Our three oldest children (Liz, Ben and Savannah) spent their summer in Ethiopia on a missions project with a Campus Crusade ministry called MK2MK (Missionary Kid to Missionary Kid). Below you will find their words and their pictures describing their experience. A hearty THANK YOU to those who prayed and gave to make their summer mission possible.
LIZ: "Heart-breaking injustice, unspeakable poverty."
I couldn’t put words behind the things I was seeing as I climbed up the pile of trash. The worst stench I had ever smelled entered my nose as the two girls holding my hands helped me find my footing. I tried not to gag. My shoes and pants were covered in mud and filth. I was walking through a dump, and surrounding me were pieces of glass, AIDS tests from a hospital, feces, streams of urine, and much other grime and waste. Also surrounding me were at least a hundred dark faces, young children and frail elderly, digging through it all persistently. This was their existence.
I was walking through the Korah dump. Korah is a slum of over 130,000 people in Addis Ababa. A former leper colony, it attracted the beggars, prostitutes, HIV positive people, and society’s rejects for 75 years, growing into the huge community it is today.
God did many things in my heart this summer. Seeing the poverty, I really began to reflect on the brokenness of the world. However, God has provided the Answer, Jesus Christ. Christ brings hope, and I want to share that hope with the nations.
BEN: "The harvest is plentiful in Ethiopia!"
The ministry I was a part of did initiative evangelism at major Ethiopian
colleges. Because of my evangelism background of Europe, I was skeptical
going into it. But the second we began, I knew that that was right for me. One day I talked to three little boys and within ten minutes they were asking the money question: “How can I have a personal relationship with Jesus?”
I loved my conversations I had with students about the Gospel and God used me and my Ethiopian translator to bring 11 people to Him! Praise the Lord! Ethiopians are so willing and so open about the Gospel. The harvest is plentiful in Ethiopia!
SAVANNAH: "I am more blessed than I ever could imagine!"
When I walked into the nursery at the Ethiopian orphanage, the first thing that caught my eye was a cockroach crawling from the bed sheets into the pillowcase. The filth in the orphanage was overwhelming. It smelled like a mixture of urine and rotting food...I just wanted to go back outside and play with the older kids.
Despite my inner complaints, I was handed a small Ethiopian child, who couldn’t have been more than three years old. My heart broke for the girl whose life was rapidly coming to an end. She had growths on her face that looked like warts, but were caused by her illness—she was HIV positive.
Spending time with the orphans who had nothing but were filled with hope was so heart‐warming. The joy of knowing Jesus was one of the few joys they knew. It was moving to see how content they were, their home being a filthy orphanage with no personal possessions except for the clothes on their backs. It made me realize that I am blessed—way, way more than I could’ve ever imagined.
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