Our time in Ethiopia was spent in a little community called Korah. Some teammates met a man on the flight over and he was asking where we would be visiting. When they told him that we would be going to Korah, he made a face and look confused. Korah is a community that is the home to the poorest of the poor. They are the outcast, the neglected. In fact, the entire community is located at the city's trash dump. The people in Korah make a living from selling things that they have found in the dump. They also eat whatever they can find here to survive. Thursdays are the "busy" or most popular days to go to the dump because they bring the trash from the airport which is usually full of good things. The need here is overwhelming. Each day we would drive up to the outskirts of the village where they would let us out of the car. Most people just stared at us, and we began our short walk to the Project 61 house. Project 61 is a ministry started by people here in Nashville that is working with the people in Korah. They have created sponsers for many of the children and that sponsership pays for the school, books, and meals for the child. Each day the children are dismissed from school around noon and they come to Project 61 for lunch. They are fed and loved on and then return to school for the afternoon. Because there is not really a good school for older children here, Project 61 has sent many children to boarding school to receive an education. We were able to visit with some of the families who had children in boarding school thru Project 61 and they all shared how grateful they were that someone cared enough to come there and help their families.

One day we were talking to one of the girls on staff and she was telling us that they found 4 children living in the dump. They had been abandoned by their parents and the oldest child was trying to take care of the younger siblings. Project 61 was able to rescue these children from the dump and find them a place to live and food to eat. Then one of our translators started telling us that he grew up in Korah and he just recently was able to move out. This young man has such a strong relationship with the Lord. It was really encouraging to think that God was and is raising up leaders from this little trash dump. It is such a beautiful picture of redemption. I hope one day those children are able to share their story about how they were rescued from a trash dump, given food and shelter, and were taught about Jesus. My life and upbringing seemed so completely different from these people!

But then God reminded me that we really aren't as different as I think. We have all been rescued from trash. Our trash in America looks a little different- materialism, greed, lust, envy etc- but it's still trash. And God, in His mercy, redeemed us from this trash in our lives and gave us a living hope in Christ. So a person brought up in a upper class, white society stands in a neglected community of Africa with a guy brought up in a trash dump who is now sharing the gospel in this very dump, and we give thanks to Jesus for who He is and what He has done in our lives. That is the beauty and the power of the gospel. It is far reaching and He says in Psalm 46, "I will be exalted amoung the nations."