Mission to Ethiopia

Among the projects I have coming up this year is to help plan a mission trip for my church to Ethiopia. While our most recent trip (Ireland) was geared toward the youth, this one is more open to all members, and many individuals across the age spectrum have expressed interest.

What is the goal of the trip, you ask? My church, Reaching Hearts International, has an orphans ministry. Hundreds of children across the world are sponsored by members and friends by contributing $30 per month. You can read more about the ministry here. We have come to work with many orphanages directly. As such, we will actually be working on construction of a new one in June. The organization we will be working with has developed a system where two parents are given a house and ten children are cared for. They live as a large family. Additionally, the villages that contain many of these orphanages are designed to be self-sustaining - all the individuals needs are cared for by the people themselves. The kids are taught skills so that when they are ready to begin their adult lives, they can move on, well prepared to live life on their own.

Most of these kids are orphans because their parents have died because of AIDS.

If you are interested in participating in this trip, either by going on it yourself, or sponsoring someone who is (MSRP is $2,500), please contact me.

I will keep you posted as the trip develops, and will provide a post-trip analysis. Although it is extremely unlikely that blogging will occur during the trip, if there is somehow internet access somewhere, I will attempt to provide an update or two. We'll see. The trip is still young.