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Duffle Packing

We have hit the packing phase now! Duffles, duffles....we need more duffles! We are running errards each day collecting items that were requested by the staff in Zimbabwe. The little things in life that make our lives functional....like batteries, mint tea, nerf darts! Living in Zimbabwe will be very different! God is gracious and faithful. He provided 5 cannisters of formula for Lilly through a fellow teacher in Keary's school district. And BONUS! It has probiotic in it! Just what Lilly needs in Africa.

Graduations and Zimbabwe in sight

Family and Friends, What an exciting time! Skip has graduated from Covenant Theological Seminary this week, Keary will wind down her work with ELL students, Olivia will graduate from elementary school Friday and our other kiddos will be running fast into summer vacation. We are excited about family coming in town to celebrate with us and help us prepare for our mission trip to Bulawayo! With just 10 days away, Zimbabwe is in sight! We are making our final preparations and will soon begin our packing phase! We have been remiss in keeping up with our blog but will do our best to keep everyone informed with details and prayer requests. Fundraising: We are getting closer! We are still short about $2500 from being fully-funded. We ask for prayer for this especially. We have come a long way and are so grateful for our incredible team of supporters! We would love to reach our goal of 100%. Will you consider supporting us or perhaps adding to your current support? Donations can still be sent to either of the addresses listed on the right. We look forward to being hands and feet to the orphaned and fatherless of Bulawayo. Donations: We have gathered quite an array of donations! Now we are trying to gather enough bags to deliver them! Its not too late. We can sqeeze in more. If you have a heart to donate children's books, bibles or help purchase ministry puppets we will make it fit! And if you are local and have an extra large duffle bag in your basement to loan out, please call us! Prayer requests: We will send out a prayer request list this week with details on how you can specifically pray for us while we are away. Please hold onto it tight and lift us up as the Lord leads. We covet your prayers for each of us while we are away. If you are so led to give ONLINE, you can go to MTW.org and select Donate Now and Give by credit card, then Click here to go to our donations site and click on Make a One-Time Donation without Creating a User Account and type in Ritchie to put in an amount and Credit Card Info. http://mtw.org/Pages/GIVE_FAQ.aspx Happy belated Mothers Day! What a blessing you are to your families and a joy to the Lord for caring for his special children! And Congrats to all the new grads out there!!!

Need Your Prayers and a little bit more support to buy Flights (Items for Orphans List)

Zimbabwe Orphanage Mission Trip Update:
We have been contacted by two orphanages in Zimbabwe that care for abandoned children. Isaiah's House is home to 21 children (4 months to 5 years old) and a boys home caring for children who have previously lived on the streets. The leaders of these homes work directly with Craig Jones, who will be our host and Summer Seminary Internship Coordinator.

They have sent us a short list of important items needed for the precious children in their care. Please pray that we would be able to collect and deliver these items to their homes in Bulawayo, Zimbabwe.

Underwear – boy & girls – particularly small sizes
Socks – unisex –1 year old up
wash cloths
Ziplock bags, all sizes
Coloring pencils
Toddlers (boys) shorts 2-3 years
Swimsuits for toddlers 2-4yrs
Sunhats for toddlers
Wet wipes
Stationery – early learning scissors

The ministry leader stated that there is always a need for stationery and art & craft materials throughout the Ministries (pens & pencils, book covers, coloring pencils, paint-brushes etc). We plan to work with this established Orphan ministry in Bulawayo. See www.ourneighbours.org for more information.

Thank you for praying for our family, the orphans in Bulawayo and the ministry in Zimbabwe that will be hosting us. We can be contacted at see5ritchies@yahoo.com if you want to join our support team.

National Orphan Sunday

He will deliver the needy who cry out,
the afflicted who have no one to help…
He will rescue them from oppression,
for precious is their blood in his sight.
Psalm 72:12, 14

For more than 2 years, we have been praying about where internationally God would have us caring for orphans. We sense God leading for us to visit Bulawayo, Zimbabwe. Our church and Covenant Seminary have ongoing and developing relationships with several people in Zimbabwe. Last Easter, we had a meal and conversation with a Zimbabwean seminary professor and his wife about helping with orphans in Bulawayo area. Currently, there is an orphan baby home that needs caretakers. Covenant Seminary is in partnership with the local Bible Seminary—Theological College of Zimbabwe and there are openings for Skip to be involved in internship in May 2012 in Bulawayo after his May 17th Master's in Counseling graduation ceremony.

We are starting to see some potential with this location and need your prayer. For the last 9 years we have been working with MTW and have been in communication with them about our interest. MTW is supportive of our interest and working with us to visit this summer. Keary and I see many ways in which we can care for orphans as a family team in this location. New City is sending a team to Bulawayo in March to learn more about the ongoing reconciliation and orphan ministries. Please pray for us and for wisdom and leading in this area.

Medical Care for Widow and Fatherless - Thank you

 

Thanks to God, you all and your prayers and financial support, many people in need received medical treatment and prescriptions in January 2011. The city of Addis Ababa has many poor areas. Many people can not afford medical treatment. This Project Beneficiary (ACT/MTW/SIM) mother and child w/ HIV have had a full check up and received needed medication. When a patient was waiting for the prescriptions to be filled we prayed for them. We sensed them become very encouraged by our prayers. Thank you again.

Back in the U.S. Thank you -SIM/MTW ACT staff and Friends - God is always amazing me.

Thank you for your prayers. I am home - 5:00 AM typing to you all -- Now that I have slept for several hours, I wanted to let you know I am well and at home now and praising God for you all.

At this point, I wanted to tell you what God did over the 2 week period.

1) provided medical check-ups(Team made up of 3 medical docs, 1 nurse, 2 therapists and 5 counselors in training) and treatment, prescription medication, x-rays ultrasounds etc for more than 500 patients and beneficiaries of ACT. Most people have very limited income -- less than $5 per day is earned by most people in the project and some a lot less than that - so medical care is very difficult to afford.
2) provided Prayer and talk therapy for more than 500 people at length - including many widows, fatherless children and muslims and non-believers.
3) wireless internet device for faster internet for Ethiopian staff member
4) money for mother to see her son several hours away that she has not seen since being rejected and kicked out of her home by her family when she became a believer in Jesus.
5) gift items, shoes and toothpaste and other items to Ethiopia pastors who translated for us and who became dear friends -- they will follow-up with the people who called on Christ with home visits and bible studies. They have limited financial resources and are paid a small amount by their congregations.
6) money gifts to Ethiopia ACT staff, drivers, translators etc.
7) money gift for one pastor for his wedding anniversary that he celebrated while there.
8) shoes to staff worker who only had dress shoes and no sneakers for walking around
9) Balloons, candies and other items to fatherless children after we prayed for them.
10) Extra income for AID /HIV Beneficiaries of ACT - when we ordered our coffee through them -- They roasted and packaged our coffee for you all. 25 1/2 Kilos for you all ($3 a pound compared to $12 to 20 per pound at Starbucks for Sodama Coffee).
11) lunch and fun day for sons of ACT staff member
12) medication and gifts to MTW missionary and family etc.

Finally, we took several photos of families and beneficiaries in Addis with ACT -- We would like to send them photos with the next team going to Addis in February -- Please pray for this -- many home visits revealed their heart for photos of family and friends -- They love to put them on their walls and display them for all to see. For the most part, friends and family are the only things they have -- some homes are 5 feet by 5 feet with a few blankets and a bed -- So sending photos to them is a big Blessing -- If you would like to help with this -- you may mail a check made out to MTW - #16626 -photos on the memo line and I will apply this to the development and handling costs of the photos back to Ethiopia next month. 5744 Bartmer, St. Louis, MO 63112. You can forward this to friends if you want.

Items to donate -- Sunglasses -- at the altitude of 10,000 feet and being near the equator -sunglasses are needed to protect eyes -- many have eye damage --any unwanted sunglasses for children or adults would be appreciated as well. We will send them with the Baltimore Team going in Feb. or later team when they arrive. Send them to same address or give them to me when you see me.

Thank you again for your prayers and support.

By His Grace,

Skip Ritchie.

Scenes in Addis - Counseling, Coffee, Medical Care and Friends

Sheraton Hotel in Addis- Praying for this upcoming week.

I am resting today at the Sheraton doing emails -- This is one of the few places in a city of 5 million with fast and dependable internet service. Our house phone doesn't work and we have no internet service. Last week, we were so busy at the mobile neighborhood clinics and doing home visits that we didn't have much spare time. There is an email being forwarded around that has a photo of me drinking coffee. This is outside of a home of one of the beloved beneficiary near SIM. We visited her and prayed for her. She is positive for HIV. She has what is called non-progressing HIV / AIDS-- she is not taking medications for HIV but is surviving and her CD4 remains good. This is very unusual. The main help of this project is teaching adherence and regular med taking practices which saves their life. Dr. Jason prayed for her for a second time. Last year he visited her. She has a rare case. She has so much joy and welcomed us like family. She served us coffee as a thank you. I drank it, but was a little worried about getting sick. They boil the coffee, but continue to pray. So far all is well with me.

Hello from Ethiopia - Sunday Afternoon

Today, we went to church with Gizaw. The church's name is Akaki Kale Hewot Church in the west side of Addis. They were having a wedding at the end of the service. Gizaw and his sons went with us to lunch. We dropped some of our team at the shops near the Sheraton Hotel. This week was a great week. Several people called on Christ. We treated over 400 people in our mobile medical clinic. Dan Zink is not feeling well. Please pray for him and our team. Next week, we will do more medical clinics, except for Wednesday. TimKat is the holiday which celebrates Jesus' baptism.