Ethiopia Trip Update #10
Today, we visited the MKA Ministries Children’s School in Hosanna. The school wasn’t very far from where we were staying, so it didn’t take long to get there.
When we arrived, I walked around the front of the van and was greeted with a hero’s welcome. I was very confused and figured they were doing this for our whole group. Samuel must have read the look on my face because he told me, “This is for you.”
As I crossed the street and went through the gate, I was greeted by all the students cheering for me. A young lady came forward and gave me three roses. I would guess that she is four years old and was very shy when I leaned down to tell her thank you.
There were so many kids, and they were all pressing in on me. I had no idea what to do other than shake as many hands as possible while moving toward the rest of our group. It was quite an experience, and it took a while for the students to disperse to their classes.
I was introduced to the school's director, who took me to various classes. The students sang Joy to the World in Amharic in one room for me. In most of the rooms, they would recite Bible verses for me. In the seventh-grade class, a young lady recited John 1:1-12. After visiting six classrooms, we took a break for coffee in the director’s office.
After the short break, we went down the hallway and entered a room full of sewing machines. This is the “self-help” program. Mothers of the students work here sewing the school uniforms for the students. The students here were described to me as the “poorest of the poor,” and in many cases, the students have lost one or both parents. The ladies in the room shared their stories with me via a translator, and they all had a story of how the sewing job was blessing them. Several of them shared how they lost their husbands and became single mothers. The most heartbreaking story was about a woman with three children whose husband was a pastor. When he was delivering a message, someone walked into the church and walked up to him, stabbed him, and he died.
This was arguably the most difficult story but not the only difficult story of the day. The smiling faces that wanted high fives from me each had a story. After visiting the high school section of the facility, we took a break for lunch and a short break until we were going to come back for chapel.
When we returned, the students had begun to gather in the middle of the facility for chapel. After singing and prayer, I was invited to come forward to give the message. Pastor Bahru served as my translator, and I gave a message on David and Goliath and how the story points us to the bigger story of the gospel. Working with a translator is a little difficult, but that is easier than giving a message to kids ranging in age from 4-18. It worked well, though, and we trust that the proclamation of the gospel will be used by the Holy Spirit in their lives!
When I finished the message, Samuel came up to talk to the kids. I couldn’t understand what he was saying, but they suddenly broke into a chant of " Happy Birthday! " He hadn’t mentioned my birthday earlier in the day, and so I had hoped that he had forgotten, but it was a nice surprise and will be a nice memory of the most unique birthday I will ever have.
After the students started making their way home, we got in the van, and as we were driving, I heard a young voice. I didn’t see this young lady get in, but I found out we were giving her a ride to her mother. Her mother had a spot at an “open air” market. When we arrived, everyone but the driver went into the market. It was fascinating, with almost anything you can imagine for sale there. We went to the mother’s spot, and Samuel informed me that the mother was blind. She was selling grain, and we wondered how she got there and kept from getting the grain stolen. They told her we were there, and the daughter helped lead her back to the van. While we were walking out, the most interesting thing that happened was a large cow just walking through the packed market by itself without anyone guiding it or keeping track of it.
We gave the daughter and mother a ride back to their home, and we went and visited it. It was a small mud house where five people made their home. The mother has two older children from her first marriage, and after her husband died, she remarried and had two more children. A few years back, the husband couldn’t find work and couldn’t support the family, and he disappeared. Currently, they don’t know if he is alive or not.
This is probably more extreme than most of the stories about the children, but the basic theme is the norm. There is usually only one parent, and sometimes it is the death of a parent, and in others, it is the father leaving when he can’t support the family. Regardless, you can understand why this school exists. It would not be possible for most, if not all, of the students to attend school without the support they receive from the ministry and sponsors.
After we prayed with the family at their home, we went to supper, and the team surprised me with cake for my birthday. It was a great day and one I will never forget.
Tomorrow, we get up early and head back to Hawassa where Samuel and I will catch a plane back to Addis Ababa. Thursday will be a tour of Unity Park, the MKA Ministries offices, and packing all our stuff. Our plane departs from Addis Ababa at 10:45. We have a one-hour stop in Rome for fuel, and we will be in Chicago Friday morning at about 7:30, giving me a few hours to rest before the Presbytery Meeting.
