Ordinary Hero Blog: Giving Hope in Ethiopia

Sorry for the delay in between blog posts. Between our crazy schedule and 31 people pulling from the internet all at once it is nearly impossible to load pictures and try to keep up on schedule.

So, my neat divine encounter story is one of the many but it was such a neat confirmation of how important it is to GO.

You see these street boys in the pics that I was telling you about that we invited to Beza church with us on Sunday? Well, it is awesome to see their little hearts already starting to want to give back after they have seen us give to them all week.

All these boys live around our guest house and we see them every day. Sunday after we had seen them at church with us that morning, we arrived back at the guest house where they greeted us. They were all standing around this one particular boy that looked very thin. When I walked up they brought him right to me and said that he had no parents and he lived on the streets. They asked me if we could help him. These boys were precious. They had their arm draped around him and seemed genuinely concerned for him.

I told him that we would try to help him.

First thing we did was invite him in and give him something to eat. One of our sponsored kids that hangs with us, Bira, was SO great with this kid. He really took him under his wing and talked to him and made him feel comfortable and welcome. It was so awesome to watch Bira showing compassion to this kid, because Bira, himself, is a Korah kid who lives in the trash dump community and has been sponsored for school by a team member coming on Team 4, and is the brother of my sponsored child.

This sweet boy was precious. He didn't know quite how to take this big group of Americans who invited him in and making him the center of attention.

Bira took the boy up to the shower and showed him how to wash and gave him clothes and lotion. The young boy came down and was squeaky clean and smelled great. There is no telling how long it had been since he had bathed. He couldn't get the smile off of his face.

The hardest part is helping these kids with donations and then not having anywhere for them to go. I knew we were going to the street kid ministry the following day. We knew they were full to capacity but we all prayed there would be an opening. All the boys outside gathered around and asked where this boy could sleep. I told them to keep him with them for the night and to come back the following evening after we had been to the shelter. I told them I would give them an answer then as to if they had room or not.

After our awesome day at Hope 4 Hopeless (which I will blog about next) we arrived back at the guest house and all those boys were there waiting for us with the young street boy. I walked up and they all just stared at me in anticipation of my answer for this child.

I started explaining to them that we went to the shelter and talked to the director. We told the director about this young boy and his situation.

AMAZINGLY, the director said that the day before there was one child that had been moved over to the orphanage and 1 BED HAD OPENED UP AND THIS BOY COULD HAVE IT!!

WE WERE SO THRILLED FOR HIM AND COULDN'T WAIT TO TELL HIM!!

When I explained it to the little boy and told him there was space for him he just turned and buried his face like he was going to cry. All those boys with him were soooo excited for him.

IT WAS SUCH A NEAT GOD MOMENT!

Because we were here, I feel that God led this boy in our path and opened the doors for us to help him.
This is just one more example of how YOU can CHANGE THE WORLD FOR ONE when you decide to GO. Sometimes all you have to do is show up and God leads them right to you.

The following evening I arrived back to our guest house and I looked out and there was this little figure standing in the doorway. Someone had let him in to give him some shoes. We started asking him about his parents and found that he didn't have any either. He lives with his grandmother who is very poor. He told us his father had been washed away in some kind of flood and his mother died from an illness. We loaded him up with snacks, a blanket for him and his grandmother, shoes, pillow, clothes and a toy. This little boy's smile could light up a room.

He gave us all a kiss and the biggest hug. He told our translator that he was so happy. We are going to look more into his living situation with his grandmother and see about getting him sponsored for school.

We are so honored to have all these new little friends that we can help!

You see how easy it can be to simply

CHANGE THE WORLD FOR ONE!