A Life Lesson at The Bright Hope School

A 4-time work team has returned to Ethiopia to provide muscle in building The Bright Hope School garden's security wall. This school teaches to the 2100 children whose sick parents suffer from leprosy or AIDS, and seek treatment at the nearby hospital.

The school's sustainable garden is made possible by Children's Hope families and friends and adds fruit, vegetables and eggs to the kids' diet (otherwise, often made up of toast alone, prepared by the school for breakfast).

This weekend, a work team member posted a valuable life lesson to the team's blog:

"Oh, how I missed hauling rocks on my back in a potato sack. Seriously. Today, as far as manual labor goes, that's what we all we did… rocks. Back and forth. We would walk the trail from the pile where our Ethiopian friends would ask, “Sint? (or “How many?”) and we’d tell them "2, 3, 4, or 5" scoops from the shovel (as you can probably imagine by my physique, I routinely asked for 5).

One time on our way to fill up our sacks my friend (and team member), Trecie told me the life motto she had developed. She said she could either choose to look to the left and make her life about that, or she could look to the right and make her life (or day) about that.

As we hiked the path back to the pile that was slowly (very, very slowly) depleting you could look to your left and find a 100 yard hedge of thorn bush lined with trash, dead roots and even a bone or two. Or you could look to your right and take in Bright Hope’s garden brimming with green vegetables shooting up through the dirt, neat rows and freshly watered soil. Trecie said it’s her goal to look right. I like that."

Learn more about the Bright Hope School. www.blog.helpanorphan.org/search/label/Ethiopia%20Bright%20Hope%20School

Read the Mission Team's blog: http://ethiopiablog.journeyweb.net.