Editor’s Note: Derrek Fikes was on our Mocha Club Ethiopia trip #3 from July 17th-26th, 2008.
I was able to travel to Addis Ababa, Ethiopia with other Mocha Club members back in July. It was the toughest thing I have ever experienced. It was also the single most rewarding and amazing experiences I’ve ever been a part of.
The part of the “trip” I want to focus on are the street kids. They are the kids who have been kicked out of their home, left because of abuse, money issues, etc.
Now, understand something. When I say street kids, I mean kids who survive on the streets. They roam the streets, make their living on the streets, fight for food on the streets, and pretty much live there. They are looked down on by everyone. These kids are amazing. It hurt me to see these kids in these situations. You want to see injustice? Nothing screams it more than an 8 year old boy who has to fight to stay alive and who struggles daily to get a meal.
I wanted to close my eyes, snap my fingers and transport all those kids to loving homes with loving parents. That can’t happen, though. I felt so…helpless. All I could do was love them for those hours and days I was with them. All I could do was show them God’s love. They have been rejected and alone all their lives. Rejected by parents. Rejected by society. Rejected by the church. Rejected by everyone but God.
All we could do was feed them. Hang out with them. Laugh with them. Love them!
The book of James says that “religion that God our Father finds as pure is to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to not be corrupted by the world.” Look after orphans and widows. Pure. Religion. We don’t see much religion that is pure and faultless these days. Much of what we see are the negative things which are affiliated with religion. Yet, God spells it out for us. Look after the poor, the orphans, widows, prostitutes, crack heads, homeless, and etc. Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
This “trip” really put things into perspective for me. I am not a big deal. I am but a vapor in the wind. Here today, gone tomorrow. When I pass from this life to the next and get to the gates, I want to hear my Savior say “Son; welcome home, the war is over.” I want to love, not hate. I want to give, not take. I want to live, not apathetically go through the motions. I want to encourage, not dishearten. I want to be an example of Christ’s love, not be just another Christian stereotype. I want to LOVE.
This summer, 1,050 children from grades 4 through 7 attended a “wait4me”
concert at the King of Kings Baptist Centre. Led by the Prevention team of Living, the concert was held for those children who have made a commitment to abstain from sex until marriage and encourage others to do the same. The children came from the neighborhoods of Red Hill, Ocean View, Masiphumelele and Capricorn, places where Living Hope conducts after-school programs daily to help disadvantaged kids.
Through drama done by Living Hope, messages from life skills educators, and music by groups from our local communities, the boys and girls were given encouragement to help them fulfill their goals. Each child received a “wait 4 me” bandana and a wrist band that symbolizes their
commitment. They enjoyed goodies which included a hotdog, chips, sweets and cool drink. The concert proved to
have a positive impact on our children with clear and powerful messages. Feedback received suggests that they all
look forward to repeating the event next year.
Please remember our friends in Sudan as they face unimaginable challenges right now…
Floods leave 40,000 more people homeless in Southern Sudan!
AWEIL, SOUTHERN SUDAN. Heavy rains in Northern Bahr el-Ghazal have caused the Kuom river to overflow in the town of Aweil, driving tens of thousands of people into the bush. This is in addition to 50,000 who fled the fighting in May between government and southern troops in the oil-rich Abyei district.
As conditions deteriorate, high water levels increase the threat of cholera, typhoid and malaria.
The UN recently announced that Sudan ranks in its top ten list of “Hunger’s Global Hotspots.” At the same time, citing “relentless” attacks on food convoys, along with severe budget shortfalls, its World Food Programme threatened to stop air services to Darfur this week. More than 300 humanitarian agencies depend on UN flights, which currently deliver emergency supplies to three million people.
“We currently serve over 80,000 Darfur refugees and IDPs in the Bahr el-Ghazal region,” said Brad Phillips, president of the Persecution Project Foundation [one of African Leadership’s partners in Sudan]. “Although they may not be directly affected by the WFP cutbacks, more refugees in Darfur will flee to our area of operations on the border, putting a greater strain on our resources. We’re going to need all the help we can get.”
Several of the Child Mothers from Village of Hope who are being rehabilitated are now helping serve and lead clubs for other Child Mothers at local IDP camps in Gulu! Here are some photos…
For three years, several thousand refugees from the genocide in Darfur have huddled in and around the community of Jach, which is located just south of the Darfur border. Jach is a wilderness, making it very hard for survival. Temperatures can easily reach 130 degrees during the day. Until recently, the refugees had no dependable water supply. However, Mocha Club and African Leadership have helped fund the drilling of 20 clean water wells recently! New wells were dug next to the medical clinic, school sites, church, landing strip and other strategic locations. Our partners in Sudan have also begun to buy “bowsers” (110-gallon donkey carts) to transport water to those who do not have access to a well and to help irrigate the growing number of “kitchen gardens” being planted every year.
Women in Jach enjoying the well
With this new water supply comes the opportunity for sustainable agriculture programs in the area. Mocha Club is now helping provide the supplies for the refugees of Jach to grow “kitchen gardens” – a variety of vegetables that will be the easiest to harvest and will best enhance the health and diet of the local people, including:
Tomato
Okra
Pumpkin
Onion
Watermelon
Sweet potato
Ground Nuts
A half acre plot is being used to cultivate 10 kitchen gardens maintained by 10 families. This plot of land can potentially yield enough vegetables for 500 people or the equivalent of 100 families! These kitchen gardens will supplement the refugee food supply, thereby greatly increasing health standards and saving many lives. The ground is hard, and the tools are elementary. But the people are determined, hard working and tenacious. And the result is a sustainable food supply in a wilderness that the United Nations declared didn’t even have any water.
Background: The Emmanuel Technical-Vocational School is located in Kibera, a slum
in Nairobi, where there are over a million people living in an area just over 1 square mile. This area has also
been deeply affected by the horrific riots and violence following the January elections in Kenya. Most youth in Kibera are unemployed, and learning a skill is the way for them to get out of poverty. Many youth are dissatisfied and hopeless. In the beginning of the year these were the youth that were stirred up by the politicians, and much death and destruction occurred.
The Project: In partnership with The Outreach Foundation and the P.C.E.A. Emmanuel church in Kibera, African Leadership plans to construct a
vocational/technical school in Kibera beginning this fall 2008. The vocational/technical school would be
unique to any other school in the Kibera area and would provide job skills to the many disenchanted youth in Kibera in the following training areas:
electrical, computer, carpentry, catering/cooking, car mechanics, welding, tailoring, and accounting/bookkeeping. The scope of this project encompasses construction of a two-story building containing these 8 classrooms and office, and providing the furniture and equipment required to train approximately 120 students.
This school will allow them to find jobs and support their families. They will be productive members of Kibera. In one year we will have the capacity to train up to 180 members of the Kibera community. This will have a great immediate impact and impact for generations to come. After the project is completed and equipped, the church will run and sustain the project.
Our partner Kevin in Sudan took this photo as he and his wife were flying over the orphanage in July. The boys’ dormitories are the two long buildings laid out in “L” shape near the bottom of the photo. As you can see, the first one already has the roof on. At the time of the photo, the second one only had the foundation built; but, as of now, the walls are nearly complete!
Thank you for your giving which makes this possible!
We received this story from one of our partners on the ground in Sudan, Kimberly Smith, in the village of Nyamlel.
I heard the trucks rolling through Nyamlel. Knowing they would be full of former slave women and children, I ran to the market to meet them. By the time I arrived, most of the women had climbed down the sides of the tall trucks and were sitting on the desert floor – watching the beating take place.
My eyes zeroed in on the angry Muslim truck driver who had sold passage to the women escaping slavery. These women had ridden high on open-air trucks sitting on top of large bags of cargo from which they would sometimes topple to their death on the desert floor.
The angry Muslim man was washing the sweat from his face with not some small sense of indignation. During the time it took me to get to the market, he had beaten one of the women he transported. An infant laid on the ground near her. Apparently, her older son, near starvation from the journey and whom she had birthed through the rapes of her “Muslim Master,” had torn into and eaten from one of the many 50-kilo sugar bags on top of which they sat.
I received no answer when I asked, “Where is the boy now?”
My memory latched onto the face of a small boy. I imagined it to be the hungry boy who stole some of the sugar he had sat upon. The boy in my mind had no hands. I never found the literal boy.
I learned the woman’s name was Sarah. She seemed to be in shock and would not talk to me. Sarah’s future did not offer much hope because her husband (who still lived in Nyamlel) had already been informed that her “illegitimate” son had “stolen” some sugar, and she was marked as a sex-slave by the Muslims. Her husband sent word that if he found her in town, he would immediately sell her to the next slave traders who came through. He said that Sarah brought him great shame.
Thanks to your generous donations, our partners in Sudan have an active fund for slave repatriation. For $1,000 we can build a home for women like Sarah and help to re-establish them in a supportive community. In Sarah’s case, we built her home in a separate village so that she is protected from slavery. She is in a small community of other survivors – learning to thrive.
We’re excited to welcome our first project in Ethiopia! Check out this video created by MC Member, Jacob Snodgrass, who was on our Mocha Club Ethiopia trip #4 in August. The video includes MC Director, Barrett Ward…
Ambo, Ethiopia is home to an estimated 5,000 to 10,000 orphans. 265 of those children are being educated and having their basic needs met by the Kale Heywet Church (“KHC”) in Ambo in conjunction with Compassion International. They are either single orphaned, double orphaned, or living with no/low income families that can not provide for their children’s education. With the growing number of children now at the KHC school, current classrooms do not provide enough room. It is not within the strategic plan of Compassion to fund the building of the school. There is also a demand by the government that the KHC provides appropriate educational facilities. Currently, a foundation for the new school building exists which had been built by the KHC, but they do not have enough funds to finish the project. This is where Mocha Club comes in!
>> Check out Jacob’s guest blog for his thoughts on the trip and how his life has been changed.
Editor’s Note: Jacob Snodgrass was on our Mocha Club Ethiopia trip #4 from July 29th-August 7th, 2008.
Jake with a child in Ambo, Ethiopia
Hi, my name is Jake Snodgrass and I am the Pastor at Ames Baptist Church in Oklahoma. It is hard for me to put into words clearly what the trip to Ethiopia did for me. There were many great things that I was able see. First, I was able to gain an appreciation for the work that Mocha Club has done and is doing in Africa. I also met great people that were fellow team members, ministry partners and leaders of local orphanages and programs. Secondly, I was able to see guys that I brought on the trip excel in loving others. All of these things served to bring clarity about what Jesus wants me to do.
When it comes to trying to follow Christ, I often overcomplicate it and become burdened really quickly by my ‘change the world’ visions. I become overwhelmed by the question, “Who is my neighbor?” and in my exasperation, I fail to be a neighbor to the guy I pass on the street. Wanting to fix everything, I end up doing nothing.
In Ethiopia, I learned that I could start by just doing something and allow God to use me however he wishes. I trust God. I trust that my hour spent in silence sharing pictures with a ten year old boy with HIV at Big A Hope in Addis Ababa accomplished what God wanted to accomplish. I trust that playing soccer in the mud with street boys in Ambo accomplished what God wanted to accomplish. I trust that my simple $7 dollars a month and my begging others to join me will accomplish what God wants it to accomplish. In my desperation to make a difference sometimes I simply have to be available and trust God.
Being available and trusting God also opened my eyes to some truths about the people I encountered in Ethiopia. Upon arriving home most people have said to me that a trip like this should make me grateful for all the things I have. I am certainly fortunate in many regards, but what I want most is Christ. More than anything else I want more and more of him. What I saw in many Ethiopians was that their lack of “stuff” allowed them to see Christ and encounter Him more deeply. I saw in many of the children, leaders and pastors that Christ had so deeply affected their lives that their joy was overwhelming despite impossible circumstances. If the things I have keep me from finding all my joy in Christ, then I don’t appreciate it, I hate it, or at least I hate what I have made it. I want what they have. I want more of Christ. In Ethiopia I was able to serve, love and learn. What a difference two weeks makes!
