Why Ethiopia

 (Greg Evans) I’m often asked, “Why did you pick Ethiopia?”

Well first we didn’t pick Ethiopia, God did. I would love to be able to say that God “called” us to Ethiopia and that we simply went out of obedience. “God called me to Ethiopia,” that sounds good right? Well it’s true God did call us to Ethiopia, we just didn’t know it. Let me explain.

God had brought back this conviction for clean water.

So I acted in “obedience” and wrote a letter to World Vision. I explained that we wanted to put in a well and also video a trip to a water site to share with our community to spread the word. There I was done, I had written a letter to a company with over 1000 employees, what else could I do? Now it was up to God.

I guess I shouldn’t have been surprised when World Vision called, but I was. It took several conversations & some planning, but we got a trip planned to Malawi in November, 2010. That trip was cancelled for some reason and we were rescheduled for the spring, this time to Mozambique. A last minute problem in that country threatened to cancel us again, but this time an opening was available for us to travel to Ethiopia.

That was in 2011, an amazing trip with an amazing organization. We brought back video and set out to advocate for clean water in Africa. Like World Vision, Africa is a big place with lots of needs and being caught up in “doing the work” of God, I still missed that God had sent us specifically to Ethiopia.

In 2009 God called me (a pretty religious phrase for God convicted me - which isn’t pretty at all) to help provide clean water in Africa. It really struck home during a Casting Crowns concert - they showed a video of the band visiting dirty water sites in Africa and asked for help. We were already sponsoring kids through World Vision so I researched trips through them. They offer trips to meet your sponsored child, but no glimpse of water. So… I let it sit. It wasn’t easy so it must not have been from God, right?

Sometime later, long after I had filed the whole crazy idea way back in my mind, I read a book called “The Hole in our Gospel” by Richard Stearns. This is a must read book by none other than the President of World Vision.

A couple years later while looking at an estate of a long time auction customer, I got the chance to chat with Greg Knight. His parents had rarely missed an auction “back in the day” and he and his wife had accompanied them many times. Now as we were working together on this estate, we realized that we have something else in common. Greg and his wife Charisa just happen to be the founders of Hawassa Hope, which serves in Ethiopia. Pretty clear God is “calling” me to back to Ethiopia right? Nah, I let Greg’s card sit in my office for probably 3 years before I even looked at their website. Slowly God pushed me (Elizabeth was ready to move to Ethiopia in 2011, she is almost as patient with me as God is), to call the Knights & get together for dinner. Immediately we were hooked. I was ready to go back to Ethiopia.

What we didn’t realize is that God had also picked out a specific area in Ethiopia for us. When we arrived in Ethiopia, 7 years after our trip with World Vision, we drove 4 hours to our hotel in a city named Awasa, also called Hawassa. Now remember, Ethiopia has a land mass almost twice the size of Texas & about 50 cities that are the size of Harrisonburg or bigger and Hawassa is just one of those cities; yet we pulled up to the same hotel in the same city that we had stayed in 7 years earlier with World Vision. This was no longer a coincidence; it wasn’t Malawi or Mozambique; it wasn’t by happen chance; this was His plan.

Our July 2024 trip was our fourth trip to Ethiopia and our third with Hawassa Hope.
In America, we like to measure accomplishments by numbers, so I will share a few numbers with you.

200

Number of sponsored kids and families we met with, photographed and updated files.

40

Number of new and expecting moms we met through the Elisabet Program.

With the Elsabet Initiative, Hawassa Hope seeks to educate and provide support for expectant mothers
in order to increase their hope of a healthy pregnancy and child.

20

Number of men and women we met at the Mossy Foot training.

600

The estimated number of hugs we received during the week.

However, numbers don’t mean a lot to me. Why do we go and What impact do we have on the people who we visit with? We go because Jesus said, “To Go” and because we have been blessed to be a blessing (Genesis) - not to mention Jesus tells us to “Love our neighbor as ourselves.”

But what impact do we have? I will share more on this later, but for now, I can summarize this trip in one story. We met with a mom whose child is in the sponsorship program. He is suffering from a mental breakdown of sorts. He runs away, he also becomes violent. As you can imagine, everyone in the village is avoiding him. We got the opportunity to sit in the room with him and his sister and listen to mom share their struggles. Before we left, I was asked to pray for him and family. Getting up, I crossed the room and sat on the bed beside him. Laying hands on him, I prayed. His mom prayed face down on the floor, while his sister sat in the bed beside him in tears. They couldn’t understand the words I was saying, but they did understand and feel the love. My prayer didn’t heal this little boy (Hawassa Hope is making arrangements to try and get him to see a specialist—no small feat in Ethiopia), but my prayer did validate this struggling mom and let them know that they aren’t alone or forgotten. Sending money is important and that is all some people can do, but a personal touch is so important whenever possible.

Over the next several months I would like to invite you to take a journey with me as I introduce you to Hawassa Hope and the many great programs they run. You will also get a glimpse at what life is like in Ethiopia. The crazy driving, terrible roads, beautiful scenery, wonderful food, coffee ceremonies, Hippos, Hyenas, market day and the list goes on.

I think what stands out the most to me is the people. There are people everywhere. No matter how remote an area, even when the dirt road that turned into a grass road comes to an end, there are still people walking—everywhere. But the sheer number of people isn’t what strikes me. What I remember, what I miss and why I can’t wait to go back, is the genuine relationships, the quick smiles, the greetings with a hug, the sincerity in the eyes; what stands out is the love. Look for it when you see the many photos.

Look past the scene, past the outfit, past the distractions and you’ll see it too.