This trip was amazing! I saw so many things that are hard to blieve are actually real, until you see them with your own eyes. It was hart breaking. We did dental work for four whole days. We stated around 9:00 A.M. and went until about 5:30 P.M. everyday. Everyone was exhausted by the end of each day, but it was so worth it. We saw a total of around 4,00 people. Isn't that just amaing?
After the dental days were done and just about everyone went back to the States, Team Alexander and I went to Awasa. It was a not so fun 5 hour drive from Addis Ababa but worth it when we got there. We stayed in Awasa for that night and then went to Dube Bute. This was another 1 1/2 hour drive on a bumpy, dirt road. When our cars couldn't drive any further on the road, we got out of our cars and then had a one0hour walk ahead of us. There were hundreds of people clapping, singing, and praising the Lord as we got out of our cars. Fortunately, we had harses to ride instead of walking which we were thankful for. For the whole one-hour ride, there were thousands of people following us, singing, dancing, jumping up and down, and most of them were barefoot walking on rocky roads.
Do you know what amazes me about this? The fact that most of these people have never seen white people before. however, when they saw us, they had HOPE. Hope that we would help them and save lives for them. They all had "hope" because they new white people had finally discovered them. Little kids who are hungry, thirsty, unloved, sick, and unclothed were laughing and smiling. They were happy. Would you be happy if you were hungry, thirsty, sick, and had no clothes? I don't think so. These kids are happy they are alive and are thankful for the life they have. They are happy they have water to drink. Yes, it is mud water but they don't care because as long as they have water they are thankful. Just by visiting these people we made them happy and gave them hope.
So, that day my life had changed. iI realized that they are way less fortunate people me and probably almost everyone in America as well. Yet, they are still happier than all of us. They are literally suffereing but still have smiles on all their faces. Watching thousdands of people follow us everywhere we went because they had hope in us is just amazing. Because God is so good, we are building wells for them so they have clean water, schools so they may becomeeducated, health care so the can be healed, and a vet so they can eat healthy meat.
I have tried to explain as much as I can about this day but there is still so much more. There are no more words to describe it though. I have told this story many times but none of it is as real as it was when it was actually happening. God had changed my life on this day. He gave me the want to help out the needy more than ever before.
Beautiful post! So thankful that you were there, to see it, to experience it with us. It is SO hard to put into words the poverty we saw, but unbelivable joy that was there too.
ReplyDeleteExcited to watch the Lord provide for these special people. They are so very deserving.
So precious and truly a beautiful to see what you did, you are very blessed to have gotten to go there to help out! This summer my teacher wants me to go with her and 5 other people to Ghana for 6 weeks, help out the little village she lives in and help out in every way we can. I hope I can go but first I must get money, but if I do go we have to share stories or and talk bout our time there with one another. ^-^ <3
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