Team 3 has safely landed on the ground in Addis. Today we visited Resurrection Orphanage. Can we say LOVE? Everyone loved on all those adorable children. But what I think surprised us the most is how much they loved back. They were truly happy. It was precious. Our team had a special treat for some of the older children at Resurrection. They have recently been adopted (praise the Lord), but we were told that often times teams come in to visit, they say hi, give them a hug and make a mad dash for the babies and toddlers. When Tabitha Gilliland ( who is not on our trip, but is Brent Armstrong's daughter) heard this, she took on a major project of collecting gifts for each of the older children. She made sure to get their sizes and their favorite colors to be certain they would not be dissapointed. It was all I could take watching these children light up with excitement when they saw that they each got an entire backpack of brand new clothes, toys and accessories. The boys each received a new soccer or basketball. Everyone got new shoes, two outfits, hats, sunglasses, a backpack with their name's embroidered and much more. Whitney, whose been staying with Ashli took us and she told us it was like Christmas morning for them. It was awesome to watch each one of them, one-by-one go to the bathroom to change and waltz back into the room with their new digs. They were smiling from ear to ear and they knew they looked great. It was such a sweet thing to get to be a part of. Thank you, Tabitha for heading that up. It was a great success!
After a visit at the orphanage we all returned the guest house to sort out our donations. We made more than 90 "blessing bags", as our team deemed them, to hand out to those in need. Most of the bags contain a full outfit, complete with socks and underwear and a pair of shoes. We will be taking these with us on our way to do a project at Sheshamane tomorrow for the little ones we may encounter on the road.
That sums up our first day here in Addis. We have already seen God shining through bright smiles and generous hearts, so we are thrilled to see what He has in store for us in the days ahead.
Hi! I'm Katelin Pinto's sister (she's on the team). This post and the last one just warmed my heart and already had me crying just reading about the amazing things the team is doing for so many children. I am so proud of my sister and the rest of the OH team for following God's call to do this mission and am so excited to see what else their week in Ethiopia will bring. Thank you for keeping us updated with this blog, it means a lot to be able to follow them!
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