Discovering…Faith

Discovering…Faith

My time in Ethiopia has been incredibly impactful! The first week was focused on finding Jesus’ love for me. It was amazing to begin to understand how much Jesus really loves me and how through His love I can love Him back. I began a journey of really discovering Christ love and it is a journey that will only be completed on the day that I stand before Him!

The next week was about African Worldview. It is incredible to begin to understand other cultures perspectives on the World. Africa’s see the world very different from an American like me. The really cool part about the week was finding what parts of an African Worldview match up with a Biblical perspective. I am beginning to see the World in a brand new way! I am really discovering how Christ views the world.

The third week was learning about documentary photography and then at the end of the week we went on a mini-outreach to document an aspect of African life. I chose to do my project on a family where the mother and her seven-year-old son is HIV positive. It was one of the most amazing experiences. God really showed me the love he has for people living with the HIV/AIDS virus. Four of us took lots of pictures and shared two afternoons with the family. They feed us traditional Ethiopian food, literally feed it to us with their hands. Spending that time with the family broadened my view on so many things but the thing that I really found was that through the families testimony I discovered faith.

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This is my documentary photo assignment on the family…

Amariche means very beautiful and smart, she is about 36 years old. Born in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia she went to Atgabin in the south of the country and stayed there 18 years then came back and joined the army during the Dirk Regime. After her service she went to Asmara, Eritrea for seven years then came back to Addis Ababa. Amariche has six children, five girls, and one son. She became a Christian only two years ago. Along with her older daughters Amarich makes clothes and tablecloths to support her family. Dispite her hard life she holds on to the Love of Jesus and encourages others to do the some, “Since we are the Army of Jesus we need to pray for Ethiopia daily”

Amariche weighed only 32 Kilograms when her CD4 count was 135. Now she weighs 62 Kilograms and her CD4 count is 610. She was very sick but with prayer and Anti-Retroviral Treatment she is now living healthy while being HIV positive.

Yordanos is four years old, not old enough for school yet, she holds her baby sister Debora who is six months old. All of the older children help their mother out by taking care of the younger.

Zarah, the middle child, is nine years olds. Compassion International supports her, her school fees are provided along with some supplementary food. She is one of over 200 children being supported by this organization. Compassion International also supports Amariche and the whole family as much as they can, even if it means only a quick home visit from one of the workers.

Growing up Amariche was not educated as a child, she did not know how HIV and AIDS was transmitted so when she cared for women with HIV, there were no health standards and because of the lack of educated she thinks she got the virus from caring for the HIV positive women. She would wash clothes in poor conditions were she could get scratched and because she did not understand that the virus could be transmitted by blood, took no precautions and could have been infected.

All of Amariche’s children have been tested; all of her daughters are negative. Her son Esubahew shares in her HIV status, he is 7 years old. Esubahew means the will of the Lord, he’s name reflects his mothers attitude towards her only son being HIV positive. Amariche puts her son along with all of her children in the hands of God.

Amariche does not own a house, currently her family lives in a house made out of sticks and tarps in the corner of a hospitals property, they have been living there for six months. Being homeless, if the hospital needs the space then her and her family would have to leave and would be homeless. Her prayer request is that God would provide her a place to stay, “Our God is rich He can give us our needs.” With more faith and trust in God then most people Amariche says, “God will provide”

“If you believe in God when you pray to God, then God will help you and heal you and respond to your prayer, you have to have faith and trust in God because He will help you”
- Amariche

Hello from Ethiopia!

Hello from Ethiopia!

Yes I made it safely to Ethiopia, and I am having a very relaxing time here! But before I get into that let me tell about the last 2 weeks in Cairo. The first week back from Israel was all about photography teaching on lighting, something that is very essential to photography and learning how to do it properly is so valuable so that I can do what God wants me to do. We learned about night photography, painting with light and even had a make shift studio so that we could dabble in studio lighting as well. It was a very informative week on basic techniques to better my photography.

The following week was a complete shift in subject, as it was the introduction to a new course of Worldview. After being in Palestine for three days my perception on, not only my Worldview, but on Worldview as a subject had already begun to shift. It was the perfect week to begin this subject. It is interesting to begin to understand why I think the way I do and the basis for why other cultures think differently. I think that understanding this is truly vital to reaching the World for God.

So what is to come for me? I am in Ethiopia now and will be studying African Worldview. It is so exciting to me to be here and see it first hand. I think that I will be able to grasp the concepts presented in class much more easier. After that we head off to Amsterdam to study Secularism. Though I enjoy Africa I am very excited to be going to Europe! A road trip down to Spain where we will study Islam is next. There we will also visit Morocco. After that we skip over the big pond and end up in Costa Rica. There we will study Latin Worldview. A month will be spent in each of these four locations. Each one holds new adventures and I am so excited to be learning about different cultures.

Along with the Worldview, we will be integrating photography. The first three weeks will be spent in lecture and the last week in each location will be a field trip into the culture to photograph and put into practice what we have be learning.


This is how my next four months look. This week, however, is different. This is a week devoted to reconnecting with God. I have only been here a few days and the quietness of where we are staying is so incredible. I sit out in to sun and just soak in God’s beauty in the silence of His creation (well mostly in the shade not that I have fried my self…I need to get a big floppy hat). I think that this is the chance to really reconnect with God that I, and the rest of my class, really needs.


I will probably only be getting on the Internet one more time this month, probably in a few weeks. It is a long mini-bus ride to the Sheraton Hotel where the only fast Internet is. If you have anything important to tell me it will have to wait a couple of weeks. Then when we get to Amsterdam there is wireless on the base where we are staying so lots of pictures and a full update of what God has done during my time in Ethiopia will be posted. But for now I am going to enjoy being disconnected with the “outside world” and really dive into what God has for me during this month. I love you all and thank you so much for your continual prayers! See you in a month!