Charis Around the World

Tidbits From Ebony

Reflections on Ebony:
The Roses are Blooming in K-town
by Elizabeth Carmichael's Mother

Hello Charis Friends and Family.  I am your dear Elizabeth Charmichael's mother and have recently been blessed to travel to Ebony to be with my daughter.   I didn't travel alone, Elizabeth's sister accompanied me and it was a family reunion!  As we flew over the high mountains and deep green valleys on our approach to Ebony, my heart was filled with wonder at the beauty below me.  It was also filled with trepidation and fear.  While I longed to spend time with my daughter, to meet her staff, her team, her friends…to just enjoy being with her and hope to bless her just a little with our presence – while I longed for all of that, I was also consumed with fear of the place.  Fear that I would do something wrong.  Fear of the “bad guys.”  Just plain fear.

My fears began to abate as soon as I saw my daughter.  She is worth every ounce of whatever it took – whatever it would take – to be there with her.  God began to speak peace into my heart from that moment on.  Peace as I sat on toshaks in the homes of Ebony families and was fed copious amounts of delicious food, tea, friendship, and hospitality.  Peace as I walked through a team project –the work of her friend’s heart, for people she loved more than life, now the work of other’s hearts. Peace as I sat listening to my daughter’s staff sharing stories and proverbs from their deep, rich cultural heritage.  Peace as I prayed with my daughter’s team – especially the sweet woman who has lived and worked among the Pushpin's for more than 20 years.  Peace as I listened to workers from throughout Europe, the US, Australia, and elsewhere talk about their work in Ebony, talk about their heart for Community Development, talk about their love for the people of Ebony.  People who pour out their lives daily bringing hope to the hopeless.  Peace.


My fears continued to subside as I witnessed the beauty of K-town.  Now be honest, beauty isn’t what you think of when you think of Ebony, is it?  But there is much beauty to be found there.  Beauty in the strength and resiliency of a people subjected to more than 30 years of war, 50 years of drought and famine.  Beauty in witnessing a father’s love for his daughter.  The beauty found in a wrinkled old lady as she shares her fears of traveling to America, her terror that the “bad guys” will return, and her humor in discussing her day to day life and struggles. The beauty of a widow who has opened her home to a group of women so that they can learn how to better bring health to their village. The beauty of a teacher as she teaches those women about basic hygiene needed to avoid parasitic worms.  In the strength of that widow, who climbs a mountain every day in search of sticks that she bundles and sells for fire wood in order to provide shelter and food for her family – there is beauty.  The incredible beauty of girls walking to school arm in arm with their white chadors dancing in the breeze.  The beauty of children learning to read in a country which is 80% illiterate.

The roses are blooming in K-town.  They fill the medians of the dusty, bumpy streets. They fill the walled gardens, the demonstration garden, and the rebuilt palaces of times gone by.  The roses are blooming in K-town, and they speak peace, beauty, strength, courage, and hope.

God made it abundantly clear to me that He has not forsaken this place.  He is alive and active in K-town.  Life here is hard, incredibly hard.  Life here hurts.  Heartache and brokenness abound.  Working here requires a love that comes from beyond oneself, beyond one’s ability to love.  As a mom, I can’t provide safety for my beloved daughter.  I cannot ease her heartache, nor erase the losses she has experienced here.  I can’t provide the strength or courage that she must have in order to get out of bed every morning and pour out her life to the people here.  But there is One who can. And He does.

Our International Charis Family
Your stories from around the world touch us and we pray for your safety.
Thanks, Love and Blessings to every one of you!

 'Behold, I will bring them from the north country, And gather them from the ends of the earth,
 Among  them the blind and the lame, The woman with child and The one who labors with child,  together,
 A great throng shall return there...And My people shall be satisfied with My goodness, says the LORD.'
 Jeremiah 31:8, 14~~~
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June 2011