Pictures from the trip

We forgot the best part

The turkeys cooked, potatoes are mashed, the wine is open (if you’re like my family anyways) and it’s time for the mayhem to begin. Typically what my family does is stand in a lopsided circle and hold hands, some of us with babies on our hips, some of us with eyes open to make funny faces at a nephew while we pray. During dinner we will take turns saying what we are most thankful for this year.

Somehow this year, between the madness of two pregnant sisters, a plethora of children running around, and puppies running between legs to catch fallen food, we missed out on my favorite part. 

Honestly, my family is composed of some of the most selfless, giving, compassionate people I’ve known. We are all very emotional and passionate people. We share our feelings of gratitude with each other and others on a regular basis. Ungrateful isn’t a word I would use to describe any of them. The truth is we are just very busy and distracted.

But the more I’ve thought about our wonderful Thanksgiving together the more it bothered me that we all forgot to include the best part: thanking each other for the love and support that has gotten us through another year and for all the blessings in our life. 

Being busy isn’t an excuse I want to accept for not telling the people I love thank you for all they’ve done for me. I don’t want myself or my family to get lazy about our gratitude. Forgetting to be thankful for every single thing will lead us to be less concerned about what others don’t have. I would bet a billion dollars (or whatever may be in my bank account) that none of the children I hung out with in Ethiopia would forget to be thankful for even one second for some of the conveniences I take for granted every day. It’s Thanksgiving so I expect to see a big fat turkey on the table; I don’t take into account how much that meat would mean to an Ethiopian family. I get wrapped up in my taken-for-granted traditions and forget that the cost of that turkey could support an entire family for a month or more in Ethiopia and countries like it.

Realizing this doesn’t mean that I can’t enjoy Thanksgiving or the Holidays just because I can’t give every African family a big Thanksgiving dinner. It would be unreasonable to give up everything in my lifestyle and try to match my world to theirs or vice versa. Our societies are different as well as our expectations. But at the very least I can remember to be thankful for what I have and help those who don’t have as much. 

Two months after returning from Ethiopia and here’s another self-realization. I’m sure this won’t be the last.

Ketma on my brain!

God always finds a way to talk to me through his servants when I need it most, and yet am not expecting it. Since I’ve been back from Ethiopia I’ve been on an inner-emotional roller coaster. I go up and down from feeling grateful, to feeling helpless, to feeling flat out angry. I’ve questioned my capability a lot, asking myself “can anything I do really make in impact in this region where the need is so great?”

I have to admit, like I’m sure most of the missionaries before me have admitted, sometimes I struggle with the overwhelming need of our world, not just in Ethiopia. It’s hard for me to keep in mind that by changing one life at a time, I am bettering the world, because sometimes that small change doesn’t feel like enough.

These pessimistic thoughts have stalled my progress and I could feel myself losing sight of my vision.

Luckily for me, God is unwavering and he is more optimistic than I could ever be alone. My friends from HopeChest continued to email and call, asking where my head is, asking where my heart is, and sending ideas on ways that might be perfect for me to get involved and stay there.

Their persistence has helped get me back on track.

Since returning from our trip my friend Ashley and I have been discussing with HopeChest different ways that our community can partner with an Ethiopian community and provide sponsorships and further a carepoint. I am so excited and overwhelmed that we finally found a partnership with a church in Rochester, MN who has struggled to get enough sponsors for the children in the area. I think together we can double or triple the amount of monthly donations and then start to work on bigger projects for the area of Ketma.

The area is close to a slum and the citizens are in dire need of clean and healthy water, discipleship, and prayer. The Carepoint is near Awassa, the city we spent most of our time in on our trip, and we will be working alongside our new friends on-site in Ethiopia, Alex and Tesfa, who are just amazing examples of Christ followers.

Now Ashley and I are going to set off on convincing our networks of family, friends, coworkers and neighbors to sponsor a child at $38 a month and help us help this area in need.

I can’t help but feel so overwhelmingly grateful and empowered that these people at HopeChest believe in us and believe we can make a difference. I’m so thankful for their understanding of my fluctuating emotions and that despite this they didn’t give up on my vision for me. Now I read this quote daily as a reminder that a small difference is all it takes to make someone’s world a better place.

“We ourselves feel that what we are doing is just a drop in the ocean. But the ocean would be less because of that missing drop.- Mother Theresa”

I get an F for my internet silence

So sorry to all my readers (all 2 of you) for not posting anything in so long. My trip was….hard to put in to words to say the least.

I wrote a lot of journals and notes while I was there but my internet wasn’t the best and silly old me forgot to bring the right kind of charger for my laptop. Excuses, excuses.

Bottom line is I haven’t actually been able to form a lot of clear, concise thoughts on everything I experienced. I’ve decided to start with the easy stuff and hope that it will lead me in to the topics I know I need to get in writing, but haven’t been able to do so.

When we got to Ethiopia we traveled about 4 hours south of the Capitol to Awassa. It’s a beautiful , almost tropical climate. A perfect description of how I always pictured Africa in my mind, with monkeys on trees and beautiful plains and flowering trees. There was something magical, sad, inspiring, and breathtaking about the contrast between nature’s beauty and some of the slums and towns we drove through. The vast contrast of everyday living in Ethiopia to the life I’ve always known will never cease to amaze me.

How can these people I see living in mud huts with 5 family members, seem so happy and content? Why are they so friendly to everyone they see? How do I find that inner happiness too? I was ready to feel sympathetic and sad, ready to feel excited to help. I can tell you honestly that jealousy is something I never expected to feel when visiting Africa. But I was. Jealous that they figured out how to get by on so little and still have a zest and appreciation for life that I have never come close to, and I like to think I am a pretty happy person.

It made me realize that my idea of how to help these communities is completely different than what I thought before this trip. And how counterproductive it would be to just hand out money on a street and fix temporary needs for these people. Next week I will be gone and so will that money and those same people begging will be back in that some spot.
Instead I think we need to work together to teach others how to improve their own conditions; how to rely on God and hard work to get the earthly things we need like clean drinking water, education and medical care.

This is not to say it was easy to say no to the mothers with naked, malnourished babies on their backs as they would come up to the car and ask repeatedly for birr, which is the Ethiopian currency. It was heartbreaking. I wanted to explain to her that I wanted to help but giving her money was more detrimental than helpful. If I was starving and so was my child and someone said that to me I would want to slap them. So instead we would try to say no and wait for her to leave the car window. Feeling guilty and disappointed.

And guilt is something I do think we should feel. Because over the centuries we have enabled this society as well as similar societies to accept this as their norm. White people come to town, give them money, and leave. That is how it has been for centuries. My way of thinking when I am short on money is to clean out my closet, pick up shifts at a restaurant, something because I have been taught not to rely on the charity of others. But now when poor Ethiopians need help, for the most part, and I’m trying not to generalize, instead of thinking like this, they wait for the tourists and missionaries to come to town and give them whatever they need.

This solves their temporary problem maybe, but we are taking away from them their work ethic, their independence, their pride, and so much more. I think it’s time we stop and look at what we are doing to help and ask ourselves if there are better ways to do so.

I’m excited to work with Hopechest and discover ways to enable the communities I saw rather than giving them handouts.


“Poverty alleviation occurs when the power of Christ's resurrection reconciles our key relationships through the transformation of both individual lives and local, national, and international systems.” When Helping Hurts.

This isn't okay with me.

I have been struggling to swallow a mood of anger, sadness, and disappointment for quite some time now. (Thus the reasoning behind my blogger silence). I can’t watch the news without getting angry and yelling at the TV, or scroll through my Facebook feed without rolling my eyes and hitting the “hide- I don’t want to see posts like this” button.

The strange part is I am not mad at any one or anything in particular, so it’s difficult to put it into words. I’m mad at all of us. Myself included.

How are we, not as Americans or members of a certain religious group or political group, but we as humans, okay with watching what celebrity wore what designer to the VMA’s last week when last week thousands were slaughtered a few hours across the ocean?

The crisis in Gaza strip should terrify us and wake us up to want to do something to help our brothers and sisters so many miles apart. Instead it is covered in a 30 second segment on the news and then we continue on with who Kim Kardashian is marrying or what self-deprecating stunt Miley Cyrus pulled this week. How can Kim Kardashian’s social life even compare to the tragedies going on in the Middle East and Africa? How many seconds of airtime are given to the Gaza Strip each day in comparison with celebrity gossip? It makes me sick to my stomach that we as a population have allowed ourselves to be so mindlessly entertained by these things instead of paying attention to the bigger problems- let alone getting off of our arsenals and doing something to help.

My sweet oldest sister, Erika, has been my personal therapist while I’ve been trying to make sense of all of this and work through it. She lets me vent and cry and try to figure out a way to do more than just feel sympathetic. More than that though she doesn’t try to convince me it’s all okay or let me shy away from these huge, overwhelming tragedies. Instead she asks me some really hard questions and makes me think things I don’t want to think about. Like why thousands of innocent children have been beheaded and can I imagine if that was my wonderful nieces and nephews?

No I can’t imagine and quite frankly I don’t want to. I see my nephew Seth’s big brown eyes in every horrible picture of an ISIS victim I see now. I want to save them all. And I weep for the ones we couldn’t save. How can this be happening?

Erika and I have come to one very simple conclusion that I repeat to myself dozens of times each day now. This isn’t okay with me.

It’s not okay with me that every day 25,000 people (mostly children) die from drinking dirty water.

It’s not okay that there are 100 million children in the world who live on the street not knowing when or if they will eat again.

It’s not okay with me that the crisis in the Middle East has forced 22 million people out of their home and country. (That’s just slightly under the population of ALL of Texas, y’all. Can you imagine trying to help find food, homes and refuge for EVERYONE in Texas?). The death toll adds another 200,000+ to that number if our statistics are correct. In the middle of a genocide I don’t think accurate body count should be a huge priority so forgive my sources if this number is wrong.

The difference between me and them is simply an unfair accident that I was born in St. Joseph, Missouri and they were born elsewhere
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I can no longer sit in my safe little cocoon, drinking my un-diseased water, not fearing for my life, and telling myself that it’s someone else’s problem.

It is OUR problem. I’m tired of the “we” versus “them” mentality that has become the norm. Why does it matter if it’s an African child or an Iranian child or an American child? I want you (whoever you are) to close your eyes to your stereotypes and biases. Close your eyes and just love them all.

It’s not okay with me to do nothing any more. I don’t want it to be okay for you, either.


“Surely faith without action is dead. Let Your kingdom come. Lord break this heart.” (Lincoln Brewster’s song “Power of your name”. Listen to it if you haven’t.)



Ethiopia countdown: 23 days.



Sources:

https://sites.google.com/site/rinconsogi/10-40-window
https://www.dosomething.org/facts/11-facts-about-global-poverty
http://www.middleeasteye.net/news/syrias-crisis-figures-deaths-refugees-and-damage-1110944222

I'm challenging YOU! BOOM!

You’ve been challenged!

We’ve all seen the ice bucket challenge, the plunge for Landon, and the similar creative ways to get a huge number of people involved with donating to a great cause.


So my travel partner Ashley and I thought, why not do a mini challenge for our friends and family to raise money for our Ethiopia trip? This challenge is easy and requires no social media embarrassment! I challenge you to go to http://www.gofundme.com/hannahgoestoethiopia (for Hannah) or http://www.gofundme.com/ethiopia-love (for Ashley) and donate $10 to one of our funds. Then send this message to a friend and make sure they donate and pass it on! It may not seem like a hard challenge but it adds up fast and means SO much to us! The extra money we raise we will be dispersing to the orphanages and schools we visit!

I can't believe I will be back in Addis in 40 DAYS!!!

Thank you to the people who stole my purse. Seriously.

I try to be a good person. I really do. I like to buy strangers coffee in the Starbucks line. I open doors for people I don’t know. I pick up trash in other people’s yards. I like to do these things honestly because I believe what goes around comes around and I want good things to come around to me.

Well a few days ago while I was at my gym someone decided to start my 4th of July weekend off by shattering my car window and stealing my purse. The police were called, I cancelled my cards, yada yada. I was genuinely upset about the inexpensive items in there that can’t be replaced. Like movie tickets from the entire time Todd and I have been dating, a fun ring my Grandma left me that isn’t exactly expensive but means so much to me, pictures of my nephews, and of course the pain-in-the-booty things to replace like my license and insurance. Annoyed.

This incident set the mood for the rest of my three-day weekend. It felt like one thing after another; locking my keys in my house and not having a way in, my power steering going out of the car that is already dangerous to drive, holiday plans being cancelled, etc. Annoyed times 10.

I was in a “poor me, why me” mood for days and I couldn’t snap out of it.
I was sitting at my office desk a little bit ago, texting some friends about rides to work tonight (Have I mentioned I have a second job? I’ve waitressed/hostessed and now managed at a local restaurant for 5 years now and I still love it). I was feeling like a pain since forgetting my waitress clothes at home meant not only did I need a ride to work but I needed a ride back home just to change and then bring me back downtown to the restaurant that is less than a mile from my office job. Annoyed times 20.

When I was telling a friend about this inconvenience her response was “oh I can pick you up and do that no problem at all! What time should I be there?”

This was a different friend than the one who gave me a ride to work this morning and a different one than had offered to bring me lunch since I couldn’t drive anywhere.

Her response made me stop and genuinely think about the situation and mood I’ve allowed myself to be in for days.
How wonderful is it that I could think of so many friends and family who offered their help or eagerly accepted when I came to them? Not many people are in a position where their friends are always able to do that, so this is good that I’m in this spot and not someone else.

This line of thinking brought on a positive snowstorm affect. I started back tracking my whole weekend. What if it had been someone else’s car that got broken in to instead? I had no cash in my wallet and my credit cards were easily cancelled; the thieves got away with hardly anything. It COULD have been a single mother who had just cashed her paycheck so she was able to buy groceries for the holiday weekend. Instead it was me. It could have been a disaster, instead it’s an inconvenience.

The thieves COULD have stolen my car and this whole situation would have been a lot messier, or someone COULD have been hurt. They weren’t.

All in all this entire situation was pretty irrelevant to the story of my life and I need to look at the positive side; look what I learned. I think this was a lesson God wanted me to learn. Not to get frustrated and give up, I can try to be a good person and Christian and it doesn’t mean that when bad things happen God is punishing me. In those sucky times I need to lean on God even more and try to figure out how I can grow instead of sulking and obsessing.

I’m not going to go as far as saying I would like to take the thieves to dinner and thank them once they’re caught. I’m not THAT crazy. But I am thankful to them that through this they have given me a new sense of gratitude for the people I love and for my faith in God.

Forgiveness

So a couple weeks ago I had an absolutely horrible experience with a friend. I feel as if I’m mourning a break up; I guess in many ways I am and in my opinion breaking up with a friend is harder than any relationship break up I’ve experienced.

The details of what happened aren’t important and telling my side of the story to the internet isn’t really fair in my opinion. I know her side would be told different and then the third side of what actually happened would still be out there, too. The only thing you need to know is that we both were clearly harboring some negative feelings about each other for months if not years, and it came out in a very immature way and we both said and did things we can’t take back.

I’ve been obsessing about the fight for weeks; going back and forth between feeling sad and guilty about what I did wrong and what I am to blame for, then to being angry at her for her share of the problems. Until I talked to my sister and she made a point that I know will stick with me for the rest of my life: it’s awfully hard to be mad at someone you’re praying for.

I chewed this over for a few minutes and then just talked to God honestly about the argument (after all He knows better what happened and why we both acted the way we did). Since then I have been praying for my friend, that she learns from her behavior and from the things I said, albeit hurtful, and that she forgives herself and me and we move on with our life instead of harboring these negative feelings toward each other.

But I also prayed for myself. If I had witnessed my niece and her friend get into the same argument, and watched her torture herself for weeks I would be sick with worry and trying to cheer her up. I imagine this is somewhat how God feels about all of us when we are upset. I’m not sugar-coating this and saying He would pat my hand and say “you didn’t do anything wrong; she deserved it” (I have no problem taking my share of the blame), but I do think He would want me to learn from this and grow as a person. He would want me to forgive myself.

This argument has also opened up a beautiful concept to me: not every relationship will last. At first this made me sad, I grow very attached to the people I love and I don’t like to lose them. But the more I accept this the more at peace I feel. This friend and I have very different views on friendship and behaviors and have had various issues since the beginning. But we have so much fun and she has been a dear friend more often than not, I tried to look past all of that. Through talking to God and praying hard about this I realized that yes she was meant to be in my life, I learned a lot from her and have so many wonderful memories, but that doesn’t mean she was meant to be in my life forever, and vice versa for her.

If she were a boyfriend we would have deemed the relationship dysfunctional and broken up, so why strive so hard for a friendship that is toxic, too? Why not shake hands and thank the other for what we’ve given and call it a day? It doesn’t have to turn into a 5th grade-take sides- you’re not invited to my birthday party- fiasco. It can end and we can think fondly of each other and move on with our lives.

“If you, God, kept record of wrongdoings, who would stand a chance? As it turns out, forgiveness is your habit.” Psalm 130:3-4

“Forgive the things you are holding against one another. Forgive, just as the Lord forgave you.” Colossians 3:13

These are just a few of the Bible verses that have been on my mind.

Doing Good is Hard

This is the title of Chapter 9 in Rhinestone Jesus: I’m not going to lie-doing good is hard.
And as I read this chapter feelings of guilt and embarrassment washed through me. Kristen talks about how the “good” doesn’t translate to “easy” and how ever since she said Yes to God it has been a struggle of complications to her plans: sicknesses, fear, busy schedules, being homesick, paperwork and let downs
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This made me think today as I was biking (my new favorite form of cardio since battling a knee-injury demanded that I no longer run). My thoughts during my bike rides correspond quite well with my attitude toward Jesus. On the downhill and on the flat stretches of road I feel strong and think “man I can go further than I planned because this is easy.” Then the uphill comes. And as I huff and puff I have to convince myself not to give up and walk the hill instead.
As a Christian I feel strong when it’s easy, but when trouble comes I forget to instantly turn to Him with my burdens. I try to figure out the problems on my own and in some cases I give up, something I’m working on.

As I’m reading this chapter it has sparked in me a new desire to lean on God with all of my feelings: problems, hopes, fears, excuses, joys. He can handle it, even when I can’t. That realization has made me feel light. To know I can place my burden on Him and He will endure it with me is a calming feeling.

“Getting to the good part requires making it through the valley of the hard.” (page 148)

This paragraph is too good not to share, this is what really affected me.

“God wanted me desperate. He wanted me depending on Him, not only for direction, wisdom and protection, but for every breath I took. Because really I am. But there’s something powerful in realizing and acknowledging complete dependence on Him. I was afraid to do anything but call out to Jesus in my weakness. Jesus keeps asking me to have faith for the impossible. And it makes me desperate and I feel like I can’t stand, so I have no choice but to fall on Him. He meets me there, every time.”

Asking myself the uncomfortable (and sometimes politically incorrect) questions so I’m prepared when others do, too. Also a really long title because long titles make me giggle.

When I tell people I am going to Africa on a vision trip, you’d be surprised how often people look at me with bewilderment and say “why?” I can handle that. I’m 25 and a lot of people my age can think about 134 things they would rather do than give up their iPhone and running water for a week to go on a mission trip. The “why” doesn’t bug me, and as I become more confident in my calling the questions don’t bug me, either. I’m learning that everyone has their own opinion, their own calling, and their own curiosity. I would rather they ask me these questions and maybe I can open their mind in some way, than keep it to themselves. Here are some of the questions I had a hard time with at first because I felt like those asking were attacking my dream, or accusing me of something in some way. (Again, those are my own insecurities I had to get over and trust in God that this is what He wants me to do.)

Why Ethiopia? Why Africa? There are children “here” who need help, too!
Yes, there are. Let’s help them, too! Let’s help them all!! I am one person. I personally fell in love with Ethiopia when I visited and would love to help a community in that country. I am not opposed to helping ANYWHERE though. If God’s plan is to send me to the moon to help someone, I will do that for him, too. But right here, right now I feel like He is calling me to Ethiopia.
And also, why NOT Africa? I think too often we as humans value borders and segregation and too easily let ourselves forget this is one world. A 12 year-old Ethiopian boy is no different than a 12-year old American boy. If they’re hungry let’s feed them. If they don’t know the Word, let’s teach them. Even if they don’t want it, let’s love them.

Why Children’s HopeChest?
Children’s HopeChest for me was my first time getting to experience compassion and mission work first-hand. I sponsor a little girl in Ethiopia through Hopechest thanks to the wonderful mission group I traveled with in 2012. I know there are dozens of wonderful companies and groups that want to help change the world in their own way and I commend them all. I am emotionally attached to Children’s Hopechest and had personal connections with people who work for them, hence this trip fell in to place according to His perfect plan.


Why not help those children get adopted?
I do get this a lot. If the conditions are so terrible why not focus on taking those children away from there and putting them somewhere sparkly and safe?
I have to premise my answer with an explanation first: I try to be very politically correct when answering this question because it is a topic very dear to my heart. My nephew is adopted from Bogota Colombia and he is one of the lights of my life. He is the first nephew in my family and he taught me how to truly, selflessly love. I was the youngest child so I never experienced feeling protective of a small child and having them depend on me until he came into our lives. God made him to be a part of our family and there is no doubt about that in my mind. Adoption is a wonderful thing and I am SO proud of my sister and brother-in-law for listening to God’s call to them to adopt.
Okay, that being said, I don’t think adoption is always the answer. I think it is a wonderful answer sometimes, but not 100% of the time.
Children’s HopeChest tries to work with communities to provide education, safety and a future to children in their home countries who either live with their family in poor conditions, or have close relatives who care for them. One of the reasons they do not personally dabble in adoption is because they think it sends a mixed message for their main goal: to protect and provide for these children/communities and teach them to provide better for themselves. If they went in to these communities and built trust but then also helped children get adopted it would almost feel like they were saying “we are going to teach you to thrive, but we don’t have the faith in you to actually succeed so we are also going to get your children adopted.”
One day I would love to work to help an adoption program. But just like my answer for “Why Ethiopia?” specifically right now this is what I am being called to do. I admire and am so thankful for those who are being called to help the adoption process also, if everyone was called to serve God in the same way we couldn’t get everything accomplished so it is a blessing that we are all called to serve in different ways at different times, I think!

Can’t you, like, just send money instead of going over there?
Yes I probably could throw a check at the problem and that would help somehow. Money does, unfortunately, solve lots of problems in our world. But money isn't going to love those kids and teach them the Word. Someone has to be there to see the money be transferred into books and wells and food. Someone should be there to spread their stories and show them that whatever they’re going through, they are not alone. If not you, then who?


These are jsut a few of the many questions I receive and wanted to answer.
If there are any other questions you’ve wanted to ask someone please feel free to ask me! I’m not offended by political incorrectness and am all for possibly changing your perception!

Discovering my own sparkly "Jesus" pin

The premise behind the name for Welch’s book, Rhinestone Jesus¸ started with a pin the author wore every day through high school. “People could see I was a Christian because I pinned on my sparkly symbol of faith, my rhinestone “Jesus” pin, nearly every day; my identity was pretty hard to miss.” (Introduction xiii).

She talks about how donning this piece of Jesus flare practically shouted at everyone who she was and what she stood for. But then Welch goes deeper and talks about the trials in her life where she really learned what it means to be a Christian when your life isn’t so sparkly and your relationship with God is put to the test. Her realization was that pinning a Jesus pin on and calling yourself a Christian wasn’t enough.

This idea really got me thinking about my own relationship with God. I might not wear a rhinestone Jesus pin but lately I have been questioning how superficial of a Christian I actually have let myself be. I pray every night and thank God for his blessings, ask for forgiveness for my sins and talk about what happened that day. I treat Jesus as a bedtime chore rather than a relationship that deserves/demands constant communication. When something amazing happens I don’t thank him in that moment. When something is hard I don’t immediately look to him for help. It’s only later, an afterthought. And I don’t want my Christianity to be an afterthought any more.

One quote that really stuck with me at the beginning of this book is on page 4 when Welch says “Christianity wasn’t about all the things I did for Jesus; it was about coming to know Him better and making disciples.”

Which brings me to my sparkly Jesus pin. How much of my first mission trip was a calling to serve God and help his children, and how much of it was for me? To feel better about myself, like I’m actually doing something worthy? I’m realizing there is a huge difference between selflessly serving in the name of God, and serving my own agenda to appear to be a good person.

I sound like I’m being hard on myself perhaps, and please don’t get me wrong; my selfishness is not the reflection of the group I traveled with or the wonderful work they do; it is simply a direct reflection on where I was in my life and my walk with God at that time. I went to Ethiopia under the pretense that I would be saving someone and come out the hero; in reality that trip saved me. It woke in me a strong desire to love and serve others, not for the glory it would bring me or for the self-satisfaction I would gain, but for no other reason than because He told me to.

“When you serve the least of these, you are serving me.”

A very close friend of mine suggested I read Rhinestone Jesus recently and I took her up on that. This book so far has opened my mind and made me ask myself hard questions I didn’t let myself ask before. If you haven’t read it I HIGHLY recommend you get a copy today. Kristen Welch is a Christian mother, wife, writer and missionary who talks about how her journey with God is in no way what she expected. I feel that my faith and my relationship with God and my passion to serve has grown in new ways since I started this book and I hope if any of you read it you get something out of it as well.

The nerdy student in me never really graduated my 11th grade English Class, (thanks Ms. M), and I have to highlight, write notes, ask meaningful questions, and do reviews of these kinds of books when I read them. One thing this book taught me very early is that it is easier to grow in God when you have relationships with others trying to do the same. I thought as I prepare for my vision trip in October it would be a good idea to blog my journey with this book and hopefully start conversations with those who read it about how I/we can say “Yes to God when sparkly safe faith is no longer enough” (Which is the description of Rhinestone Jesus)

I didn’t make it through the prologue before this book made me cry. It wasn’t necessarily sad tears or pity tears, but more tears of guilt. Embarrassing, selfish guilt that I didn’t know I had in me.

"A majority of the residents were small, unsupervised children. They called out to us, “How ah you? How ah you?” hoping we would put something into their upturned hands. We could see by their swollen bellies that they were malnourished. Their faces were filthy and covered with flies, which they didn’t bother to shy away.
It was a hellhole, not fit for the living.
I began to cry and couldn’t stop. I wanted to shut it all out. I was angry with God. “Where are you? How can you allow so much suffering?”
Then I stopped and closed my eyes. I saw God’s finger pointed at me as He asked my spirit the same question: “Kristen how can you allow this?” In that exact moment, I knew my life would never be the same.”"

That sentence right there: “Kristen how can you allow this?” made me fall to my knees. We blame God for the injustices of our world but we do little or nothing to help them. How can I ask/blame God to help feed the hungry and save the orphans when I am sitting on my leather couch in good ol’ safe Missouri letting ice cream melt in a bowl because I am still so stuffed from dinner? It’s no fault of their own that those orphans were born where they were, just like it makes me no better than them that I happened to be born here. God loves us the same.

If my sister was hungry, I would feed her. If she lost her job and needed help with money I would take care of her. Why am I not doing more to help my brothers and sisters around the world then? Why am I letting my closet grow and my bank account swell when those things could save one of my brothers & sisters lives? How can I show the world that we are all related? Every single one of us children of God?

Pictures from the past

 I'm reminiscing from my last trip and getting so excited to go again in October. I expect this trip to be completely different, and that excites me and scares me at the same time! As of now I know nobody else going on this trip with me, and that intimidates me a little to be honest. I am trying to get over my fears, knowing that this is what God is calling me to do.


Just because I'm feeling nostalgic though; I thought I would share some of my favorite pictures from last time.



Here's a picture of our whole group. It's amazing how quickly you bond with the people you live with during missions work. I wouldn't trade any of these wonderful people for anything!



This is my sweet little Tigist, the girl I sponsor through Children's Hopechest. She goes to school at Trees of Glory, an hour or so outside Addis Ababa. It was so neat getting to meet her and her siblings and see firsthand what my donation does for her each month. She's such an amazing girl.

 


I'm going back!

Most of you know I traveled to Ethiopia a few years ago on a mission trip. While there I fell in love with the country, the people, and their rich culture. Since then I’ve been trying to find ways that I can do more to help this amazing country. I’m so excited to announce that I’m going on a Vision Trip in October with Children’s Hopechest!

A vision trip is designed for individuals who want to potentially sponsor a community. On a Vision Trip, participants visit mostly unsponsored locations for the purpose of evaluating how our church or community can become a HopeChest sponsoring community. Each HopeChest carepoint takes in about 150 children and educates them, and with their sponsor money they are fed, clothed, and medicated. It gives these children just a few less things to worry about and helps them focus on what children should be allowed to focus on: being happy.

I currently sponsor a little girl named Tigist at the Trees of Glory carepoint through Children’s Hopechest and I can’t rave enough about this company; I know exactly where my money is going and am so proud of the work they do. I actually got to meet my sweet Tigist on my first trip to Ethiopia and see first-hand what HopeChest has done in her area. Now I want to go back and help in a different way. On this trip we will travel to multiple places around the country and see where we can START a carepoint. We would partner that care point with this community and help them grow, in God and in everything they do. At the care points I visited on my first trip their sponsor communities have helped to build libraries, wells, give the children new shoes, and many more amazing projects that would not have been possible without Hopechest. I want to give these gifts to other deserving children and Ethiopian communities now.

I’m writing to you to ask for your help, not just financially but spiritually. Please be praying for me and those accompanying me on this journey that we are safe, and that we work as hands and feet for the Lord.

The trip will end up costing around $2,500, unfortunately most of which is plane ticket. Please don’t feel obligated to donate, but if you’re able it would mean so much to me for your assistance. You can send cash or checks to me at 2610 N. 32^nd Street, St. Joseph, MO 64506, or if you feel more comfortable you can donate online at my trip website: http://www.gofundme.com/HannahGoesToEthiopia

Thanks so much for your support!