Update: 3/22/09
Ethiopia: Been there....did that. And plan on doing it again. What a great time my brother, Todd, and I had in Ethiopia last month. He and I went a couple of days earlier than our church construction team so that we could get things set up for tile installation, and stayed about a week longer so we could get more done. Craig Jones, a general contractor from Church At Charlotte, helped us work on the dining rooms at Camp Langano. It transformed a dreary dark concrete floor into a light pleasant place to be. What a joy it was to be able to use our talents to help the SIM camp. What is Camp Langano? It is a summer sports camp for Ethiopian children from all over the country. They come for a week at a time in July and August. The kids are taught soccer skills by some great Christian soccer instructors. They also interact through crafts and are taught about the love of Jesus Christ.
Ever been on the receiving end of a REAL miracle? On the 4 1/2 hour (PLUS some) trip from Addis Ababa to Camp Langano, we experienced something quite out of the ordinary, at least for us. Todd and I were riding with Jake Wetzel, SIM missionary from the camp, in a low side truck loaded with many hundreds of feet of ceramic tile, thinset, grout, tools, a generator, and all of our suitcases. About an hour from the camp a large donkey suddenly darted across the road in front of our truck, which was traveling about 50 mph. It happened so quickly that Jake was unable to avoid hitting the donkey. The animal's head struck the driver's rearview mirror, causing it to slam around into the side of the truck. Shards of mirror exploded through the open window, cutting Jake's face in several places. We later discovered that his glasses had gotten scratched from the flying glass. His glasses had protected his eyes from injury. Upon making contact with the beast of burden, Jake instinctively swerved toward the right, taking our heavily loaded truck off the road and down into the swale, where we hit and catapulted over a three foot culvert. The impact of hitting the culvert caused the truck cab to flex backward, hitting a steel grate at the front of the bed. This caused the rear window to disintegrate and shower the three of us with tiny glass fragments. God kept Jake's hands from trying to steer back onto the road. If he had, we very likely would have rolled over because of the grade. After stopping, an off-duty local policeman and many many locals came over to see if we were injured. An Ethiopian man produced a cloth to wipe the blood from Jake's face. With no common language with which to communicate, we finally understood that the policeman wanted to accompany us to the nearest village so that the incident could be documented. Jake had to post 500 Birr ($50 US dollars). The woman whose donkey had caused the accident disappeared, presumably with the money. Who knows? When we were leaving the scene of the accident, we did notice that the donkey had gotten to its feet and was standing in the southbound lane of the road....waiting for the next big truck. There was absolutely no doubt about it...that day God delivered us from certain harm.
Being at Camp Langano....well, the best way to describe it is that it's like living IN a zoo, continually. There are always big black and white Colobus monkeys overhead in the giant fig trees; packs of fearsome baboons on the roads when you go walking; families of wild boar along the paths; hippos in the lake, along with the occassional LARGE python; and many, many different species of exotic birds flying about. The night is seldom quiet. The Colobus monkeys loudly proclaim their territories throughout the night time. It was interesting to find that there seems to be ten times as many stars in the Ethiopian sky as there are above Charlotte.
The House of Hope at Langano was created to take care of newborns whose mothers died during childbirth. When we were there, nine precious little Oromoo babies kept the half dozen nannies busy with changing diapers; feedings; and giving them the much needed personal attention that all babies deserve.
One afternoon while we were at the camp, we all gathered down at the soccer field. Locals from the surrounding area sat on the ground while I was allowed to share the Gospel through magic. It was rather difficult in that I had two, yes two, interpreters. One for translating from English into Amharic, and the second for Amharic into Oromo, the local language. From the looks on the peoples' faces, they had never seen anything like that before. Because of some of the props I use for the illusions, traveling with them in my carry-on always creates interest when trying to get through the airport security checks, as you can only imagine.
Next month Dave Jordan and I head back over to do more tile work before the kids arrive for the summer sessions. Dave has never been out of the US. This will surely be an experience for him. Pray for Dave and myself, that we will have safe travels and especially for good health. The food is "different" there, and sometimes our bodies balk at the change.
Update: 10/18/08
Humanitarian aid...the next venture. I will be joining a team from our church, Church At Charlotte, in early February, for a labor-intensive trip to Ethiopia. We will be going to Camp Langano to install floor tile....3,220 square feet!!!!! There probably will not be time to do much Gospel magic on this trip. Hopefully we will be able to get all of the tile installed in the camp dining facility and the clinic.
As you are aware, Ethiopia is an extremely depressed nation. Therefore, we will have to take all of the tile tools that we will need with us. As of today, I have the list of tools, but none of the funds yet to purchase them. The basics that we will need will cost around $800, and that is without a tile wetsaw. All of the cutting will have to be done with a side grinder and diamond blade. Pray with us that God will supply the funds for the tools and indeed give the unskilled volunteers the expertise required to produce a finished product fit for The King.
UPDATE: 8/06/08
The 2008 trip to Romania is over....not history....just over. If it were history, then it would all be in the past. The seed that was planted on this trip is now the future. Please pray with us that those who made decisions to follow Christ will continue to seek Him and grow in His Word.
We had a small, but effective team. There were only nine this year. The team was Margie Simmons, Harvey Galloway, Sherry Vause, June Moon, Peggy and Jimmy Morse, JoAnn and Michael Sasnett, and first-timer Bob Mellbye of Charlotte, NC. Bob enthusiastically opened most of the programs with one of his new puppets, either Rosie the skunk or Jack the donkey(in Arab dress with sunglasses). Michael always treated the audience to an attention-grabbing Gospel magic presentation.
Unfortunately, as we did not receive sufficient quantities of medicines prior to the trip, we were not able to conduct free clinics. After all....what's the use of a clinic if you have nothing with which to treat the sick??
The sea container which we packed out on June 9th, did NOT arrive in time for us to use any of the teaching materials for the VBS's. The boxes we needed arrived about midnight of the last Thursday that we were there. And we headed back first thing the last Friday. Oh well, perhaps we will use some of the things on our next trip.
We had to get up Saturday morning at 2:30am to get to the airport in Bucharest. Some of the team had 6am flights. At that time of the morning one really needs a good cup of coffee. The little cafe in the airport actually did serve coffee...not necessarily GOOD coffee, but coffee. We ordered two cups. Unfortunately we did not ask the price before ordering and being served. What can possibly make two cups of coffee worth SEVENTEEN DOLLARS?
As we started through the ubiquitous security scanning line, the guard spotted something weird in Michael's "bag of tricks". They stopped all of the security lines and
all of the security personnel gathered around to watch Michael do a mini magic show. With smiles on their faces, they happily sent us on our way. The rest of the trip was very uneventful.
Start praying now for next year's trip. Would you like to participate in person? No special skills required. Just be willing to share your faith in Jesus Christ.