International Justice Day

Today is International Justice Day.

Today, honor those who have to fight for their own justice.  The ways in which people all over this world are dealt injustice today is intolerable.  Whether that is based on:

not having clean water to drink;
having to work as a child rather than learning to read;
being kidnapped and sold for sex;
having the AIDS disease simply as a product of circumstance…
the list goes on and on.

Speak up for those who cannot speak for themselves,
for the rights of all who are destitute.
-Proverbs 31:8

How can you be the face of justice?
Use your Voice.  Use your Talents.  Use your resources.
Check out what $7/month can do in Africa at: http://www.mochaclub.org

Mocha Club is at it again!

I was at an engagement party with some friends this weekend and got called out on the fact that I haven’t been active on the blog in awhile!  Unfortunately I haven’t felt like stories from my day to day life in Charlotte are worthy of blog entries but I did start thinking about ways I could continue to post about Ethiopia even though I wasn’t able to return this year.

However, my friends Katy and Emma–who were a part of my team last year–have returned to Ethiopia this summer.  This is Katy’s 3rd trip with Mocha Club/Visiting Orphans!  I am living vicariously through them and keenly remembering my time in E last summer as I receive updates. 

Yesterday Katy said:
“I just wanted to you let you know that we made it safely to Ethiopia and things are wonderful! We have already visited two orphanages, Hannah’s and Kids Care. I loved on a precious baby who had just arrived at the orphanage the day before.  She was overwhelmed and exhausted. I didn’t want to leave her!

We attended an amazing church service this morning. We are traveling to Nazret tomorrow. Please pray for a safe bus ride. We will be working with a ministry that helps former prostitutes.  We will be working with them and their kids all week.”

As you may have noticed if you read one of my previous posts about starting an anti-human trafficking organization chapter at UNC Charlotte (Stop the Traffik), you’ll know that I have a special place in my heart for people trafficked into modern slavery.  But that especially goes for women who are bought and sold for sex slavery.  This is why I’m so excited about the “Women at Risk” project that Mocha Club has begun in Nazret, Ethiopia.  You can see a couple of pictures posted here on Flicker or read a little background on the project on the mochaclub blog.

Starting a New Conversation about AFRICA

When I think of Africa, the following images immediately come to mind: Starvation.  AIDS.  Child soldiers.  Genocide.  Sex slaves.  Orphans.  From there, my thoughts naturally turn to how I can help, how I can make a difference. “I am needed here,” I think. “They have so little, and I have so much.” It’s true, there are great tragedies playing out in Africa everyday.  There is often a level of suffering here that is unimaginable until you have seen it, and even then it is difficult to believe.  But what is even harder is reconciling the challenges that many Africans face with the joy I see in the people. It’s a joy that comes from somewhere I cannot fathom, not within the framework that has been my life to this day. [read more]

You can buy one of these “I need Africa More than Africa needs me” t-shirts…

and choose which Mocha Club project in Africa the money will benefit!

I Need Africa More Than Africa Needs Me

I was asked by Mocha Club to write about the concept of why ‘I need Africa more than Africa needs me.

Mocha Club [www.mochaclub.org] is a community-based website where members can start a team and invite friends to join them in giving $7 a month – the cost of 2 mochas – to support a project in Africa.  Mocha Club’s vision is to provide a way for people who don’t have hundreds or thousands of dollars to make a difference in Africa.

When Americans think of Africa, all too often the only concepts that come to mind are those of deprivation and sadness.  While those circumstances that lead to these concepts may certainly exist in some parts of Africa, I came to realize during my time in Ethiopia that this perception is far from the reality of that which IS Africa.

While I can give my time or tangible gifts to causes in Africa, they are the ones that offer some intangibles that I know I cannot live without, especially now that I have gotten a taste.  Some of my previous posts like “My most humbling moment,” “Wasn’t it sad?,” “Ethiopians wear flip flops” and “Just being” describe some of the moments in time when Ethiopians offered me more than I could ever buy or give them.  They share an indescribable joy, a delight in existing together in the same time and place, a gracious love for others, I could go on and on…

I know I’m not great at putting it into words, but
I need what Africa offers more than they need what I offer.

Share your thoughts in my comments, and even blog about it yourself. Join in the worthwhile cause of recasting the damaging images that force pity over partnership.

Check out my next post to see what Mocha Club is doing to change that image!

Update from Etho!

Babies at the AWAA Transition Home in Addis Ababa learning to sit up!

One of the challenges in orphanages and transition homes in Ethiopia is that there are so many babies that nannies don’t always have time to position them in ways that they will learn and develop the muscles to hold up their heads and sit up.  One of the mission teams this summer brought a bunch of the baby seats shown above and they are getting used 24-7!  They are awesome and so important to help the kids develop strength that they aren’t able to when just laying on their backs.  Barrett (Director of Mocha Club) and Rachel Ward (AWAA coordinator) are loving the huge difference they see it making in the kids’ lives!

The Mocha Club sponsored school in Ambo is close to completion!

Barrett, Rachel, and Rachel’s brother and sister who went to visit, visited Ambo a few weeks ago and checked on the progress of the school that Mocha Club has been sponsoring (I wrote about it several blog posts back in “What Mocha Club is doing… http://jgreen42.wordpress.com/2008/08/15/what-mocha-club-is-doing/).
They sent thrilling news and the above picture that it is almost done!  The structure is complete, and they just have to clean up the walls and minor details.  Some of the rooms are already being used, and they provide so much better of an environment for the kids to learn in!

What a blessing for me to have seen the school where these kids were learning in, to have seen the new one at the start of its’ construction, and now to see how far it has come.
Thanks Mocha Club members for continuing to give up 2 mochas a month, look at what an impact YOU are making

Stop the Traffik

I have started a new student organization on UNC Charlotte’s campus: Stop the Traffik.

No, it’s not about the stopping traffic jams on our way to campus/work/wherever you might be headed.  It’s about stopping HUMAN TRAFFICKING…
involves the transport and/or trade of people– women, children, and men– from one area to another
for the purpose of forcing them into slavery considitions (this includes what’s happening in Darfur,
invisible children in Uganda, the chocolate industry in Cote d’Ivoire, the sex trade in our own back yard… the list goes on an on).

Human Trafficking is the fastest growing form of international crime.
There are 27 million people in modern-day slavery across the world.
More than 15-20,000 foreign nationals are trafficked into the U.S. every year.
91 cities in the US have reported cases of trafficking.

Stop the Traffik is a global coalition:
exposing people trafficking
leading governments to action
unlocking freedom.

Our goals are to:
PREVENT the trade of people
PROTECT the trafficked
PROSECUTE the traffickers

by EDUCATION, ADVOCACY, & FUNDRAISING.

Join our facebook group! http://www.facebook.com/home.php#/group.php?gid=5711090894
Recent movies on human trafficking–
“Amazing Grace” 2006

“Call + Response” October 2008

“Trade” September 2007

Greater Things Have Yet to Come…

It’s my heart’s desire to be in the cities of the far corners of the earth again…to go where others won’t… to see the look of hopelessness in the eyes of the people again and to have the chance to share that hope is not lost.  But that God has much greater things in store for them.

The promise expressed by the words in this song, “greater things have yet to come and greater things are still to be done in this city…” remind me of the hope there is in Christ even in the most hopeless of places and circumstances and that our plans are almost never the same as His great plans for us.

Future Leaders of Uganda

Street Kids in Ambo, Ethiopia

Orphaned precious baby girl

AIDS orphans in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia

This is where my thoughts drift to as I sit in classes these days.  These are the people and places I long for, and that they may know…God is the light of the darkness, the hope to the hopeless, the peace to the restless and there are much greater things that are yet to come.

Orphaned kids in Argentina

College Students in La Plata, Argentina

Finding comfort in the uncomfortable

I was talking with a friend the other day about another international trip I would like to go on in the near future. It is not your typical trip I suppose… it is to 11 different countries in 11 months time. Although the trip involves excursions to see each nation’s attractions, it is about serving the needs of the people at each location whether that means visiting orphans, feeding the homeless, listening to the stories of women or children rescued out of sex trade, cleaning up trash, etc.

I know…all that may sound a little crazy, right? 11 months of traveling, labor, probably not 5-star accommodations. My friend even said to me, “Jessica, you’re ridiculous. It’s just that people don’t live their lives like that, traipsing around the world saving orphans and such.”  I know, I know.  But somewhere in all the discomfort of foreign lands where I eat strange foods (some which make me sick!), spend time with people I don’t even know, walk around looking completely out of place, having no idea what the natives around me are saying… i find comfort.

As I sit in my classes this year (as I begin my last year at UNC Charlotte), I sometimes get this feeling that this is no longer where I belong.  I love Charlotte and the life I have built here.  I have come to know a lot of great friends, I have a great job, amazing roommates and a great house, I am good at the jobs I do and the classes I take, and I truly love my institution and have so much pride in UNC Charlotte.  In the midst of all that I love and that has become so dear to me…there is still a feeling that subsides when all becomes still where I feel out of place and think to myself, “is this really still where I am supposed to be, what am I doing?”

That is when I think back to the far corners of the earth I have been. The people there who have touched me to my very soul and the fact that even though we didn’t speak the same language, have the same skin color, or live even remotely similar lives… we are one blood under God and they were often the ones who would look at me, smile at me, or offer a gentle touch that made me feel at home…not because of the location we were in, but because I knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that i experienced Jesus with them, and HE is my home.

Therefore, my heart aches as I go about my daily routine to be in the strange and unfamiliar places where I somehow find myself feeling at home. I don’t know what that will mean for me in the future…all I know is that i’m hooked.  i can’t get enough of the nations of this world.

Happy Birthday!

Enjoying the party bags

After serving lunch, we also had an opportunity to throw a birthday party for the “street kids.”
It wasn’t anyone in particular’s birthday, we just thought they had probably never celebrated their birthdays with an actual birthday party before so it was a birthday party for everyone!

What was great is the older boys and almost grown men enjoying their party favors filled with beads, kazoos, birthday hats, and stickers as much as any 6 year old would!!

Birthday cake!

We decorated with streamers and ordered 3 birthday cakes that looked like this from a bakery. There were 90 people to serve and three cakes. That’s right…we cut 30 pieces per cake and we had just enough for everyone! I couldn’t help but think of the 5 loaves of bread and 2 fish… (matthew 14:17-20)

Photo by Rhiannon DeBaylo

Meet the Team

Kristen

This is Kristen. She just graduated with a grad degree in middle school education from Xavior University.
She and I got to be roommates for a couple of nights in Ambo. She had a sweet and quiet spirit about her, she often said much through the lense of her camera.

Brad

Brad lives in Detroit, MI where he has been teaching 5th grade for the past few years.
He has one of the sweetest hearts I have ever seen and he is always up for anything! He was great about looking out for the rest of us, and he fell in love with each little face he met.

Geoffrey

The fearless leader. A seminary student at Gordon-Conwell University in Boston, Geoffrey spent his whole summer in Africa between South Africa & Ethiopia with 4 different teams. As you can tell by the face paint, he was a super cool guy.

Brooke

I was always telling this chica that she looks like a celebrity humanitarian worker right out of
Time magazine. She is a health/exercise teacher & coach at a private high school in Nashville, TN.
One of the most free and gentle spirits I have ever encountered with wisdom beyond her years.

Rhiannon

You never know what she will do next. So much heart. So much spirit.
Grew up in FL, college at Campbell University in NC, now lives & works in Nashville, TN.
Amazing photographer, always focusing in from behind her lenses.

Katy

Hilarious. Katy made me laugh all the time. She is a teaching specialist in Kaleen, TX. This summer was her second time in Ethiopia. She kept talking about how she loves the sounds of Ethiopia as we heard the roosters crow.

Emily

A senior at the University of Tennessee. Beautiful smile. A sparkling personality and compassionate heart that drew people to her.

Jeanine

Spunky. Can’t you tell by that laugh?? This girl has personality like you’ve never seen. Leadership skills that put everyone into motion and make things happen.

Larry and his daughter Emma were great assets to the team. Both from Nashville, TN. Emma is 15 and about to be a sophomore. She had a sweet and energetic spirit.
Larry uniquely connected with the kids around us.

Julia, another 15 year old sophomore from Nashville, TN who showed wisdom beyond her years, brought her Dad, Carter along with her. Carter showed more genuine interest and love for everyone he came across than most anyone I know.

Mike and Melba

Mike & Melba’s daughter, Rachel lives in Ethiopia. They are from Knoxville, TN and serve on the YoungLife committee there. It was precious to watch them be so proud of their daughter and how they savored the time spent with her. They had sweet & patient hearts.

Barrett, Director of Mocha Club

This is Barrett, Director of Mocha Club, who lives in Addis Ababa with his new wife, Rachel.
Barrett has this crazy, energetic spirit that sparks fires in those around him. Rachel has a a heart for adventure. The love they have for Ethiopia, for what they’re doing, and where they are at is the perfect fit for them– it is truly where their hearts lie.

Rachel