Thursday, May 29, 2008

Ethiopia's Tiniest




This little girl is three years old and weights just 10 pounds due to mass food shortages in Ethiopia. Her name is Bezunesh, which means something like "You are more and more" or "You are so much". Her mother must love her so very much and yet she is watching her baby die of starvation. According to CNN, there are at least 120,000 Ethiopian children who have just one month to live if food relief doesn't come through soon. It's so easy to feel guilt over the plush American lives that even the American poor live out. While we complain about rising gas prices, our bellies are still full. The price of rice in America rises just a few cents and the big stores like Sam's Club and Costco start rationing how much rice we can purchase. So, we run out and buy the maximum alotment of rice...just in case. And even in purchasing that maximum alotment, we spend less than a dollar more per bag than we're used to spending. Meanwhile, on the other side of the world, the price of rice and other foods is soaring so high that even working class Ethiopian families, such as my dear Ethiopian friend, are finding themselves going hungry. My friend's father is a college professor! If even a college professor's family is hungry, how much less of a chance do the unemployed have under such conditions. The world is such an unfair place. To be American is to be rich relative to most of the world. Regardless of economic status. Lord, please intervene for these people...and use your people to do it.


Tuesday, May 27, 2008

Ethiopia Needs our Prayers

I post so infrequently on this blog that I'm not sure if I even have any readers any more. But, if I do, I hope that you will join me in praying for Ethiopia. We've been hearing in the news that Ethiopia is only receiving electricity for 3-4 days each week. The government is saying that lack of rain is making it impossible for Ethiopia's hydroelectric power plant to operate and produce electricity for the people. The bigger problem though is that teff and rice and food in general have drastically increased in price. I received an email this morning from a very dear Ethiopian family that has become like our own family. They told me that there is just not enough food or money. Our family is immediately going to wire them money of course. But that doesn't solve the problem. So, please be in prayer for this nation that is so dear to my heart and the hearts of many other families.

Friday, May 23, 2008

Tragedy...

Many of you know this already, but please be in prayer for Steven Curtis Chapman's family. They lost their youngest daughter, adopted from China on Wednesday. You can see a blog set up for her at the following link: http://chapmanchannel.typepad.com/inmemoryofmaria/