Partnering with Compassion

Aaron and Morganne Weeks are missionaries serving with CMF in Ethiopia. Here they share the many ways that Compassion Christian Church has supported them and the ministry there.

Over the past few months our home church, Compassion Christian Church, has sent two separate short-term groups to visit our families and the ministry work here in Ethiopia.

Compassion Christian Church is the church that we, both Morganne and I, grew up attending as kids and they are a major reason why we are now involved in vocational ministry as adults. Starting from a very young age, we not only learned, but saw exampled, that faith is not something that we just believe in, but it is something that we live out. We saw many examples of individuals living out their faith in big and seemingly small ways.  From those who were sent as missionaries to live in jungles, to engineers serving in Sunday school classes. Each one of them were using their gifts (time, talents, resources) to serve God and love others. Because this was the example surrounding us from an early age, all the way through college, we thought this was just the norm and it drew us in and propelled us to want to serve others in the same way.

Now that we are on the mission field, Compassion continues to walk alongside us as we serve together. Over the years, they have sent short-term trips to simply encourage us and remind us that we are not doing this work alone, they have also sent other groups to actively participate in the work that we are doing.

Just this past summer, Compassion sent a group of eight men and women to help our team host a soccer camp for around 75 youth, mostly from a severely underprivileged area of Addis Ababa. This group from Compassion brought supplies, they brought funds, they brought the fun, but also, and most importantly, they brought with them the example that our faith is not something that we just believe, it is something we live out.

At this camp, our team had a few main goals. All the kids would eat well and be full (most of these kids do not eat three meals a day), to have fun and experience new things (warhead candy and zip lines), to hear the truth of the Gospel, and to experience love from us and God. The camp was amazing! The kids ate, had fun, and learned about Jesus, but the most impactful part was getting to love and value these kids in ways that they had not experienced before. God’s love is so gracious and merciful, and we pray for the seeds of this truth that were planted to grow in the hearts of these kids for years to come.

As kids, we were so fortunate to be able to experience the love of God and it changed us and challenged us to want to share that with others. Now as missionaries in Ethiopia, we are so grateful that are able to continue to be supported by those that have gone before us, as we seek to share this gift with others all over the world.