Half Way Through!

Hey everyone!
Well we are a little over half way through with this trip. It has really flown by! We wish we could post pictures for you all, but we haven't had the easiest time with the internet. But never fear, there will be literally thousands of pictures between all of us, we are one picture happy team. Ethiopia is a photographers heaven.
I want to share a little bit of what we did today, we started our morning early with visiting a Saturday Children's Program at a local church called Mekineesa (I think that's the best way to spell it to make it sound right.) They start the morning with Sunday School, we sat and listened trying to decipher what they were teaching the kids in Amharic (the official language) What I could gather was, they were telling the Children that God has the whole world in his hands.
When Sunday school was over, the cameras came out and chaos begins. The Kids LOVE to have their picture taken, and get to see what it looks like. And of course we always say one of the few Amharic sentences we know, "cornjonesh" which means beautiful/handsome. During play time, songs were sung, cookies and candy were served, and the whole team definitely got their "kid fix" as our team leader Holly would call it. :)
After the visit, we began a long walk through the streets of Addis Ababba to a local hospital. The kids ended up holding our hands and walking us all the way there, it is just so strange that little kids can just roam the streets like that. We then arrived at the hospital, it is called ALERT Hospital and it is facility for Aids/HIV patients, and Lepers. The feeling in that place was overwhelming. We first visited a small shop in the hospital where we could purchase purses, blankets, crosses and other things made by the patients themselves. It is the only way that they can receive income. On our way out we visited some of the housing that was specifically for the AIDS patients in their last stages of the disease. This was one of the more difficult parts of the trip for me and some of our team. To see people like that was something so new and so hard to understand. It really makes you cling to the fact that the Lord is Lord of all, and as our morning devotion in Habakkuk taught us "yet I will rejoice in the LORD; I will take joy in the God of my salvation. God, the Lord, is my strength; he makes my feet like the deer's he makes me tread on my high places." Tonight please lift they people in that hospital up in prayer, God knows them and loves them, and I pray that he will draw them to himself through their hardship, and above all he will be glorified.
Thanks so much to all of you who are continually lifting us up in prayer. Your prayers are felt, and God is working here with our team, and with the beautiful people of Ethiopia. We love you all and eagerly anticipate sharing the many stories of our trip with you!
Love,
your sister, brother, daughter, son, husband, fiance, friend, girlfriend, cousin, aunt, and uncle :)
Our team