The following is an update from DownLine 2011 Team, a small group from DownLine Ministries in Memphis, TN, who will be serving as short-term missionaries at Onesimus Children Development Association and throughout Addis Ababa, Ethiopia in September 2011. We’ve invited our ministry partners to post their trip updates and prayer requests here on the TFC blog. You can learn more specifically about the goals of the trip by going to this post. Enjoy their journey and all God has in store...
Our prayer has been that our hearts would be changed. That we would not allow them to become calloused by what we are seeing and experiencing in Ethiopia (even for those of us who have been here before). That we will allow our hearts to feel exactly how God wanted them to feel- just like His.
I would say it has been a success. God has been a success! AGAIN!
Our hearts were changed this week.
Our hearts were changed by the lentils and injera we shared around a large table in the middle of the drop-in center.
Our hearts were changed with every handclap routine with a brown-eyed little girl so eager to share her favorite song.
Our hearts were changed with every tough patient getting a tooth extracted in the crowded confines of a small, windowless room.
Our hearts were changed by the mother of 4 small children infected with HIV.
Our hearts were changed by the 862 Ethiopians who came through the clinic for medical treatment.
Our hearts were changed by the smiles of each child who was so content in where they were that it didn’t matter where they would find their next meal or their next place to sleep.
Our hearts were changed by tear rolling down a 15 year old boy’s face as he described the hope he had found at Onesimus and in his personal relationship with our God.
This week, God has continued introducing us to a new normal. He has continued to show us life through His lens. He has given us grace in our darkest hours. He has given us dependence on Him because we could not endure this without Him. He has given us the opportunity to love His children they way he does- with no judgment. In short, He has changed our hearts.
Amen.
