Treasure Hunters

I will be leading a mission team through Visiting Orphans to Ethiopia and Uganda.  We are leaving this Saturday and will return on July 3rd.  I will be blogging about my time there as we work with children in our Ethiopia Transitional Home, Kids Care and many other wonderful orphanages in both countries.  Much of the money raised through An Orphan's Ticket Home funds our Transitional Home.  I'm excited to go and witness how every donor to OTH has been such a blessing to these amazing children who are waiting for their families to come and bring them home.

You can find out more about our itinerary here.  Our team consists of three 15 year old girls, two couples, 3 single men, and 4 prospective adoptive moms from all over the U.S.  We are all SO pumped!

This morning I was watching the Travel channel, which my TV stays on a lot…and I found myself fixated on this show about a woman who traveled up to 14K above sea level to the top of a mountain in Colorado to find rare quartz and aquamarines…(see above photo) It took her three days to make this journey. I love the West and especially Colorado and I have hiked a similar mountain, so I was so into this show! The woman ended up finding this huge piece of quartz worth up to $25K and it weighed near 50 lbs! She very gingerly dug it out and brushed off the dirt and carried it out. Then, as the credits rolled I realized the title of this show was “Treasure Hunter”.

I knew then and there that God was reminding me of the verse in Isaiah 45, “I will go before you and will level the mountains; I will break down gates of bronze and cut through bars of iron. I will give you the treasures of darkness, riches stored in secret places, so that you may know I am the Lord, the God Israel who summons you by name.”

We are going on a treasure hunt. But this time to Africa. The treasure we seek are the precious hearts of the orphans. The place were God resides. They are the hidden treasures…we are traveling to them…to uncover them and delicately lift them up from their places of despair and allow the Holy Spirit to blow on them, bringing hope and new life. This is our mission…and we are so privileged to be called by God for such a search. We go forth as treasure hunters!
“Change our hearts dear Lord and open our eyes so we can see these treasures that you esteem so highly…We love you and we are here as your jars of clay. Fill us and let us pour ourselves out on this little ones…”

Amanda Clark Lawrence

Director of Develoment, AWA