My Dad's family was part of a pioneering group of people to set up college education and modern medicine practices in Ethiopia from about 1964-1974 when communism took over. A lot of the work that these families did remain as a base that would be built on 20 years later in the mid 90s. During the time with communism, the college was shut down, the hospitals barely ran, there were droughts and famine bad enough to catch the attention of the entire world. The church did it's first world wide fast and used the money to set up a dam in Ethiopia. This started what we know of the Humanitarian Center of the church. My Uncle ran into another lady that had grown up with him in Ethiopia and got her in contact with my Dad (Who had been saying that they needed a reunion for a long time). Together, my Dad and Marcia, put together a reunion of the families that served out there during these times. Alot of the parents have already died, but the kids that grew there loved seeing each other again. Covid struck and my parents couldn't come to the reunion, but I took pictures and videos for them.
The group was not able to teach the gospel while there, but they organized the first Ethiopia church branch in their homes. 30 years later, the first convert to the church in the area helped church members take a trip to Ghana to get their endowments out for the first time. Now in 2020, the church organized a Addis Abba, Ethiopia mission for the first time. What a neat heritage to remember.
My Uncle Chris with his friend age group. Harold (dark blue shirt) is actually married to the administrator at my kid's school. We put together that we had that common connection a couple years ago when I was the Parent Organization President.
Someone brought a yearbook that had Kindergarten through High school ages.
Everyone at the reunion.
Just those that lived in Ethiopia.
We took pictures of family groups as well.
Each person/group was offered a chance to give memories or ask questions. I loved hearing the perspective of the whole group when I've grown up hearing my Dad and Grandparents talk about many of these things.
Jer, the best cinematographer. I hurt my shoulder about a week before, and on Saturday morning I couldn't move it. Jer got me to the doctor and on a muscle relaxer. Then he drove me and did the filming at the reunion so that I could take pictures.
My Dad and Mom put together a book from a lot of the pictures that people uploaded onto a shared google drive. Some were very familiar to me because I had scanned and cleaned them up myself. Others I had never seen and it was so fun to see a peek of my family from a friend's perspective.
My Grandma playing with the kids on the swing set.
My family getting off the plane for the first time in Addis Abba
A picnic in Sodara (not quite sure on the spelling). I love that my Grandma is relaxed. In pictures she was never this relaxed, but here she has her arm around my Daddy and it's now my favorite picture of the two of them.
My Uncle Chris was commenting that he was probably mad that they told him to stop playing and come get a picture....
