You Can Help in Ethiopia!!

The following post is from Tom Davis' Blog. He is doing amazing work around the world on behalf of orphans and is right now in Ethiopia.

The Poorest of the Poor

Today our team had the privilege of being with some of the poorest people in Addis Ababa. Mother Teresa used to say that by serving the poor she could be with Jesus all the time. That's what today felt like.
The first orphan care point was called "Gospel for all Nations." 42 children are helped by this ministry, but the help is extremely scarce. They don't have any sponsorship or funding coming in. The little they do have is money the pastor takes from his own pocket. Just like Walter in Swaziland...

The children are orphans--sons and daughters of prostitutes.

We went to their homes. We touched their faces. We hugged them as if they were our own.

The place was filthy and filled with stench but we knew God had us there for a reason, to see what Jesus looks like is the worst of circumstances.

I met an 18 year old sex worker with a baby. She was really a beautiful girl and one of our team members asked why she sold her body.

"So I can have food to eat," she replied.

Nobody should be forced to sell themselves so they don't starve.

The second home we visited is called Shalom, it is a place for street kids. These kids have been abused in the most horrible ways. The boys and girls have been raped and most of them have HIV/AIDS. One boy had TB so bad he coughed the entire afternoon.

They slept on the hard wood floor of this run down building trying to stay safe from the evil that waited for them outside the door.

One saint of a lady named Telagne has given her life to serve these kids. They have absolutely no support. I asked her where they got money for the little food they had. She said, "from my wages." I was awed by her sacrifice.

We canceled the rest of our plans for the evening and decided to have a HUGE pizza party complete with Coke, Fanta, and bananas!

The kids said to us, "we've never had a Coke before."

Tomorrow we're buying them mattresses, blankets, shoes, and food. Oh, my heart is broken for these kids. They are just children, 7, 9, 12 years being the oldest.

At the end they asked if they could pray for us. Are you kidding?

We stood in a circle and they stretched out their hands toward us, blessed us, and prayed for us.

I've never been so humbled.

I saw the Kingdom of God in a new light today. I long for Christ to come back not so I can have a mansion in the sky or to get my eternal reward, instead I want him to come back so these children don't have to suffer anymore. No more pain, no evil perpetrated on them day and night, no tears, ever again.

If you want to help with the expenses for the shoes, food, blankets, and mattresses (we're buying these things out of pocket right now in Ethiopia), just give online at put "Shalom Ethiopia" in your note. GO HERE: Children's Hopechest

Drawn From Water

I stumbled across someone else's blog post about this amazing organization and just had to share it with you. Drawn From Water is rescuing children in Ethiopia. These children are born into the Kara tribe in southern Ethiopia. The tribe is intensely superstitious and believes they must kill children they believe to be cursed. It is heartbreaking. Go to their website to read the whole story.....those who started this orphanage for these children and rescued them from being drowned in the river are an incredible example of what it means to be the hands and feet of Jesus. I am inspired by their story and challenged to be more like them. They saw a need in these children and did something about it. Amazing. Be sure to click on "get involved" to see what you can do to help!

Drawn from Water from Drawn From Water on Vimeo.

More Kiddos....

AWAA has several families in Ethiopia to pick up their kids this week!! If you'd like to follow along, their blogs are listed below:

Kulps
Luncefords
Kobys
Joneses
Rovangs
Crowells
Moffatts
Bartels

YAY!! :)

Worthy

Acts 4:12
12 Nor is there salvation in any other, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.”

I borrowed the following post from the "I Support Adoptions" website......we've heard some of the statistics before, but I think is important that we remind ourselves so as not to lose sight of the reality of the orphan crisis.

Abandoned and Orphaned The best available estimate is that 143 million children are abandoned and orphaned worldwide. Less than 1% of orphans are adopted.

Can you make a difference in the life of just one?

Orphanages There are anywhere from two to five million orphans in orphanages worldwide, an estimate that is in-line with the Human Rights Watch World Report. The vast majority of orphans are found in third world nations.

Child Trafficking and Slavery There are more slaves today than any other time of history, many of whom are children. It is estimated that 1.2 million children are trafficked every year for exploitation purposes such as forced labor, commercial sexual exploitation and other forms of slavery.

Orphans In Africa Since 1990, the number of orphans from all causes has decreased in Asia, Latin America and the Caribbean, but has risen by 50% in Sub-Saharan Africa (from 30.9 million to 53.1 million). The government of Kenya predicts that within the next 10 years, 1 out of every 5 children will be an orphan.

The Most Vulnerable and Alone Every 2.2 seconds, a child loses a parent due to war, natural disaster, poverty, disease and other causes. Every 15 seconds, a child somewhere in the world dies from a water-related disease such as parasite and worm infection, diarrhea or typhoid.

At-Risk Children More than 1 billion people live on less than a dollar a day. One of our goals at I Support Adoptions is to prevent children from being abandoned or placed for adoption and help biological families care for their children.

Resources: UNICEF, UN, SOS, Feed the Children

Six Months

Yep, that's right.....we've been waiting for 6 months now! So, I am guessing another 4 months or so before our referral. The most recent referrals have been given out approximately 10 months after people's DTE dates. Now, of course, if you'd like to pray that it is sooner, we won't stop you!

We follow an "unofficial" list on our Yahoo group of people waiting for referrals. We say "unofficial" because there are some people who are working with our agency who don't choose to be a part of the YG, and so there are always mystery families. Our agency does not put out an official list, so this is the best we can do! (we have some pretty good spies, though!)
Anyway, according to that list we are approximately 13 in line for an infant boy and somewhere around 20 for an infant girl. Pretty exciting to watch your name slowly creep up the list!! Here's hoping for lots of April referrals!!!

Passed Court

We've had some exciting times with our agency recently - LOTS of referrals in March and several who have passed court recently! Below are a few of the blogs with pictures of their kids that I could find. Enjoy!

The Kulp Family
The Rutland Family
The Rothermund Family
The Van Druff Family
The Jones Family