Ethiopia Trip Itinerary and some links

I’m including here some of the places on our itinerary and some links if you’re interested in learning more about some of the things we’ll be doing and sites we’ll be seeing.  I’ll warn you, it’s not ‘easy’ to watch some of these clips. Thanks for taking time to 'journey' with us!

Saturday, 3/9: ARRIVE

Kaylee Ann and I will arrive a day early to HOPEFULLY visit the Thomas Center (boy’s orphanage) and people in Addis from our adoption trips.  :)

Sunday 3/10 : Worship at the International Church; Meet up with team

Monday 3/11: Drive to Dale in Awassa, 5 hours south of Addis
Visit, play and get to know folks in Dale; Conduct VBS like games, songs, activities. 
***This is the potential CarePoint I’m hoping we can consider partnering with.  I will be meeting with the FOVC (see below) contact and any village leaders identified.  They have an initial need/group of kids being sponsored and are partnering with Children’s Hope Chest to further their support.
Friends of Vulnerable Children (FOVC)
FOVC website

Tuesday 3/12 8AM-6PM: Back to Dale potential CarePoint
~more getting to know/see need and love on the folks!
~MAYBE side trip to visit our boy’s birth home

Wednesday 3/13 8AM-2PM: Return to Addis
              2PM-5PM: Visit Hands for the Needy / Korah.
This is the ‘dump’ in Addis where people live, find food and raise their kids.
We aren’t partnering w these folks, but this is a good 5 min documentary about it.
Documentary on Korah

Thursday 3/14 8AM-10AM: Drive to Trees of Glory CarePoint
          10AM-4PM: Visit Trees of Glory CarePoint.
This is an established care point. Neat to see how these CarePoints CHANGE lives!
Trees-of-Glory

Evening back in Addis:  Dinner with Youth Development Program Participants
I’m really excited about this too as it echoes to my heart to care for youth transitioning out of foster care here in US.  This is a transition home:
http://www.hopechest.org/life-skills-for-ethiopias-most-vulnerable-children/
Pray for these kids and them to be open to the love of God for them!

Friday 3/15 : Tour of Fistula Hospital
I watched this Walk to Beautiful documentary a while back, not knowing I’d ever go to one of these hospitals.  It's about 50 min long, but does an incredible job explaining the realities these women face. 

Walk to Beautiful
Afternoon: 2 hr drive to Ambo and visit Stand for Vulnerable Children Orphanage
We’ll love on these kids and pray for them! 25 orphans are sponsored here through Children’s Hope Chest. I’m anxious to see the difference ‘sponsorship’ makes in the life of an orphan.

Saturday 3/16: Visit Stand for Vulnerable Children Orphanage
And more VBS like activities:)
Evening return to Addis

Sunday 3/17: 8AM-12PM : Service at International Church w/youth from the Development Program
Evening airport and departure at 10pm!!

Being 'the friends' and 'the paralytic'

So when I last posted it seemed that 7 weeks would be ‘long enough’ to start processing and talking here about all the things stirring.  Well, I don’t seem to be as ‘structured’ as I use to be about my time.  Maybe it’s a season with littles and teens (therefore someone always saying ‘mom’ or standing right in front of me); maybe it’s the sporadic flares of ‘illness’; maybe it’s me getting older so I can only ‘think’ during the daytime when I can’t write’; maybe it’s just all so unclear to my own heart that I don’t even know how to give it words.  REGARDLESS, my DESIRE is to share because it’s just.so.good! 

I hit a point last week where I realized, ‘Oh my! I did not think through the weight of the brokenness we would see and enter into’.  Yea, silly me, right? I mean I ‘knew’ but I didn’t ‘go there’ until last week as I began to pray specifically through our itinerary.  As I did, I started seeing, hearing, taste, smelling much of what I remember about Ethiopia.  It truly is a place of ‘sensory overload’ and I think it awakened and numbed me all at the same time.  Also, we began asking others (many of YOU) to partner with us.  Truly, I began to realize the ways others prayers would have to be what carries us, I can’t. 

Please pray for us as we start getting our ‘details’ together as a team and individually.  In addition, I have NOT received any direct address information about how to find our boy’s families there (umm...there aren’t hut #s or addresses like we think).  Of course they may or may not even be there still.  We know they were placed in an orphanage in Dale we’ll be mighty close.  Pray God will give us favor to somehow find them. Again, this isn’t the purpose of our trip, but what seemed like a possibility as we stepped into it.

So that’s where we are... aware of what’s ahead, awakened to the reality and dependent on others sending and carrying us.  It’s humbling and thrilling! It reminds me of the accounts in the Gospels of Jesus healing the paralytic.  You know, the one where the friends had to lower the paralyzed man down through the roof and PUT HIM IN FRONT OF JESUS!  Oh, to be that man is not easy, but it sure would be amazing.  Think about the beauty in this.  At times we are called to be 'the friends'...lowering, hoping and asking on another's behalf and at times we're the paralytic.  On this trip, I feel like I get to be both...'the paralytic' as we prep and go as well as 'the friend' of who I'll be led to serve in Ethiopia. 

Stay tuned too, been brewing (with my awesome friend) on a blog for this trip and beyond.  Let’s just say...starting CONSIDERING how you too can be humbled, thrilled and see Jesus! 

If you're interested in partnering financially, you can send any tax-deductible donations to:
WEPC (West End Pres Church)
9008 Quioccasin Road
Richmond, VA 23229
memo: SCHWARZ TEAM/ETHIOPIA
They will send you a receipt and notify us of your support:)

Our sincere gratitude in advance for your partnership in prayer and/or financial support! Blessed!