Leaving For Africa in One Month!!

I can't believe how close we are to heading back to Ethiopia for our second annual mission trip. We are taking two teams this year back to back. Around 50 people will be traveling between the two teams to love and serve the orphans and children in need in Ethiopia. It is truly amazing to look back and see the lives that were changed just one year ago and all that has taken place since then. It really does put into perspective the power of one mission trip. There were 22 of us last year and all of us were wrecked to make a difference by the time we came back.

One community that hit us hard with more love and poverty than we had ever seen was the trash dump community of Korah.

You can watch our day in Korah HERE. You will see that we were partnering with P61 and looking for sponsors to help get the kids out of the dump and into a boarding school. My friend, Sumer, moved her family to this community to help the children there.

Wellllll.....when we returned and I put out that video, we were able to max the school out with sponsored kids to the point that they couldn't take anymore. We helped bring around 150 more sponsors in for these kids, maxing the school out at close to 250! Unbelievable to take children from here......

 to here......

Also while on this trip we saw the need for a water well in this community. My team came back and fundraised, with the help of many of you, and we have around $18,000 to donate toward clean water in that community, which they are working out the details for now! We also found our own children to sponsor and made life changing relationships with these kids that now consider us family.

Also, while on this trip I went in with my camera, ready to advocate for the waiting children. So many of them found their forever families. The best part! A couple of the team members found their forever children on our trip and came home and started the process. Two of those children are now home with thier families.Below we have the awesome Kelly Bullock who adopted Mercy, and who is now our OH Ethiopia Missions Coordinator!!

 And here we have Gina Payne, who adopted Mamo, and is now our OH Affiliate Fundraising Super Coach!!

So awesome to see God at work here. I did not know either of these ladies one year ago. Now they have their new children because of that trip, and are serving for OH!! Awesome!!

There were two sisters who we advocated for that STILL have not found their forever family. We will be seeing them again and PRAYING a family steps up for these two. They are simply precious!!

Of course we can't forget the life changing impact this trip had on Ashli. After the trip, she moved over in November and is now serving there full time. She never could have imagined how her life would change in just a few months.

On this trip we served in the city and outside the city to the country community. We loved, we fed, we clothed, we played soccer, did arts and crafts and much, much more. Hearts were linked! To see pics from our trip, start to finish, you can go to the link on our OH site, HERE. 

Now this year, we get to turn around and do it all again, only on two different teams!! We have several that are returning from last year to join us again. I am so excited to see what amazing relationships and adventures lie ahead with these upcoming teams. I hope to introduce the team on the blog before too long. Of course in four weeks you will all be able to follow along on our journey from this blog as you watch us travel over and serve our hearts out. 

Here is a video of us in action from our OH mission trip last year, put to an awesome song by Kristi Neumann, who is donating the proceeds of this song to OH for grants. This will give you an idea of who we have waiting in store for us to come serve. These kids will simply take your breath away!

Silence my music on right side bar to watch below or click HERE to go to the direct link.


Ordinary Hero & Kristi Neumann Help Bring Waiting Children Home from Kelly Putty on Vimeo.