After a couple early mornings, we finally land in Dire Dawa, Ethiopia. You can already feel the difference in weather… it’s definitely hotter! Similar to Kenya, we drive out to the village of Hurso,  where we have committed to Building a Schoolild  a school there. We’re told not to take any pictures, and to keep a low profile because we are the first group of foreigners to ever step into this village.

It was a very different atmosphere from Kenya. Not better or worst, just different. We were warmly received by the local church there, and met some of the village people. Heng-Zi, Carolyn and I had the privilege to go carrel children to come to the church compound to play. We found out after that we were specifically told not to leave the compound and go into the village… oops! As the week went on, our relationship with the children of Hurso grew… our love of the people expanded exponentially. I learned a very new and unique way of laying down the foundations of a new school and how hard the people here work to accomplish a common goal. We didn’t get to see the school built to completion, but we left Hurso with a dedication ceremony and a passing of the torch giving the ownership of the school to the village.

This is step one. It was challenging, but a great learning experience. We got to see two very different villages at two very different levels of development.  One, which is at it’s end stages where we were greeted warmly, and had the freedom to help in anyway we can. And the second at the very beginning stages of development, were we felt very confined and restricted, but seeing doors open and relationships built.

There’s so much work that can be done we have all these different methods and theories of how things need to be in place to be able to help people. Yes all this is true, but the one thing we overlook is the human condition. For real transformation to happen in any village there needs to be transformation in the heart first. We can put all our efforts into meeting the basic needs of different tribes, and people but when we meet the needs of the heart, real transformation begins.

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