Sunday, December 2

On my way to Ethiopia, I make a slight detour to spend Sunday with the members of Calvary Lutheran Church in West Chester, PA. W2T was invited to participate in their 3 services and Adult Forum class to discuss our mission of bringing clean, safe water to rural communities in Africa.  It was a great reception and blessed to be part of their community for the day that has a passion for global missions.  The congregation has a heart to serve Tanzania, with some support already in place for a community there.  Their passion meshes well with our recent addition of Tanzania as one of our service areas.  Calvary will be actively participating in our Advent sequence, so they will be giving their members a chance to support their goal of one or more water projects for Tanzania all throughout Advent.

Fortunately, this Sunday afternoon was the Calvary annual Christmas concert, so at the invitation of our good friends Jim and Cora Scott, I stayed to experience some awesome music.  Jim is active in the choir (70+ voices) and they had been practicing since September.  They were supported by a 25 member youth choir, a 26 piece orchestra, and a 15 member bell choir. What a great experience to start my journey through Advent and my trip to Ethiopia!

 

Monday, December 3

My departure is out of Washington Dulles at 10:15, so there was a comfortable start to the day. We have been using Ethiopian Airlines for our trips over the last two years, since they now have a direct non-stop flight from Dulles to Addis Ababa.  It is 14 hours roughly, depending on the trade winds.

So if you have to be in a plane for 14 hours, what better treat than your first experience on Boeing new, state of the art 787 Dreamliner. Ethiopian Airlines was one of the first to put the Dreamliner into service. We left on time and arrived a little early. The plane was full (300+ passengers) but with the new design it is more tolerable.  Seats are comfortable (I didn’t say spacious), luggage storage was plentiful and plenty of high-tech bathrooms!

We have two mission trips planned for the summer of 2013….you can check out the travel itinerary for both at www.watertothrive.org/missiontrips.

 

Tuesday, December 4

Our arrival is about 7:30 am, a little early into Addis, but this time the luggage takes a long time to come through….remember 300 passengers, many of them Ethiopian visiting family for the holidays with many gifts!  I am met by Alem Tesfay, the owner of Diversity Tours.  He works closely with W2T in planning our mission trips and has personally taken great interest in our work. Alem drops me at the hotel for a nice hot shower and a short nap, before heading out to some meetings in the afternoon.

Alem’s wife, Helen, now helps with the business, but previously she worked in the marketing department at Ethiopian Airlines (EAL). She has arrange an introduction for W2T to the marketing department to discuss the Corporate Social Responsibility program (CSR).  Through the meeting, we find out that the work and mission of W2T might qualify us to participate in the program and we are invited to submit an application.  The partnership in CSR program could potentially provide some travel incentives for W2T travelers coming the Ethiopia on mission trips.

Our next stop is at the silversmith’s shop we had visited last June.  We are beginning a working relationship them to offer high quality, handmade silver  jewelry for W2T supporters, just like our coffee merchandise.  I picked up our first order of beautiful crosses, ear rings, necklaces, rings, etc.  They will be available just in time for some great Christmas gifts…..if you have an interest to learn more, contact the W2T staff at team@watertothrive.org to get the specifics of what will be available.

 

Wednesday,  December 5

The best laid plans…….today we where scheduled to visit some new water projects with our implementing Mekane Yesus (Ethiopian Lutheran Church) that just recently got underway in the Midakeng district near Ambo, west of Addis Ababa. Late last night I found out that the program manager for them had been delayed in some of his travel and was not going to be back in time to host our visit.  We did manage to connect by phone and have scheduled a follow up visit face to face later on this trip to review the project progress.

 

 Sunday, December 2

On my way to Ethiopia, I make a slight detour to spend Sunday with the members of Calvary Lutheran Church in West Chester, PA. W2T was invited to participate in their 3 services and Adult Forum class to discuss our mission of bringing clean, safe water to rural communities in Africa.  It was a great reception and blessed to be part of their community for the day that has a passion for global missions.  The congregation has a heart to serve Tanzania, with some support already in place for a community there.  Their passion meshes well with our recent addition of Tanzania as one of our service areas.  Calvary will be actively participating in our Advent sequence, so they will be giving their members a chance to support their goal of one or more water projects for Tanzania all throughout Advent.

Fortunately, this Sunday afternoon was the Calvary annual Christmas concert, so at the invitation of our good friends Jim and Cora Scott, I stayed to experience some awesome music.  Jim is active in the choir (70+ voices) and they had been practicing since September.  They were supported by a 25 member youth choir, a 26 piece orchestra, and a 15 member bell choir. What a great experience to start my journey through Advent and my trip to Ethiopia!

 

Monday, December 3

My departure is out of Washington Dulles at 10:15, so there was a comfortable start to the day. We have been using Ethiopian Airlines for our trips over the last two years, since they now have a direct non-stop flight from Dulles to Addis Ababa.  It is 14 hours roughly, depending on the trade winds.

So if you have to be in a plane for 14 hours, what better treat than your first experience on Boeing new, state of the art 787 Dreamliner. Ethiopian Airlines was one of the first to put the Dreamliner into service. We left on time and arrived a little early. The plane was full (300+ passengers) but with the new design it is more tolerable.  Seats are comfortable (I didn’t say spacious), luggage storage was plentiful and plenty of high-tech bathrooms!

We have two mission trips planned for the summer of 2013….you can check out the travel itinerary for both at www.watertothrive.org/missiontrips.

 

Tuesday, December 4

Our arrival is about 7:30 am, a little early into Addis, but this time the luggage takes a long time to come through….remember 300 passengers, many of them Ethiopian visiting family for the holidays with many gifts!  I am met by Alem Tesfay, the owner of Diversity Tours.  He works closely with W2T in planning our mission trips and has personally taken great interest in our work. Alem drops me at the hotel for a nice hot shower and a short nap, before heading out to some meetings in the afternoon.

Alem’s wife, Helen, now helps with the business, but previously she worked in the marketing department at Ethiopian Airlines (EAL). She has arrange an introduction for W2T to the marketing department to discuss the Corporate Social Responsibility program (CSR).  Through the meeting, we find out that the work and mission of W2T might qualify us to participate in the program and we are invited to submit an application.  The partnership in CSR program could potentially provide some travel incentives for W2T travelers coming the Ethiopia on mission trips.

Our next stop is at the silversmith’s shop we had visited last June.  We are beginning a working relationship them to offer high quality, handmade silver  jewelry for W2T supporters, just like our coffee merchandise.  I picked up our first order of beautiful crosses, ear rings, necklaces, rings, etc.  They will be available just in time for some great Christmas gifts…..if you have an interest to learn more, contact the W2T staff at team@watertothrive.org to get the specifics of what will be available.

 

Wednesday,  December 5

The best laid plans…….today we where scheduled to visit some new water projects with our implementing Mekane Yesus (Ethiopian Lutheran Church) that just recently got underway in the Midakeng district near Ambo, west of Addis Ababa. Late last night I found out that the program manager for them had been delayed in some of his travel and was not going to be back in time to host our visit.  We did manage to connect by phone and have scheduled a follow up visit face to face later on this trip to review the project progress.