Africa-Bound Friends

Our friends Zach and Erin are about to embark on an awesome journey.

Or, another awesome journey.

Awesome Journey #1: Last year, they adopted a little boy from Ethiopia. Addis is a great kid, and always has a smile on his face. He is loved by everyone, especially his older brother and sisters. The kid seriously cracks me up.

Awesome Journey #2: At the end of August, Zach, Erin, and their family are moving to Africa for two months. Yep. They’re taking their four kids age 5 and under to Malawi for two months. They will be interim directors of Esther’s House, a new orphanage our church has built in conjunction with another ministry. You can read more here.

We got to spend some time with Zach and Erin last week, and learned more about what their daily life will be like. They are having beds built prior to their arrival (because you can’t just go buy furniture in that area of Malawi), and when they said they needed a crib for Addis, the people building the furniture didn’t know what they were talking about.

They also will not have a hot water heater. The way their water is heated is a fire built under a giant metal tank. As long as the fire is going, they’ll have hot water.

And let’s just say that their chicken…will be very fresh.

They will have to take all basic necessities over with them. In suitcases. Yep, in their suitcases! Everything from pots and pans to bed sheets has to go to Malawi in their luggage.

And if that wasn’t enough, all of their adventures will be captured on video with the purpose of creating a reality television series.

I don’t know about you, but I am not sure I’d be a fan of having a camera following me everywhere in a foreign country with my own four kids while taking care of a brand new orphanage.

I am proud of my friends for following the call of God on their lives. It’s going to be hard. It’s going to be uncomfortable. And it might even be a little scary at times. But it’s going to be awesome.

I can’t wait to hear all the stories they’re going to be able to tell about how children’s lives were saved at the orphanage. They’ve already told us stories of some pretty amazing donations, including medical supplies for not only their family, but the orphanage as well.

Zach has designed a t-shirt to raise money for the orphanage. If you’d like to buy a pretty cool shirt knowing all the profits will go to a good cause, here’s the shirt for you. Or you can donate directly to the orphanage and go without a sweet shirt.

Please keep Zach, Erin, Easton, Catherine, Sophie, and Addis in your prayers. You can keep up with them on their blog. Hopefully we’ll get lots of updates.