Yesterday I was listing to the radio and they were talking about how the city of Detroit, Michigan had started a pilot program for free lunches in the city, not because everyone there is in need of a free lunch, but because they feel that the children whose parents have signed up for the program are not eating because they are embarressed. So to take away the social status they have decided to put every child on the program even if their parents are wealthy or not.
We live in a society if you loose your job you can go and get unemployment and if that will not cover your expenses you can also go and sign up for free medical and food stamps programs. A single mother can use the a government program to better herself here while she goes to school or to get some type of training and there are some who do just that and are doing great now. But what if you took all of that away? What if there were no programs here in the United States?
Four years ago I went on a missions trip to Ethiopia with Visiting Orphans and I witnessed something that I had never seen before not even on t.v. As we were leaving an orphange that we had just visited a lady approached us as our team was getting on the bus. She was crying, so we thought something happened to her. As she was talking to us her two toddlers scrambled around her looking at us and playing with each other. Neither child had no shoes while the other child had only a shirt on and that was it.
One of our guides Hanna stepped off the bus to see what was going on. She began to tell us that the mother was begging us to take her children with us. I was taken back by such a request. I would have loved to take her children, but why would she want to do such a thing? Hanna went on telling us that she was homeless and had nowhere to go and she could no longer feed her children. Wow! All the thoughts raced through my mind of how I had never seen this such a thing. A mother wanting to give her children up so she would not have to watch them suffer from starvation or even die.
We gathered around her for prayer only after we had given her money to last her a month, pizza that we had left over and had gotten out our donations of children's clothes and put new shoes on their feet, and new clothes on here children. We then gave her a umbrella and a poncho to try to stay dry for it was the rainy season at that time in Ethiopia.
We left after that. I sat down in the bus thinking about what had just happened and I began to talk to our guides as we passed by other mothers I seen standing on the street as their children played around them. I began to ask about how is it that these mothers end up like this. They began to share with me that some of these mothers are single cause some of them, their husbands died either from HIV/AIDS or some other form of death, they may have left them to go to another country such as the states or Europe, some of them became single mothers out of prostitution.
This just blew me away, cause my mother was a single mother most of my life and I just wondered, what if I had been born in a place such as Ethiopia? What would my mother do to provide for me or would she want to give me to a foreigner hoping that I would have a better life? Even though my mother never did use govt assistance she was able to get a job and always had someone to watch me while she worked.
You see that is not the case in Ethiopia. There is no childcare programs all over the city that are free to struggling and homeless mothers. There are no govt housing or food programs in Ethiopia. But there are a few places that are rising up to help provide a job for mothers who are struggling or homeless. One of those places is Mission Ethiopia
(http://missionethiopia.com/). They are providing jobs for single mothers and for those who don't have the ability to have a regular job there. August 29 2011 I am going to leave the luxuries of the United States to go volunteer with Mission Ethiopia to help with their vision that we both share to care for and help provide jobs for those who have less than and on top of that I had mentioned about one of our guides Hanna. Well since I had met her we have had a growing relationship that started three years ago a year after we had met. Last year on my third trip I spent some extra time in Ethiopia to be with her for one reason. To ask her to be my wife. I am excited to tell you that we will soon be Mr. and Mrs. Christopher Fisher.
As of right now I am raising support for this volunteership. I will be there for at least a year. Giving to those who are needing that helping hand, finding new ways to improve their lives. You can partner with me. Here is how. First and foremost we are in need of prayer. Lots of it too. Here is how you can pray for us. That each and everyday is started out seeking God first and laying aside our own ideas of what we think life should look like. Pray that we walk under the authority that is set before us in a godly manner. The other way you can be a part of this is financially. Here is how you can do that. You can either write a check to Belmont Church in the memo put Christopher Fisher/Ethiopia and send it to Belmont Church Attn: Rob Fraizer 68 Music Sq. East Nashville, TN. 37203 or you can go online if it is easier for you at https://www.wepay.com/donate/sendingchristoethiopia and make a donation there. I am looking for monthly partners and if I can get 100 people that are welling to support me for the next 12 months at $20.00 a person that will cover are expense for the whole year.
Thank you so much for your time, prayers, and support. None of this could not happen if it were not for you.
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