Show Me Zeway …

And the Heart of Grace

Asnakech is 12 years old. Her mom died on September 13th. She is in charge of preparing the food for her 5 siblings. She asks for prayer to complete her education.

Meserech is 17, and she cares for her brother who is 9. She lost her leg in a fire accident. They ask specifically for prayer to their Heavenly Father to supply their daily bread.

Moyeta inherited his family farm when both of his parents died. He lets other farmers plant on his land, and they pay him half of their profits. He is 13 years old and supports his cousin.

These orphans and at least 45 others in Zeway, Ethiopia represent the millions of orphans throughout Africa whose lives have been devastated, largely because of HIV/AIDS. But because the spirit of God recently moved the people at Grace Covenant Church to overwhelming generosity, these Zeway orphans will have a brighter future and real reason for hope.

Earlier in 2008, two leaders from Grace Covenant traveled throughout Africa with the international Christian relief organization Food for the Hungry International. They visited Zeway, a poor, transient community of about 35,000, and God placed the orphans of that town heavily on their hearts. When they returned, they began working with Grace’s Orphan and Adoption Ministry, Bridges of Grace, to plan for a way to engage the people of Grace in the lives of these orphans. This opportunity was a dream come true for many Grace families.

A small group of Grace families have been praying for the last few years that God would use them to help soften the hearts of the people of Grace to the plight of orphans. These families have brought orphans into their homes from across the U.S. and across the globe (Korea, Kazakhastan, China, Guatemala, Russia, Ethiopia), and many others at Grace have served in orphanages and foster care situations for many years. These families had taken James 1:27 to heart: “Religion that God our father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to visit orphans and widows in their distress…” God longs for us to serve orphans, and those who have experienced an adoption or who have supported orphans know that in doing so He teaches us that we are all really orphans, adopted by Christ into the family of God and grafted into His family tree. How fitting is it, then, for believers to act on their faith by loving and serving the fatherless, and in so doing point them to their Heavenly Father as the only real source of hope.

In September, the Bridges of Grace team, in conjunction with Food for the Hungry Ethiopia, identified a specific set of needs facing the Zeway orphans, namely, livestock, food, the identification of guardians for the orphans, and micro-loans for the orphans and those guardians to launch businesses providing sustainable income. The funds needed for this project totaled approximately $17,000. Bridges of Grace then launched, with significant help from the students in the Youth Ministry, a creative fundraising project to engage the people of Grace. Called the Barnyard Auction, the people of Grace placed bids on pictures of barnyard animals, most with funny names and made-up stories, to “send them to Zeway”. The total amount raised over two weeks from the auction and from other donations exceeded $32,000 (with more still coming in as the writing of this article)!

Not only will the needs of these orphans be met, but the hearts of the people of Grace have been transformed and revealed. Here are a few examples of how God worked:

• Literally hundreds of individuals and families in our congregation gave generously to this project;
• The students in the Youth Ministry passed a bucket and gave more than $400 from their spare change and lunch money, an all-time record for that group;
• A small East Austin house church, recently formed by former Grace members, had been praying for a place to donate their tithe when God laid orphans on their heart. They heard about our project and donated $1500 to the Zeway orphans;
• In perhaps the most moving story of all, one woman was prompted by the Holy Spirit to somehow donate her new tent to the project. The tent, for reasons she did not reveal, had significant emotional meaning to her. She had paid $48 for the tent, which another Grace family, who was in need of a new tent exactly like hers, happily agreed to buy it so she could donate the $48. Unknown to her beforehand, $48 was the precise amount of money needed to provide housing for an orphan in Zeway for a year! Her tent, through the masterful interweaving of our Lord, provided an orphan a safe place to dwell.

Over the coming months, Grace Covenant will continue its relationship with the orphans of Zeway. We will be learning their names, understanding and feeling their stories, and supporting them with prayer, just as we would our own children. Some of us hope to be visiting Zeway soon as well to directly comfort and encourage the orphans there. Thank you Grace Covenant for revealing your heart for orphans, and thank you Father for allowing us to display a tiny fraction of the compassion you have for your neediest children.

written by Matt & Julie Kouri