Change This World: Ethiopia

As many of you may know, I worked at my church's kids camp this summer. All summer we asked the kids to bring in spare change to help provide meals to children in Ethiopia. We showed them pictures and videos, and explained the starvation issue taking place in Ethiopia. We explained to our kids that the children there, unlike them, did not get three meals a day that the children in Ethiopia are lucky if they receive just one meal. We also told them that they could help solve this problem, because it only cost 25 cents to package and send a meal to Ethiopia. The kids at our camp got very excited at the opportunity to help change lives, and all summer they brought in all their spare change so that they could make a difference. By the end of the summer our kids had raised enough money to send over 5,000 meals to Ethiopia. That in and of itself was incredible, but then our church paired with other churches in the area teamed up with Change This World to send a total of 250,000 meals to Ethiopia. We held a packaging event at Grey Stone one Sunday where we got to package over 70,000 of those meals ourselves. Well now, it is time to send those meals and I am SOOO excited because I have been blessed with the opportunity to help deliver those meals. On January 2nd, I will join Chris Leader (Our kids camp director), Jamison Berthold (our 3rd & 4th grade kids camp counselor), Trey Fletcher (our 5th & 6th grade kids camp counselor), and some of the team members from Change this World to Ethiopia where we will be delivering those 250,000 meals to some of the local villages. But, we need your support, both through prayer and financial support. To learn more, about what we will be doing and how to aid our mission read this letter that I sent out:


Hello everyone,

I am so excited to inform you that God has blessed me with another incredible opportunity to serve through missions this year in Ethiopia. Through the support from many of you last year, I was able to travel to Haiti and work in some of the local schools and orphanages. God placed a true passion for missions on my heart that week and I believe this trip to Ethiopia is the next step in God’s plan for my life.

I will travel with a small team from Change This World January 2nd -12th (dates are tentative) to Ethiopia, where we will be delivering over 200,000 meals to some of the local churches and villages. I was able to help package over 70,000 of those meals at Grey Stone Baptist Church this summer, and will now get the incredible opportunity to see those meals delivered. Our team will also work with a local Ethiopian pastor in the area to help plant new churches in some of the villages that have not yet been reached with the Gospel. Our goal is to bring more people into the local churches so that they will get the opportunity to hear the Word of God. We will also help end the hunger problems by providing enough meals to feed approximately 15 villages for an entire year. This trip will truly be life-changing for the people of Ethiopia and for our team.

Recent statistics show that 8 million people die each year from a lack of food and nutrition. That means that 16,000 people today, or one person every 3 seconds, will die because they are not receiving adequate nutrition. So what can you do to help? Well, there are two ways you can help our team end this problem. First and most importantly, we need your prayers. We ask that you pray for the people of Ethiopia. Pray that the Lord will begin to work in their lives and open their minds to the message we will be bringing. We also ask that you pray for our team. Pray that the Lord will prepare our hearts and minds; pray for our safety; and, pray that the Lord will bless our time in Ethiopia. Ephesians 6:18-20 says, “And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the saints. Pray also for me, that whenever I open my mouth, words may be given to me so that I will fearlessly make known the mystery of the gospel, for which I am an ambassador in chains. And pray that I may declare it fearlessly, as I should.”

The second way you can help is through financial support. The cost of our trip is $2,700 per person. As a student, I cannot come up with this money on my own. However, I can, and am trusting the Lord to provide the financial contributions that will allow me to take part in this mission trip. I ask that you would prayerfully consider supporting our mission through financial support. Any extra money I receive will go to Change This World to package meals for other countries. If you would like to make a donation, please make a check out to Innovative Mission Opportunities and return it in the enclosed envelope. All checks made out to Innovative Mission opportunites are tax deductible.

If you are unable to contribute financially, I ask that you please continue to pray for our team. It is the support from people like you that make mission trips possible, and allow the great news of Jesus Christ to be spread all over the world. Thank you again, and God Bless!
Love in Christ,
Allyson Hemric

Here is also a link to the news clip taken of our kids raising money:

----> One correction to the news clip, the website is actually www.hope4ethiopia.net

To learn more about Change This World visit their website

If you would like to make a donation please send it to 1219 Infinity Rd Durham, NC 27712