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.

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!

Defeating a pandemic one child at a time

-TWO MILLION PEOPLE die each year from AIDS.

-TWO MILLION children under age 15 are HIV-positive.

-ONE THOUSAND children become infected each day.

-NINE OUT OF TEN children who are affected by AIDS live in Africa.

(statistics from UNICEF)

Compassion's AIDS Initiative provides the following:

1. Prevention
-health and prevention education
-mother-to-child transmission prevention
-initial testing

2. Treatment
-transportation to and from clinics
aniretroviral therapy (ART) and other medicinal support
-combating opportunistic infections and diseases (TB, malaria, etc.)
-nutritional supplements to aid treatment.

3. Rehabilitative care
-direct, ongoing health monitoring
-housing/shelter assistance
-income-generation assistance

Visit Comppasion's AIDS Inititive website here and help create hope one child at a time today.

Even $5 per month can make a difference. I support this cause and I challenge you to do the same.
God Bless,
-Micah

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

The Children of Sendafa

 Another day in Nigeria the children beg for bread
The crops failed, the well ran dry
When they lost the watershed
A baby dies, its mother cries the children gather 'round

They're wondering what the day will bring
Will they be the next one found
Do you dare to look into their hollow eyes
In the crowded sheds the children lay their heads
To escape the Haitian heat

The hunger pains drive them to the street
Wondering if today they'll eat
Some found food in the refuse heap
Others find disease

Some find it harder just to live
When they can die with ease
Do you dare to look into their hollow eyes

The least of these is hungry
The least of these is sick
The least of these needs clothing
The least of these needs drink

The least of these knows sorrow
The least of these knows grief
The least of these suffers pain

Lyrics from "Hollow Eyes" by Petra - describing the life of children in third world countries and challenging us to do something about it.



Click here to hear the song on Youtube.

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.

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?

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.