Members of Faith Chapel’s Billings and Beyond outreach program have been to Ethiopia — nine times — but the most recent 9,000-mile trip, which wrapped up in late October, was a little different.

The first eight times, teams focused on building projects for the New Hope Center for Children and Handicapped, which houses more than 40 orphans, in the small agricultural town of Guder.

This time, 19 people from the church spent two weeks helping to rebuild a church in the larger town of Ambo a few miles to the west.

“We showed up, God was doing something there and we got to join Him in it,” said Dona Kabeary, who went on the two-week journey and works at Faith Chapel.

The group spent Oct. 14-30 in Ambo, an agricultural town of more than 50,000 in southern Ethiopia, putting in a new roof and concrete floor at the Zion Foursquare Church, which was in desperate need of remodeling.

“When I first saw it, I thought it was a garage of some sort with an open bay door,” team member Steve Hovis said. “It’s like they’d taken that open bay and filled it with eucalyptus poles.”

The Rev. Ron Todd, Billings and Beyond’s pastor who also has been on trips to Brazil and the Philippines, had officials from the New Hope orphanage arrange some of the work ahead of time.

“Our challenge and goal was to put that new roof on the church,” he said. “So when we got there, the new walls were already constructed and ready to go for the project immediately.”

Locals spent just as much time, day after day, working on the church with them.

Those who went on the trip came away impressed with how hard they worked.

Todd recalled one woman, Lily, who stood about 5 foot, 3 inches, and weighed no more than 95 pounds. She’d recently earned an associate’s degree in construction and showed a particular zeal for the work.

“She was about half a minute big, but in those first few days she could out-saw all of us with a bow saw on those eucalyptus poles,” Todd said.

Many of the tools and supplies readily available in America can’t be found in most parts of poverty-stricken Ethiopia, so, with the help of dozens of locals, the group had to make do with what was on hand.

Instead of cut, dimensional lumber, they used poles cut from eucalyptus trees as tresses for the roof. Without traditional concrete materials, one Ethiopian man spent 12 hours a day crushing rocks with a sledgehammer and they hauled wet cement in on canvas stretchers covered in tin sheeting.

“Almost everything had to be done by hand,” Hovis said. “It’s like a MacGyver show for two weeks. Sometimes you have to make it up as you go.”

The work at Zion Foursquare never would have happened without Faith Chapel’s ongoing involvement with the New Hope orphanage.

Teams from the church have made eight trips to the town of Guder, about seven miles from Ambo, since 2009.

During their time there, the group has provided financial assistance, worked with the kids and, more importantly, made much-needed additions to the school property.

One of the biggest contributions was the recent construction of a well to provide fresh water to not only the orphanage, but the community of Guder in general.

“It sounds like we’re working at an orphanage, but we’re really transforming the community,” Kabeary said. “The impact of having clean water like that, I don’t think most Americans understand it. It has transformed the whole area of Guder.”

During a trip there in early 2011, Todd met Zion’s pastor. The church is of the same denomination as Faith Chapel and, as the two got to speaking, the need for work at the building came up.

Todd returned to Billings hoping to find a way to help. Through regular communication with the pastor and the efforts of Faith Chapel members and officials, they were able to return in October.

“You find that we believe in and honor the same God,” Todd said. “That’s pretty exciting for a lot of people.”

Team members came back from the trip, as well as the previous ones, impressed with the work ethic of Ethiopians and with a new appreciation for the opportunities life in America offers.

“We live so much in what we’re going to do next and what’s out there next for our families,” Hovis said. “It just seems like they’re so much more grounded in just what’s going on today, living for the day and taking care of the things they need to take care of.”

Kabeary said that despite extreme poverty — Ethiopia is one of the world’s poorest nations — the people there are extremely hospitable.

“I know we have our poverty here in America, but nothing like this,” she said. “But they’ll still bend over backward to do whatever you need them to do.”

Faith Chapel plans to continue its efforts in Ethiopia and hopes to be able to work with Zion Foursquare again. Regardless, Todd said the efforts so far have been more than worth it.

“We get more given back to us in their appreciation for us as well as our appreciation for what they’ve shown us,” he said. “God is all-inclusive of the world, so go ahead and make that application for the rest of your life. I don’t think that’s selfish at all because Jesus asks us to continue to be givers.”

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