If you really knew me...

The kids are on their mid winter break this week and I was in charge of planning a week’s worth of programs for the kids to attend, according to grade. My idea for the high schoolers came from the MTV show “If you really knew me." A show where a team goes into High schools and ask students to finish the sentence "If you really knew me, you'd know..."

I planned the 2-hour session a little different than how MTV does it. We played five rounds. It started with basic things like, “If you really knew me, you’d know my favorite color is blue.” With each round I gave the kids prompts they could use, they progressively got more personal.

Here are some of the responses…all started with “If you really knew me, you’d know…”

-I am afraid of spiders

-I want to someday repay my parents for everything they provided for me

-I thank God everyday for my health

-I disrespect my mom too much. I’m working on it

-My biggest fear is public speaking

-My biggest fear is dying unmarried

-My relationship with my family is awful

-I wish my dad was still alive

-I feel inferior to almost everyone

-I have no confidence in myself

-I am proud of myself for getting good grades

-I feel closest to my mom

I wrote in an earlier post that self-expression is unheard of here, especially amongst youth. So for the kids to share these things with us was really a big deal for them. I am so grateful for their willingness to be vulnerable. At the end there was a bit of a silence until Goshow started to clap. We all sat and clapped with big grins… this was a big day for the kids, reason to celebrate! These kids are just amazing; they are game changers for Ethiopia. I see so much potential in each of them. Pray for these 7: Freowit, Goshow, Sammy, Dave, Zalelim, Aizlu, and Nati. Please pray for a continued willingness to share in group discussion. After seeing the success we had today, we are planning to do a lot more of these open-share type of exercises.

Love from Addis,

Becca