Mark checks in from Ethiopia

Mark Wolbert is our Missions Director.  He arrived in Ethiopia last Thursday with Shea Connell and Dr. Tom Siler.  Mark sent this email before Joy arrived there Sunday night. 

Dear Friends,

I'm writing to you from my room at the Catholic Guest House. Rain drops are tapping on the windows, wind is blowing through the trees and the numerous dogs are barking about their dislike of the current weather (or whatever dogs bark about at all hours of the night here in Addis Ababa). 

We've been to the Leper Colony to meet with the Pastor and the young people who help run the ministry there. They are such wonderful people - men and women who've decided to serve the poor living at the city dump and who love the outcasts of Ethiopian society.

We've met with the orphans at the YWAM ministry and renewed our friendships with the directors and staff. I feel like part of the family now!  The boys ask me if I'm going to be living at "home" while I'm in Ethiopia - how's that for feeling welcomed?!

In a few days we'll travel to Adama where we run a home for widows & orphans together. The director's name is Tezera.  She had a dream from the Lord which didn't come true for 10 years! But now, everything in the dream is being lived out, down to an apron she wore in the dream, which was a gift brought to Tezera from my wife.  Liane had no idea she was fulfilling part of the dream; she was just wanting to buy an hostess gift for Tezera & prayed in the store, "Lord what should I buy for this woman?"  The answer was an apron and when Tezera opened her gift, she knew the widows & orphans home was going to be a reality, because everything - down to the very apron from her dream - was coming true!

We'll also travel to within 7 miles of the Sudanese border to our 3 orphanages in the western part of Ethiopia. We most likely will be hand-carrying several infants who've been abandoned back to the larger orphanage in Adama.  This is a road trip that takes 10-14 hours in a van on bumpy, curvy roads...  It's a WILD ride!!  We pass by baboons & monkeys hanging in the trees; occasionally we see herds of camel along the way.  I have yet to see a McDonalds or 7-11 though...

I'll have new photos on my return and stories of how God touched my heart and how He's using babies & orphans & widows to make me more like Himself.

Mark