HALLOWEEN OUTREACH 2012

Last weekend was our big Halloween Outreach. This is an annual event that Kelly has been doing for the last 7 years. This year, Kelly was in Africa, so we had to pull off the outreach without her. It was coordinated by our wonderful friend and volunteer, Dana.

Here's Dana (on the far left) with one of the families we brought to Pumpkinfest

This outreach started out at the Nashville Rescue Mission in the women and children's home. Our Halloween Outreach Coordinator (Dana) took a few volunteers with her to ask all the children what they wanted to dress up as for Pumpkinfest. The kids were SO excited! No matter what these kids have gone through, how uncertain their future seems, they are still KIDS and LOVE to be kids.

When Pumpkinfest day arrived, Dana and her team were well prepared to get these kids all dressed up.

 

Cutest SpiderMan ever!

Meanwhile, we had ANOTHER team of volunteers already at Pumpkinfest waiting for the moms and kids to arrive. This year, we had over 40 volunteers and 55 moms and kids! 

Not only did we have volunteers to walk around with the kiddos and moms, but we also had volunteers who worked the booth, telling people who walked by all about Ordinary Hero.

                               

Kids who were at the festival could also stop and make bead bracelets. One for them, one for a child in Haiti or Ethiopia! Kids LOVED stopping by to do this.

The kiddos arrived from the Nashville Rescue Mission and our volunteers happily took them all over the festival, buying them lunch and letting them enjoy the day. A fun time for all!

 

 

Our volunteers are AWESOME!!! Thank you so much to everyone who donated their time, money, and costumes to make this event a success. We could not do it without you! Special thanks to Dana who did such a great job organizing the entire event.

Day 3 On Our Mission For Beth In Ethiopia

We were privileged to be able to stop by No Ordinary Love Ministry on Saturday. 

This is an awesome organization founded by Jimmy and Rachel Gross. They just adopted their youngest baby domestically from Texas and now live in Ethiopia, ha!  

 This outreach is changing lives for children and women at risk. 

Be sure to check them out! 

I met Brittany and Ian Bentley who are a huge help to No Ordinary Love. They are also living in Ethiopia for a period of time with their children, one of which is adopted from Ethiopia. They seem to be a huge blessing to this organization. 

AND I met this super woman, Debbie Forman! She has 12 children and 9 of them are adopted and several with special needs. She was in country to finalize her latest adoption. What an amazing woman! 

They have a special program for the children every Saturday. The kids have a blast. 

They have some awesome mothers in their program. Many of them have children of their own and are learning basic skills which are teaching them to be a good mother and how to care for their children. 

Michael surprisingly ran into his driver from when they came to adopt their son last December. He was showing him how big he has gotten. 

After we left No Ordinary Love, we rode over to check out an awesome scarf making business. These women are former prostitutes and come from the Women At Risk Ministry. They totally restore these women and teach them their worth. They then send them over for employment making scarves for a company called FashionABLE. These scarves are beautiful and each one has a not from one of these women who made it. 

I got to meet Feleku. Everyone else was gone and she was still in there at her loom weaving with all her might. She is such a strong woman who has come so far from her past. 

 Please check out FashionABLE and you can read more about Feleku. 

More to come. Internet is very slow so it puts me behind on my blogging. Hope to catch up in the next couple of days. :-) So many great things happening over here that I can't even list them all. 

Our Mission For Beth ~ Day 2, Ethiopia!

We all four woke to a beautiful day in Ethiopia.

Although our driver, Getcho, is in America, we took the opportunity to go visit his daughter and her family. They had a coffee ceremony set up and ready for us. 

This was the first coffee ceremony for Ryan and Michael. It is a true Ethiopian experience.

It was great to meet her and her cute kids! 

Speaking of cute kids...there were plenty that we got to know that lived just outside in the community. 

These kids were adorable! They loved playing with us. 

We then traveled over to Hope 4 the Hopeless to see some of our friends we met on our last trip. 

                                   

This is such a wonderful ministry the pulls street children off the streets and pours the love of Jesus in them. These kids are truly transformed! We had the opportunity to help pull two children off the streets during two of our teams over the summer. It was so great to see these kids again and see how good they are doing. 

Ryan passed out brand new shirts that were donated by Nike to all the kids. They loved them! Thanks, Nike! 

I got to see my friend, Meron! She has a smile that will warm your heart. Her story is unbelievable. She is truly a walking miracle. 

The kids were so excited to see all of us. Below we have Meron braiding my hair so pretty! She is coming right along with her English. She kept saying "Fashion" while she braided :-) 

We have had several " God moments" today. This was a federal holiday so most places were closed. We had a particular place we wanted to visit to see about getting their help but they were closed. Bissy asked the guard if anyone was in the building and he said no. We were about to leave and then last minute he told us to wait. He took us up to one man who was working on his day off. He was great and listened to us the whole time. This meeting turned into another and it looks very promising that they will partner with us. 

I also had the opportunity to go visit and photograph a new waiting child. This little girl looks around 7 or 8. She is ABSOLUTELY precious! When you give her something she gives it to everyone else around her first before she keeps something for herself. I will have the pics and info available soon on our Waiting Children page. If you are considering adopting an older child, please take a minute and look at this sweet little girl. She will surely bless a family. Pics coming soon. If you would like more info on her please email us at Holli@ordinaryhero.org. 

Once again, God is guiding our steps. It really is mind blowing to watch. More exciting stuff to share next blog on our Day 3! Remember to check out the Ordinary Hero facebook page to see more pics of our trip.