Its only been a week and a half in Ethiopia and I had the honor to listen to some amazing stories. I love stories because they hold a powerful position of influence. A story can take you to a far off place, teach you a deep lesson, reveal one’s heart, and just blow your perspective out of the water!
This month my team’s purpose is to meet with ministries and organizations that could be possible contacts for future World Race teams, to find Unsung Heroes. So we follow where the Spirit takes us and network! The Lord has given us each step and connected us through wild plot twists to meet up with amazing people. The biggest treat about this process is hearing their stories. I tell ya guys, God lovessssss to use all of our stories for His purpose. Legit or what?! So, I’ll share a couple of these ballin stories because they inspired me in so many ways.
Mesfin grew up in Korah, one of the poorest communities in Addis where thousands of people rely on the city’s landfill for survival. He came from a broken family that lacked the unconditional love he was searching for. In his later teens he became a Christian through Young Life and was radically changed. After working for Young Life, with vision and a heart to see change, he set out to help orphans from Entoto Mountain. This is no ordinary place, the area has been hit with a high prevalence of HIV. Parents of children are constantly infected causing the growing number of orphans.
He began with what was in his pocket,asking The Lord to multiply his two fish and five loafs of bread. While working he fed the children bread, desiring to give them stability, food, education and most of all the unconditional love he found in Jesus. Now the organization is up and running. Over one hundred children go to school. Women are being empowered through making scarfs and clay pots, basically finding skills they never knew they could have. These women now have hope, not only to support their families but hope in their Heavenly Father. Houses are being rebuilt, and families are being restored. It all started with Mesfin taking his story and using it to drive his passion to help others with similar stories, overall exemplifying the story of Christ and his crazy mind blowing love for each and every one of us!!! If that doesn’t show how much Jesus desires to use us for a greater purpose I don’t know what does.
