A tour in Ethiopia in 2006 and again last year launched longtime Amherst resident Lillian Johnson on a journey she never expected.
With $2,000 she received from a Christian-based tour group, she started an orphanage, which includes children who are HIV-positive. There will be a fundraiser next month.
Her travels began as a personal pilgrimage.
“I was going to get information to write a book on Ethiopian history,” said Johnson, 67, who attends the Power of Praise Center in Monroe, a church that has a number of missions abroad.
Christians in the northern Ethiopian town of Aksum have long claimed to have the Ark of the Covenant, and she went there to follow the trail.
“I had felt God was leading me to write a book about the Queen of Ethiopia and the book of Acts, and I needed to know the landscape and architecture for a proper setting,” according to Johnson’s chronology of her travels.
In Aksum, she met local officials and, with the $2,000, the Covenant Aksum Charity Fund Organization was born.
The region has endured 30 years of famine and water shortages.
“It takes $173 a month to support a child in the orphanage,” Johnson said.
The orphanage has 10 residents, and it also supports three more who live elsewhere, Johnson said. The directors include the mayor of Aksum and a local health official.
A luncheon and card party fundraiser will take place from noon to 4 p.m. Aug. 22 at the Clifford Ruritan Club on Fletcher’s Level Road.
Tickets are $20 per person or $80 for a table, and are on sale at Burch-Ogden-Shrader Inc. in Amherst, at the offices of optometrist Robin Ayers in Madison Heights, at Wal-Mart and at Webb’s Sporting Goods.
For information, call (434) 946-5902.
Email
Facebook
Google
Twitter
Favorites
More
Results Loading...