Do all roads lead to Ethiopia??

Ethiopia.  All images of Ethiopia from my childhood bring up ideads of starving children with bloated bellies and flies swarming their hollow faces.  Ugly, grotesque, cruel - those are words that I might have used to describe this forbidden nation that plagued the news of the 1980's.  However, for some reason, this country continues to make headlines in my life even now.  Does God have some invisible thread connecting us to Ethiopia - who knows - only HE does and I have to remember that His ways are not our own.  In the last few months and in the weeks to come - we have 1 family we know who is taking a mission trip to Ethiopia in Feb, one man we know traveling in a few days to scope out the orphan situation and discover ways to help, another family we are acquainted with has adopted a baby from there, our pastor and his wife announced this week that they are adopting a baby from Ethipia, another dear family from Cape announced their Ethiopian adoption, I was sent a link to a wonderful (yet, heartbreaking) documentary made by a young man traveling to the city of Addis Ababa and showcasing the village of Korah, and I'm reading a book right now which gives a wealth of information on the plight of the orphan in Africa.  It makes us wander what the future holds.........................all I do know is that there is a lost and dying world out there.  As we approach 2011 - I encourage all of us to find ways to pray, give, help, serve, love.