Closing Koshe:The Final Chapter

A speCiAl projeCt UpdAte

In 2010, while meeting young girls and boys working in the trash dumps of Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, God spoke something to our hearts. Something that he wanted to use us to do. His precious kids deserved a better platform to succeed in life and we called that platform the "Koshe Project".

After 5 years of telling different chapters of

this story, we are here to share the last one:

the Koshe finale.

When we, as a team, traveled down to Addis to officially close things out with our long term teammate and field workers Melody and Lidi, we had no idea what was waiting for us. After many long talks and processing we realized that this project was actually closing down as an incredible triumph and not a defeat. And what a breath of fresh air it was to close something down because it’s finished, and not because it didn’t work! Hallelujah!

We met with the girls for a few hours and properly explained to them why the project was closing down. We reminded them of the point of the project; to help them not only have an alternative to working in the trash dump, but to have a platform in order to reach higher goals and purpose for their lives. And by golly, it worked! None of the girls have gone back to working in the trash dump! In fact every single one of them is either in school or working in a job and providing not only for themselves but their families. When we ask them what their dreams are for the future, they no longer tell us “to survive” like they did 5 years ago. They now respond with things like “going to college” "becoming a hair dresser", or our favorite “helping other young girls like you guys helped us.”

We closed out the project by telling the girls how proud we are of them and allowing them to share how they were feeling. Would they be mad at us for closing the project? Would they be scared to be back on their own? We had no idea how they were going to feel. One by one they spoke. And what came out of their mouths brought us all to tears. They not only thanked our team, Melody, Lidi and the countless number of people around the globe who have joined in supporting them, but they thanked God. They told us that they not only have a good future ahead of them full of education and opportunity because of this program, but they have a strong relationship with God, and that is something they could not be more grateful for.

They took a chance on a bunch of crazy twenty-somethings and trusted us with their lives. With their families. Their futures. Their hopes. To be honest 90% of the time we faced overwhelming challenges that seemed to big for us to manage. We had never done anything like this before and were no experts in the life of Ethiopian teenage girls… But God knew and he used us anyway.

These girls made it!

We still are so humbled by the fact that God allowed us to not only meet His beautiful children, but work with Him in a plan that would bring them out of trash and into the lives of dignity and honor they were meant to live. And He did not just partner with us, He partnered with every single one of you as well.

Yes You. The faithful missionary who spent years working with this project on the field or back in Germany. You. The devoted prayer warrior who has been praying for this project the past 5 years. You. The church who decided to give money at one of our event nights. You. The 19 year old who thought that your 10 euros wasn’t a lot… well it was. (That's a whole weeks worth of food!) You. The artist that painted portraits of the girls and exhibited them on tour. You. The one who bought that piece of artwork. You. The bands who used your music to raise awareness and finances for this project. You. The moms and dads out there that allowed your kids to go to Ethiopia and serve and supported them all the way. You. YWAM Herrnhut who championed us to start this ministry. You. Every Pocketeer who carried this in your hearts and in your work over the years. You. The ones who believed in us and the call we were answering for these girls. Thank YOU.

Thank you for being part of this victory. For believing in us, in the girls and in God’s hand in all of this. Thank you for fighting with us, and often times for us. We could not have done this without you. A special thanks to Anna, Nathan, Menna, Corey, and Ulla for directly serving this project on the field. And to Melody and Lidi, for seeing it through to the end. You are our heros.

Father, we will never understand why you chose to use us or trust us and we may never get to see the end of all that this story holds, but through it all, we say Thank You.

With deep gratitude and sincere love,

- Pick A Pocket