Live from the Merkato Compound.

As I type, there are approximately 50-75 women are gathered outside the window of the LIA Merkato Compound listening to the women of our team share basic health and hygiene information with them. Their faces of courage and hope spark an excitement within me that can only be described as love. It is amazing how much we all share in common, especially as mothers. We seem to share one heart. It is a joy to hear these women's stories and to play a small role in helping them have healthier futures. The men of our team have been in a back office sorting vitamins to give to the women at the end of our time together.

Yesterday was an incredibly powerful and moving day. As we shared yesterday, we were headed to the Merkato compound to have a morning of sharing and testimonies with the hard-core boys. The team was able to track down 43 Bibles (after visiting several book stores across town and spending a lot of time on our bus). At one point, we were about to throw in the towel on finding the Bibles prior to our visit. We were thinking it might be best to give the Bibles at a later time so as not to miss any fellowship time with the boys. However, God had different plans. Develle was determined to find enough Bibles for us to give to the boys, and ultimately he succeeded. We would discover later why God wanted us to have the Bible on hand....

Four of our team members humbly shared their testimonies and life struggles with the boys that were gathered (41 in total). The boys were absolutely GLUED to these stories. They were amazed to hear that many of us have had similar struggles in life - drugs, alcohol, doubts, money issues, family brokenness. They then spent several minutes asking challenging questions of our group about our country's faith, how to share Christ with friends, and more. Depth is definitely not lacking amongst this group of precious boys. After our time of sharing, the boys were called forward one at a time to receive their Bibles. I wish you could have seen first hand the way these boys handled these Bibles, and intently opened them and began thumbing through the pages. The Compound Director, Dereje, was tenderly showing the boys where to find the various books of the Bible. It was simply incredible. God's Word is so powerful, and to know that each of these boys was venturing home with their own copy was amazing. To cap it all off, three boys came forward saying they desired to accept Jesus as their personal Lord and Savior. We were privileged to witness Develle pray over these boys as they invited Jesus into their hearts. This is empowerment at its core - being empowered with God's Word and His Spirit. So often as Americans, we believe our empowerment lies in our education, our jobs, our bank accounts, ourselves. However, these boys are finding that true empowerment begins with Christ. We were all so moved.

We were able to take individual pictures of each of the hard-core boys and wrote their names as we photographed so that YOU can "meet" these adopted children of ours and pray for them by name as well. We are betting that you fall in love too.

We returned to the guest house for lunch, and then came back to the compound to spend our afternoon with the Community Health Evangelists/Educators (CHE's). We were completely blown away by the stories of heartbreak, courage, and strength these beautiful women shared with us. Most of them are widowed or divorced, and are struggling to provide for and raise their children on their own. Many of them are unable to send children to school because they cannot afford the requird uniforms. Some shared of being denied access to basic healthcare. In addition to these burdens, they have taken on the role of educating their communities about health and personal care. They have not drowned themselves in self pity, but have resolved to courageously be the force of change. The mothers in our group were especially humbled to hear these stories. Their courage brings so much hope to me as a mother, for myself and for our children. We were mutually blessed. These women kept thanking US for all we are doing, but truly THEY are the hands and feet that are out in the community on a daily basis striving to make a difference and improve their communities. It would be so easy for them to give up, but they perservere. It was another powerful afternoon.

We were home a little earlier (5:30), and able to relax, eat dinner and debrief. Today is our last full day in Ethiopia. Our plans changed a little bit for this afternoon. Instead of painting, we will be doing a prayer walk through the streets of Merkato and having a traditional Ethiopian coffee & fellowship with the LIA Merkato Staff. I cannot think of a better way to wind up our time here. See you all soon!!

With full hearts from Addis,

The Africa Team