It's almost the end of July and I'm really starting to gear up to get ready for Ethiopia. My trip is almost all paid off and now I'm just needing to finish up and pay for the rest of my shots as well as some extra money for buying some supplies (listed below) we will need on our trip. Our trip count is at 14! Amazing! My mind is really blown with this number considering where we stood at the beginning of our trip. I remember when there was just me, Kristin (our trip coordinator) and one other married couple. We felt like our trip was never going to lift off the ground and we might never reach our goal of 10 people. Through a lot of prayer and meetings we finally came to what we thought was our final group. Then some dropped out...others had to leave...and for all sorts of reasons our group was again growing and then shrinking again in size. As of yesterday, we finalized our number at 14, and I can safely say I feel that the Lord really knows and wants every single one of us on this trip.
I apologize in advance for the length of this, but it's best to get it all out now! I leave October 29th for Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. From there we will spend about a day or two just getting settled in where we will then head off on a van for a 6 hour drive through mountains to Mekele a small village outside of the capital. We will be working with Dr. Geb, who grew up in an orphanage in Ethiopia; he grew up and in the process found the Lord and made his way to becoming a Doctor. He specializes in working with HIV/AIDS patients, and we will be helping him build a new hopsital to cater to the needs of those in the Mekele region. We will be there for several days before heading back to Addis for a few more days. We plan to return mid November. Our hearts are very much already rooted in Ethiopia because 2 of the families that will be coming with us adopted from Ethiopia last year. We are still in need of these supplies:
- Paint Brushes
- Shoes for ages 3-17 (we will also be buying shoes there b/c it's less expensive there, so we are also taking shoe $ donations)
- Paint Tape
- Paint Tarps
- Paint Pans
- Rollers
- Older children's antibiotics and cold medicines
If you are feeling called to help with ANY of these items, please call me so I can give you an address at which to send it to (in the process of moving and want it to end up in the right spot!). Hopefully this works for an update thus far, I will definitely be keeping everyone posted on my progress; until then my team and I would really appreciate your prayers!
Also, here is a map below of where will be!!
