Ethiopia Missions
Virginia Beach UMC Ethiopia Missions was started in June 2009 with a challenge offered in a Sunday School class to step out of the boat and do something to glorify God.

The first team of 11 people traveled to Addis Ababa, Ethiopia in April 2010. There they visited orphanages, a leper colony, tiny remote villages and made life long connections. While in Ethiopia, lives were changed. What began as a mission trip has become a mission focus of Virginia Beach UMC.
 
A second team of 12 visited Ethiopia in June 2011. Seven members of VBUMC and 5 others met in Addis Ababa to once again visit the people in the church in Korah. The team strengthened bonds made the year prior and made news ones. The church in Ethiopia was moved by the fact that VBUMC had not forgotten them and had even come back to visit them with the intent to begin a partnership. The name Korah means "Outcast, or Forsaken" and these people are realizing that they have not been forgotten. We delivered food, soap, coffee and prayers with these people. We also put shoes on the feet of 50 children identified by the church as the most needy, and orphans.
 
The team also traveled by bus about 11 hours outside of the capitol to 2 towns named Nekemte and Gimbie to work in an orphanage and to visit with some orphans. Lives were changed and touched on this adventure. What we found was that God is present in Africa in a way that one can only understand if they can experience it.

Long term the goal is to continue these relationships, build new ones and become full time sponsors to help relieve some of the burden of the church there in Ethiopia.
Another team has been formed and will be traveling in January 2013 to again visit Korah and provide a Christmas feast for the people of the church we have visited often. We will also be laying the ground work to begin the Hope for Korah Daycare located in Korah, in partnership with Hope for Korah and Great Hope Charities. The church has committed to sponsor this daycare for the next 5 years, building relationships, watching children grow and seeing the security found in a relationship with Jesus Christ in the families benefiting from this daycare.

We plan to have teams travel yearly to sustain the relationships and help build others. God has a special plan for the people of Ethiopia, and we are blessed that He allows us to be a part of it.

You can check out more photos in our Photo Gallery.
 
If you would like more information about the mission possibilities or how you can help contact Doug Knapp.
 
“Once our eyes are opened, we can’t pretend we don’t know what to do. God, who weighs our hearts and keeps our souls, knows what we know, and holds us responsible to act.”
Prov. 24:12