I’m back! First, please let me apologise for the radio silence over the past two months. Second, I’m FULLY FUNDED! Thank you so incredibly much to everyone who has contributed to me. I can never hope to express to you the impact of your generosity, but please know that you have forever changed my life, and through me the lives of many others.
It’s quiet here. That’s the first thing you notice. The roar of mopeds and piercing cry of buddhist chants over loudspeakers at 4:00 AM have been replaced with the low, constant whisper of wind as it ripples across the endless fields of grain. Occasionally the silence is broken by the crack of a whip or the bleating of a goat, but it soon fades back to the constant, never ending whisper of the wind.
For these three months we are staying at the base of an NGO called HopEthiopia, mainly focused on ministering to the widows and orphans of Harbu Chulule through providing financial and emotional aid. HopEthiopia hires local widows as “House Mothers”, providing them with a steady income and a home on the compound bordering the local town. They are placed in charge of cooking, providing for, and filling the parental role for the 4-6 orphans in their house. Each of these houses acts as its own family.
Our time here is primarily spent with the house mothers and children living on the compound with us. Evening soccer games are a regular lesson in humility as an 8 year old boy named Caleb fakes left and lightly kicks the ball through my legs with the ease of a professional soccer player. Ermias and Tariku are both in the youngest house, and have taken a particular liking to me. I would like to say it’s due to my winning personality, but having them on my shoulders most of the day may also have something to do with it.
Ministry outside of simply loving those we share a home with varies widely. Some help at a local reforestation center, another of HopEthiopia’s missions, helping to restore the clearcut forests a few miles outside of town. Others walk to a local village, where they share laughter and coffee with the local women inside of their mud huts. Still others make bricks in the rear of the compound that will later be used to continue the expansion of the children’s village, making room for additional house mothers and orphans to join those impacted by this incredible organisation. (All of the bricks used to build the 9 buildings here have been made on-site with compacted dirt).
Despite the varying ministries, the pace of life here is slow. It is never hard to find time to simply wander into the middle of a neighbouring field, and sit in the midst of the quiet, with nothing but the constant hush of the wind and rustling of the field. If I had to tell you about my most cherished moments of the past two months, many would take me back there, to the middle of the silence, where woven in with the whisper of the wind, I found the whisper of the Lord also.
