Fall 2011 Trip -- 1st Ever CHE Celebration Day!
CHE Day of Celebration
(Thursday 11/3)
Buck Frymier - Director of Health Initiative for NCF
The day began with thunder and lightning around 4AM and the Muslim call to prayer around 5:30AM. It was a travel day—Soddo to Dilla--a trip of around 5-6 hours (lots of road construction from Soddo to Sheshamane) with a stop for lunch in Awassa.
We arrived around 2:30PM in Dilla and were greeted in the KHC Church compound by hundreds of clapping and smiling members of the church and participants in the CHE Day of Celebration.
The CHE Celebration Day was filled with prayer and singing, sharing with each other about their experiences, brief talks on the value and structure of CHE by Werku Golle, head of the KHC Dilla Awraja, and brief talks and words of welcome by National CHE Coordinator Melaku Affere, women’s ministry head Sharon Abebe, CHE master trainers responsible for CHE disability, Mulatu Lakew from the Life Wind Ethiopia Board, Tirus Karuga, Life Wind International Coordinator for all of East Africa (9 countries), Buck Frymier, Health Director for New Covenant Foundation, Mike Stemm president of New Covenant Foundation and Pastor Rick Knoll with Life Center Church in Spokane.
CHE volunteers numbered around 150 and were each given certificates of appreciation and t-shirts with the LWI/E Logo. The 13 master trainers from the 4 Awrajas were also recognized and presented with special certificates of appreciation and nice polo shirts with the LWI/LWE CHE logos—with Tirus and Buck officiating. The certificates and shirts were all very much appreciated. The celebration ended with a wonderful group picture.
This was the first time in 6 years that the master trainers and CHE volunteers were so honored—so it was indeed a day of celebration.
The celebration was followed by an intensive discussion of a 2-year extension agreement for the CHE program in Gedeo, attended by some of the NCF team, Tirus, Buck, Melaku, Ademe, Mulatu, and office manager Elsa—her first trip to the Gedeo region. The meeting went well and much was discussed—all focused on continuing for another 2 years with the 4 Awrajas. Agreements for approval were discussed and copies left for the Awraja leaders to study.
As is often the case in Dilla, the day ended with a wonderful dinner prepared by Hallelujah with the helping hands of husband Werku and others to prepare another wonderful meal—meatballs and gravy, mashed potatoes, boiled carrots, homemade bread and all topped off with Hallelujah's special cake. It was a day to be remembered.
