December 8, 2006

by Alexandra Lopez

Instructor Rosalie Lynn, director of the Basic English Program and advanced writing at the La Sierra University English and Communication Department, taught small groups of students at Operation Rescue in Ethiopia from August 16, 2006 to August 26, 2006. Operation Rescue, which started in 2001, is a partner of UNA-USA’s HERO and a local non-profit organization in Ethiopia that works to provide impoverished children with opportunities for spiritual knowledge, better health, higher education and ultimately, a better life.

Lynn went to northern Ethiopia with e3partners, a short-term mission organization that sends groups to places all over the world orphanage. The pilot site she taught was at Mekele, the capital of Tigre and one of the largest towns in Ethiopia. It is in this town where orphaned and poor children live deprived of educational and support systems.

“I didn’t know anything about Operation Rescue until I arrived in Mekele and met the general manager Getachew Tesfay. He suggested that I spend my time there, which I was delighted to do. He suggested that I teach Bible to small groups of students. This too I was delighted to do,” says Lynn who taught small groups of less than ten students. “I was impressed how many could read and write English. In Ethiopia, they begin to learn English in the 3rd grade. By high school, most of the young people are remarkably fluent.”

The Social Affairs Office assigns the helpless children in the community to the Operation Rescue Educational Center. From orphans, to indigent children, and those abandoned, forced to live on the street, care for the community is provided by Operation Rescue to about 200 children. “This is a safe place for the kids to be when they aren’t in school – the streets are not safe. They get a complete, warm meal every day, extra help in schoolwork in addition to learning to use the computer, and other practical skills. They have a basketball court and are more acquainted with American basketball players than I am. All the boys want bodies like Arnold Schwarzennegger. And they all asked if I knew him,” says Lynn, reflecting on her experience at the center.

“I wanted to go to Ethiopia because I was born there. My parents had gone to Ethiopia as missionaries in 1944, and I hadn’t been back since 1960,” says Lynn on her decision to go and teach at the orphanage. There are no present plans of teaching at Operation Rescue again, but if given the opportunity of going back, Lynn would like to spend at least a month teaching a variety of subjects at Operation Rescue.

For more information on UNA-USA and their HERO campaign, visit: http://www.unausa.org/factsheets
For more information on helping with Operation Rescue through e3partners, visit: http://www.e3partners.org/