Make Your Mark

By Dave H. Day one in Addis. We made it! It is always a bit of a relief to be safely on the ground again, after 18 hours of flying. We made it partly rested, and mostly healthy. We are thankful for all your prayers and for God’s goodness to us.

We visited several places today, including the Red Terror (Derg) Museum, the Hamblin Fistula Clinic, and a much attended Ethiopian Orthodox Church. Just briefly for those first time followers…. The Derg Museum commemorates what is essentially the Ethiopian holocaust, a recent time of great internal strife and intense persecution. The Fistula clinic helps women who have/had fistulas become medically, spiritually and emotionally healed. In this culture, being healed from a fistula is a big, big deal. The Ethiopian Orthodox church is something we tour, to help get an understanding what it means to be Orthodox in Ethiopia. Today, a couple of us saw people kissing the steps leading to the church, I suppose to show their sincerity and devotion.

While multiple team members have very interesting stories about these, and I encourage you to tease those stories out of them, I’m going to tell you about another ministry: Make Your Mark (MYM). Started in Charlotte, North Carolina, this ministry focuses on getting and keeping young boys off of the streets. We heard first hand, and for a few minutes got to participate ourselves, in how God is using this ministry to change lives and share Jesus in an authentic way. God stirred this couple to move to Ethiopia several years ago to begin an MYM setting in Ethiopia, in Addis. They are living here ever since, working with local nationals to help change young boys lives who live on the streets homeless. God always stirs my heart when I listen to someone speak passionately about what God is doing in them and through them.

I’ll close with two quotes Trent, part of the founding couple, said today.

* God said here is a need right outside your front porch. What are you going to do about it?

* Your mission field is between your two feet.

-Dave