Ride for Compassion 2015

ethiopia

What’s your image of Ethiopia? Are your ideas about the country still shaped by the famine that filled our television screens around 30 years ago in the mid-eighties? Thankfully much has changed since that time. Ethiopia is not a totally dry wasteland. In fact, it’s a land of rolling green hills where improved infrastructure and living conditions are driving the country forward. Everywhere you look in the capital city of Addis Ababa you see cranes and construction machinery as new buildings take shape. This hardly seems like the country that sparked Band Aid back in 1984.

Unfortunately though, not everyone is enjoying the benefits of the developments. There are still many battling poverty.

I was in Ethiopia in July last year and I saw conditions that confirmed that there is still much to be done there. Thankfully Compassion is there and is serving the poorest of the poor. That’s why I’m so glad that the Ride for Compassion is supporting a project in Ethiopia this year that will see thousands have access to hygienic toilet and showering facilities, dramatically reducing the risk of disease and illness.

Ride for Compassion 2015

Every year since 2009 I’ve traveled between Albany and Perth, a distance of over 500 kilometres, by bicycle. Next week I’ll be out there again. The ride will involve over 20 cyclists riding around 520 kilometres from Albany to Perth.

If you’ve been reading my blog for any time you’ll know that I work for Compassion, but I’m not supporting Compassion simply because it’s my job to do so.

I work for Compassion because I am convinced that there is no more effective organisation serving the world’s poor. I have seen no other method of working with those in poverty that even comes close to the way that Compassion is working.

I’ve seen Compassion’s work first hand in Haiti, Dominican Republic, Indonesia, Ethiopia, Rwanda and Thailand. Every time I visit another church that is partnering with Compassion I am amazed at the change it is making in the lives of the most vulnerable members of our world, children.

If you’d like to make a difference in the lives of children who desperately need your support, simply visit my fundraising page.

I can assure you that your money will be well spent in releasing children from poverty in Jesus’ name.

For the 14th consecutive year, Compassion International has earned the highest rating for U.S. charities from Charity Navigator—the nation’s largest charity evaluator. The 4-out-of-4 stars rating places Compassion International in the top one-percent of non-profits reviewed by Charity Navigator.

Let me thank you in anticipation of your support for children in poverty.



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Hope Breaks Through

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(Pictured: Some of the many children being released from poverty through Compassion.)

He worked as a soldier for the former government, clearing land mines. That was until a mine robbed him of his eyesight and one of his legs. These days his small pension and meagre earnings from what little work he is able to do just can’t stretch far enough to support his wife and five children.

We were welcomed into his tiny dwelling. His entire home is about the size of a small bedroom. It’s dark and there’s some rough covering on parts of the concrete floor. The high corrugated iron roof has made it possible to accommodate a very roughly made mezzanine across half of the room where he sleeps alongside his two sons. Mum and two daughters sleep below. Their eldest daughter has moved to live with close relatives because there’s just not enough room for her at home. The large poster of Avril Lavigne on the wall seems completely out of place in this small Ethiopian home.

As a couple of local Compassion representatives and us five Australians huddled together in the cramped conditions, we heard the story of this fammily and their struggles.

With rain bucketing down outisde and thunder that made it sound like the entire neighbourhod was about to fall down, we also heard about how one of their daughters is now being sponsored through Compassion. Now there is hope in their home. She dreams of becoming a civil engineer …. and she’s only seven.

In just a few days in Addis Ababa we have seen a lot of desperate poverty but we’ve also seen incredible hope. We’ve seen hope amidst some of the toughest circumstances imaginable and we’ve met young people who have overcome poverty through their Compassion sponsorship. Lives are being changed and children are being released from poverty in Jesus’ name.

Before we left that small home today we prayed for the precious family we had just met. We prayed that Jesus would be their comfort in their difficulties and that he would also be the one to change their current circumstances. It was an honour to spend time with their family and to enter into their world, even for just a few moments.



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