Overcoming Abuse, Abandonment and Poverty Have Prepared Me to Help Others

The Blackford family is a large family that has attended Northwest Community Church for years. Most everyone knows at least one Blackford, and usually more. But we knew none.

Nearly a couple of years ago, my daughter made friends with a young lady named Rebekah. She was sweet. (She still is!) We got to know her by having her over to hang out with Celia. They got pretty close because they shared classes on Wed nights and service on Sundays.

Little did we know, that Rebekah had an older brother that was OUR age! His name was Chris and he was married to Nicole. They were the proud parents of 2 kids. And we found ourselves invited to a growth group that was at their home. We enjoyed their company and one thing led to another. One Thursday night, they joined us on a kid free evening to Applebee's. We discovered a common love for the movies, God, our kids, our church... AND REBEKAH! A place was carved in our hearts for Chris and Nicole ever after.

Time is scarce, though it shouldn't be. And time with Chris and Nicole is hard to come by... but we treasure them and enjoy them. I have had great conversations with Nicole and when asked by Jason whom I felt God put on my heart to invite to be a board member, Nicole immediately came to mind. Nicole is so encouraging, full of scripture and truth, and truly lives a life aimed at glorifying our Lord.

So without further adu, please meet Nicole. Below is her bio in her words. She has an amazing testimony and truth and it is conveyed so well. Thank you for your openness and candor. We are so excited that you have agreed to join in leading Carpenter's Kingdom!!!

Nicole Blackford has been married to Chris Blackford for six years and they have a two year old daughter named Jasmin and a five year old son named Elijah. They are both natives to Arizona in the USA. Nicole works as an American Sign Language Interpreter for the nearby public schools. This profession suits her as she is a soft spoken person with the gift of mercy and enjoys helping other people overcome their struggles. Through Christ, she has overcome struggles of her own including abuse, abandonment, and poverty. These trials have paved the way for her to help others with similar struggles.

Please join me in welcoming Nicole! Nicole, feel free to say hello as well!

Water is Well??

I can't expect anyone to get excited about a ministry until they fully understand the problems that the ministry aims to combat. After all, if we were to be putting a community center with free water, showers, and a soccer field into North Scottsdale, I don't think anyone would be over eager to support the cause. It is the needs of the community that will drive the direction of the ministry. Obviously, every aspect of the ministry is to share the love of Jesus Christ. But what tangible means are going to be used to do this?

I hope you have watched the video. I can tell you from my experience, the video does not even begin to the do the problem justice. I stayed in a guest house that was close to the small river which winds through the city. We had clean water at the guest house, but not drinkable. And a block from the guest house was this river. You could tell you were approaching it because there was a stench that could not be mistaken. You see, right next to and all around the guest house were slum shacks, homeless people, and small homes. None of which had any water or sanitation facilities. And then there was a stair case that parted between them down to the river. There were ditches on either side of the stairs and flat bricks that lined the edge of the stairs. People would urinate and defecate while standing on these bricks and then it would run down the hill into the river. The smell was enough to knock a person over. And the stair case went on for at least 100 steps.

The river was small. It wouldn't be called a river in Arizona. It would be a small creek. It was not even close to transparent. It was dark brown. Trash of every kind lined the banks. Remember, there are no trash cans or public waste facilities for the average person. Also, most people can not buy much that comes in packaging so it isn't anything like what it would be like without our trash services in America. None the less, trash lines the water. The original post on this blog, with the woman and children on the bridge, they were above this creek. The little girl that was so sick with a form of dysentery... it is likely from that water.

You see, the capital city of Addis Ababa, Ethiopia has an estimated population of over 3 million people. There are over 13,000 people to one square mile. Only 31% of these people have access to an improved water supply and only 11% have access to sanitation services (toilets and showers). So if only roughly 300,000 of these people have a toilet, where do the rest of them go? Yes. 2,700,000 people are going to the bathroom in the streets, ditches, and the river. And if roughly 1 million have access to pumped water, then were do the other 2 million get their water? THE RIVER!

In Addis, you will find children and adults alike carrying these yellow buckets. They are often tied to one's back. They are carrying a water supply to their "home". Many people, when they can afford it, will purchase a cleaner water supply. But as you can imagine, many more can not even come close to affording it. Diarrheal and water-related diseases are among the principle causes of death in young children in Ethiopia.

Carpenter's Kingdom has water at the top of the priority list. In building a community center, we will be able to provide clean drinking water for people that otherwise would not have it. We can provide septic system based sanitation services, and clean showers. By providing clean drinking water and bathing water for the community, Carpenter's Kingdom will be able to prevent over 75% of the most common diseases afflicting the people in Addis Ababa. WOW! Isn't that staggering?

A well is top priority for Carpenter's Kingdom. Contact has been made with another non-profit organization called Water for Our World. They are considering partnering with the expense of the well and awaiting more information following Jason and my's trip to Ethiopia this winter. We will be nailing down firm numbers based on the land we are allocated.

Please consider joining us in prayer and financial support. Carpenter's Kingdom can not happen without the support of many people. Supporting Carpenter's Kingdom will fill people with clean water and provide opportunities for the indigenous to hear about Jesus Christ. We thank you in advance for your consideration.

British Boy's Perspective

I found this video on YouTube and just loved it. It shows such a true picture of what Addis Ababa is like. It is narrated by a young British boy and I enjoyed his perspective. It spares our eyes any of the harsh realities but does give some true statistics... which I will elaborate on more in the coming posts.

A Sick, But True Confession

Many of you know that my mother was diagnosed with colon cancer last November and moved in with us. It was said at the time, that if she did her part of just getting better, we would take a celebratory trip to California as a family of 9. We would spend time at Disneyland, Sea World, and the beach. And my mom held up her end... so we did it.

The first hotel we stayed at, like all of them, were the cheapest we could find. We would need 2 rooms for the number of people we had traveling and I have to tell you (a sick, but true confession), that one thing I was super excited about before even leaving, was collecting the daily shampoos, lotions, and soaps IN 2 ROOMS! I had set out my big bottle of shampoo and conditioner to take so that I could just keep the free-bee travel sized ones and bring them back for the people in Africa.

So we get to our first room- and I realize that I left the big shampoo and conditioner at home. My mom assures me that it is OK, but I honestly, was quite disappointed. You see, for our free tickets to Disneyland, we did "Care kits for Haiti" right after the big earth quake. I shopped for travel shampoo, lotion, and soap and found that $1 was the price for the shampoo and lotion, and $.33 for the soap. This is expensive. I had even priced filling empty bottles and that was no cheaper. I had to get big shampoo and soap, and fast! Before we used up the priceless travel ones!

Meanwhile, Mom went to the front desk and explained that we had 6 girls in 2 rooms and that 2 small bottles of shampoo accross all of us was simply not going to get us where we needed to be. They unloaded handfuls of shampoo on my mom!

More motivated than ever at the thought of getting to take those shampoo to Africa instead of using it, J and I drove out to find a grocery store. I bought my big bottles and smiled the whole way home, knowing that the handfuls of shampoo just given to us would one day make it to the people in Ethiopia! AWESOME!

So, for the 7 nights and 6 days, I was able to save about 20 bottles of each hygiene product, and not quite as much soap! Not bad for a weeks work! If we think of that in dollars and cents, it is about $43 worth of travel sized goods!

Please consider saving your travel sized toiletries for the people of Ethiopia. We are leaving Dec 28th and will be taking out donated supplies with us at that time.

Also, be sure to check out our Carpenter's Kingdom Face Book page. There is a link on the right side of this blog so you can "like" the page and get updates. Also, please "suggest to friends" the page so we can get the word out on this amazing cause!

P.S. It is so good to be home!

What's In a Name???

Carpenter's Kingdom... Why?

Of all the names we could have chosen, why this one? Well, to be honest, there was a debate between this and "Fisherman's Foundation". But the concept is the same.

Jesus Christ was our Lord and Savior, in flesh. And he had a job. He was a carpenter. He, being our example, came into this world and worked. Of course His mission was much greater than His job, as is the mission of Carpenter's Kingdom. But the premises is this, that in order for the community of Addis Ababa to truly reform, it must be modeled off the right example. Our Carpenter, our Jesus, is that example. And working an honest job, must be a part of the mission strategy.

In Addis Ababa, the unemployment rate is over 50%. Not because the Ethiopian people are lazy or unwilling to work, but simply because there is little industry or demand for work. Have you ever been without work? Did you struggle with how to use your time? Did you struggle with your esteem? Were your family finances unbearable? Now imagine being unemployed with no unemployment and no welfare? In a place where your family is too poor to take you in or offer you a hand.

In creating business in Ethiopia, Carpenter's Kingdom is creating jobs and providing for families. And the profit, above the wages, funds the community center that feeds into the needs of the local people. It is in essence "providing a fishing pole instead of feeding them fish".

So what is in the name? It is the model that Jesus Christ laid before us in which we aim to follow in the ministry plan for Ethiopia. Please pray for God's work in Ethiopia through Carpenter's Kingdom. We appreciate you.

Imagine This...

In a city where the air, the streets, the water, and the people are dirty by lack of options... imagine this.

Imagine a place where the gates open up and you are greeted with love by a gentleman at the gate. You are welcomed, just as you are, without judgement. You enter uncertain of what you will find. A large, grass soccer field immediately catches your eye. It is level, green, clean and fresh looking. Children are being taught soccer skills by elders within the community and are smiling as they struggle to master their new skills. You venture further and find a locker room. You have never seen anything like this before. In your home, you have no running water. No toilet. No shower. In this locker room are three showers just for women, and the locker room next door has 3 just for men! You are overjoyed. You see shampoo and soap dispensers and signs posted to explain how you can help conserve water while still getting clean. This is the first shower you have ever had. You normally sponge bathe in a pail of warm water every 3-4 days, whenever your sister hauls a new jug of water on her back to your home. After your shower, you explore more. You see that their is a library. In this library are hundreds of books in both English and the local language of Amharic. You can read neither, though you speak fluent Amharic, because you could not continue with your education past 1st grade. You had to help your family gather wood to sell in order to gain money for meals. You pick up a book, and thumb through the pages. You even check it out, with the hopes you can find a friend to help read it to you.

The director of the center finds you exiting the library and introduces himself. He seems so nice, so you decide to tell him your name, though you are usually untrusting of strangers. He invites you to a class they are hosting in the classroom facilities tomorrow night. They will be teaching about how to professionally style hair. This would be a great skill for you to have, considering you are still just collecting scrap wood to sell and it is an unreliable income. You decide to come back tomorrow night.

When you return, you are happy to see the same director. He recognizes you, warmly. You feel safe. You feel clean. You feel un-judged... and the director seems to have taken a personal interest in you. He invites you to hear him preach on Sunday morning, and not wanting to disappoint your new friend, you agree to come.

Sunday comes and you once again go through the gates. The soccer field is missing the goals, and instead, a stage has been moved to one side of the field. People are all around talking and mingling. You feel out of place because though most of these people have noticed you on the streets, no one has really taken an interest in knowing your name. But today it is different. The director locks eyes with you and a smile comes over his face. He comes to you and introduces you to a few people from the congregation that warmly, and truly, seem to want to get to know you. The sermon talks about a man named Jesus. You have heard of him before, but thought he was just some guy. Today, you hear he is God. Though you hear it, you are unsure if it is true. You agree to consider it.

In the coming weeks and months you make friends, true friends at this center. They help you get a job braiding hair and you are able to help feed your family and have even purchased a cot to sleep on instead of the ground. You frequent the center to bathe, and they have even started a meal program once a week. They have taught you about nutrition and you are excited to sit down to a well balanced meal when it is offered. You considered Jesus, and through His love, have grown to accept Him as your Lord. Life is still hard, but you don't feel alone. You have your Lord, your new friends, and the support of the center. As a matter of fact, you now are learning to read and tutoring young children in the community center library three days a week....

Imagine a place where friendship is free to all. Water is clean. Love leads. Imagine a place where the health of the people is addressed. A place where a career can be built. Imagine a place where people come to receive Jesus Christ. A place for education. A place for safety. Imagine... Carpenter's Kingdom.

Carpenter's Kingdom Addis will receive funds from small business projects and US donors alike. This project will aim to provide the community with a self sufficient, self funding community center that will meet the medical, educational, spiritual, social, nutritional, and economic needs of the community. I was once asked, " Is anything you do over there really going to make a difference to the people?" My answer is a simple, " Nothing I do can or will do will truly make a difference, but whatever God chooses to do through me will make an eternal difference for the people and a practical daily difference as well." Please, consider joining Carpenter's Kingdom to provide a refuge for the people of Addis. We need your prayers, donations, and support.

Jason and I will be traveling the end of 2010 to firm up both the business plan I posted yesterday and the community center plan. The filing for the non-profit status has already begun in the US and once it is completed, we will begin the filing in Ethiopia as well. Beki has met with experienced non-profit directors in preparation for the project and seeks their counsel along the way. He is also enrolled in a seminary school within Addis and pursuing further knowledge of the Bible.

Sign up to follow our blog to learn more as this project progresses! You can make a difference that truly transforms a community from the inside out.

Driving... the Ministry.

Jason and I went to Ethiopia to serve in an orphanage called Hope for the Hopeless and teach about Jesus at vacation Bible school. The experience was like none other and our hearts have been imprinted with the individual face of each child. They touched us. We touched them. And the staff was just incredible and Fekadu, the director, is consider amongst our dearest of friends.

Through this experience, we were required to get a private car and driver. One orphanage was in the city, the other in the country. We needed to be able to get to both and we needed a driver who could act as a translator from us to the children as well. God gave us Beki.

Bereket is his family given name, but most foreigners can not pronounce it, so he goes by Beki ( said like Bicki, not Becky). Though our qualifications of the driver were clearly laid out before our arrival, Beki did not know he was going to also be a translator. He also did not know that he would be working 12 hour days for 10 days straight. We assumed he knew the role he was hired for, and did not learn until days later that we were much more than he had bargained for! Yet, he was overjoyed to be serving along side "Protestant" Christians. (We are actually non-denominational Christians but in Ethiopia, all true Christian faiths are lumped together as "Protestant". The majority of the people in Addis are either Muslim or Costic Orthodox.)

Anyway, I could type all day about the man that Beki is... but for your sake, I will sum it up. Beki was truly thirsty for God's truths. Beki would have talked about the Bible and asked biblical questions every moment we were not teaching if he could have. And we fell in love with Beki in a way we could have never expected. God tied our hearts together and when we left, I wept. I was truly sad to part from a man I now considered a brother. We vowed to one another to keep in touch, and Beki has been an equal pursuer of that promise. A few months after we returned to the states, Beki quit his job as a driver and got a job at a non-profit reaching out to the country side villages with medical assistance.

Over the last 2 years, Beki has saved money and attempted to come to the US. His request for a travel visa was denied. And some time later, after much prayer, we offered to send Beki to a seminary school to truly study the Bible he loves and to pursue his desire to become an evangelist.

Beki prayed and considered our offer. He sought out information from schools and I sent him information from one I had researched online. He decided he wanted to give up his job and further his education and knowledge of our Lord... but did not want us to pay for it if there was any way he could do it for himself. This was not out of pride, as it may sound. It was out of concern for us and the money we have already committed monthly to the children in Ethiopia. He did not want to further burden us financially.

Beki revealed what was his plan for his future before feeling so convicted about leaving it all behind for ministry. Beki had saved a substantial amount of money and was continuing to do so (all while helping his sister and parents out monthly with his wages, too). He wanted to save up enough to open a country side taxi business. The business would generate enough revenue to pursue his higher education and allow the financial freedom to become an evangelist, all said while throwing in the hopes that God would provide him a wife and child when he wasn't working so hard to save any longer. Now, his savings plan had been cut short in order to fast track his call to seminary school. He was considering a bank loan to purchase the car and wanted to know if I felt taking on that debt would be a beneficial idea. Debt is uncommon in Ethiopia and a very scary idea... not to mention personal views on accruing debt.

The light bulbs went on, for both Jason and I in that moment. Jason had taken a missions class that semester in school. He had learned about a "community development" approach to ministry and had felt that pouring countless dollars into Ethiopia was not a solution but that community development BY ETHIOPIANS and FOR MINISTRY was the real key to long term, loving change within the country. We just couldn't figure out the "how" to develop a country with so little industry or business.... But God told us that BEKI was the how.

We prayed with excitement, having already heard the Lord SCREAM at us with this realization. We pushed the excitement down, and asked all the really hard questions. How? How much? Risks? Profit numbers? Fixed expense? Variable expense? Etc... Was this feasible? Would Beki see the vision that God had given us and embrace it or did Beki want to keep this idea and business for himself?? Would he be willing to give it all to the ministry if God called him to? Even his savings?

In time, we approached Beki with all God had laid on our hearts. Would Beki think the country side taxi business would be a way to build a ministry? Would he be willing to give the profits of the business away to the people of Ethiopia and the kingdom? YES! An overwhelming, YES! He had saved 50% of what was needed to buy the car, and was even willing to put that into the ministry... never personally gaining from a dollar of profit.

Now many people have told tales of people in impoverished nations working with Americans for causes... while putting their open hand out through the process. This was just the opposite. God spoke to Beki the same way He spoke to us. Beki was excited and honored to have such a part of a self sustaining ministry within his country of suffering. Our relationship was about to take on a whole new dimension. We were now more than friends, more than extended family, we were ministry partners! So what would the ministry project actually look like??

New Beginnings...

There are truly very few events in life that we would consider life altering... among them things like weddings, graduations, pregnancies and deliveries, the day we accept Christ. Of course, there are unpleasant days we can also consider life altering such as deaths, divorces, disease, and betrayals. For me, there was a different kind of day that my life changed as well. Of course, I had my wedding, my children, my share of loss and grief along the way as well which all shaped me and molded me, but it was the first day I was in Ethiopia in 2008 that really altered my direction and how I heard the Lord speak into my life. When searching for sobriety, a user says that "rock bottom" is that wake up call. Being in a pit of pure desperation with no where else to turn was just what "they" needed. I suppose this was not all that unsimilar. I was no user. I was an ordinary house wife with a love for the Lord, my husband, my family, my church, my friends... taken to Ethiopia purely by "chance" as a mere casual aquaintance (at the time) was going to adopt her child and needed a traveling companion. No need for a bottom, no need for reform. Only looking to help our a "friend" and gain a worldly experience in the process. But God needed me for more and it became apparent the first day. No rock bottom was needed for me to open my eyes to the truths of my world.

The first morning I awoke with a need for adventure. My friend and I were exhausted from traveling for days on our journey to the capital city of Ethiopia, known as Addis Ababa. After a night of odd and loud music from a neighborhood Costic church, we were not much refreshed but still eager to explore. We pushed open the heavy steel gate of our guest house to find an unpaved street lined with "houses" on both sides. The houses were made of mud mostly, lacked plumbing and sewage, had propped tin in place on sides and/or ceilings and would be considered less than inhabitable in the United States. It was a bit to take in, yet we pressed on.

We felt watched by everyone whom saw us. Two unusually white women with backpacks sticks out a bit in Addis. We didn't know how to meet their glares. She would smile or avoid eye contact. We would learn in time.

We rounded a corner to find a paved street. A small overpass had a muddy and dreadfully smelling little dribble of a river running under it and on that pass was "them", the "thing" that God used to change me. Look again at the picture in this post. See the woman breast feeding her babies... look at those children again. They are homeless. We were on the streets just as the sun came up and there, sitting on that little bridge-like sidewalk, were these three lovely people. We stopped and pulled left over bread from our bag and asked in our clearly foreign English if we could give them to the woman and child? She didn't understand our words but did understand we wanted to give her food. She readily accepted. Her oldest daughter looked up to us with an eager smile and the biggest, boldest eyes. They were happy in the moment. Silently, I said a prayer for them. My heart was shattered at the sight of it all... So beautiful were the woman and the babies and yet stuck in dirt with no bed to lye on. My stomach turned from emotion which was compounded by the stench of feces in the air. Wanting to help, we wanted to linger, and yet we pressed on.

More homeless children and people were around the streets. Some slept tucked against walls in groups, right on the ground. And it was all too much. It was dirty. It was stinky. And we had found the business district on a main thurough. How could a place truly be like this? I found my self working to focus and we decided to head back to process our walk and begin the necessary work of the day for the adoption we were there for.

My thoughts of the mother and children could not be shook through out the walk. We had to pass by them in order to avoid getting lost on our way back to the guest house. I wanted to see them again, but dreaded it all the same. As we walked up to them, for the second time, we reached our hands out to the oldest child which could not have been 2 years of age. Then, we realized, she was preparing to have a bowel movement on the sidewalk. Pants down she did her "thing". It did not take a doctor or mind reader to know what we knew in that moment. This child was deathly ill. She likely had disintary from a lack of a clean water supply. My friend and I were stunned. Hopeless. Not knowing what to do.

We had to walk on, trying to disguise our shock and horror, because we did not know anyone, anything, or even how to communicate. What could we do but pray in silence as we walked on. We vowed to try and find them once we had a translator and get the child to a clinic, but God didn't pave a path for that. We never saw them again, despite our efforts in looking.

So it was then, in that moment, that I knew SOMETHING had to be done for the people of Ethiopia. Over the 10 days in country, we learned that the poverty, disease, and famine of Ethiopia that we American's know Ethiopia for is only a very small part of Ethiopia. Ethiopian people are generous, kind, loving, warm people with a pride for the country that they suffer within. The problems within the country are nearly countless, but the CAUSE is great. The people need evangelized to know the truth of Christ and the love He has to share. The people need educated academically, medically, spiritually, environmentally, and technologically. The people need empowered to own their own change for their future. They need to be given the tools for success and direction and the responsibility to create a different kind of legacy for their country.

At the time, I didn't know what could be done to help the people of this great nation. I didn't know "how" only that it must be done. I felt a burden so strong that I had to return 1 year later with my husband. Now he has the same burden and together, we are working with locals in Ethiopia to evangelize, educate, and empower the people of Ethiopia. Won't you join us in this cause??