More Coming

I will have some more updates posted in the next few days that will share some of the other stories, pictures and highlights of the trip.

Grain at the Market

Unloading Grain

Here Rich Stearns and Tenagne Lemme, theNational Director of Ethiopia for World Vision, look on as the camel is unloaded. Camels come equipped with a nice feature that lowers the payload to the ground for easier unloading.

Tenagne has had an interesting career. Prior to World Vision, she served for 11 years as the National Director for Compassion International. It was a great experience to hear about the differences between the two organizations and why she switched. They are both great organizations doing great work she assured me. I will work on a comparison that I will share later.

Grain

We went to the market one day with a WV farmer. Camels are often used as transportation.

Biofuel

This is one of the cool projects that World Vision supports. This is a solar cooker. It can boil water in under 30 minutes and cuts down the use of wood and carbon emissions. Along with this project we help construct a bio-fuel project and provide all the training they need. The way it works is that there is a manhole in the cattle stable where they shovel the manure. The manure falls into a giant underground storage unit. As it ferments it released methane gas which supplies the home with cooking fuel continuously. The methane gas forces the manure mixture through pipes to a manure pit where it bubbles up. This organic manure can now be sold as fertilizer and provides the family with income. All of this to reach our goal of fully sustainable development.

Frisbee

I took along my Flip HD video camera and got a bunch of shots. I have to go through and edit them down. This one is of the kids playing Frisbee for the first time.

Another beautiful child - there are so many in Ethiopia.

I like her expression on this one.

I thought this girl was so cute that I'm posting two pictures of her.

Rene Stearns

Great Kids Pictures

Jenna Lucado Bishop with the children after the church service

Jenny Lockwald and her friends at school

Love these Ethiopian kittens

Sunday Night

I have wireless internet for the first time on my trip tonight. However, it runs at like a 56k modem so I'm not able to really update any pictures. I will definitely get a chance tomorrow as I head to the airport to head to Seattle for four days. I have some time in an airport lounge in Nairobi and Amsterdam and I will update pictures and hopefully some video. Just some picture clarification as my captions have not posted. The Wonsi picture and the first three pictures inside the building with candles were taken by World Vision profession photographer; Jon Warren. He has some amazing shots and I didn't always have my camera with me. I have a bunch of new ones including a cute child who climbed on my lap for the entire worship service this morning. I can't wait to get the rest of the posts up - sorry for the delays. More tomorrow.

Bless the Lord oh my soul and all that is within me bless Your holy name. It is a beautiful morning here in Adama, Ethiopia and we are off at 7:00AM to visit a local well. We are going to get there early in order to see those who woke at 3:00 AM to take a 2 or 3 hour walk for their daily supply of water. And some make the journey twice a day. We met a family yesterday that would spend six hours a day fetching firewood to be able to use to cook - six hours a day. Often they spend more energy collecting, preparing and cooking there food than the benefit of the nutrition they receive from the food.

There is such an exhilarating feeling serving the poor. Waking up every morning and knowing that what you do this day can make a difference in the life of a child.

I would encourage you to consider sponsoring a child to!day. If you already do sponsor one then write them a letter. Blessings.

Tonight

Mark, Max and I took a walk around town tonight going from shop to shop. It was very interesting and we met a lot of friendly people. We stopped for cold Cokes in a bar we found along the way. It took me an hour to upload the last four updates. I'm headed to meet the group for dinner. More later.

Wonsi

The highlight of our day was meeting Wosni Teji a single mother of six. She told us her story of extreme poverty which led her at one point to seriously consider suicide. Her small hut could not provide protection from the rain and wind for family. Five years ago she entered the World Vision Child Sponsorship program. Eventually, three of her children were sponsored which provided her with food and more. Her sponsoring family provided extra gifts that allowed her to build a house and buy oxen to plow her field with. She now has everything she needs to raise her family and provide them with the basics so that her children can attend school and receive care in times of sickness. Recently, her sponsors provided her with the money she needed to fun electricity to her home so that her children can read at night and move further ahead with their studies. “I’m the happiest woman in the world” she told us today with a huge smile beaming across her face. Just another way that World Vision Child Sponsorship transforms the community and the children.

Max Lucado Taking a Break

Adama Irrigation and Farming Project

Our day began with a tour of the Adama Irrigation and Farming project. This World Vision project provided pumps and irrigation for 189 families. Biru Bededa once earned 19 cents a day working as a day laborer. Because of the irrigation project, Biru now brings in over $2,700 a year. He is able to support his entire family and make sure that they all attend school. This economic lift goes beyond the Bedada family. They now are able to support the local economy because of their increased income. This creates a trickle down effect and provides for more jobs throughout their community. Multiply this by 189 families and it really gets exciting. Now more than 100 other farmers are getting pumps supplied by World Vision to expand this to even more families.

Sponsorship

Today was another amazing day. I once again witnessed the miracle of sponsorship. When you come to a country like Ethiopia you see that the need is so great and it is overwhelming. You think there’s nothing I can do to change the course of starvation, disease and extreme poverty, but you can. You can do it in the life of one child.

Its amazing how addicted to technology I am. I remember when I first got dial up internet and it was amazing. Then once I got broadband I was spoiled forever. Here it takes 20 minutes to check my email account and Facebook - forget about it. I can update my status by texting. From my phone.

I have about 8 blog entries to upload from yesterday but we don't get enough time back at the hotel to get it all done. It is morning now and we are headed out to see more projects. Our video camera broke so it has slowed us down and we are trying to rent an HD camera here (good luck)

I woke up this morning feeling so blessed to be here and be apart of World Vision. God has been so good to me. I had a great call with my pastor this morning and really appreciated his prayers for me.

You definitely see the face of God as you look into the face of the poor. God is once again reminding me what is important.

Beautiful Ethiopian Girl

Here is a picture from the ceremony at the community center. The little girl that Max is holding ran to him during the presentation and wouldn’t let go of him. The candles were basically giant wicks dipped in wax. Pictures are taking extremely long to upload on this dial up modem. I will work on getting some more uploaded tonight.

Community Center

Today we visited a community project that we partner with that promotes HIV/Aids awareness and testing. The ceremony consisted of a gift exchange, music, breaking of bread and coffee. I’m not a coffee drinker at all but this dark rich coffee wasn’t too bad at all. They roasted the beans by hand and ground them right there with a bowl and mortar. There was a little five year old boy there who wrote a poem and read it.

I am a little child who needs a lot of things
My mind is geared up to do something faster
So please my audiences listen me once
For your optimal care to me

I can not be handy for my family and my country
Left being problem to the entire society

I want to play cheerful
I want to talk short histories
I want to play foot ball

So if I get those things
After completeing my education
I will be like Obama

Either to be a Doctor or Pilot
Either to be a teacher or engineer
We are the one who work by our selves
Either to be a computer instructor or even a guard

Unless we learn keenly
Time will pass our childhood never back again

Day One Ethiopia.

Our first stop was our National Office where we met the staff and learned more about our week in Ethiopia. World Vision has over 200,000 sponsored children in Ethiopia. What is really cool is that countries around the world sponsor children as well as America. We sponsor about 75,000 of the children. Korea was the first country that World Vision ever worked – the first sponsored child was there. Today, Korea sponsors over 30,000 children in Ethiopia alone. It is great to see countries break the cycle of poverty.

We moved to another hotel closer to the projects where we are working. My room is small but has a fan! It was very warm today, somewhere close to 90. The roads here are quite good compared to the other countries I’ve been too (Uganda, Malawi and Zambia). We have seven Land Cruisers in our caravan. There is internet available in a business center in the lobby but I haven’t explored it yet. I guess if you’re reading this I found a way to post it as my phone is still not working.

Trip Participants

Here is a list of the folks on the trip with us.
- Rich and Renee Stearns – Rich has been the president of World Vision for over 10 years.
- Andrew and Kirsten Stearns – Rich’s son and daughter in law.
- Max and Denalyn – Max is pastor of Oak Hills Church and Christian Author
- Brett and Jenna Biship – Jenna is Max’s daughter and a speaker on the Revolve Tour
- Mike and Gail Hyatt – Mike is the CEO of Thomas Nelson
- Mary Graham – Mary is the head of Women of Faith
- Mark Tidwell – Mark is the executive pastor of Oak Hills Church in San Antonio (Max’s church)
- Jenny Lockwald – Jenny is the head of World Vision’s Artist Associates responsible for artists like Casting Crowns and Flyleaf.
In addition, we have several World Vision staff traveling with us including; a photographer, videographer, video assistant and writer with us.

I finally got my cell phone working for texts and can do short updates. We have dial up at the hotel and I will try and get some pictures up today. Blessings.

Arrived Finally

Yesterday I flew from Amsterdam to Addis with a stop over in Sudan. It was about an 8 hour flight. I was not able to sleep very well but last night slept great in our hotel. My Blackberry is not working so far and so I'm not able to update the blog from my phone as usual. The internet at the hotel we are staying at has been down until now so I'm finally able to squeeze in this update. I have been able to hang out with Max and his family for dinner and breakfast and we are waiting on Rich and his family to arrive as their flight last night was canceled due to the weather. I hope to be able to update more later.

Amsterdam

I made it to Amsterdam by watching four movies. I have about a three hour layover so I'm getting a shower and grabbing something to eat. Next stop - Sudan.

In Seatle

I had a tight turn around in Seattle but I'm now on my flight getting ready to take off. I have seen only one person wearing a breathing mask. I thought I would see more due to the swine flu. I figured where I'm going I could get malaria, yellow fever, hepatitis, HIV, typhoid fever or a number of other diseases and that the least of my worries is swine flu. I have an aisle seat with a seat open next to me - yahoo!

The Trip Begins

I'm at the Sacramento Airport waiting for my flight to Seattle. From Seattle I will take a nine hour flight to Amsterdam where I will meet up with Max Lucado and his group. I will have a 10 hour layover there and then climb onto a six hour flight to Sudan. The final leg is a two hour flight from Sudan to Addis, Ethiopia where we will begin our journey together.