In a Perfect World – No Halfway Homes

Just yesterday I sat in amazement as a mother of one of Children’s Home Ethiopia’s beneficiaries came into the office and blasted the staff because her daughter had ignored her on the street. Not only did she pitch a fit to these staff members who are responsible for her daughter’s education, daily lunches, and general wellbeing, but she also had the audacity to express her desire that God strike down her little girl.

It turned out the incident where the mother felt ignored was a total misunderstanding. After overhearing her mother’s rants, this 13-year-old girl tearfully knelt in front of her mother to apologize for the misunderstanding. I had to bite my lip as I thought of the injustice in this situation – here this girl was, trying to restore the relationship with her furious and irrational mother. Shouldn’t the tables have been turned? Shouldn’t the 13-year-old girl have been the irrational, emotional wreck and the mother have been the voice of reason and reconciliation?

Of course such a scene is not the case for all of CHE’s beneficiaries. More often than not, I am amazed by the love and care these children receive from their desperately poor parents. But, there are those children, who need to be rescued from their own parents. The new girls’ halfway home started for children with such stories. The girls who reside there were basically pulled out of situations that were dangerous to their development and to their chances of ever leaving the streets. An abusive drunk for a father, a mother who steals her child’s clothing, and parents who let their young daughter roam the streets until the wee hours of the morning are some of the situations that the new halfway home’s residents are coming out of.

As I consider each girl who is at the new home, I have a swell of conflicting emotions from deep sadness to excitement. God has made these girls to be incredible young women despite their former home lives. One girl is brilliant and consistently top of her class. Another lights up any room she enters with a smile and her kindness. And still another has the ability to effortlessly make anyone laugh. I feel incredibly blessed to know everyone of the girls at the new home. And to think, their parents may never know what they’re missing.

In a perfect world there would be no need for halfway homes. Unfortunately this world is far from perfect, so I am happy to be a part of what Children’s Home Ethiopia is doing for the vulnerable children of this fallen world.

Thank you to everyone who gave to The Forsaken Children to see this Halfway Home become a reality!

Please pray…

• For the girls at CHE’s Girls’ Halfway Home. Pray especially that they will feel God’s incredible love for them through CHE’s amazing team.
• For God to radically change the hearts and lifestyles of their biological families.
• For Ethiopian foster families that will one day be able to provide these and other children with the families they need.

Joe and Karyn Bridges

We are really just ordinary people who have fallen in love with the people of Ethiopia, especially the children. Many stats report that 100,000 of these children live on the streets of Addis Ababa. After experiencing this firsthand in 2006, we helped start The Forsaken Children, Inc., which exists to bring lasting hope to Ethiopia through these, Ethiopia's street children. We are all about partnering with Ethiopian ministries to carry out this task and have loved doing so with the Onesimus Children Development Association! We know that The Forsaken Children and Onesimus are not these children’s savior, but we know who is and aim to direct those whom God puts in our care to Jesus. We currently live in NC where Karyn is a stay at home mom and Joe is about to be a full time student at UNC - Chapel Hill (studying social work with an emphasis on international development). The loves of our lives are our three kiddos - Jack, McLaine, and Silas!

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