Citylife Medical Missions trip to Ethiopia
APPLICATION FOR ETHIOPIA MISSIONS TRIP 2008 - 10/11-10/25
4th Annual Ethiopia Medical Missions Trip 2008. We are calling both medical providers and non-medical personnel to go and serve the HIV/AIDS community of Addis Ababa in both Word and Deed. Join this exciting, growing ministry of Mission to the World that Citylife has been partnering with for the past 4 years. Applications are available (deadline: Sun, 6/8) at the Welcome Table and by contacting Sol Chan. An informational meeting will be held NEXT Sun, 5/18 immediately after the 11:15AM service.
Ethiopia Missions Trip 2007: Updates from the Field
Medical Missions Trip to Addis Ababa, Ethiopia to serve the HIV/AIDS Homecare Project led by Mission to the World this Oct 6-20. Please consider supporting the team in finances and prayer: Christina & Perry An, Sarah Broyles, James Hsiao, Allison Lee, Jonathan Lee, Young Paik, Richard Suh, Christine Taormina. Contact Sol Chan for more info.
Ethiopia 2007 Slideshow Presentation
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Thank you for supporting the team!
Friday, October 19, 2007
Just a brief note from the team. We're just finishing our last few
hours of work here in Addis Ababa. Half our team is in Lideta,
finishing up microfinance work and following up with some patients and
in the pharmacy. The rest of us are in Bole, seeing a few more
beneficiaries and meeting with a bible study. It has been an amazing
time and we are looking forward to sharing all our experiences with
you all when we get back. Our planes around 10 (I think that's 3pm on
Friday in Boston) so pray for safe and swift travel back. Again, we
can't wait to share with everyone when we get back.
Christine Taormina
(On behalf of the team: Christine, Christina, Perry, Kristin, Kristen, Young, Sarah, Jonathan, Richard, Allison, James)
Tuesday, October 16, 2007
Greetings from the "Land of Sunburned Faces"!
I apologize for the sporadic updates as internet has been very hard to come by.
The rainy season officially ended last week, but today we woke up in a
downpour. It was a sobering thought imagining the beneficiaries with
their holey tin roofs suffering through rain for a day, let alone a
season of wetness.
We have had some very big events happen here. Our first day here one
of the beneficiaries passed away. It was a sad time for many of the
staff at the project and a sobering reminder for other beneficiaries
at the funeral as they were reminded of their own mortality. Today
again, there was a funeral for another beneficiary who passed away
last night. However, we have also been able to rejoice with the staff.
This weekend one staff, Teshoma, welcomed a new boy into the world!
And today, Gizau, who has been our primary staff person here, is at
the hospital with his wife who gave birth to a third son just this
afternoon!
It's now Tuesday. Friday we had a bonus day to explore the city and
gain some much needed rest as Ramadan ended and it was a national
holiday. Some of us were able to visit and tour an orthodox church, a
primary religion of the country along with Islam. On Saturday the team
got out of the city to see Ambo, a town in the country. It is amazing
how diverse this country is! We saw mountains, lakes, farms, hot
springs... and got to sample more of the indigenous food. We were able
to visit a local family in their home- a 2 room grass and mud hut with
one room for the family and one for the animals. Poverty there stood
in stark contrast to the poor we are working with in Addis Ababa. In
the country, the people are poor, but they have no relative poverty.
They have so little, and seem to live in a different era, with their
huts and horse drawn plows and carriages, but they are content. In
Addis, the benficiaries' poverty stares them in the face as they live
in much more cramped and dirty conditions, and daily see ambassadors
(Addis has a large number of embassies), visitors and many others who
are drastically more wealthy than them. Many of the beneficiaries are
actually from the country, but came to Addis to get HIV/AIDS care
which they could not get elsewhere.
Sunday we experienced more of the culture by attending a local church
and seeing the city.
Today and yesterday our team has been involved in several different
activities. Jonathan and Sarah continue to talk with support groups,
laying the groundwork for future small business endeavors. Kristen was
able to give a presentation to the AIDS medication (ARVs) adherence
group. Yesterday several of us did crafts with a girls group and today
others shared at a community bible study. The majority of our time,
though, has been spent meeting beneficiaries in their homes, as Young
described in the last e-mail. Tomorrow, we start clinic again, in
addition to these activities.
Thank you for your time, prayers, and interest! We will update again
soon, if possible!
Ciao!
Christine Taormina
(On behalf of the team: Christine, Christina, Perry, Kristin, Kristen, Young, Sarah, Jonathan, Richard, Allison, James)
Thursday, October 11, 2007
It is currently Thursday afternoon here at the Lideta clinic in Addis.
Most of the team has been involved in the clinic yesterday and today.
Perry (doctor), Kristin Webb (pharmacist), Kristin Wyrwa (physical
therapist), and Sharon Kurtz (physician's assistant) have been seeing
patients. James has been providing pastoral counseling to visiting
beneficiaries, and Alison and Christine Taormina have been getting to
work with the children and girls groups. Prior to Wednesday, the bulk of the team was on Lideta-based homevisits with beneficiaries.
Jonathan, Sarah, and I have been at the Bole ("bo-lay") clinic this
week. The Bole clinic is new since last year and we've been meeting
with the support groups there to interview them and build a financial
profile of the beneficiaries to build a foundation for future
microfinance assistance. The support groups are well-organized
literally support each other well, looking out for one another
espeically when someone is sick. Danny and Mekdes are at the Bole
clinic now and say hello! The homevisits and beneficiaries will shift
to Bole for the most part next week, while the Lideta support groups
will meet for microfinance interviews.
The first few days have been a lot of adjustment - jetlag and days
packed with visits and meetings with beneficiaries have been draining.
The homevisits are allowing us to get to know the beneficiaries that
are being treated, and through these visits we have opportunities to
pray, share scripture, and listen to their stories. And the
stories...they are too many and they are heartbreaking. Some are HIV
positive due to instances of abuse, wayward husbands, or mistakes
they've made. They share their stories often I'm sure...yet the heavy
sorrow of what being HIV positive means for them and the children they
love is unmistakeable.
It makes you think - what would I do in this situation? In America
we're so used to our careers and our families driving the satisfaction
in our lives. What do you do when you have no career (or had one but
you were discriminated against or can no longer maintain it) and the
one family member left with you is your beautiful daughter who is HIV
positive? Where then does hope come from?
The answer comes when you speak with someone like Azziz (not full
name) who shared his testmony with a few of us after a morning run
(which, by the way is incredible...I'm running with Ethiopians! And
I'm slow.). At age 9 he accepted Christ when he was healed from his
epilepsy and his Muslim family kicked him out to the streets. He was
helped by SIM and is now finishing school to go to a university. He
reads the Quran so that during lunch he can converse with his
classmates and minister to them...as well as minister to the family
that rejected him; you can tell that the notion of "being missional"
is not a subset of his faith...it is integral to it. You see through
Azziz and others here that they grasp a hope that is eternal and
transcends this world.
Our team, in pre-trip prayer meetings and while here, has tried to
hear God's call to us for humility and to love relentlessly as Christ
did. We're learning that we are all beneficiaries needing healed
hearts and hope that is eternal; that while on one hand there
certainly is a sense of economic injustice and cultural differences,
you see the eyes and you hear the cravings of the beneficiaries'
hearts and we're really all the same in soul.
It can be draining here, but we ask that you pray the Lord empty us of
our will and personal agendas and instead be filled with a love that
the beneficiaries know is of Christ. We need the Holy Spirit to fill
our minds with scripture that would enter into the hearts of
beneficiaries who have yet to believe and with words that may melt the
most discouraged of hearts. And we ask that the Lord would speak to
each team member and transform them, leading them to understand deeply
why we have been brought here.
Overall, things are good here with the team. We've had morning
devotionals together to prepare our hearts for the day, and we're
healthy, having fun together, worshiping together, having some great
conversations, and the staff here is great - Teddy, Gizaw, Danny,
Mekdes...the list goes on and on but the way they love the
beneficiaries and serve them is testament to God's work in their lives
and here at the project.
That's it for now...let us know if there's anything else you'd like to
know in particular! Thank you again for sending us and partnering
with us here!
Young Paik
(On behalf of the team: Christine, Christina, Perry, Kristin, Kristen, Young, Sarah, Jonathan, Richard, Allison, James)
Saturday, October 6, 2007
Hello All!
The day our team has been waiting for has finally arrived! We take off from Boston's Logan airport at 2pm today, Saturday. We have quite a long day of traveling ahead of us--please keep us in your prayers for safe (and swift!) travel.
God Bless
Christine Taormina
(On behalf of the team: Christine, Christina, Perry, Kristin, Kristen, Young, Sarah, Jonathan, Richard, Allison, James)
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