I Want to Know Your God

As I write this, and am overflowing with excitement! This story is incredible! Let me slow down and tell you from the beginning...

My wife and I visited this woman when we were in Sendafa in January. She and her husband have HIV and are currently on anti-retro viral drugs that we are providing to almost 500 people in the village of Sendafa. Their two children also have HIV.

She is a stay at home Mother and her Husband has no full time job. He works wherever and whenever he can find odd jobs to do. He also rents some weaving equipment and makes beautiful cloth (she is holding some in the picture), but he cannot afford the supplies that he needs to make enough to sell in the market.

Shortly after we left, the PAAV (Project Adopt a Villeage) staff contacted the man and told him that we could help him with a small business loan in order for him to purchase the weaving equipment (rather than rent it) and get enough supplies to begin weaving full time.

He was elated and immediately began weaving full time. He and his wife now sell his fabric in the market and make enough money to support their children comfortably. He has even been able to open a small savings account in the village's new bank and is making payments on his loan already. When he talked to Dr. Frew he said that he was so proud and happy "because my children are no longer hungry". (Bianca and I wept when we heard this)

But wait! ...it get's better! When Pastor Steve Almquist was telling us this story this morning he also shared the best part: Two week ago, as Dr. Frew was leaving the clinic, this man was waiting for him outside the gate. He said that he did not have an appointment, but wished to speak to him. He then thanked Dr. Frew for all that we had done to help him, and told him "I want to know your God. I want to worship the God that you worship. Please tell me about him." As Doctor Frew told the man about our God, he accepted the Lord as his Savior on the spot! He then asked the Doctor to come talk to his brother about Jesus too. The brother has not yet accepted Christ, but with our prayers and your prayers, I have a feeling that he will soon.

This family attended Church last Sunday for the first time in their lives and they plan on attending regularly. God is so good!

It is so encouraging to hear how God is working in the hearts of these people in our village of Sendafa, even while we cannot be there. Please join us in prayer that may Ethipian's will come to experience the over-whelming grace and love of God and will invite Him into their hearts.

God bless you, and God bless Sendafa!

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.

Push Back The Darkness

This month at Living Word Community Church, we are presenting our Global Missions Focus. As I sat and listened to the guest speaker yesterday morning, one thing that he said kept ringing in my head. This morning and throughout the day it continued to echo in my head over and over. What he said was: "Push back the darkness!" The way that he pronounced it, it was almost a rally cry or a command. Maybe that it why in embedded itself so deeply in my mind.

One scripture that the speaker focused on was Romans 10: 13-17.
  
¹³For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.
 ¹⁴How then shall they call on him in whom they have not believed? and how shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard? and how shall they hear without a preacher?
 ¹⁵And how shall they preach, except they be sent? as it is written, How beautiful are the feet of them that preach the gospel of peace, and bring glad tidings of good things!

I love these verses. Contained in them are a promise, a logical progression of thought, a conclusion, and a statement of the reward that comes to those who reach out to others with the gospel.

Of course, other that the promise of Salvation, the most important message in this passage is the question of how shall people hear the Word without a Preacher. A Preacher can be anyone. You do not need to be ordained and licensed to tell others the Good News. This is why Missions is so important. By supporting missions, you are indirectly reaching people that you would never have the opportunity to speak to.

I encourage each of you to give to your local Missions programs through your Church. Please also consider supporting Ethiopia.

Ethiopia Yearning...

I was just sitting here, minding my own business, when it hit me... hard. I miss Ethiopia so badly. The sounds, the sites, the smells, the foods, the scenery, but most of all, the people... especially the kids.

It could be any number of things that make me miss it so much. The slower pace lifestyle, the way people treat each other with respect and courtesy, the way the kids smile even though they have almost nothing, the way you are treated almost as a celebrity...

I guess now would be as good a time as ever to tell all of you that: WE ARE GOING BACK NEXT YEAR!!! I can't wait! I am willing to bet that our next trip is going to be even more amazing than the first. As far as I am concerned, the time can not pass fast enough.

It is not too soon to begin praying for our trip. We want God to use us in an even bigger way this year. I would also like you to consider supporting our trip. In a few months I will be putting up a donate button for contribution.



Thanks for reading, and don't forget to pray for Ethiopia!

New Slideshow

I hope you enjoy the pictures in the slideshow below. The song is "My Own Little World" by Matthew West.

God bless you and God bless Ethiopia.

Life Without Grandparents

Imagine your life without your grandparents. They may have passed on by now, but chances are you were able to spend time with them at some point. They held you on their laps, hugged you, and spoiled you.

Many kids in Ethiopia never even get to meet their grandparents. Why? Because the average life expectancy for a man in Ethiopia is only 52 years and for a woman it is 55 years. The main reason for this is sickness and HIV AIDS.

This is why the Adopt a Village program is so important. Our church is helping raise the standard of living in Sendafa, Ethiopia one person at a time. The clinic that is made possible through this funding helps dozens of people every day with a wide range of illnesses. We now have 500 women on our drug program who are receiving Anti-retroviral at no cost. In many cases, not only do these drugs extend their lives, but it allows them to become productive members of the town again.

 My hope and prayer is that through our support and love for the people of Sendafa, we will begin to see children with grandparents in the years to come.

God bless Ethiopia, and God bless Sendafa!

Guest Writer - Dan Butera

 Dan Butera is a man that I met during my trip to Ethiopia. He and his wife are the hands and feet of the Lord every day as they care for the people of Ethiopia, specifically the poor women who are forced to earn a living by selling their bodies. Dan impressed me with his obvious passion for Ethiopia right away. He had a wealth of knowledge about the culture and history of the land and yes, he speaks the language. Please read about his story below, as written by him.

I live in Ethiopia. And it isn't weird for me. Though I sometimes wonder if it should be. I grew up in York, Pennsylvania and never moved outside of Pennsylvania until I moved here. Growing up in York, I didn't have any Ethiopian friends and I knew very little about Ethiopia itself. It wasn't something that I really ever thought about until one semester in college when I became friends with another student who just happened to be an Ethiopian. All throughout that semester I thought about Ethiopia and by the end of the semester it was largely dominating my thoughts. It was that following summer that I took my first trip here. I came with Living Word Church in York to work on their village adopting project. Even before I took that trip, I somehow knew that I would someday live in Ethiopia. This was only confirmed to me by the pilot's announcement when we landed in Addis Ababa. He said "For those of you who have a connecting flight, we wish you a safe rest of your journey. And for those of you who are coming home, welcome home." He didn't say anything about those of us who were just there for a trip. This may be a small and trivial thing, but I really felt like I was coming home. I clearly remember stepping out of the airport and the rest of that week. I fell in love with Ethiopia. I had found my home. 

Through the years I continued to come back to Ethiopia. Planning longer and longer trips each time. My love for Ethiopia grew more and more each time. I also fell in love with a woman over here (which made it much easier to make the move!). I met Ruth on my third trip to Ethiopia and we developed our friendship through email and the few times when I would make a trip here. We were married on November 28th, 2009 and couldn't be happier about it. Ruth has been an amazing support to me as I have dealt with all the issues that come with moving to a new country.

I was eager to find some way to help the poor and destitute. Each trip that I took to Ethiopia I stayed with my friend Dr. Frew, who also works with Living Word on their project. He has also worked on another project for a number of years called Operation Love Never Fails (OLNF). Each time I came here I learned more and more about that project and also grew closer with Frew. The OLNF offers a helping hand to women looking to get out of prostitution. The main area where the work is done is one of the worst red light districts in Addis Ababa. The women here live in such dire straits that it is incomprehensible. The get paid an average of fifteen US cents for every customer that comes by, the maximum that they will get paid is about one US dollar (and that is only when a guy decides to spend the night). Many of them have children, who are exposed to their mothers' work as they grow up - in fact, the children will often sleep on the top bunk of the bed while their mother works on the lower bunk. To make it all worse, their landlords charge them extremely high rent. We have heard of some women having to pay as much as three US dollars per day. You can do the math and figure out how many guys they need to be with each day just to pay the rent, let alone buying food and paying bills. Needless to say, these women work twenty-four hours per day and rarely ever get a break.

I had, of course, heard so many stories throughout my life about people who live in poverty and all of the problems that come with that. But I never fully understood what that looked like until I saw this red light district. I could never have imagined that a place with this much despair existed. I knew that this was the project that I wanted to help out with, quite possibly the very reason that I came to Ethiopia in the first place. I started to talk to Frew and figure out how I could best help him and support him. I quickly realized that the immediate need was financial. It is quite difficult to do fund raising in Ethiopia, so I looked to other options (such as raising money in the US). I set up a non-profit organization in the US called Fields of Hope. The sole purpose of this organization is to raise money for the Operation Love Never Fails project. We are nearly two years into this combined effort and have already seen a number of exciting things happen. 

For example, a few months ago we registered around forty children for school. This involved buying them all the necessary school supplies, buying their uniforms and paying their tuition. The coolest thing is that all of these children's mothers were previously working as prostitutes and now have other jobs. Not only that, but these children now have an opportunity in life. Far too often in that red light district the daughters of the women will start to work as prostitutes themselves, sometimes as young as seven years old! It was so amazing to see these children, with big smiles on their faces, standing next to their moms, who had a sense of relief on their faces. The children were wearing their uniforms and were so excited about their new school supplies. That is a moment that I can never forget!

I would really like to see this project expand. Actually, Frew and I have often talked of how amazing it would be if we could one day help every woman in that red light district and then close the place down. Right now, because of financial constraints, we are mainly focusing on helping the women in smaller ways. These ways include finding them some small jobs, providing them micro-loans, getting their children in school and various other ways that we can currently support them. It is our dream, however, to be able to open a number of social businesses with the sole intent of providing these women with fair wages so that they can fully support themselves and their families. One idea is to open a coffee shop/bakery. In Ethiopia, coffee shops are very much a part of the culture and people may even go to coffee shops a few times each day. It would be a very profitable business, which would allow the women to receive very fair salaries. It would also help to boost the confidence of these women, as they would have a well paying job that isn't so destructive as what they did before.

One other thing that I always try to do when I talk to people about Ethiopia is to break the stereotype about this country. Before I came here, I didn't know what to expect. I knew little more about Ethiopia than the famines and poverty. What I have come to learn since moving here is that it is such an amazing country. The nature is vast and incredible. There is a ton of water, in fact a large part of the Nile Basin is in Ethiopia. There are waterfalls and lakes. There are mountains. There are cold areas and hot (in Addis, where I live, the year round temperatures range between 45-90 degrees). It is an amazingly beautiful country right with history. A place definitely worth visiting in your life!

If you are interested in reading more about what we do or to stay up to date with the work that we are doing, please check out our website www.FieldsofHope.net

Thank you for your time,

Dan Butera

Compassion

Before our trip to Ethiopia, I had an entirely different definition of this word. Compassion. What is it? Let's start with Webster's definition: "sympathetic consciousness of others' distress together with a desire to alleviate it". Keep that definition in mind for later...

In America, we have so many programs, charities, and services that provide for our poor and suffering, that it is very difficult to find someone who does not truly have their basic needs taken care of. America's most poor often have more than some the majority of people in third world countries. So we have devoloped this attitude in our society that our poor do not really need our help. It is easy to dismiss them as we go through our day to day lives. Afterall, our government has what I refer to as "mandatory charity". You contribute to programs and services through your taxes whether you choose to or not.


Ethiopia has no such programs. Folks who lose their means of support who cannot beg, borrow, or steal, often waste away into nothing and die. Their hungry and homeless do not need signs to draw your sympathy. Most times it is pointless for them to beg anyway, because those their are providing for their families do not have any extra. Have you ever heard anyone say that they "are just surviving"? In Ethiopia, this could not be more true for most folks. They are not worried about being boring, how to entertain themselves, or how they are going to get their next thrill. They are just surviving.


What did Jesus have to say about the poor?

Mark 10:14b: "...Suffer the little children to come unto me, and forbid them not: for of such is the kingdom of God."


Jesus had a tender place in His heart for the poor and he an even more tender place for the children. Maybe this is why we are so drawn to the poor children with those large, innocent brown eyes.

 This man's image will be permanently etched into my mind. He met us three days in a row where we unloaded the vans each day and split up into teams. He kept asking us for money, hold a 50 cent piece in his bony outstretched hand. His feet were a horrible sight, mangled from walking through the rocks with no shoes. He was blind in one eye and looked as though he would crumble at any minute. 


We were not allowed to give out food or money, because would cause a mob scene that could injure us or the people. Any money or supplies to be distributed to the poor must be given to Dr. Frew and he distributes as he sees the needs arise. He knows who is the most needy.


On our last day in the village, we were passing out a case of cheese crackers amongst the team, because we were planning to have a late lunch. I saw this man standing in the middle of us, staring longingly at that case of crackers without saying a word. I was glad to see that the girl who was handing them out silently slipped him a pack and I was almost drawn to tears as he sat down immediately on the edge of the sidewalk and ate those crackers. I was heartbroken when I recalled an recent incident in Baltimore when I tried to give a bag of Fritos to man with a "will work for food" sign, and he rudely refused them.


Luke 4:18- "The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised..."

My first day back to work, I had to go to Baltimore, and when I stopped at a traffic light downtown, a man approached me with a sign that said "homeless" and a large cup. I couldn't help but notice that his clothes were far nicer than the people of Sendafa that did have homes were wearing. As I pushed a dollar into his cup, I winced when I realized that the amount of money in that cup could feed an entire family in Ethiopia for a month. I was angry and confused... the though haunted me the rest of the day.

I have had to reanalyze my personal definition of compassion. While I feel brokenhearted for the people of Ethiopia, I cannot let this harden my heart against our own poor and hurting souls in America. Whether their signs advertising their status are legitimate or not, it only hurts me when I refuse to help. If it takes donating to ten posers to help that one person who legitimately needs help, I will be better for it, and God will judge those who take advantage of my generosity.


Any thoughts?

The only difference between them and us...

A family in Ethiopia makes an average of 25 American dollars per month. To put that into perspective, a new pair of pants would cost them around 12 dollars.

In Sendafa, a village of around 2,000 people, nearly 50% of the village has HIV / AIDS. Without proper medication, the adults are soon unable to work, which leaves the young teenage kids to provide for the families.

The homes are made from whatever materials that can be found. Most of them are made from corn stalk or straw and mud with only openings for doors and windows. The roofs are rusty, leaky corrugated steel or thatch.

In America, the average family makes in excess of $50,000 per year, placing them in the top 5% wealthiest people in the world. A family making $80,000 is in the top 3% wealthiest in the world.

So what is the difference between us and them? It's as simple as where we were born. That's it.

It is humbling when you think about it. The important thing to remember is Luke 12:48: "For unto whomsoever much is given, of him shall be much required: and to whom men have committed much, of him they will ask the more."

In other words: He whom much is given, much is expected. Are we living up to God's expectations of us?

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.

Introduction

My wife Bianca and I have had a burden for Mission's work for quite some time now. In 2008, we moved to York, Pennsylvania, where God blessed us with an amazing church. Living Word Community Church is a place full of grace and generosity and love. We were immediately struck with the love of God in the faces around us from our first Sunday visit. It felt like home. Months later, I know that God brought us here for a reason. As we became more and more involved in the ministry, the uniqueness of this Church in sharing the love and beauty of God's Grace became more and more evident. We have met the most amazing, caring, genuine people here that I have met in my entire life.

One of the things that I that I love most about LWCC, is that this is no Sunday morning church. Living Word is the most active and generous church that I have ever been a part of. The impact that they have on the immediate community and communities all over the world is very significant. All of these things guided us towards our decision to join a Mission's trip.

We became members of LWCC in April of 2010. In August, we were sitting in a service that was dedicated to sharing the stories of a recent medical Mission's trip to Sendafa, Ethiopia. My wife and I felt as if every person who shared their story was speaking directly to us. Halfway through the presentation, Bianca and I looked at each other and both mouthed the words "We're going". Immediately, I felt a sense of calm wash over me, and I knew that God was in it, and He wanted us to go.

That same day, I filled out the applications for the trip, and within a week we were having a sit-down meeting with Andy, the Mission's Team Leader. He told us all about the trip scheduled for the last week of January. Our Church had adopted a village through a program call Project Adopt a Village, or PAAV. Andy said that we had been approved to join the group. I cannot express the excitement and anticipation we felt. The more we learned about all that our Church was doing to help those in Sendafa, the more excited we were to be a part of it all. You can read a full write up of all of the programs here.

Andy explained that we schedule three trips per year. A medical trip, a lady's trip, and a visitation trip. The January trip would be a visitation trip. We would divide the team members into groups of four or five people, each with an interpreter. We would visit people in the village of Sendafa who are inflicted with HIV/Aids. (Pastor calls Aids the modern-day Leprosy, and we all know that Jesus had a special place in His heart for those people) While we visit each home, we bring along fabric and vinyl (similar to a pool liner). We put the vinyl on the dirt floor and staple the fabric to the mud walls. From what I have heard, this is a major improvement in the quality of life for these people, and it costs us less than $20 per home. Our main purpose is to share the love and grace of God to each of these people that we visit. Our ultimate hope is that in showing God's love, we will be able to arrange a meeting with the One who has extended this same love and grace to us.

I will be providing more information in future days, and I hope you will all check back often. Bianca and I will both be keeping daily journals of our trip, which I will post here, as well as a few pictures of our trip. We leave in just 15 days on January 23rd, 2011.