The process...

Around April 2009 Kari and I started to process our desire to answer a calling and go to Ethiopia. We have served locally and nationally, but the desire to serve globally was ongoing. I gained "clairity" after I read and began to digest (over months) a blog by David Henderson, Pastor of UCity Fellowship.

I remember reading the line "As followers of Christ we, don’t get to pick and choose who we will serve and who we will not serve. We are “humanity's slave.”

(Entire post: A must read if you asked Why Ethiopia?)

http://loveloud.blogspot.com/2009/04/rejesus-penetrating-conversations.html

The process... is now an announcement that Kari and I are going to Ethiopia this July 29 – August 9! Along with six others from UCity Fellowship, we will be working with a youth camp called Sports Friends in Lake Langano. During this time we will love on these boys and show them that they are not forgotten, and teach them how to go back to their villages to love and serve. They will get to improve their soccer skills (equivalent to riding a bike for American children), make crafts, take showers, eat three meals per day, sleep on a mat inside of a building – and most importantly, they will learn about the love of Jesus Christ!

Did you go to camp when you were a child, or have you sent your children to camp? We have so many options in America – sports, the arts, education, etc. Sports Friends is unique in that it is the country’s only camp! What a privilege for these kids! We feel humbled that God wants to use us to show His love in Ethiopia. There will be a huge language barrier between English and Amharic, but we hear from others who have gone that the language of love is universal. On the beginning and end of our trip, we will also be visiting an AIDS orphanage and a Christian school in the capitol city of Addis, and seeing some clean water wells in the city of Awasa.


My friend Brandon Todd with his Sports Friends in Langano last summer.


Can you help make this happen? Can you be a part of something that is so much bigger than us? Some are called to go, some are called to give, and this doesn’t happen without you. We are asking for your support in all areas, but especially prayerfully and financially. The cost of this trip for us is approximately $7,000. We are communicating this need to many of our friends and family, in hopes that even small sacrifices can add together to be the powerful force we need for this life-changing trip.

Please talk with me if you would like more information about the trip or how you can support .

Peace
Erik and Kari