Eye Opener

Yesterday some of the girls and I (Gina) went to Mother Theresa's Orphanage and it was a sensory overload experience, seeing it on TV is different than being there. When we first walked in, all the kids that were playing came running to us and all they wanted  from us was a little attention, a hug, someone to play with them. The man that gave us the tour told us that they have over 100 kids and about 50 of them have some type of physical or mental disability. While there, we also got to see another compound where they have men and women that are currently under treatment for TB, Malaria, and other diseases. All the workers do their best to take care of the kids and the adults that are there. Though they are short of staff and don't necessarily have enough money to hire more people, it was encouraging to see how patient and loving they are towards the kids. What really shocked me while we were there was the smell in the compound where the adults who need medical treatment are treated. Also, when we went to see the infants we saw many that had skin diseases, had burns, were blind, or mentally disabled. I did everything I could not to cry when we saw them in their cribs with flies all over them. Because they can only pay so many employees, all of them are busy taking care of necessary tasks around the orphanage such as cleaning, cooking, etc. Seeing their suffering and smelling it, made me realize not only how blessed we are, but it also reminded me of heaven and how one day there will be no more suffering or pain of any kind. This was definitely an eye opener experience, but it was also very encouraging.
 
Women at Risk- This ministry is amazing! Today we went to help some of the women make cards. This is one of the many job skills that they are being taught to do for work instead of prostitution. We have been told that about 150,000 women are prostitutes in Addis Ababa...yeah, huge number. So what this ministry does is help women who want to get out of prostitution start a new life. They do a lot of group counseling, share the Gospel throughout the program, and help them find other jobs. None of the counselors working with these women have taken counseling classes, but they are the ones willing to help these women. Fortunately they have had professional counselors come and train them from all over the world. In the seven years of this program out of 250 only 10 of these women went back to prostitution, so as you can see it is a very successful program. Attached is a picture of us with some of the women.