one of the older boys in the summer camp, told Sammy today that he loves school and he wants to learn but at the trash dump he could eat all day, and at school he only gets one meal and he is hungry. Cherrie took Beniyam to the doctor today because we thought he had typhoid, turns out he was mostly just starving. We are hopefully going to introduce breakfast into our school day as well.

If you would like to give to the Project 61 summer feeding program, please make your check payable to:

P.O. Box 126

Thompson Station, TN 37179

Africa Time

Post by Angela

I've talked to Sumer at least three times since she started living across the pond. Everytime I talk to her, I am more and more convinced that she is starting to roll on Africa time:) Things move at a slower pace in Africa and multi-tasking is not a way of life. I think because of the slower pace, true relationships are built. I'm reading the book Radical by David Platt and this paragraph stood out to me...

I'm struck when I see Jesus simply, intentionally, systematically, patiently walking alongside 12 men. Jesus reminds me that disciples are not mass produced. Disciples of Jesus - genuine, committed, self-sacrificing followers of Christ - are not made overnight. Making disciples is not an easy process. It is trying. It is messy. It is slow, tedious, even painful at times. It is all these things because it is relational. Jesus has not given us an effortless step-by-step formula for impacting nations for glory. He has given us people, and He has said, "Live for them. Love them, serve them and lead them. Lead them to follow me, and lead them to lead others to follow me. In the process you will multiply the gospel to the end of the earth."

I think Jesus rolled on Africa time too. Here is an update from Sumer about life in Africa...

The boys are adjusting well. They have started to eat more foods - always with the enticement of candy afterwards! :) But all in all I think we are all losing weight. The boys have not been to the village in awhile just because they get mobbed when they are there, we will take them back once the summer camp starts and there is a method to the madness. And the kids will all have a place to be. The leaders are amazing with them, and everyone is pretty much at their beck and call.

What we are doing: We are working on the shelter. The shelter has a living house that will have space for twenty kids to sleep. We bought the mattresses and pillows this week. It is very fun since I am sure that none of these kids have ever had their own bed or mostly have ever even been able to sleep in the only bed in their house. There are two classrooms, a kitchen, bathrooms, and a shower. Pretty fancy for this village and all of the leaders are very proud of it. We should start the summer camp on Monday...just two weeks behind schedule...welcome to Africa time.

Looks like the June team had some fun playing (building) in the mud :)

I am more in love with the kids from the trash dump everyday. When the team left, the kids asked me if I was going back to America...I loved being able to say no, I am staying with you. They are loving and funny and hearing them sing makes all of the stress of our new life melt away.

Thanks for praying for Project 61 Ministries. If you have questions about projects, sponsorships and upcoming trips, please email here: angela@p61.org

thanks

First, a big thank you to Tracey's brother Jeremy! He is sponsoring Habtamu. Can't wait to hug that sweet boy and tell him about his new opportunity!!

We are in the DC airport. One hour to go until the long flight over.

In these past few weeks leading up to moving out of our house, and the two weeks after, we have been blown away by the support of our friends and family.

Friends like ours make it hard to move away. To all of you who have watched my kids, packed and repacked my luggage, taken us out to eat, let us live at your house, and met our ever need. And for all of you that have prayed for us, and asked other people to pray for us. Thank you. We love you, and we appreciate you.

Talk to you soon!