Welcome/Introduction

Welcome to the blog for our journey to Ethiopia. We are a team of 21 people from Northern California who will be heading to Project Mercy in Butajira, Ethiopia on October 20, 2012. We will spend nearly 2 weeks serving the community of Project Mercy by staffing pediatric medical clinics, providing surgical services, developing educational support for the students of the Project Mercy school, delivering public health education, and improving the infrastructure of the Project Mercy facilities.

Far beyond our desire to help with the physical needs of the community, we most want to come alongside our extended family at Project Mercy and extend the healing touch and love of Christ to those living in proximity to Project Mercy. We hope to do this by caring for each person as a beloved child of God, developing relationships, and being authentic followers of Jesus as we treat, share knowledge and live life together. Our hope is that the community sees Christ in us and that we are the aroma of Him to those who do not know his peace and love.

Tuesday, October 30, 2012

Our Plans are not God's Plans

Today we had the unique opportunity to participate in a memorial service for a woman named Eva Memmen, who (along with her family) made it possible to build the Hospital here at Project Mercy.  Marta and Deme wanted to have a service in her honor in recognition of her love for Ethiopia and especially the children.  It was attended by the nearly 1600 students at Project Mercy along with patients from the Hospital and our medical team.  It was very moving when Deme asked the crowd for a show of hands for who has benefitted from the Hospital.  Hundreds of thousands of lives have been impacted by the care of nurses and doctors at this facility.  It was a privilege to participate in this service.  Our team member and pastor, Mary Ellen, did a wonderful job helping to coordinate and lead this service.

Deme, Mary Ellen and Dr. Fekadu lead the memorial service....

Anya and Eva have some fun together with puppets...

The public health/childrens' ministry team...
At the clinic we saw some children and adults as well (not as many as we expected due to Flag Day (a national holiday = kids stayed home from school).  One dear boy named Ahmet did come in however.  In fact he came in again (two hour walk!) for a follow up appointment to see one of our doctors.  The infection on his leg has caused him immense pain and difficulty walking.  His sister has carried him to our clinic and so has his mother.  Today he received a shot to address his painful infection.  Our team has done a beautiful job caring for this precious boy and his mother.  They have been the hands and feet of Jesus.

The hospital team cared for many sick people, including a woman with a cantaloupe sized thyroid that needed to be removed by Dr. Mike and Dr. Fekadu.  Dr. Will, Dr. John and Dr. Bill also served by performing the following surgeries and anesthesia:  prostate surgery, ovarian cysts and a hysterectomy to name a few.

We are learning (again) that our plans are not God's plans, which is so hard for us Americans to actually learn.  It has been a good challenge for each of us to learn to let go and trust that God has work prepared in advance for each of us to do...  (Ephesians 2).  Learning to depend on God is definitely a big part of our trip to Ethiopia.  I think that most of us can relate to what Mother Teresa said, "We ourselves feel that what we are doing is just a drop in the ocean.  But the ocean would be less because of that missing drop."  It is a blessing to be here serving the Ethiopian people...

RVN