The Story of Rich

by Casandra Morgan-Loyer

I first noticed Rich when we attended the Beza church services on Sunday. Rich is a boy of eleven, with a warm face and an easy smile and a hint of mischief in his eye. On Sunday morning the team was waiting with tons of other people for the first service to end and the second service to begin. We were standing around chatting and taking pictures, peering over the edge down the eight circular flights to the ground floor. Rich was moving from person to person, hanging out with kids, looking out the window. He seemed to be very much at home. He owned the room in the way that pastors’ kids seem to own the church environments they spend so much of their time in and I assumed he was the son of one of the ministers or praise and worship team members. I also noticed there was something different about him but I couldn’t quite put my finger on it.

On Wednesday afternoon, we attended a home cell group at Beza. These are small groups who meet to encourage one another, discuss the sermon from Sunday and how it can be applied to their lives. The awesome thing about these groups is that they also take care of each other’s needs. If someone needs something, the group pulls together to make sure they get it. So cool. What a God way of doing things. Anyway, we showed up for the group and there was only one other person there --a lovely man from Uganda. The next person to arrive was Rich. He came right in and sat with us, undaunted by joining in a discussion with eight women from America. Of course, he was so completely adorable we wanted to eat him up with a spoon. We gave him candy, which he liked until he was told it had turned his tongue blue. He was a bit concerned about that and wouldn’t actually believe it until I took a picture of his tongue and showed it to him. He got nervous, thought it might stay that way. I had to assure him it wouldn’t. Eventually, other people started to arrive and were able to provide some translation. Rich asked me a few questions like how long I was going to be in Ethiopia and when I thought I might be back. I told him that he looked kind of like my son, Conrad and showed Rich a picture. He smiled at the picture, surprised. He thought Conrad was Ethiopian. We chatted for a while about what sports he liked and Sunday School, a few other random things. I was quite simply taken with Rich. He was so open, bright and engaging. I was away from my kids and missing them and getting to connect with Rich was a total blessing.

Later, we got to hear a little more about Rich’s background. I was right to think Rich is a kid who spends a lot of time at church –but not because his parents are on staff. Turns out, Rich doesn’t live with his parents. We don’t know the full story but we did learn that Rich is a boy from the countryside who came to Addis on his own a few years ago (when he was seven or eight). He worked as a shoe shine boy in the streets and found his way to Beza Church. He was there every time the doors opened and they eventually noticed that he was on his own in the largest city in Ethiopia. The church has taken him in and he splits his time with different families. Breaks my heart to think where he might be if he hadn’t found Beza, breaks my heart more to think what happens to all the kids and orphans who don’t find their way to a safe place.

Rich’s story embodies so much of what being in Ethiopia was like. Even in the midst of heartbreaking circumstances I could see and feel God at work. I could see Him working through people who love Him and have His heartbeat for the most vulnerable. Seeing that kind of love was profound. Pretty much rocked my world.