Hello and blessings, friends!

God is a great storyteller, isn’t he? He knows we love a great tale with relatable, developing personalities and satisfying endings. We love to struggle along with the characters and cry and rejoice with them. Hasn’t God forever been in the midst of humanity sharing in our stories and, by his grace and love, redeeming us? Perhaps it’s that thread of redemption throughout the Bible that makes it the best selling book of all time.

Psalm 130:7 says, “For with the Lord there is mercy, And with him there is abundant redemption.” He is always drawing his creation back to himself. He has done that with us by redeeming our lives and giving us purpose and value and the best story to tell (Psalm 40, Colossians 3:16).

In the midst of extreme poverty in Ethiopia, he is redeeming: the land, the people, the children and babies. Tucked between stacks of insurmountable statistics of malnourishment, illiteracy, poverty and AIDS are his stories of redemption. We’ve heard the news stories, seen the pictures, felt the hope in the songs of Africa’s children and we’ve decided to sign up for the adventure to hear these stories first-hand this fall. We are traveling to Ethiopia to join in the stories even as they are being told.

We aren’t certain what God is leading us toward, but we are certain of this: we’ll be changed by the stories of God in Ethiopia—and we want to be changed for though our souls have been redeemed, we’ve found ourselves, like the rich young ruler in Matthew’s gospel, going away sad, troubled by this “one thing we lack”. We believe that when we choose to follow Christ, our spirits need the ongoing redemption found smack in the middle of the action of God’s story. We’ll meet some people who need God’s powerful love. We’ll meet others who will share with us a faith more tangible and authentic than we’ve personally known. The setting: one of the poorest countries in the world. The purpose: to find how to become connected to the work God is doing in Ethiopia.

Our story is in progress. This chapter was foreshadowed ten years ago when we met a couple from Ethiopia and stirred by their passion, hoped to someday be part of their ministry. The chapter we’re in now began with an invitation to Angelo to go to Liberia, West Africa, with our friend Chad. The Liberia trip was put on hold, but it got us to pay attention—someday is now! So, we’re both going to Ethiopia to see the home and ministry, friends and co-laborers of the first African we’d ever met, Werku Gole. Who knows what’s next? The plot thickens….

So come with us! Anyone who’s talked to Angelo this year has been asked, “Wanna go to Africa with me?” If you can’t go along with us personally, go with us in your spirits, thoughts and prayers. Hold us up in hands of prayer that God will give us the eyes to see what he has for us there, the love and compassion to respond with his care, and the words to communicate the stories aptly when we return. Like the century-old hymn says, go with us and help us tell “the story of unseen things above, of Jesus and his glory, of Jesus and his love”. It’s an old story, but the best of all because it “satisfies our longings as nothing else can do”.

If you’re interested in knowing more of what we’re doing and who we’ll be seeing in Ethiopia, email us at alymae29@gmail.com and we’ll send out the long version of this letter.

Our trip has a price tag of about $5000.00. If you believe you are to support us in this area that would be wonderful, too. And, if after reading more about the organizations we’re associated with, you may decide to:

* participate in micro-lending, or

* purchase the most meaningful coffee in the world, or

* sponsor an Ethiopian evangelist, or

* help finance a hospital and health training facility, or


* assist in funding a groundbreaking nutritional production company located in Soddo, Ethiopia that will nourish many, many Ethiopian orphans as well as provide a new, sustainable income for farmers and laborers.

If so, let us know and we’ll connect you with the people who can best help you out. Come with us. To Africa.

Many Blessings,

Angelo & Alyssa Santos

“To him who loves us and has freed us from our sins by his blood, and has made us to be a kingdom and priests to serve his God and Father—to him be the glory and the power for ever and ever! Amen.” Revelation 1:5b-6

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