This previously unreleased footage was shot and edited by Clifton Kern.

(see his website here)

Please keep your heart open while watching it.

God bless Sendafa.

Day 5- Completing Projects and Sharing a Bond

Ethiopian Praise

This morning Mike Parthree invited a group of young people from Ethiopian Outreach Ministries (EOM) to lead worship for us at our morning devotions. They sang two traditional Ethiopian praise songs, and then we all joined in on the last song in English. It was so powerful to be on the 7th floor of the hotel, viewing the entire city, and the sun came up, and praising God with these brothers and sisters from halfway around the world. I could almost imagine God looking down and smiling and nodding His head. (I bet He was tapping His foot too)

I felt privileged to work with these men.

Back in the village, we headed back to the water tank to wrap up the structure. The concrete was cured, and the mason had cemented in the main support poles for each corner. A few minutes after we arrived, the mason arrived with a crew of two men and a woman (the same woman who helped him with the cement a couple days ago)

No girlie-men here!

We got right to work putting up the rest of the frame and cutting everything to length. None of the workers spoke English, but it was fun communicating with them non-verbally. We all had a common purpose in mind, and by the time the project was complete, we had a sort of bond between us.

The completed structure atop the water tank.

We finished putting the last piece of steel up just after noon or so. It felt so good to have completed the project. Even though we would not be installing the actual chlorinating system on this trip, we were so much closer to accomplishing that goal than we were five days ago. As I looked around at the Ethiopian workers, I knew that they had the same sense of pride and accomplishment in a job well done as we did. I didn't need to speak their language to see that. We said our goodbyes to the construction crew after giving them all of the snacks and water that we had with us, and headed back to the Sendafa Hotel to meet the rest of the team for lunch.

Dr. Frew had left in his truck to bring out team leader to a meeting, so we walked back. It was about a half mile walk, and we really enjoyed it. Walking down a dusty road under the bright sun, sharing smiles and waves with kids as we pass by... there's nothing like it.

Dr. Frew Tangene and I

Later that night at dinner with Dr. Frew and his staff, I had to opportunity to learn a lot more about his program that ministers to prostitutes in the red light district of Addis Ababa. He helps them with vocational training so that they can get new jobs, and helps with tuition so that their children can get a good education and not have to resort back to that way of living. I will tell you more about the ministry in another blog. Dr. Frew is a good man, and I enjoyed getting to know him this week.

Day 1- The Start of a Heart Transformation

The sun rising over Addis Ababa, Ethiopia

This morning we met on the seventh floor of the hotel as a team for devotions. The view of Addis was amazing! We talked about how blessed we are and how rather than feel guilty about it, we can use our wealth and talents to help others, as God would want us to.

Soon after the meeting, we gathered our supplies and left for Sendafa. The van drivers were members of the PAAV (Project Adopt a Village) team, and some of them doubled as translators. When we arrived in Sendafa, we were immediately struck by the level of poverty that the village was steeped in. I mean, you see those things on television, but when you see it firsthand, it really hits you hard.

Two boys watching us work on the water tank

The children are what really breaks your heart. Those dark, innocent eyes staring up at you, untouched by the hardship surrounding them, as they smile at you and try to hold your hand. It is so heart-wrenching. You want so badly to help each and every one of them.

We split into five teams of five people each. Two teams distributed ionized salt in one kilo bags to the people in the village with children. This is one way of getting them the healthy minerals that they need and that we take for granted. Two more teams went to visit single Mothers with AIDS. While they were visiting, they laid vinyl on the dirt floors and stapled fabric to the mud walls. This gives them a huge improvement in quality of life. They now have a surface on the floor that they can wash, and the bright fabric patterns on the walls lift their spirits.

The first chlorination system mock-up

I was on the fifth team. We are working on a chlorination system that will make the city water supply safe to drink without boiling for the first time… ever. We dry-fitted two chlorination systems (one for each water tank) to determine the dimensions of the block building that we would build atop the tank to contain the system. We also needed to ensure that we had all of the parts that we needed. After that, we went out to purchase enough cinder blocks to get started on one of the structures. We also hired a local mason to help us (mixing concrete is a little different, since they do not have bags of ready-mix in Ethiopia) and a horse-drawn cart to deliver the blocks to the tank.

After a late lunch, we all headed back to our hotel in Addis Ababa to inventory and seperate all of our supplies that we would need for the rest of the week. (we brought a couple dozen suitcases full of vinyl and fabric from the States)

Pile of dung patties

One thing that I saw today that I will never forget is this lady that we saw working near the water tank. In Sendafa, there are a lot of cattle, and not a lot of extra to use as fuel, so people use dry dung to burn for cooking fires. On the way to the village this morning, I noticed there were nicely shaped dung patties of uniform size stacked in piles for sale along the road. I knew someone had to have formed them into patties, but I had no idea how… until I saw this lady. She had a large pile of dung to which she would add some water to small amount of it at a time and pat this dung mixture into “cakes”… with her bare hands. You read that right. Bare hands. No gloves. She had dung covering her hands and halfway up to her elbows. After the patties dried in the sun, she would stack them to sell and make another batch. This is how she made her meager living.

To think that we complain about our cushy 9-5 jobs or our long commutes, or that we shake our fist at some jerk that cut us off and delayed us by about 2 seconds…

This was day one of a painful yet cleansing heart transformation process.

Packing Day

Today we had our final team meeting before D-day. (departure day) It's hard to believe that next Sunday morning we will be leaving on our 7,000 mile trip to Ethiopia!

The main purpose of the meeting was to get all of our supplies packed into bags. Since each of us is allowed two checked suitcases and a carry-on, we take only one personal bag and pack the other one with supplies we will need for the trip. Most of what we packed was vinyl for the floors of the homes we will be visiting and fabric for the walls. We also had to pack the tools we will need, food for our bag lunches, and vitamins for the kids. With a fifty pound limit, we made good use of each bag and packed each to the max. We utilized a digital scale and got most of them in the 45+ pound range. I saw several that were 49.5 and 49.7 pounds.

Out of the 17 team members from our church and 5 from another local church, at least 8 were trip veterans who have been Sendafa 4 or 5 times already, so they had a lot of good advice.

Next Sunday we will meet at 10am and load up for our trip down to Dulles International Airport in Washington D.C. Everyone is welcome to join us for a send-off prayer just prior to 11am. If you cannot attend, please be in prayer for us at that time or anytime that day.

We should arrive in Sendafa Monday evening where we will settle into our hotel and get for our week in the village. I think I can speak for all of us, when I say that we are honored and humbled to be afforded this opportunity to be the hands and feet of Jesus. My prayer is that the people of Ethiopia see Jesus through us and we are able to share about our Relationship with Him.

Vitamins!

Anther bit of news that we just learned about our rapidly approaching trip is that we will have the opportunity to visit some of the kids that are on our vitamin program and help distribute some of the vitamins.

Bianca is very excited about this opportunity. She cannot wait to see those smiling little faces and share some love and hugs. Can you blame her?

Chlorination!

We just heard the exciting news! After months of trying, we finally were able to get the chlorine into Sendafa for the new chlorination system.

Last year we completed drilling a fresh water well that adequately supplies the village with water, only to find out that the water contains over eight times the acceptable level of bacteria. The clinic doctors say that 80% of the illness that they treat is due to ingesting contaminated water. To solve this problem, we purchased a chlorination system, but we unable to install it due to the unavailability of chlorine in the area. In fact, we could not get any in the entire country!

A few weeks ago, we were asked to have a couple of the more mechanically-inclined members of the team on standby in case the chlorine arrived in time for us to set up the equipment. I was excited, because from what I've been told, this is the first system of it's kind in the entire country! Well, I am sure that God shared our enthusiasm, because He opened doors in customs and allowed the proper chemicals to be cleared after months of trying. I am very excited to have the privilege of helping out on a project of this magnitude.