Ethiopia 2012, Team 3, Day 8 ~ Last Day in Ethiopia

It's Day 8, Team 3's last day in Ethiopia. 

We all loaded up and headed to the countryside to one of our favorite communities about an hour and a half south.

 We stopped in a community on the way for Crystal to visit her adopted son's uncle. While she went in to visit, several of us waited in the car and started pulling in kiddos to dress them and clean them up a bit. 

 This little one was such a sweetie! She had on layers of old dirty clothes that looked like they hadn't been off of her body in so long. Kortnie cleaned her up and changed her clothes and gave her a blessing bag. She just loved her new pink shirt! 

 While Crystal was having her meeting, the word quickly spread. More and more kids and adults started showing up outside our van for a blessing bag or article of clothing. 

 So while we are sorting through the mounds of people desperate to get

 any kind of blessing they can get, 

Crystal is meeting with her son's uncle and sharing pictures and getting to know him a little better. 

 I'm so glad she got to have the chance to meet them and find out a little bit more about her son. 

 And of course we had Ryan capturing all of it on video :-)

 We finish up there and head out further into the countryside to the village with the orphanage in it we want to visit where Crystal's son is from. 

 The closer we get we start to see so many familiar faces of the village children. These kids will melt your heart. They are there year after year and always have big smiles on their faces and ready to greet us.

 We get to the orphanage and they are waiting for us. 

Crystal gets out and all the older boys gather around her as she shows them her son's pictures. 

These boys were his friend's when he lived in the orphanage with them. 

It is sad to see how many are still left there year after year. 

 We lined them all up outside and let them come in one by one and get a blessing bag. 

 It's always so sad to see the village children just standing outside the gate watching us as we bless the orphanage children. 

 We did manage to bring a few of them inside without it getting chaotic and give them a blessing bag and clean them up a bit. 

 These kids are precious! This community always impacts our teams because of how poor they all are. 

 I have never seen this young girl without this baby on her back. Bless her heart! 

 We wrapped up our day in the country and headed back in time to get everyone ready for their airport departure. On the way back we let it rain down blessings every time we saw a child walking down the road. Our team was throwing out blessing bags right and left to every kid they saw. It was so much fun! 

 I got a few last minute pics with some of my awesome team members before they left for America. 

 This has been the best team! I will surely miss them. 

 We have all laughed together, cried together, prayed together, and all gone to a deeper level together in all that God is calling us to. 

 It has been so amazing to share 10 days of life changing service in Ethiopia with Team 3! 

Press on, Team 3! Take a little bit of Ethiopia back home with you in your hearts. This experience will leave you changed, but changed for the better. It has challenged you to 

CHANGE THE WORLD FOR ONE, 

no matter where in the world you are in life! 

There will always be someone in your path...

someone who is waiting for an Ordinary Hero.  

Thank you for being such an awesome team!

Stay tuned for our final Team 4 arriving soon!