Serving the Poor: Embracing Hope Ethiopia

Korah is one of the poorest areas of Addis, a busy mix of mud and tin housing with little or no sanitation. Embracing Hope Ethiopia provides free care to 30+ toddlers, whose single parent mums would otherwise have to carry them while they work.  With a child in tow a mum can earn enough to feed her family once every 3 days.  With a child at Embracing Hope she can earn enough to eat almost every day.  

Sharing Christ: The Joy Academy School

Joy Academy is a fee-paying school in Addis, run by the first fruit of the Nav work in Ethiopia.  In a nation that allows only a secular curriculum, Joy Academy aims to ‘nurture the whole child’.  School clubs and the 8-week summer school are key to nurturing the spiritual side of life.

Our task for the week will be to run assemblies for the Grade 7-8 students and fun classes of bible songs and games for the infants.  At each assembly one of the team is able to share something of their personal ‘grace’ story.  

Learning to see Christ through Eastern Eyes:

The Orthodox Church has had nearly 2,000 years experience of walking with Christ. Conversation with sincere believers can provide wide open insights into our own Christian culture as well as Ethiopia's.  Here is a taste from previous trips:

In Almat’s house we saw sacrificial generosity and amazing trust in Christ’s present help despite hardship.  Over ‘fasting’ pizza and an electricity blackout young orthodox graduates shared their passion to awaken a nation to wholehearted devotion for Christ. 

An evening discussing our different Christian cultures led to some valuable contrasts:

- knowing Christ personally compared with meeting Christ as a community 

- meeting Christ in the Scriptures compared with experiencing Christ in the Eucharist

- a lazy dependence on grace compared with a holiness that can lean toward legalism

Being Transformed by Christ:

In the west the struggle is with having wealth, in Ethiopia it’s with survival. The answer to both is Christ.  Action Ethiopia is not just a short term programme.  It's an opportunity to let Christ teach us lessons that last a lifetime - to build kingdom labourers who are able to change their world.  

Prov 25:16; Phil 2:20-21; Phil 4:12-13