June 12
In the 1980's I remember praying over and over again for the people of
Ethiopia. The famine and drought made that an area of focus for the
west. It prompted Michael Jackson to write "We are the world" I can
clearly remember praying at school and at home for God to rescue that
nation...
And here I am in Ethiopia... 25 years later.
Why? To just swoop in and get (rescue) a kid?
Is that the answer to the rescue this nation prayer I prayed?
No... It's not the full answer.
Adoption must be given much more thought than simply "rescuing a child"
There is much more to how God is answering that prayer...
I was able to see a beginings of God answering that prayer today...
Today was a day that I will remember for the rest of my life.
Christine and I decided that I should go to korah (A lepar and HIV
pos) community at the edge of Addis. Eve Pohl and Angie Appenheimer
were there a few months ago and suggested that we go and see what God
was up to in that space of creation. To make it harder to say no they
sent us with a suitcase full of donations for a family they met there.
120 000 ppl gathered on a 300 acre plot of land owned by landowners
that profit from poverty... These "forgotten people" are social
outcasts because of poor hygene lack of education and malnurishment.
The social stigma of leprosy drives these people to korah. The wost
offenders seem to be the Orthodox Christians who believe leprosy is a
curse and shun those who have it. Even if they are family. For those
infected with leprosy living in the country it is the Fear of thier
entire family being locked up in a hut and lit on fire that drives
them to Korah. A story I heard several times today.
I left early this morning leaving Chris and Ezra to bond back at the
guest house over some exciting world cup soccer. A young church leader
named Sami pick me up and took me to the church in Korah. This place
is a beacon of hope for the hopeless and the young men and women (many
who themselves live in korah) who minister to the children youth and
families are the bright lights of this communty. I was greeted by
smiling children with sores onthier faces and flies swarming them.
Dirt was all over them and imbedded into there clothes because of the
mud (made possible by the torrential afternoon rain). The streets are
all mud the only reason a vehicle or our feet can have any traction is
the randomly strewn about limestone rocks trapped in the mud. I meet
the pastor of bright hope church. An enthusiastic gospel planter that
began here 7 years ago and faced tremendous opposition from the
orthodox Christians. He is a man of great faith I can quickly tell. He
brings out the family of a lady that Eve and Angie met when hey were
here. Belagnesh. She is a victim of leprosy. She has lost most of one
foot (now replaced by a self customized woooden stump) the other foot
is year or two from the same fate. She shares a five foot by five foot
shack with her 5 kids many of whom are also very sick. I hand over the
gifts Eve and Angie have given for me to take along for them. They are
extatic and over come with joy. I remind them that although those
gifts are a blessing there is no gift greater than thier slavation in
Christ. That is not something I can bring in a suitcase it is
something the pastor and his leaders have been sharing all along...
Belagnesh agrees with amens that reveal she would rather be poor by
earthly standards than spiritually poor... It is something that I am
certain we westerners don't really understand till we meet people like
this and see the for realness face to face.
Next... The dump. Wow. Abbotsford has a transfer station it's what we
call a dump. When we don't vacuum for a week we call our palce a dump
or our kids room is refered to as a dump... Man those are little
messes compared to what I saw today. 100's of ppl crawling over
hectares of garbage. The smell the filth the desperate search for any
scrap if food as these ppl sift through the trash as it is getting
excavated dumped and bulldozed right beside them. I watched a young
boy of 11 nearly get his leg crushed by a bulldozer simply b/c he was
desperate to find something of value in the trash pile left by the
Addis Hilton Hotel dump truck. The waste of the city is a gold mine
for vultures, wild dogs, donkeys, goats and pigs and still these other
mammals are outnumbered two to one by humans living off this landscape
of waste. The teens and older kids (most who are orphaned) search for
food with bent pieces of rebar while older folks collect plastic bags
and contribute to the government recycling program for 50 cents per
huge bag they fill with smaller plastic grocery bags. There is no
parenting, there is a social construct of sorts but these kids are own
thier own if they want to survive. Ethiopia airlines sugar packs
dumped by airport dump truck is candy. One "cool" kid snorts it like a
line of coke and coughs cuz it hurts and draws a bunch of laughs and
taunts from peers. Many of these youth (Daniel, johanas and David)
proudly sport dangeously homemade broken English tatoos that reveal
these young people want something more... Tatoos like "only God" "a
healthy life is butter" (I wonder if they got this from the writting
on a butter container found in the dump funny and sad all at once)
these kids melt tires in the fire and the left over molten liquid gets
dotted onto thier skin with pins and nails. Prostitution is rampant so
the HIV issue is also. It's not enough to tell them to keep thier
zipper shut b/c unless economics is addressed the selling of
themselves sadly remains a viable solution to starvation.
Hope??? YEAH there is hope! Bright Hope Church and thier volunteer
staff are there everyday reaching out with the good news. Jesus is
walking through that place walking right next to the dozers and
excavators. His angels are those volunteers like Summer and Cory from
Nashvile, Tennesse (who just sold all they had and came to korah and
the dump to work with Bright Hope Church for one year). 60 kids from
the dump will be going to a boarding school this September they will
hopefully be leaving the dump for good. Summer and Cory are working on
a summer camp (sleep over style camp) in korah. Many of the kids will
be from the dump. They will recieve the gospel, one big hot meal per
day, sanitation, showers and a safe place to sleep... Away from the
dump!
There is Hope here!!!
God showed me today how he has been answering that prayer since the
mid 80's. He has been raising up faithful leaders from within this
country to lead churches and ministries that will help the people of
this country.
As I walked into the guest house I am greeted by a most beautiful
sight. My son. Ezra Esuedale Beugelink all smiles and giggles for his
Abat! I am certain I have been called to raise up four (many more thru
NL) leaders from within my own home.
Prayer:
God thank you for bright hope church...
Yesterday I thought I had seen it all
Today I stand in awe of all you have done and continue to do
Tomorrow is in your hands...
-Use us to further what you are already doing now-
Koen
