Moria'h Boys and Staff, We'll Miss You (March 9)

Jerry and Wanna hand out gifts and certificates from Moria'h House to our small mission team.  Here, Jerry holds a certificate recognizing  my home church and our dedication to international mission work.

Jean receives a hug from Wanna as she, too, gets her gift and certificates.  Our time with these devoted people at Moria'h House was very special, indeed.  Hugs were the order of the day...every day.

Here, Brad demostrates an Ethiopian greeting by shaking Wanna's hand and then touching his right shoulder to Wanna's right shoulder.  This was a sign of affection we often participated in.

Jean received this lovely deep red scarf as a remembrance of our time here.

Here, the whole gang gets together for one last photo before we prepare to depart for the airport.  We had a wonderful time getting to know everyone.  We sang praises to our Lord together.  We prayed together.  We laughed and played together.  We ate together.  We built relationships that spanned two continents, two cultures and thousands of miles.  We came together with one thing in mind...to glorify our Lord, Jesus Christ, by serving the "least of these," our new and eternal friends at Moria'h House in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.

Non-stop All the Way, Baby! (Feb. 26-27)

Ethiopian Airlines is the largest air carrier in all of Africa. To our great pleasure, Jean, Brad and I boarded the maiden Boeing 777 in the fleet and flew non-stop all the way from Dulles International in Washington to Bole International in Addis Ababa. We disembarked 12 ½ hours later after an uneventful flight, very tired, but happy to be at our destination and prepared to meet our hosts for the next week plus.

Once we got through customs and retrieved our baggage, all eight large and heavy suitcases full, we moved out into the main terminal lobby where, in no time at all, we had lovely warm greetings all around. Four of the Moria’h House staff, Jerry, Wanna, Ady and Mike (pronounced Mickey), were on hand to offer big hugs, and three of the youngest residents of Moria’h House shyly presented each of us with yellow and red roses.

We quickly loaded a couple of vehicles and came to the Yeka Guest House where we are staying, and settled into our rooms. Jean had prepared beautiful wedding photo albums as a gift for Jerry, our good friend who had gotten married just a few months ago, so they took time to look at them together. Then, the three women donned “magic bubble” shirts Karen had supplied for a very colorful picture.

Jerry, Wanna, and the entire Moria’h House staff realized that we would be very fatigued from a long flight and an eight hour time difference, so no activities were planned for us on this first day. We went by taxi, which in Addis Ababa means one of the hundreds of small blue and white vans that traverse the city streets, to a local restaurant frequented by ferengis (white foreigners), had a tasty Italian lunch, and then returned to our rooms to relax, sleep and re-energize ourselves so we could be ready to get rolling with our mission efforts on Monday.

At the end of our travel day, we indeed felt as though we’d been going non-stop (well, we actually HAD been) for about 28 hours. But it was all good and we are very glad to be here.

Ethiopia Bound

Five days remain before I’ll be taking a 15 ½ hour flight from Washington, DC to Addis Ababa with my friends, Brad and Jean.  The three of us are going on a mission trip to work with the Moria’h Deliverance of Ethiopian Children (more commonly called Moria’h House) evangelical ministry.  This ministry provides a much needed service to many boys living on the streets of the Ethiopian capital city.  The boys range from only eight or nine years old all the way up to young adulthood.  Some have run away from difficult family situations.  Others are orphans, or children whose parents could no longer feed them.  All are perfect recipients of the care and service which the dedicated staff at Moria’h House offer by way of providing meals, counseling, academic tutoring, other forms of assistance, and most importantly, an introduction to the love and grace of Jesus Christ.

During the course of our 11 days in Ethiopia between February 27 and March 9, we will share the joy of serving our Lord with these fine people, many of whom began caring for the poor and needy among them while they themselves were yet a part of that group.  We will teach English, share Bible lessons, serve meals to dozens if not hundreds of street boys, play games, laugh and sing, pray with and simply open our hearts and minds to whatever it is God has in store for us and those with whom we come in contact.  This is a ministry run by volunteers who know beyond all doubt that the promises of Jesus Christ are real.  Even as we seek to work with them and share ourselves through faith, we will learn from these young and devoted Christians and tap into their energy.  It is infectious, you know.

We will be posting regular updates to this blog so that you can be a part of our experiences in as close to real-time as possible.  Join us as we learn about love and grace in action, and add your smiles to the boys of Moria’h House, especially once we've taught them to play American football!  Or perhaps you will be laughing instead at our attempts to keep up with them playing Ethiopian football (soccer).  Either way, our journey will be enlightening, thought-provoking, exciting, joyful, spiritual and probably many more adjectives that will come forth in future posts.  Stay tuned.