Well , Sandy and I are back from our trip to the Wellega region of Ethiopia. The area of Dungora Buna has captured both our hearts. It is where our Pastor Amanuel was born and raised. This was our second visit to the region. When we first visited Dungora Buna we were both struck by the extreme poverty of the the villagers . The children who followed us every where as we walked and took photos were wearing rags. In fact we wouldn’t even consider them good enough for cleaning rags in America.
Sandy I and I felt led by the Lord to return to Dungora Buna with clothing for the children if God would be gracious enough to give us the means for a return trip. We had to make some hard choices on just where we could afford to go and which ministries were most important to us as a team. Both of us had wanted to also make a return to Wondo Genet and to Gutu. Gutu was an easy yes choice as it is reasonably close but choosing between Dungora Buna and the village near Wondo Genet was tough. The need in both places is very great. Ultimately the desire to see familiar face at Dungora Buna won out.
I have a habit as an optimist and an artist to put a positive and hopefully beautiful spin on things but this time I want our blog readers to really see the hardship and the poverty, the downcast faces, the raggedy clothed children. I am concerned that my optimism has done a dis-service to the people we minister to. Perhaps I have failed to communicate just how desperate these folks are.
The single greatest need in Dungora Buna is for clean drinking water. It is about a half a mile down to the muddy stream for water and back up the steep hill to the village. Every day the women and children make the trek . It is a relatively short distance but the hill is steep and for a small child to carry 50 or more pounds of water back up is an incredible fete. The water is dirty, cattle,sheep, donkeys etc. all water there too. This is all they have for drinking and washing clothes and dishes. If God will bless me with the opportunity to return to Ethiopia I want to drill a well and install a hand pump for the villagers of Dungora Buna. They will still have to haul the water on there backs but at least it will be safe to drink. On this visit Sandy and I had to be content with delivering a suitcase of used clothing.
The church and Pastor were very happy to have received such a generous gift. It seemed pathetically small to me but it was all Sandy and I could afford . The cost of getting to this area is great , fuel is at an all time high in Ethiopia . Add to that the need to hire a driver for 5 days with a 4 wheel drive vehicle in good enough shape to make the journey and the amount left for the actual mission isn’t much. Still when we saw the children again , some of them I swear were wearing the same rags they had on in January we knew we had done a good thing. We had been able to bless a very poor community and to give the praise all to our Lord and Savior.
Pastor Amanuel with some help from us was able to donate teaching materials to the Pastor and Elder board of the church. All of the material is focused on teaching the children about Jesus and His amazing love for all of His creation, especially His children. The topic of Amanuel’s message to the congregation was on the importance of raising up our children in Gods Word, the Bible. It is the rainy season now and sadly we were only able to make two very short day trips into Dungora Buna . The road is so bad that just 10 minutes of rain can make it nearly impassable. We got the landcruiser stuck twice on our first trip in and once on the second trip. Credit to our driver Dereje for his skill and competence. Praise to our Lord for keeping us safe and holding the rains at bay while we made the trip in on Saturday and Sunday.
We stayed in a little hotel in the town of Nedjo and were able to walk through the market place on Saturday afternoon when we had returned from Dungora Buna. Again the extreme poverty really struck us. I hope our photos of this trip will cause you to search your hearts .
Pray for a well for Dungora Buna.
Please pray for Amanuel’s Mother. She came back to Burayu with us . She has not been well.
Please pray for the road to be improved to help provide access to future missions in this area.
Thank you for reading our blog. In Christ, Carole
My heart is sad for those people:(
Keep the people of Dungora Buna in prayer, I am working from this end a way to get well drilling equipment there. Justin is also putting his mind to the task. God willing we will drill a well there in the future.
What a heart breaking , heart warming story ; so beautfully told. Thank you.
Praise God,
In His strength, we do the best we can with the resources He gives.
Then with prayer “His way is set and His will is accomplished.”
Hebews 13:8