Today, Scott Oswald and I will join Josiah Carter and Autumn Rupkey from Beza Threads on a nine day adventure to Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. Beza Threads is a mission partner of Ashworth Road that is doing amazing work in helping to end slavery and human trafficking in Ethiopia. If you are unfamiliar with their ministry, you should take the time to check it out at BezaThreads.org.
Below is an email from Josiah to the ministry partners of Beza Threads discussing the work we hope to accomplish while in Ethiopia. Please pray for our travels and our time on the ground in Addis Ababa. Watch our Facebook page and the Beza Threads Facebook page for updates during our trip.
Our Team
Josiah – Accountant by day and Beza Threads founder, director and intern by night. This is my fourth trip to Ethiopia.
Autumn – AmeriCorps member, graphic designer and professional volunteer. Co-founder and Beza Threads board member. This will be Autumn’s fourth trip to Ethiopia.
Brent – Husband, dad to six, pastor, techie (especially Apple gear) and passionate follower of Jesus Christ wherever that may take him. This is his first trip to Ethiopia.
Scott – Home builder to pay the bills and servant to please the soul. This is his first trip to Ethiopia.
Our Work
Take a tour: Our first 1-2 days will be dedicated to visiting each of the programs of our partner organization, Hope for Children in Ethiopia. This includes the programs that we support directly as well as many others. For example, they have a team of cooks that make meals for everyone in their programs. They have 1,200 people to feed 5 days a week! They operate a school for in the poorest area of the city. They run another school for kids younger than 15 that have been rescued from slavery. The tour is one of my favorite parts of the trip as we see how Hope for Children in Ethiopia is changing the city to bring hope and justice.
Face the issue: Beza Threads is centered around fighting injustice. Being halfway around the world, we sometimes get disconnected from the issue. While in Ethiopia, we make it a priority to visit the prostitution district, sneak into a sweat shop, and see the people we are trying to free. These moments bring frustration, anger, and heartbreak. This renews our passion breaking the bonds of slavery and drives us to keep doing what we do for another year.
Collect stories: A big part of our trip is listening to and recording the stories of freedom from the rescued boys and girls, including the girls rescued from forced prostitution and the boys rescued from sweatshops. We get to hear where they came from, the tragic ways they were enslaved, the chance encounter that led to their freedom, and their hopes and dreams for the future. We also talk with the Program Directors to hear about the process of rescuing and rehabilitating, and the stories of victory in their fight against slavery.
Product work: A critical part of the trip is putting in our annual order for scarves and planning for the fall/winter season. I’m especially excited this year because instead of an accountant (me) designing the scarves, we’ve formed a Product Team with members experienced in fashion, photography, and design. They’ve developed some pretty awesome scarves for this year, including our first line of scarves for guys. Not only does the product team design the scarves, but we work on the shipping process, handling of defects, and minor manufacturing process changes. While guy scarves might sound exciting, we are also kicking of our first few leather products! I won’t spoil the surprise, but this is going to be the start of something awesome.
The boring stuff: As with any organization, there are budgets, finances, and other less-exciting items that are important to keep business moving. It’s important to work through these items face to face with our partner organization. Working through a language barrier is hard enough in person, let alone trying to do it all via email!
Best of all: While the stuff above sounds great, truly the best part of the whole trip—hands down—is just getting to hang out with the teens in the programs we support. We share food, play silly games, and try our best to speak the few Amharic words we know. By the end of the trip friendships and closer bonds have been made. In the same manner you’d go out of your way to help a close friend in need, during the next year we know the people we’re supporting. We remember their laughs, smiles and stories as we sell their scarves. Our hard work seems like such a small thing once we meet those we are helping.
We’ve got a lot of work to do, and I’m excited to share our adventure with you over the next 12 days!
Egzi’abher yibarkih! (God bless)
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