Heart's Desire

Hey everyone!

Thanks for visiting my blog! I would love to share with you the journey I am about the begin in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia this summer! God has awakened a passion inside my heart to minister to orphans with an amazing organization called Bethany Christian Services. I will be away from May 31st-Aug.15th and would love to share with you the joys, celebrations, heartaches, trials and beautiful stories of children that God is about to enter into my life.  

God has been so good to allow this opportunity to arise at this time. It has been my prayer, since the age of 14 to be able to work internationally with orphans, placing them into the homes of loving families. It has been quite the adventure these past ten years and He has allowed me to take the first step to venture out to East Africa and be able to live out the dream I have been desiring for so many years.

So...what am I doing??... My dream job :) I am going to be interning with Bethany Christian Services as a social services worker. This includes the logistics of meeting and helping families once they arrive in Addis Ababa and bringing them to their children. What a joy to experience! There is alot of paperwork/procedures that need to be completed, but my job will be to walk through the process with them as they make their adoptions official!! This process is unique as families will experience cultural differences, language barriers and life-changing transitions with their child. Please begin to pray for the families that I will encounter and for the children, as the adoption process can be quite emotionally trying, as they await their approvals.

There are many other aspects as well, such as going to orphanages in the outskirts of Addis Ababa and working with the child sponsorship program (taking their photos, writing about their lives and helping assist them to be sponsored from individuals overseas). Please pray for the orphans who have medical disabilities or other circumstances that may prohibit them from being adopted. Child sponsorships may be the only means of relief and services these children may receive.

I will also hopefully be attending UNICEF meetings and learning more about the children/orphan crisis and needs in Ethiopia and how to best use the resources and abilities of Bethany to reach the many children who are suffering. Please begin to pray that God would open doors and opportunities for Bethany to be used as a vessel to demonstrate God's love for orphans and His desire to care for each one.

I would also love if you could keep the Bethany staff in Addis Ababa in your prayers. I have heard amazing things about Milkiyas Karato, the Bethany Ethiopian Director and Nesibu Woldie, the Director of Yezelalem Minch Orphanage. Pray that God would bless these men tremendously as they pour out their hearts, time and energy into their work with children.  I am very excited to be meeting them! 

My prayer is that your heart will begin to share in the joy of adoption and be aware of the many children who anxiously await families... I pray that God would begin to stir in our hearts and minds the plight of orphans and that our hearts would begin to "break for the things that break the heart of God."

Thanks again for your prayers!! I know that I could not be doing any of this without a solid support of people who are lifting this up in prayer, for that I am so thankful!

In Him,

Kate

*The best email to reach me at is: katey_padden@yahoo.com