Home is good. It feels good.

I am extremely exhausted but glad to be here.

I jumped back into work right after thanksgiving and the coffee shop I work at had its grand opening! It was great, a lot of people came and they remodeled the whole place while I was gone and so it looks awesome in there.

I think my body is still trying to catch up because I get so tired I can even function at like 7:00 pm. But slowly its getting there.

I think this thanksgiving (well American thanksgiving) was an interesting one. I mean I was extremely thankful for so many things, but at the same time it was hard. Just coming from a place where the children don't have any food and the people are starving was challenging. Then Black Friday was the next day and I wondered how much money in the United States was spent that day on stuff. Probably enough to feed the entire continent of Africa for a year. I don't know that might be exaggerating. But that was how I was feeling.

I realize again that I have to find the balance between the life there and life here. It is so different. I struggled with this kind of thing when I came home in April so I already know, and its easier this time. Hopefully the more I go the more I will figure out where to place my thoughts when all this bombards me when I get home each time.

I am thankful to be home and that I have a job, and food and a bed and people that love me and tell me they love me and a Father who love me beyond belief and provides for me. Really, what more do I need?

James

One of the boy’s in the school who we met was named James. He is about 5 or 6 years old, super cute and a smart little guy. He loves bubbles and balloons :)

On wednesday we went to visit his home and we met his mother. She is handicapped and has deformed legs so she uses a type of wheel chair to get around. The way she makes money is begging on the street, she used to be a prostitute and as a result James has a little baby brother about 2 months old. They live in a small dark mud house and she crawled on the ground to get around. But she welcomed us in and we prayed for her and her children. It was hard being in there and seeing the environment in which they live.

It was like that in all of the houses we went in.

On Friday we went to school and Christine told us that his mother had done something very bad. She brought James over to us and pulled the side of his pants down so we could see his hip. There were burn marks on this leg and then she showed us one on the inside of his leg. Something happened and his mother got mad and took a metal spoon, put it in the fire and then burned his leg with it.

He was just quiet and his expression did not change. If Christine had not said anything we would never have known. Which was hard because it means he is used to it and stuff like that happens often. It broke my heart. We took him outside and prayed for him and I had tears running down my face.

How could anyone do that? I know it happens all the time around the world, but I just can’t understand. Christine was hurt also, she just kept saying that was no way to treat a child.

What do you do with that? I had a hard time for the next little while, I was emotional and struggling to let go of that. I think it was harder because we had been at his house 2 days before and met his mother. She did not seem like she would do something like that.

Jen, one of the leaders of the team, cleaned his burns and then applied burn cream. We also got antibiotics for him to fight off infection. The poor thing screamed when she was cleaning the area, it was awful, but we knew he needed it.

I think one thing we had to process together as a team later is God’s goodness. Its a very hard thing to proclaim when you are surrounded by injustice and poverty. But it is important. We focused a lot on that and seeing God’s goodness through the pain and suffering that was all around us.

He is there all the time, He is there when the bad things happen, and He is there now. He loves those children and that is one thing that I could feel radiating through me while I was there, was his love for the children and how is heart breaks a thousand times more than mine when bad things happen to them.

He is good. He is so good.

We went to the school everyday while we were in Kenya. School starts at 8:00 am and ends a 12:00 and it is now a pre-school and kindergarten. It was amazing to see the progress that the children have made since we were there in February. They all can count to 100 in english, write their names, say the abcs and all sort of things . They are so smart. Its so cool. I love that they have this chance to learn because otherwise they would not be in school.

Also there was a team there in the summer and they painted the whole outside and inside and put in a floor so it looks so much better and is a lot cleaner.

After school we would go home to Christine's house where we were staying and each lunch. They cooked traditional Kenyan food for us every meal. It was so good. Its unbelievable for how cheap too. For our whole team of nine for the whole week food cost less than $60!

After school the first day the team went and helped clean the yard up around the school by moving barbed wire and mowing the grass with old fashioned weed whacker things which took forever. I went into town with Christine to the market and bought food and she had a few other errands so I was with her. She told me all about the children and the school and her dreams for it.

Her wish is that one day it won't be just a school but also a children's home. She wants the street children to live there but for it also to be a really good quality school so that people who can afford it will pay for their children to go there because of the education. Then it would be a way to sustain it for the homeless ones. Most of the children at her school are orphans and stay with either friends or grandparents. I love this idea. I already can't wait to go back and I am so excited what God will do.

Home in Germany

First of all, Kenya was awesome! Second, I am sorry I didn't write anyone while I was there. But its ok because now I am back in Germany, I got to sleep in a bed last night and I took a real shower for the first time in a week. Life is good.

I wish that I had been able to write each day and here and tell you about what we did because now its a big blob in my head and to write it all out would be difficult and long. So in the next few days I'll add the highlights and the amazing things God did in us and through us.

One of the things the speaker that was here the week before we left said was that God calls us places like Kenya or wherever for outreach and yes we do reach out and give of ourselves but the main reason he does it is to bring us closer to him. I think that always happens in mission trips. You go to help people and give of yourself, but really you leave having been blessed and changed yourself. God totally used this time to bring me closer to him, and it was incredible.

Another way he used me is an answer to an amazing woman's prayers. Christine, the school teacher, told me that she and her daughter had been praying for months because they wanted keep teaching more and for the children to be able to write and they had no pencils or school supplies. She told me that God used me to answer her prayers. When I showed her the box of school supplies I brought, she was so excited and said Bless you, God bless you over and over, but the coolest part was that she praised Jesus for it. It was him that put that desire to bring those things. And it wasn't only me. He used you who gave the money and helped me buy everything. She told me like 5 times to say thank you to you so much and prays that you will be blessed for giving to her and the children. So thank you :) God used you to answer a woman's prayers in Africa.

Kenya Bound

Tomorrow I leave for Kenya! I can't believe its actually happening. Tonight I had dinner with my team and we prayed and sang together and we are all so excited to be going, its awesome.

The tickets we have are amazing, we have a fast train all the way to Frankfurt and then a flight straight to Mombasa. They got a really good price on them too and Jesus is just blessing us in so many ways.

I'll update as soon as I can :)

The Kenya team is awesome :) There are 9 in total, 4 guys and 5 girls. They all are amazing and so excited to go. We talked a lot about what exactly we want to do there and prayed about what it is exactly God wants us there for during this short time. One thing we do want to do is help in the process for the school to become legal. In Kenya there are requirements that need to be met to make it legal and certified. One of them was completed earlier this summer which is a floor, the other big one they still don't have is uniforms. I think there are a few other things as well, but they just haven't had the finances to complete them yet.

We know we want to spend time with the kids everyday and then we will also help do practical things around the school like painting, mowing the grass and things like that. But we are still praying if there is a bigger thing God is planning on doing through us while we are there.

We want to help, but we also want the school to be self sustained and not depend completely on foreign money and things like that. So pray for wisdom for us in all that.

Its been so awesome here at the castle to go to the teachings and remember me being where all these students are now. The speaker this week is so good and it has been really encouraging to hear him speak.

I’m surrounded by love and encouragement. It’s wonderful.

I just posted some photos of the kids at the school in Mombasa.. it didn't come out like I thought, but oh well. At least you can see a little bit of where I am going.

Tonight I am meeting with the Kenya team.

Should be good.

some of my photos from the pre-school when I was there in February

In Herrnhut again :)

I just slept 16 hours and still feel tired, but it feels so good to be back in Germany.

Last night I was greeted with open arms and surrounded by love. It was wonderful.

My travel day wasn't bad at all until I got to Dresden where I happened to get on the wrong bus at the airport which I thought was taking me to the train station and it didn't.. so I was packing around a 40 pound box of school supplies, my big backpack, a duffel bag of t-shirts and my little backpack with my laptop and cameras around Dresden for an hour before I got to a place I was familiar with and I could get on the right train to take me to where I needed to go.

Thankfully my two amazing friends Ulla and Mona were there waiting for me when I got there. I was afraid that they might not be there since I said I would be there a lot earlier than I ended up being.. But they were :)

So now today I am going to the castle and will see many more of my friends and meet the team that I will be going to Kenya with.

I am so excited.. everyone is saying the team is great and everyone is so passionate about the kids and school even though they have never been there. That is so awesome.. I am so grateful that I get the chance to be here and apart of it.

Well that's all for now, I'm going to the castle!!

Hi Everyone,

About a month ago I received an invitation to return to Kenya. The YWAM base in Herrhhut Germany,where I was last year, is sending a team from the arts ministry, PickaPocket, back to Mombasa to the pre-school that my outreach team was at earlier this year. The goal is to take the children's photographs and gather information in order to put together packets for each one of them. What they want to do is try and find classes from schools in Europe, the US and Canada who will support one of the children from this school in Kenya.

I have prayed about it a lot and feel like if God gives me the opportunity to go back the place where I left a piece of my heart, how can I say no? I believe He will provide all that I need in order to make it happen.

Thus far I have a round trip ticket to Germany. I leave November 9th and return November 25th the day before Thanksgiving. I have been thinking about the timing of that and how interesting it is :)

I will leave with the team from Germany and be in Kenya the week or November 15-21 which gives me some time in Herrnhut before and after to see my friends and pray with the team and debrief when we get back. I also want to bless the children at the school when we go so I am trying to get together school supplies to take with me and leave there.

I would greatly appreciate your prayers during this time.

Pray for the team, that we will work well together and have unity

Pray for the children and we can bless and love them while we are there.

Pray for the school teacher Christine and her famliy. She is the one who opened the school and does this for free. She does not get paid because it is a free school, which is why the kids are able to go. They are all street children who can't afford to go to school.

Pray that mine and the rest of the team's finances come in to pay for our tickets to Kenya.

If you want more information or would like to help me in anyway with prayer, finances, school supplies or anything else please write me or email me:

Annababe DeHart

2414 33rd Street

Anacortes, WA

98221

annababe.dehart@gmail.com

Thank you guys and I'll be writing on here more often to keep you update while I'm away and when I'm home :)

I realize I haven't written on here is several months and I think for a while I thought that I didn't need to because I wasn't doing anything "exciting"anymore :) But God showed me that I really am in a different way.

So here is an update of where I am and what I am doing now:

I basically took about 5 months off after I got home from Germany. I needed it so much. I was exhausted in so many ways. So I spent time with my family and was in one of my dear friend's wedding, and this past summer I was all over the place. I went to San Diego to visit two of my friends I met in Germany who were home for their rest period too. They are actually back in Germany now because they have joined staff as have many of my other friends. While I was there we drove down to Mexico and went to visit our other friend from our DTS named Abril. It was so fun to be together again and to see each other in our own in environments.

Then I came home and I left for Florida and North Carolina. I went down for two weeks with my boyfriend John's family.

Then in the end of August my whole family had a week vacation together in the San Juan Islands which was really fun.

I have started working again and I am enjoying that. I was getting a little restless by the end :)

It is actually really cool because I was able to get a job that supports something I care about so much. I am a barista at a little coffee shop in Anacortes, WA where I am living now.

The owners are wonderful people and they have huge hearts. It is a non-profit business and all the proceeds go towards orphans.

I might even have the opportunity to go with them to Africa next summer! Jesus loves me.

I am excited about that.

It has been interesting this whole month because a year ago right now I was in Germany. I miss it so much all the time. I miss the community and my precious friends. But I know I am where God wants me right now. And that is important and good.

Little Boy at the pre-school in Kenya.. snack time!

Endale - at the orphanage

Bale

Kids by the Omo River in the Kara Tribe

Its hard stepping back into your own culture. You would think the opposite. I mean you know your culture, the people, the language, the traditions, the customs... yet it is probably one of the most difficult things process and do.  

My time at home has been good and I have been able to rest and relax which has been so wonderful. Yet there are many times I struggle with all that is going on in my head. There is so much, I am always thinking and many times I cannot put into words what is going on in my head. 

Its a process thats for sure.  I am learning that I need to be able to go learn to live in both worlds. I think I have had to do that my whole life though.  I felt like someone inside that I didn't look like on the outside as a result I didn't feel like I fit in either world or culture. But maybe that was one way God prepared me for these times now and I am sure many more from now.

I have been able to edit some of my photos from my outreach which has been fun and exciting. I'll post some of my favorites.

There is now a website and blog for the Drawn from Water project we started in Ethiopia with the mingi babies. It is regularly updated and has video and pictures from the tribe, the children and the orphanage. It also has a way you can give if you feel so led to.

You should check it out, there are pictures of Bale and the other children I grew to love :)

www.drawnfromwater.org

Home

I am sorry its been so long. I feel like I have been on a roller coaster ride and now I can get off and process how crazy, scary, exciting, challenging, and powerful it was.

I arrived back in Germany on March 15 and then we had two weeks of debriefing for our teams.  Our team came back probably one of the healthiest and most together.  A lot of the other teams had really hard times and you could see it in their eyes and on their faces. We all realized just how amazing our outreach really was.  I mean, we did a lot and we were very productive.  We didn't just leave behind all the friends and projects without a foundation, we left everything running and we have many contacts who are committed to helping keep them running.  Also some of our team who have now joined staff will be going back to check in and support the people there later this year.

It is really amazing what God did through and in us. We all came back changed and with open eyes.  

As I continue to process in the next months, I will write it down here. It may take me a while :)

Actually I think I will always be processing what I did and what I saw.

I flew home on March 27 and now I am trying to find my place here again. It was hard to say goodbye to my amazing friends that God blessed me with but I know they are the kind of friends that I will have forever. We experienced a lot together and grew spiritually together which I think made our bond even stronger. 

I have to admit its hard coming back to selfish consumerism culture.  I went in Wal-Mart the other day to pick up something and there was 10 rows of Easter candy and baskets and toys things right as you walk in the door. It was overwhelming and my mind went back to all the children I held and played with who have never even tasted chocolate.  I don't want to be judgemental though and make people feel bad for making Easter baskets for their children or buying candy and stuff. We are truly blessed to live where we do and have all that we have. I believe Jesus wants to bless us and He does. Its just hard for me to find the balance between the both. I know it will take a little time and I am trying to look at everything with and open mind and see things through His eyes not mine.

Thank you to all of you who prayed for me during this time. I could feel the power of that while I was Africa, there were many times I knew I was protected.  May God bless you for that.  So as I remember stories or cool things I will post them and also the things that I learned which is a lot :)

Is this my life?

For real, I look back at the past month and a half and at all the things and projects I have been apart of and can't help but wonder. I know I wrote a lot about the time in the karo tribe and Kenya a little but here are some other projects my team has been involved in that we are putting in the book we are making:

Garbage City - basically its the hugest dump I have ever seen on the outskirts of Addis Ababa. There are a lot of people who live there and have made houses out of the trash and pick through it everyday to
find food and other things. A group from our team has been there and invested in relationships with the people and we want to help them find a way out of there and get an education. As I have learned, in Africa without an education, you really don't have a chance at a life.

Cafe Rahab - Another team made friends with some prostitutes in a town called Jinka in the south of Ethiopia, actaully the same town where the orphanage we started is. They all wanted out of it, but had no way. They had a dream of opening a cafe, so we gave a bunch of team money and are helping them open a cafe. It will be a place for women who want out of prostitution, can go and earn money and go to school and evenutally be able to leave and work other places. Its just to help them get started.

Drawn from Water - This is what we have called the orphanage. So after I left for Kenya, a small group from our team went back to the tribes and got 6 more children. And since then, our friend who is running the orphanage got 2 more. Now there is a total of 9 children including Bale. God is so good. He is just opening doors everywhere for this project to take off and we can see that He is in this completely. It still needs a lot of prayer though to get everything worked out legally and then for the funds to build the orphanage and keep it running.

Also this month. the Karo tribe has a huge festival to celebrate the end of the harvest. Some members from our team and Lalay, the founder of the orphanage, who is Karo, are going to speak to the leaders about the whole mengi situation and try to show and communicate in a good way that these children are not cursed.

Emrofena School - So while I was in Kenya for the first 8 days we had no idea why God had brought us there. Our original plan was to go into Sudan to refugee camps. But we could not get visas. So we prayed constantly about where to go and what to do and why we were there.
Well God led us to Mombasa on the coast of Kenya. We have a friend there who is on staff with ywam in Germany and he was home for vacation. Anyway, his mother and family started a preschool about one month ago for underpriviliged children. All the funds come out of their pockets and they don't have much money to start with. She is a retired school teacher and has a huge heart for the children. All of them cannot afford to go to school and most of them are HIV positive and live on the street with their parents, if they have them. God really moved in my heart while we were there to do something to help. They have nothing, its a cement walled dirt floor building with one little table for 50 children. They have no school supplies at all. Not even crayons. It was so pitiful, they are so beautiful and bright and it breaks my heart to think that they don't have so many of the things we take for granted at home. What they do have, which is hardly anything, they are so grateful for. It was amazing there, and it really touched my heart. I know I am going back there someday.

So yeah, we have been so busy and God is moving and it is really clear.
I will try and update more when I can. Please keep praying for out projects and for Bale. I'm hopefully going back to see her next week.

Thank you for your prayers.
If you have any questions or anything or want to know more about something, please email me.
annababe.dehart@gmail.com

Its been so long since I have been able to post on here.
Its hard to find a computer fast enough to do that. Especially in Ethiopia.
Right now I am on a small outreach to Kenya. It is so crazy how different the two countries are.
Addis Ababa is far less developed than Nairobi, so finding a internet place that is fast is a huge blessing.
A lot has happened since I have been here. It would take forever to write so here are some of the main things that I have done and been apart of:

I arrived in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia in the beginning of January and the first two weeks there we adjusted to the culture and met lots of people around our compound that we are renting. I also went several days to help at a feeding center. It was hard but really good.
On January 15 I left for the south of Ethiopia to the Karo tribe. That was an experience I will never forget. We stayed in the tribe for about a week. It was really cool and really crazy. Lets just say I felt like I was in jurassic park. When it got dark we all had to get in our tents because that is when the hugest spiders I have ever seen and scorpions came out. Plus in the middle of the night there were these freaky baboons that made really strange creepy noises. We were also camping near this river that is said to have to most crocodiles in the world. And yes I saw several.
The main reason we went to that tribe is because they are a really good example of extreme poverty, they really have nothing. Another huge reason we went is one that breaks all of our hearts and is something we hope to see change.
The Karo people believe in this thing they call mengi. It basically means a curse. They have these traditions and rules that apply to the mengi. If a woman gets pregnant outside of marriage her baby is considered mengi. If a married couple does not annouce to the elders that they are planning to have a child, that baby is mengi. If a child's top teeth come in first or fall out first, it is mengi. When the child is mengi they kill it because they believe it will bring a curse upon the tribe. While we were there God led a group from our team to the next village over to see a famlily who had a little girl with teeth mengi. Her tooth teeth had come in first before her bottom teeth. So they went and talked with the family. The women have no say in anything and it is a very male dominated culture so they talked mainly with the little girls father. They said that the pain in his eyes was so intense and that he had tried for 5 months to keep her from being killed. But the community basically shunned their entire family because of it.
One of our contacts that we have in that area is from the Karo tribe, but he is educated and actually did a dts in Herrnhut last year. He has a huge heart for his people and wants to see this killing of innocent children stop. So he wants to start an orphanage in a town outside of the Karo lands for the children who are mengi.
So while our team was visiting that family they asked if we could take her and when. The father said they had about 2-3 days before she would be killed. So a group went back the next day and got her.
It was so incredible, when they drove up to our camp she was asleep in the arms of my leader Kristen who has a huge heart for these children as well. Just one look at her and I started crying. She was so beautiful. Later on I got to play with her and hold her and I can't describe the feeling of holding her and knowing that if God had not led our team to her or to the Karo tribe she would not be alive right now.
We gave a lot of our team money to help start the orphanage and I am going to keep raising money to give because after being there and seeing her and holding her, my piece of my heart is there.
Bale (pronounced Balay) is the first one in the orphanage. She is two and a half. I left with the team I am on now for Kenya the day after that, but another team stayed there and were going back to get seven more mengi children. Its so amazing what God is doing through our team.

But now I am in Kenya and I never thought at the beginning of outreach that I would be coming here. I know it is God and I feel like He brought me here for a reason. I am still trying to figure that out but slowly it is making more sense. He has given me a huge heart of this place and these people.
Tonight I leave from Nairobi for Mombasa which is on the east coast right on the Indian Ocean. I am pretty excited. I hear its really beautiful. But I am going there with 4 others on my team and we are going to help at an orphanage for children with HIV/aids and also with a lot people who have been effected by famine. It should be really great and I am so excited. I wish I could write more but there is so much and I can't even process it all.
Basically what is comes down to is:
God is powerful and amazing and has given me a heart for Kenya and orphans, He speaks and leads us to the places He wants us. He has given me a heart for the mengi babies in Ethiopia.
He is so good and has the most compassionate and loving heart of us all. He loves all these children and people way more than I can even imagine. I am on an incredible adventure and He is by my side teaching and guiding me all the way.