God has led us to get to know some wonderful people living in a dusty village on a savannah in southern Ethiopia. The villagers are extremely poor and, if they are lucky, live off of what they grow. Families are large. They are crowded into small, round stick-and-mud huts with grass roofs, many without doors. These houses have dirt floors, poor ventilation, no windows and a life span of about ten years before the family will need to move and build a new hut.
Up until a year ago, the villagers had to walk a long distance to fill their jugs with water and trudge back home lugging the precious commodity to use for drinking and cooking. With water so difficult to get, you can bet bathing was rare! When the hardship was explained, wonderful and generous people gave money so YWAM could bring water from an existing clean water source into the village. This was a blessing of enormous proportions, and opened many doors for ministry among the villagers.
With the availability of water, it is now possible to make cement and we are raising money to build more durable and clean housing in this village. For $400 Adoption Ministry’s Ethiopian representative buys the materials necessary to build a house with a cement floor, stick-and-mud framing, a window, a door and a tin roof.
We have asked the village chief to choose those he knows who are in the most desperate situations to receive the gift of a house. So far, 15 houses have been constructed.
Once all the materials are gathered and hauled to the village, a house can be built rather quickly. The materials are provided and the recipients, with the help of their friends and family, erect the new and improved version of a mud hut. If an elderly woman is awarded a house, usually her son and neighbors do the manual labor required for her. Some get creative and paint them fancy and some are just whitewashed white. All are an improvement!
It is impossible for me to communicate how thrilled and grateful these people are to have one of the “nicest houses in town!” To an American, the inside of these homes are stark and gloomy (there is no electricity in this village) and they usually have bags of corn or other dried food stored in a corner and a bed on the floor in another corner; some have a simple bed frame. The children sleep with a simple blanket on the floor. But these houses are so much roomier and cleaner than the mud hut, and snakes and other creepy crawlers are more easily kept at bay. During the rainy season, there is no comparison. The family is dry and has a place to get out of the mud. A luxury!
Would you like to purchase a house for a desperately poor family in Africa? Perhaps you could buy a house in honor of a birthday girl or your parents’ anniversary or for an Easter present? Adoption Ministry sends a nice card to the honoree telling your loved one what you have done in their name. To make a donation, please go to our website HERE. For more information, contact us at:
“For when you have done this to the least of these,
you have done it to Me.”
you have done it to Me.”
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