TRUE RELIGION IS THIS!
Early one morning we boarded a van that took us through the smaller towns of Tada and MacSingyet, the larger town of Azezo to Enfranz and finally to a village there called Kayafay (red soil). A smoothly paved road meandered through the most beautiful rural countryside where children tended cows and sheep in sparsely grassy meadows. Tufts of greenery dotted the landscape and some cows found shade under the sporadic trees.
Leather-faced farmers, uniformly dressed school children, men and women under heavy burdens walked these long roads under a merciless sun. I wondered where they were going. The only signs of habitation that dotted the countryside were mud and hay huts.
To get to the Jewish village, we had to turn off the main road and travel over dry, bumpy, red terrain that was cracking in the heat, like an earthquake halted. Cow dung patties were stacked neatly in triangular mounds in anticipation of the winter months when they would be burned to provide heat for the families. When children saw us, they stared in wonderment and then took off running after the van. In the first village, we got out to greet the children and to take pictures. An older man, not wanting our intrusion, tapped Aminta with a switch. She said it really did hurt! So we boarded the van and headed off to another village.
The van could only take us a certain distance, so we had to walk the rest of the way.
The children came, flocked around us and led us to a huge oak tree that cast a giant shadow and afforded refreshing shade. Under it, the children had gathered, along with some adults of the village. Bailie, the village representative, had told them that we were coming.
Take a look at these beautiful Ethiopian Jewish children waiting to make their home in the Promised Land.
All of them had worn clothing, some without shoes, most with runny noses, a few with pink eye, several with really bad eczema on their legs and in their hair — but ALL of them beautiful!!!!! Flies made their homes on runny noses and parched lips. All I wanted to do was wipe their noses and swat the flies.
Sherri, whom God had given a vision to build an orphanage for the Ethiopian Jewish orphans, began to organize them, take pictures and videos of them so that we would be able to buy them clothes. Bailie had already begun the process of gathering names, shoe sizes, and ages. Almost 200 children were interviewed.
Rabbi Gedamu gave each of us an opportunity to address them. As part of my sharing I said, “You are children of God and you’re beautiful! Look at your friend sitting next to you and say, ‘You’re beautiful.’” I could tell that Rabbi Gedamu got to that part in his translation, because they all started laughing! It was precious to see.
Below is a family, a young woman with four children (see the baby on her back, feet sticking out!) whose husband died of AIDS! She is too poor to take care of them alone. (The man standing behind her is a patrol who guards the well.)
As we interviewed them, this is the little boy that captured my affections. He stood before us, eyes intense, clothes tattered and skin soiled, proudly resting on his staff. Small in stature with regal features — he would have been the one to whom Samuel would have held the horn of oil over his head and it would have run down.
I got a few of them to dance with me as the driver videotaped! They had such fun seeing themselves dancing on the little screen of my Flip Camera.
As we stayed with them for over two hours, I just knew that God had sent us to them. He had heard their cries. His heart was full of them! And He sent us to clothe them, feed them and bless them . . . and you came along. We would be back in two days with clothes, shoes and food . . . and you will come with us.
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