May 8, 2019

Greetings to all our family and friends who support us and follow us on our journey. I am sorry to say that our journey has had a change, in that Doc and I are not going on Fri May 10 as planned. Last weekend Doc had 3 TIA-type incidents and the doctor deemed it unsafe for him to travel , especially to Ethiopia where the altitude is 8500 feet. He is fine now and has no residuals from them, but we are praying that God will make it clear if and when Doc can go back.

However, Helen is going to be traveling to Ethiopia May 31 - June 10 with daughter-in-law Kristin and son Abraham and 2 other friends from their area. They will be visiting and serving at most of the same ministries, just not traveling to the water projects. Excited to see what God has planned for this trip.

Our friends whom we were traveling with, Scott and Laura Shores and friend Abby are still going this Friday and are planning to do most of our planned itinerary, to include visiting several of our water projects and report back, serving at A Hope for Korah at their Berta breakfast feeding program and other activities, serving at Hope Enterprises homeless feeding program in the heart of Addis, distributing mattresses, sheets and blankets to our 110 sponsored families of A Heart for Korah, and sharing activities with the 90 girls at Children's Heaven on Sat. So, they will be busy. Please keep them in  your prayers for health and safety and for God to be at work in everything.

Please continue to follow our blog. I will try to update as I hear from Scott and Laura and also give you more details on Helen and Kristin's trip.

Please pray for both trips as it is apparent that the enemy is trying to dissuade all, but we will not be. He has called us and He has arranged it so we will go forth in the Might Name of Jesus.

Ethiopia Bound May 2019

May 1, 2019

We are almost ready to head off to Ethiopia again for a 12-day trip to visit the water projects and to work in the various ministries we support. We are traveling with Scott and Laura Shores of Towanda who work with Out of the Ashes, as well as our ministries. Their friend, Abby is also going with us. I thought you might find it interesting to see our basic itinerary.

Friday, May 10 : We leave Washington Dulles at 11 am. 

Saturday, May 11:  Arrive in Addis Ababa at 7:30 am.  Go to the guesthouse and meet with Dessalegn, church elder in charge of our water projects. Go to Hope for Korah (HFK) and play soccer with the girls, and drive by the bridge/dump area on our way back to guesthouse.

Sunday, May 12:  Church at IEC with Jake Boner (HFK) and then to lunch with him and his parents.

Monday, May 13:  Leave at 7am on our trip south to visit our water projects. Visit the Langano Medical Clinic and some of the projects.

Tuesday, May 14:  Visit the new projects at Shurmo and location for our next project (for which we are ready to fund at this time. We may also see another site for a future project.

Wednesday, May 15:  Arsi Negelle water projects and Shashemene Boarding School. Return to Addis.

Thursday, May 16: Hope for Korah where we women will teach feminine hygiene product class and the men will meet with the boys.  Also visit Carry 117 and Embracing Hope.

Friday, May 17:  7 am HFK Berta Feeding Program, Hope Enterprise Homeless Lunch Feeding program, Sabahara Silk Worm Farm (women make scarves), Embracing Hope.

Saturday, May 18:  We will spend the day at Children's Heaven where we will present the 100 girls with a new outfit, underwear and shoes and jewelry. We will do Bible and art activities as well as play various games and do crafts.

Sunday, May 19:  Church, lunch out and afternoon with director of Embracing Hope, Alayu and his family. Possible visit an orphanage.

Monday, May 20:  A Heart for Korah (AHFK) where we will distribute a mattress, sheets and blanket to each of our 110 sponsor families.

Tuesday, May 21: AHFK - continue distribution and visiting our families and check in with the families involved with our income generation program. Late afternoon back to guesthouse to shower, eat, pack and head to the airport for a 10:45 pm flight home.

Wednesday, May 22:  Arrive at Dulles at 8:45 am. Then home,

Our plans may change once we're there, but this is our plan at this time.

We really appreciate your prayers, especially for Doc that he will not get sick with anything (altitude sickness, respiratory issues or whatever). We want him to be perfectly well the whole trip, as well as the rest of our team. It is very unpleasant being sick in Ethiopia. Also pray that we will have many opportunities to share Jesus with the people of our ministries and elsewhere. We have such a great chance to share Jesus when we visit the water projects at the RURAL schools where the children entertain us and share with us. Remember, that at some of our schools, the children have never seen white people, so it is quite an experience. They just love to have us there and express their thanks for clean water. We tell them we do this because of Jesus and how He loves us and them. Pray for safety as we travel; the roads or lack thereof are very treacherous and there has been some unrest in the country but not where we are traveling.