A Day Out These 24 Children Will Not Soon Forget

Bizrat and children at lake in DebrezateI thank the Lord for our trip to Debrezeit! We made it! We were 24 children (12-13 official Drop-In Center beneficiaries and 10-11 SAFE Project beneficiaries) and five staff and three guests! Indeed it was hard to control children. They are movable and cannot stay at one place.

Let me start one day before the trip...

All the staff was busy helping Abezu (Cook). It was an enjoyable time to have fellowship.

Early in the morning Mitu (Drop-In Center beneficiary), Emu (Staff), Soddo (Staff), Bisrat (Staff) and I went to the office. While they were arranging All smiles at Debrezate!things, Bisrat and I went to pick up the children to bring them to the Drop-in Center. I drove all over Addis Ababa to bring far and late children. At the end we could not find two children (Nibrete and Edalawit). Nibrete went to beg with his mother and Edalawit went to countryside with her guardian for her guardian’s treatment.

Then we had breakfast together, gave clothes to all Drop-In Center children, passed out some rules for travel, and prayed.

We rented a big bus for all of us!

While we are going we stopped at some places and told the name of places and showed some new things to the children.

Drama by the lake (Nativity)We arrived to Kurfitu (Debrezeit) and went near to the lake and stayed there for a while. All of them were excited to see a lake. We had a fun time with drama, Bible stories, songs, football (soccer), basketball, and jump ropes. We even visited an agriculture project where we saw cows, chickens, vegetables, and many other interesting things.

We came back to Addis Ababa around 6:00 p.m. and did one thing. Guess what?

We killed a sheep for a special dinner!

Prayer for safe returnIt was really fun to see children around the fire in the night. Each child got a chance to share about his life testimony and how they were exited about the trip. All of them thanked God and the children in America who gave them these gifts.

Yes, it was exciting! We had a bottle of Highland water for each child on the trip (this is a huge deal, because many of the children have never had bottled water and even some children beg for old Highland bottles); we brought a lot of Kollo (a special Ethiopian snack made from barley) to eat.

On that night I drove all the staff and some children to their houses. I realized that CHE staffs are from different directions. Emu, Mitu, and I came to the house at 10:00 p.m. in our time.

Wow, it was the busiest day and a wonderful day!

~ Nega Meaza CHE Director, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia