The Sacrificial Lamb comes to life...

Hello everyone, Aaron here on blog duty tonight...

Over the past few days, since the team left, there has been an intense battle going on here in Ethiopia.  That battle is being fought in the remote regions of my heart and mind.  Daily I have been wrestling with the extremes that we have become accustom to seeing during our travels here.  Extreme poverty, living conditions, sickness, disease, and yet on the complete opposite end of the spectrum, extreme wealth, success, progress. And yet I find myself being drawn back to the former of the two extremes.  My heart is despirately waging war with the comforts of this life in an attempt to return to the poorer communities, whose lives have touched us beyond all comprehension.

During our trips to the Acacia Village site I have been thoroughly impressed with the level of professionalism that has taken place at this site.  It is truly a wonderful project and very much needed for their organization.  The job site is very much a commercial project site similar to what you would see in the states,  but much more primitive in their construction methods.  Everything is built out of concrete and reinforced with re-bar.  The scaffolding is built out of euclyptus branches.  It was quite the experience walking up three flights of scaffolding on branches.  Kyle and Ariel wouldn't try it the second time we visited the site, once was enough for them.  It has been very intriguing for me to see some of the construction techniques and procedures that they go through to build a commercial building here in Ethiopia.  

But during each visit my mind and my heart seem to wander back to our dear friends at the school and a simpler way of life.  Everywhere you turn there is need in this city.  Our prayer is that we are hearing God's direction clearly and providing aide where He wants us to, not where we desire to work.  Our conversations with the contractors at the Acacia Village have been very promising and they are open for churches like ours to send work groups over when the timing is appropriate during the different phases.  This was very encouraging.

This morning, we went back to the Bright Hope School project to see how the progress was going on the well and to work some more on the wall.  When we showed up, water was flowing freely out of the well.  They got the pump hooked up today and were getting ready to send some samples off to the labs to get tested.  Keep this in your prayers that the tests will return positive and that they will be able to use this for drinking water as it is greatly needed.  Today alone we began seeing how the well could save the other projects money as they now don't have to pay someone to haul water in for them to mix the cement.  Last week we paid someone $2 per donkey per trip to haul water for us.  There were 4 donkeys each of which made 6-7 trips per day.  That begins to add up quickly as all of you can imagine.  Our work today was kind of bittersweet.  It was wonderful to be back working at the school, however all of the men that we spent the last week getting to know and working with were not there.  We had a new set of workers to get to know and had to learn the process all over again.  We also missed having the rest of our group with us,  all of you were and have been truly missed this week.  You guys made this trip so much fun. 

As we were finishing up our work today, we were informed that we would be honored guests, again, in celebration of the completion of the well and what we accomplished on the wall.  A celebration such as this consists of buying a sheep at the market and bringing it to the celebration alive.  They then procede to slaughter the sheep, butcher it, and then cook it into a meal that is shared by all of the people at the celebration.  Kyle and Ariel were present in representatives of our group at the slaughtering.  And for all of you who are wondering, yes there is video footage of this event.  This event has brought new perspective for all of us on God's sacrificial lamb,  Jesus, was led to the cross.  He was beaten, mocked and bruised for our transgressions.  As the sheep was brought in to the school yard it was mobbed by children, who began to hit it and kick it.  It was then tied up close to our jobsite waiting to be led to it's final resting place.  Kyle helped drag it to the slaughtering floor.  So if you are into comparisons, and trying to compare this event to Christ's walk to the cross,  Kyle would be on of the Roman guards who led him to the Cross.  Just kidding.  But in all seriousness, this really was a real life depiction of what our Savior did on our behalf.  And without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sin.  It really did bring that verse to life for me today and I will never be the same because of it.