Africa: Part 1 "Korah"

Oh where to begin...
I won't bore you with the travel details.  Many of you have traveled over seas and I can sum it up by saying it took a long time but was not too bad.  It's hard to know where to go next on this blog with what I did, what I saw, and what I experienced.  It was literally amazing the people I met and the opportunities I had.With each blog I will try to share in depth an experience I had.  If the writing sounds more like a journal that is because most of it will come right from my journal while I was there.

     What is probably the most important question that was answered for me?  I know a lot of people go to Africa and think "why would God have people live like this?", but I was struck by a different question.  Why was I born in America with more than I ever need?  The answer is not that I am "blessed more" or "that's just chance so don't feel guilty."  The answer is so that I have the opportunity to help others that are in places where options are not even in their vocabulary.  My riches here in the US were never meant for my personal gain... they were always meant to help others.  Thankful for this wisdom I have gained first hand.

     I think I will start by introducing you to a place near and dear to my heart.  A place I hope one day to be a home away from home for me and my family.  This place is called Korah.  Korah is a leper colony on the edge of the city dump in Addis Ababba, Ethiopia.  Korah is a community that was built to be forgotten.  Decades before my feet were covered in Korah's dust, the government in Addis wanted to contain the lepers in one place to live and die together.  It's so low on societies scale that many locals in Addis don't know of it's existence.  The lepers were a throw away people and so years later the same government that collected them together in Korah then built an incredibly large trash dump right next to this invisible community.

     There must be thousands of amazing stories I have never heard that have come from Korah, but I did hear one beautiful story about a man and women placed there because of their horrific disease and how they were able to find love and have two children together.  All of this in a society that was supposed to just die.  I had the pleasure of meeting their son, Sammy.  Sammy grew up in this shacked filled town with little hope.  Twelve years ago a man, working with Young Life in Addis, happened to stumble upon Korah and met Sammy.  Through this man, Sammy came to know God in a real way and now lives his life for Him.  Sammy has built amazing opportunities to worship, educate, and work for the people in Korah.  He knows all the kids... he was one of these kids.  Today there is a school right in Korah and this is where Teshome attends, but more on him in the next blog ;)

  Thinking of Korah, I am reminded of the lyrics from the Gungor song, Beautiful Things, "He makes beautiful things, He makes beautiful things out of the dust."  There is plenty of dust in Korah and now there is beauty sprouting, too.  Out of all the spots in Africa we visited, part of my heart stayed right there in Korah.  I felt flecks of my heart shedding where ever we walked, with the women at the Alert hospital who suffer with leprosy who patiently taught me needlepoint, the beautiful fly covered children, the man with no fingers weaving beautiful mats, and especially Teshome whom God has brought into our lives with purpose and intent of which I am now sure.


   Korah: Where the trash has become treasure, the left for dead have learned to live, the untouchable are now hugged and kissed, and the "unlovable" are treated as people again and known by a loving God.


Here is a cool link to check out!  Amazing women! 
 http://www.missionethiopia.com/