The John-Henry Westen Show - This Homeschooling Catholic Mom of 12 Serves 50k People in Ethiopia

00:00:00.000 I can't feed myself and feed my child, and I can't go to work with a child on my back. 0.81

00:00:05.880 So we started a daycare program, and we would have to explain in detail to these moms what daycare is, 1.00

00:00:13.920 because what we realized about two years after starting the program was that we had started the first infant daycare in the entire country of Ethiopia.

00:00:20.860 Hey, my friends, do you know that Ethiopia is one of the only countries on Earth that doesn't actually have like a 919 number,

00:00:34.820 an emergency number for people to call when there's something gravely wrong?

00:00:38.580 Well, one was just started.

00:00:40.000 It was started by a pro-life activist, a beautiful Catholic mom, mom of 12 children, 8 biological children, and 4 adopted.

00:00:51.900 And she's doing amazing work in Ethiopia.

00:00:55.780 You're going to get to meet her right now.

00:00:57.580 Stay tuned to this episode of The John Henry Weston Show.

00:01:01.660 Hey, my friends, are you looking to see Fr. James Altman?

00:01:04.480 I sure am, and I'm going to see him.

00:01:06.120 June 20th through 22nd at the Coalition for Canceled Priests Conference right near Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

00:01:12.660 You'll be able to hear from myself, also from Dr. Janet Smith and Michael Hichborn, and many more.

00:01:18.860 Go to the Canceled Priests website at cancelledpriests.org to sign up right now before all the tickets are gone.

00:01:26.280 We'll see you in Wisconsin.

00:01:30.440 Marcy Erickson, welcome to the program.

00:01:33.000 Thank you, John Henry. It's such an honor to be with you.

00:01:35.040 Let's begin, as we always do, with the sign of the cross.

00:01:38.940 In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. Amen.

00:01:45.700 Marcy, I've been looking forward to doing this for a long time.

00:01:47.960 We've stumbled a few times when we've tried before, but praise God we're able to do this now.

00:01:54.100 I think I know a lot about you already.

00:01:57.620 I need everybody to know about you as well.

00:02:00.880 Tell us how you got to this.

00:02:02.640 You're doing amazing work there in Ethiopia, but I want the backstory first.

00:02:08.000 How did you get there?

00:02:09.600 Where did this come from?

00:02:11.820 So I was born and raised in Naples, Florida.

00:02:14.100 And when I was a senior in high school, I prayed asking God what he wanted me to do with my life.

00:02:20.780 I actually said a very specific prayer.

00:02:22.460 I said, would you like me to become a religious sister or to go to college?

00:02:27.240 And I really heard God say, neither.

00:02:29.100 I want you to be a missionary.

00:02:30.060 Now, at that point, I had never met a Catholic lay missionary.

00:02:36.480 I just kind of thought in my head I saw Africa and knew that it meant serving the Lord and serving the poorest people in the ways that I could help reach them.

00:02:48.440 And so at 18 years old, I became a missionary full time.

00:02:53.960 I started first in Guatemala and then went to Ethiopia for the first time.

00:02:59.220 And a little bit of my backstory, though, is that, you know, there's many people that say that their family bleeds military.

00:03:08.340 For example, everyone is military.

00:03:10.780 There's generations of military.

00:03:12.380 My family is like that with pro-life.

00:03:14.260 So my mom helped start the first pregnancy center in our area.

00:03:22.300 And I think it was one of 13 that started in the state at that time in 74, I believe it was.

00:03:29.880 They just celebrated their 50 years.

00:03:32.220 And then my mom went on to start Sunlight Home, which is a home for pregnant unwed mothers here in Collier County. 1.00

00:03:38.080 And during that time, I mean, one of my oldest, earliest memories was being about two or three years old, sitting in a stroller and being pushed back and forth on a sidewalk.

00:03:47.960 And I remember it very clearly because I was giving my mom a hard time because I wanted to leave and go home.

00:03:53.680 And she was telling me to be quiet.

00:03:55.160 And they were praying outside of Planned Parenthood.

00:03:57.400 And I very clearly remember the walls of Planned Parenthood painted with beautiful people holding hands and children.

00:04:03.900 And I couldn't understand why you would be praying outside of a place that had these beautiful paintings that were so welcoming.

00:04:10.220 And we know now, of course, the trick and how the devil works through Planned Parenthood.

00:04:17.020 And so it was just interesting.

00:04:19.260 That was my earliest memory.

00:04:20.560 And then starting at age 13, I joined a pro-life youth group.

00:04:25.200 I would go to the March for Life every year and participate in volunteering at nursing homes and different things like that.

00:04:32.540 And so I've been to the March for Life about 13 times, starting from that early age.

00:04:38.460 And was able to actually be in the National Right to Life Committee.

00:04:45.980 I was for Teens for Life as a teenager.

00:04:50.480 And so then at 18, I left and everything changed when you go from Naples, Florida to Ethiopia. 1.00

00:05:01.180 Indeed.

00:05:02.500 It's a beautiful, you know, trajectory.

00:05:07.360 If you don't mind backing up for one second, because that's a very powerful faith life to tell our Lord, do you want me to be a nun or what?

00:05:21.420 Right away, you had that openness to our Lord.

00:05:25.440 Where did that come from?

00:05:26.800 Where is this strong faith?

00:05:28.080 That's pretty unique.

00:05:29.420 Well, I definitely have praying parents, especially a mom who basically has attended daily mass for years and years and years.

00:05:39.320 And she always prayed for God to bring the right people into my life.

00:05:43.780 And especially when I was a teenager and a bit rebellious, a bit, I was always very strong-willed growing up.

00:05:53.260 You know, she just prayed for God to bring me the right people.

00:05:56.220 And at that point, I had people coming to me quite often saying, you should consider religious life.

00:06:03.040 And I was 17 between, I would say between the age of 16, 17, and then 18, they would say that, priests would say that, other people would say that.

00:06:14.480 And so that's where that specific prayer came from.

00:06:17.060 But it was a long, difficult road to get to there.

00:06:23.480 In high school, I had a very tumultuous experience.

00:06:30.560 I had a dear friend who I had met, and we had planned to marry, and he ended up passing away when I was 16 years old.

00:06:41.920 He died of cancer.

00:06:42.860 But he was the one that really pulled me into the faith and taught me so many different things and then led me to, introduced me to, who became a person who became my best friend and her father became a mentor for me and a leader.

00:07:01.320 And that is where my life turned around, if you could say that.

00:07:06.760 But I was raised in the church.

00:07:08.980 You know, my mom has always been so devoted.

00:07:11.800 And I think one thing never changed is when I grew up and became more, let's say, in difficult places, maybe a little bit more rebellious.

00:07:25.640 I always knew pro-life was the most important.

00:07:30.200 Like I just, you know, and now I know why, because God is first, right?

00:07:35.040 And he is the one that gave us life.

00:07:37.220 But at that point, that was never going to waver for me.

00:07:42.800 Beautiful.

00:07:44.120 Okay.

00:07:44.660 So here you are, a young lady, in fact, very young still, in Ethiopia.

00:07:50.740 What are you doing there?

00:07:51.780 And how did that go down?

00:07:53.620 So I, yeah, I applied to different mission organizations back in the day when you applied by mail and looked things up, you know, through catalogs.

00:08:06.820 And to be honest, no one accepted me, really.

00:08:12.000 I mean, no one wanted an 18-year-old kid to come and help volunteer.

00:08:16.220 I wasn't asking for pay or anything like that.

00:08:19.280 But I ended up being accepted to one organization that had places in 86 different countries throughout the world at the time.

00:08:27.580 And I just said, send me somewhere in Africa. 0.98

00:08:29.620 And they sent me to Ethiopia.

00:08:32.000 And I was teaching English at a school, a local Catholic school.

00:08:38.000 I had about 300 students.

00:08:40.480 I had absolutely no teaching experience.

00:08:43.060 But it was an adventure every day.

00:08:45.940 I had students from ages three up to middle-aged adults.

00:08:49.320 I actually was teaching all the teachers as well because they really wanted English in this area is very important because once you get to grade eight, everything switches from their native language to English.

00:09:01.140 And so, all of a sudden, they have all their textbooks in English, all their teachers are speaking English, all their tests.

00:09:08.240 And so, they want to make sure these children and even adults have a foundation of English.

00:09:13.540 And so, it was quite an adventure.

00:09:15.040 But at the same time, it was in the middle of a five-year famine.

00:09:20.000 And every day, we had starving babies that were brought to the gate.

00:09:26.460 And it was so challenging and so traumatic.

00:09:32.720 I mean, to be honest, just hundreds and hundreds of these babies that I never thought I would see face-to-face.

00:09:41.020 And one experience after the next of children not surviving.

00:09:46.980 Even some of my students that were healthy, I would say, oh, where is so-and-so today?

00:09:52.340 And they'd say, oh, she died last night.

00:09:54.580 And it was just like, I was quite, you know, really almost broken by the experience of just seeing the heartache that these people endure day in and day out.

00:10:11.340 And for that reason, I really thought God was not going to bring me back to Ethiopia.

00:10:16.520 Because I thought, who can do this life?

00:10:19.980 Who can endure this?

00:10:21.760 But I knew God was calling me to be a missionary for life.

00:10:24.440 So, when I came back after my first year in Ethiopia, I went to college for a few years and knew that God was calling me for life to be a missionary.

00:10:34.980 And I couldn't change that.

00:10:37.860 And I didn't want to change that.

00:10:39.260 But I thought, for sure, he's not calling me to Ethiopia.

00:10:42.880 And so, I went to many other countries in Africa.

00:10:45.980 And God blessed me in every place that I went.

00:10:48.820 I would meet someone and they'd say, come work for my mission or my church or my school in this area of another country.

00:10:55.980 And I would just travel by bus and volunteer in all these different locations.

00:10:59.900 And five years later, I wanted to go back to Ethiopia just to visit my former students and see how they were doing.

00:11:09.040 And I had even this fear of going back because I thought, how many of them are not alive anymore after five years?

00:11:17.520 And I went back and visited my former students and saw many of them.

00:11:21.880 And some of them had passed, sadly, tragically.

00:11:25.600 And at that point, God made it very clear that he wanted me in Ethiopia.

00:11:33.580 And I was in touch with an organization in the capital city, Addis Ababa, that worked with street children.

00:11:40.540 And they suggested I reach out to our local bishop.

00:11:46.340 And I did.

00:11:48.400 I sent an email to him at that point.

00:11:51.260 And he responded to me like almost immediately.

00:11:55.720 And apparently, he was in Rome in a big meeting.

00:11:58.980 And somehow he saw this email come through.

00:12:01.620 And he had never heard of anyone wanting to live in Ethiopia.

00:12:06.260 And at this point, because of the, to backtrack a little bit, the first year that I was in Ethiopia, there were babies that were abandoned quite often.

00:12:15.880 And so at this point, I felt like my calling was to adopt and foster care for as many children as I could personally take on.

00:12:25.700 And so that's what I had described in this email to, to the bishop was that I'm planning to live in Ethiopia.

00:12:33.260 I want to foster and adopt as many children as I can personally take on and just do my best to raise them in their culture.

00:12:38.440 And so he had never heard of anyone wanting to do this.

00:12:41.720 So he responded right away, put me in touch with a priest that I met with, who told me they really needed help in this city called Bahadur.

00:12:51.480 So I decided to make a three-day trip up to Bahadur to just see, you know, where the Lord was leading and to see what it was like and experience the area.

00:13:04.240 And by the way, that priest that had told me to come to Bahadur, which is where I did end up settling, is now our bishop.

00:13:16.460 That's great.

00:13:18.100 Marcy, let me, let me stop you for a second. 0.91

00:13:20.860 You mentioned that the Lord really made it clear he wanted you to stay in Ethiopia.

00:13:26.940 Can you tell us about that?

00:13:28.240 What, what does that look like?

00:13:29.620 How, how did he communicate that to you?

00:13:31.260 And how were you, how did you know?

00:13:33.500 Sure.

00:13:34.200 Well, I just, I've always just kind of thought that, that prayer should be like breathing.

00:13:40.100 You know, we should just be in this constant kind of conversation with the Lord.

00:13:45.460 And I was concerned about the language not coming back, that I would forget the language.

00:13:51.060 And immediately the language came back to me.

00:13:54.300 And I mean, it had been five years and I was only there for a year to begin with.

00:13:59.500 And it was funny when I first went over the first year, I said, I really want to learn the language.

00:14:04.300 And all the sisters that I was laughing, was working with and everyone I was working with actually laughed at me.

00:14:10.220 They said, oh, it's, it's impossible to learn this language.

00:14:13.120 And I will agree.

00:14:15.740 It's very, very difficult.

00:14:17.720 It's, it's Amharic is the language where they are.

00:14:20.580 And it's supposedly it's the fourth hardest language for English speakers to learn.

00:14:26.760 Wow.

00:14:27.240 And there's no way you can learn it outside of the country, really.

00:14:30.480 And especially at that time, because you didn't have any audio help.

00:14:35.480 There was really no one in the area that I knew that was Ethiopian in Naples, Florida, for sure.

00:14:41.880 But one of the prayers that I also prayed specifically about where the Lord was leading me.

00:14:49.180 There were two prayers, actually, that I just look, look back at.

00:14:53.420 I'm just like, God is just so amazing.

00:14:56.020 One of them was before I went to Bahradar to visit on that three day period, I said, okay, Lord, if this is where you want me, then I want to meet someone that, that can treat malaria.

00:15:13.520 Because malaria is what I had seen the most deaths of the first year I was in Ethiopia.

00:15:18.480 That's how a lot of my students passed away so quickly.

00:15:21.480 And so I said, I want to meet someone who treat, who knows, who's very good at treating malaria.

00:15:26.420 And I said, preferably an American, could be Canadian, right?

00:15:32.640 Could be Canadian.

00:15:33.500 But I mean, a foreigner that knows the culture where I'm from, that could come to me in the middle of the night.

00:15:41.260 You know what I mean?

00:15:41.860 If one of my kids is sick.

00:15:43.020 And so I was wandering around this rural area in Bahradar with my camera, just taking photos, as I always do, even to this day.

00:15:54.560 And I came across this couple that were obviously foreigners.

00:15:59.120 I introduced myself and I said, oh, where are you from?

00:16:02.660 And they said, well, we're from Florida.

00:16:05.160 And I said, really?

00:16:06.760 I said, I'm from Florida, too.

00:16:08.420 And they said, and I said, what do you, what do you do here?

00:16:12.180 And she said, the husband said, I, we specialize in growing a plant that's used to treat malaria.

00:16:24.020 Wow.

00:16:24.540 So the wife was a nurse and the husband was an agriculturalist. 0.87

00:16:27.500 And I went, okay, God, that like, that outdid me completely.

00:16:32.960 And then my second prayer was that I would meet an Ethiopian that knew both cultures equally as well.

00:16:41.460 So someone that knew, and in my mind, I actually said, someone who was born in Ethiopia, but lived in the United States, but now lives in Ethiopia.

00:16:50.480 Okay, like a citizen of both places, or at least equal in the knowledge or understanding.

00:16:57.500 And the next day I met Gush Asifa, who was born in Ethiopia, went to the U.S. to study and ended up becoming a social worker in the U.S.

00:17:06.860 And after 20 years in the U.S., moved back to Ethiopia, began taking in children and helping people go to school and learn farming.

00:17:14.700 And he moved back to Ethiopia just to be able to help his people.

00:17:17.520 So that was the answer to the second prayer.

00:17:20.240 And he ended up actually introducing me to my husband.

00:17:25.720 And he is my husband's uncle.

00:17:29.560 So it's just this amazing.

00:17:31.820 I just tell people, like, there's no greater life than just saying yes to God as much as we can, day by day.

00:17:40.980 Indeed.

00:17:41.700 Indeed.

00:17:42.240 And I think a lot of people need help, especially with that portion, learning how God communicates to us, his will, his will.

00:17:52.100 A lot of people sort of still searching, what do you want me to do, Lord?

00:17:55.080 And it's particularly young people.

00:17:57.480 So thank you very much for sharing that.

00:17:59.380 So, okay.

00:18:00.560 So you're now there.

00:18:02.760 You know you're called to be there.

00:18:04.160 Take us from there.

00:18:05.900 Sure.

00:18:06.600 So, again, my plan was to foster and adopt as many children as I could personally take on.

00:18:11.460 I was also teaching English once again.

00:18:13.840 And I received my first son when he was two years and nine months old.

00:18:22.260 And three weeks later, I received another phone call.

00:18:26.780 And that's when I received my second son, who was 13 days old.

00:18:31.500 And three weeks later, I received my third son when he was three months old.

00:18:37.360 So the two boys are, yeah, they're six weeks apart in age.

00:18:40.600 And at that point, I said, okay, let me go to the capital city.

00:18:45.560 I was told I had to go to the capital city to complete the adoptions of my children.

00:18:49.300 So I said, let me go to the capital city because I didn't want to have children with me.

00:18:54.960 And then maybe at some point need to have an emergency trip back to the U.S. and not be able to take my children. 0.67

00:19:01.080 I had already decided, you know, my children, we travel together.

00:19:04.160 We stay together.

00:19:05.340 You know, we do life together.

00:19:07.440 And so I went to the capital city to complete the adoption process.

00:19:12.360 And I had talked to this orphanage beforehand.

00:19:16.560 And they said that they would help me.

00:19:18.280 And they were very, very kind to help me.

00:19:20.820 However, I was told that this orphanage was the best orphanage in the country.

00:19:24.560 And I can tell you that upon walking through the front door of this four-story orphanage building, I just began to cry.

00:19:34.860 The conditions that these children were living in were absolutely horrendous.

00:19:39.940 They had a rule that you don't hold the children because if you hold them, they'll want to be held.

00:19:44.840 And when you don't hold children, they cry for a couple days and then they don't anymore.

00:19:52.860 And that's the problems that you see with attachment and adoption and things like that because they were used to not being held.

00:19:59.680 They were used to not being touched.

00:20:01.120 And every time I would do something to complete, I would have to do paperwork or anything to help complete the adoption process.

00:20:08.120 I would have to leave my children in this orphanage.

00:20:12.140 And I could hear my almost three-year-old son screaming from the top floor just as I'm walking out the door.

00:20:18.680 I mean, just echoing through the whole place.

00:20:20.760 And my littlest one at the time was he came to me quite malnourished and quite frail.

00:20:29.200 And by that point, he hadn't even smiled.

00:20:31.760 He was still very tiny.

00:20:33.960 And I would bring him to where the other babies were in a little car seat with a bottle ready to be fed to him.

00:20:42.340 And sometimes I would be in the city doing paperwork one time in particular for about eight hours.

00:20:46.840 I came back, he's still sitting in the car seat, the bottle's still sitting next to him full.

00:20:52.720 Oh, gosh.

00:20:53.760 No one has touched him.

00:20:55.200 No one has done anything.

00:20:57.900 And of course, the diaper was a whole nother story by that point, eight hours.

00:21:03.080 So this is what these children had lived through and or had to live through all the children in this orphanage.

00:21:09.580 And I really, the day that I completed the adoption and I left the orphanage, I looked down and my little son, James, the same one that was sitting in that car seat all day, looked at me and smiled.

00:21:21.160 And I looked up and I saw a rainbow in the sky.

00:21:24.680 I went, okay, God's promise.

00:21:27.080 And I was almost in this point of, I just want to leave this behind and go start my life in Bahadur, start raising my kids, continue teaching English if that's what the Lord wants me to do.

00:21:37.820 So, but really upon returning to Bahadur, within three days, more people are coming to me asking me to take in more children.

00:21:50.800 And I went, oh, Lord, I'm a single mom.

00:21:54.600 I'm not sleeping.

00:21:56.140 I can't take any more children.

00:21:58.020 And they would say to me, well, where do you expect us to go?

00:22:01.000 Like, where can we go?

00:22:01.960 And I just stopped and I went, I have no answer, no answer for them.

00:22:08.080 And so I was laying in bed one day and really, I felt like God gave me this vision.

00:22:15.880 And I could see very clearly that how we would have a center that could be properly run, having one caregiver for every two infants, having the proper love needed for children.

00:22:27.200 And I even saw the layout of the buildings, the trees, and I just jumped up out of bed and I said, okay, God, if this is coming from you, then you will give me the people to help me run this.

00:22:44.020 And I had some friends that were volunteering in the capital city at the time.

00:22:47.380 I called them and told them I had this crazy idea and they stopped me in the middle of the first sentence.

00:22:52.280 They said, we're moving up there to help you start.

00:22:55.100 So God answered that prayer in less than five minutes.

00:22:59.860 We began with about five foster children.

00:23:02.620 And at this point, we serve over 50,000 individuals annually.

00:23:08.460 Whoa.

00:23:09.940 Whoa.

00:23:11.700 That's insane.

00:23:12.760 I'm sorry.

00:23:13.460 That's just crazy.

00:23:14.960 That was 2006.

00:23:16.000 So, and what began with, we weren't sure how it was going to look, but the main thing that we've continually done with Grace Center is we've said, let's look at each person as an individual.

00:23:29.320 You know, God sees us all as individuals.

00:23:30.940 He doesn't lump us into a category of being pregnant or not pregnant, male, female, HIV positive or not.

00:23:40.040 You know, so I had worked for so many projects and they specifically helped in one area.

00:23:44.980 And what I found was, especially in a place like Ethiopia, where there aren't other programs, is that that just didn't work for that, for where I was.

00:23:55.120 I needed to be able to say to this person, God sees you and God is with you.

00:24:02.200 And here's how we can help and not send people away that were genuinely in need.

00:24:08.240 I mean, one of the things that I saw really early in my missionary experience was I was visiting this wonderful program that helped people get prosthetic limbs.

00:24:17.880 And while, while I was there, there was a woman that came with her six-year-old boy that was so thin, probably the weight of a one-year-old, maybe a two-year-old, six years old, laying in her lap, dying of starvation, couldn't hold his head up.

00:24:35.440 And the people at this organization said, I'm sorry, we don't feed people here.

00:24:43.780 And at that moment in my life, I said, Lord, let that never be me.

00:24:49.400 And it wasn't that they were being mean or unkind.

00:24:52.860 They had just learned that they had been taught, we just can't help everyone.

00:24:57.080 We can't do everything, which is a very common way to think.

00:25:02.720 But I like to say we can because our God is so much bigger than this one thing that we see.

00:25:10.000 And so that's how it started with just saying yes and continually praying for people and working with people.

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00:26:32.300 So, we began with about five foster children.

00:26:42.560 And our children's home grew a bit.

00:26:46.360 But what we realized was that if we could catch these mothers, which we always did from day one,

00:26:51.540 if we could catch them before they abandoned their child and talk to them,

00:26:56.300 their problems were very similar in that I can't feed myself and feed my child,

00:27:02.540 and I can't go to work with a child on my back.

00:27:04.900 So, we started a daycare program, and we would have to explain in detail to these moms what daycare is, 1.00

00:27:13.500 because what we realized about two years after starting the program was that we had started the first infant daycare in the entire country of Ethiopia.

00:27:21.000 It was about 110 million people in Ethiopia, and there were no daycares for these babies that would,

00:27:27.420 And this greatly prevented these babies from being abandoned.

00:27:31.800 And the hard part is that when they're abandoned, you know, oftentimes they don't survive for someone to find them.

00:27:39.700 And so, looking around our daycare, often through the years, I've just said,

00:27:46.020 Wow, look at all these babies that are alive, and these moms that thought they were going to have to abandon their baby,

00:27:52.820 and thought they had no hope, and, you know, they've been able to have a new life.

00:28:00.320 We will help them find jobs.

00:28:01.620 We'll help them with housing.

00:28:02.820 We'll help them.

00:28:03.320 And we do it in a way that doesn't create dependency, but helps to lift them up and help them see,

00:28:09.280 I can do this.

00:28:10.920 And this God that you told me about is real, you know.

00:28:16.800 Beautiful.

00:28:18.260 Tell us a bit about how you met your husband and your children that you two have had together.

00:28:24.960 And before we get, I want to get to the 911 as well.

00:28:28.860 Sure, of course.

00:28:29.840 So, I had mentioned before, Gush Asifa ended up introducing me to my husband.

00:28:38.380 It's interesting, because I didn't know that we met when we met, but there's actually a couple times where I looked back just recently, not too long ago, a few years ago,

00:28:45.960 I looked back at old photos, and I found a photo of him from about two years before I ever thought I met him.

00:28:51.980 And he's sitting there with a couple of other people that I knew, and he would be the only person in that photo that I actually didn't know at the time.

00:28:58.220 But I had met him, and at one point, we were looking for a place to rent for our project.

00:29:06.440 By this time, we had outgrown the other rental houses.

00:29:10.220 And it overlooked, it was a two-story building that was previously a school, and it overlooked a big garbage dump.

00:29:16.500 And I looked down in the garbage dump, and I saw someone that was naked walking through the garbage dump, trying to find something that was a piece of clothing, trying to put on boxes for clothes, trying to...

00:29:30.500 And this person, who was obviously a young man, found an old, very, very old girl's dress, and he was trying to fit it on.

00:29:38.720 And I just started crying.

00:29:40.180 I was like, I can't believe I'm seeing this out the window of this second story of this building.

00:29:46.000 And the man that was showing us the building went downstairs, and he had a shirt, two shirts on.

00:29:55.180 So he gave the top shirt to this boy, who was obviously, once we saw him, cognitively disabled.

00:30:01.780 And it was something that stuck with me, because I had never seen, personally, an Ethiopian male, a man, just helping his people like that, in such a real and tangible way.

00:30:19.060 And a year later, I was adopting my daughter, and in comes this same man that had shown us the building, saying, how is the adoption process going?

00:30:34.360 And this is when I realized I could have done the adoption locally.

00:30:38.840 So I was local in Bahardar, and he said, how is the adoption process going?

00:30:42.900 I said, well, it would have gone great if the lawyer that I hired actually showed up.

00:30:46.280 And the lawyer at this point hadn't showed up, and actually, he never did show up.

00:30:51.080 But the same person who had shown me this house went into the judge and said, look, I'm not a lawyer, but I would be happy to help her proceed with the adoption.

00:31:02.340 And so I went, okay, if he can help, I'm happy to do this.

00:31:07.780 So he helped me with my daughter's adoption process.

00:31:10.900 She was five at the time.

00:31:13.120 And then a year later, I ran into him.

00:31:15.120 I said, what are you doing?

00:31:15.960 And he said, well, I'm going to law school because I wanted to be able to help more people the way I helped you.

00:31:21.180 Okay.

00:31:22.180 So I kind of, you know, it was one of those things.

00:31:24.740 In Ethiopia, they don't have a dating culture.

00:31:26.720 They have a culture of you know this person, you meet them, you pray, you get married.

00:31:33.740 You know, so within a few months after that, we were married.

00:31:37.420 And we have since, yeah, we've since had eight children.

00:31:42.480 And it's been such a blessing.

00:31:43.960 Our oldest, our daughter that I was adopting when he helped me is now 22.

00:31:49.520 And she's married and has a baby herself. 0.97

00:31:53.800 So her youngest is eight months old and my youngest is four months old.

00:31:57.240 So we have a lot of fun together.

00:32:00.700 Amazing.

00:32:01.800 Amazing.

00:32:02.240 Yeah, the Lord has really seemed to bless you a lot.

00:32:09.780 One of the neat things is I actually think that culture of dating that way is probably or preparation for marriage that way is probably more healthy than what we've got going on here.

00:32:20.020 But nonetheless, tell us about, yeah, I'm partially from an Indian background and they have arranged marriages, which are somewhat similar, but.

00:32:31.800 Also in Ethiopia, they have many that are arranged marriages as well.

00:32:35.300 Yeah.

00:32:35.780 And they're not as you might think, you know, you're arranged.

00:32:39.720 Here's what you're stuck with.

00:32:40.580 Tough luck for you.

00:32:41.300 It's much more, you know, here's some options for you.

00:32:44.620 If you don't like this set, we'll try another set.

00:32:47.020 But anyway.

00:32:47.820 And it's usually about families coming together and a lot of these rural communities, they know each other and, you know, they grow up together.

00:32:55.740 So, yeah.

00:32:56.760 Yeah.

00:32:57.220 No, that's exactly it.

00:32:58.300 The parents sort of work with other parents and it's a beautiful thing, actually.

00:33:04.640 Nonetheless, tell us about the 911.

00:33:07.460 I thought this was really fascinating because as you started the first infant daycare, if you will, for these poor moms who need to work and would otherwise have to abandon their children.

00:33:19.320 You've now started a 911 service.

00:33:21.380 Tell us about that.

00:33:23.040 So, yeah.

00:33:23.460 I was driving south on the interstate in the U.S. in Florida a few years ago and I came across this billboard sign that says, don't abandon your baby.

00:33:32.420 Please call this number.

00:33:34.240 And I just all of a sudden said, why have we never done this in Ethiopia?

00:33:38.020 And at that point, God quickly reminded me, you've never done this because up until recently, no one had phones.

00:33:46.940 Oh.

00:33:47.660 I mean, when I first went to Ethiopia, there would be one phone for a neighborhood and they would come outside and yell the name of the person and you'd have to run and get to the phone.

00:33:55.800 Nowadays, most people have cell phones because it's not that they pay monthly for them.

00:34:02.160 They can get a really cheap cell phone and honestly never use it.

00:34:05.740 They just have it.

00:34:07.580 And then you pay per minute that you use.

00:34:10.440 So as I'm thinking about putting these billboard signs and I said, this is what we need to do.

00:34:17.580 I really felt God speaking to me saying, you don't need to put up billboard signs.

00:34:22.540 You need to send text messages.

00:34:23.780 And I went, OK, that makes sense because how many people are going to see a billboard sign?

00:34:30.960 And so that's what we were able to do.

00:34:34.100 We were in touch with the local authorities and the telecommunications and told them our plan is to prevent these children from being abandoned.

00:34:43.140 And they were so excited about it.

00:34:46.500 That they basically funded the program.

00:34:50.380 They didn't charge us anything to send out text messages.

00:34:52.940 And we started the first it took about two years of planning.

00:34:59.340 And.

00:34:59.900 The first set of text messages went out to over five million phones in our area, and it said, if you need help and you have a small baby, don't abandon your baby.

00:35:13.720 Please call this number or text.

00:35:15.980 And what they can do is if they don't have money to call or text because it's by the minute, they can send us a message saying, call me back or text me back.

00:35:25.100 I don't have money, basically.

00:35:27.380 Call me.

00:35:28.660 And so it immediately took off.

00:35:31.020 Within a few days, we had over 500 phone calls.

00:35:33.280 And to be honest, we've seen hundreds, I mean, really thousands of of lives saved just in the last couple of years since we started this.

00:35:44.180 And my prayer was that the next message we would send would be, if you feel like you have to have an abortion, please call this number. 0.64

00:35:54.800 Or if you're pregnant and need help, please call this number.

00:35:58.500 And it was amazing.

00:36:00.780 That would have been a harder message to send.

00:36:02.580 And I don't think that the government would have easily agreed to paying for that message because, unfortunately, from the West, abortion has become common in Ethiopia.

00:36:14.160 Before the Western world, Europe and America brought abortion in, there was no such thing like just, I mean, I'm sure there were cases, but it was just so uncommon.

00:36:25.080 And I remember speaking to a group of students about the development of the baby in the womb and abortion, and these were college students, and only one of them had questions.

00:36:37.660 The rest of them totally agreed.

00:36:39.820 One of them kind of said a few things that sounded like they heard something from America or something.

00:36:47.780 But it was amazing.

00:36:48.880 But nowadays, it's become so common.

00:36:50.800 And so it was interesting that we sent this message saying, don't abandon your baby.

00:36:57.060 But what happened was we ended up getting all these phone calls from pregnant women as well. 0.99

00:37:02.220 So God had already done the next part of the message.

00:37:05.580 And this pregnant woman is saying, well, my baby's not born yet, but I need help. 1.00

00:37:10.140 And many of them were calling us thinking that we would help them get an abortion.

00:37:14.820 And that's because many times people think foreigners are going to help me to do this.

00:37:24.520 And 100% of the people that have called us that have been pregnant decided to choose life for their baby after one or more conversations.

00:37:34.740 You know, it's just, it's absolutely amazing.

00:37:37.020 And so God has worked that as well.

00:37:40.700 And it's just been such a miracle.

00:37:43.280 And for example, there was one mom that she had just given birth, and she was in the hospital.

00:37:49.840 And she was getting ready to walk away, leaving her baby behind.

00:37:53.160 And the text message came through.

00:37:55.420 She didn't have a phone.

00:37:56.520 But one of the nurses saw her leaving and said, where are you going?

00:38:00.860 And she said, I just got this message.

00:38:05.440 Can I bring you to this place?

00:38:08.680 And she said, yes.

00:38:09.440 And now she has a healthy, probably one-year-old boy.

00:38:13.760 Yes.

00:38:14.480 I know.

00:38:14.840 It's just so, actually, probably two years old now.

00:38:17.000 I'm thinking the time just gets away from me.

00:38:19.960 But yeah, it is.

00:38:21.000 It's so amazing.

00:38:22.020 And we've had people with twins and triplets and just all sorts of situations that have

00:38:28.640 come because of that.

00:38:31.440 Now, Marcy, before I let you tell us about your books and how people can contact you,

00:38:37.380 I know I need to ask you this question because I'm going to be asked by my wife, hey, why 1.00

00:38:40.920 didn't you ask Marcy this?

00:38:42.540 How can this all work with your children, your family?

00:38:48.120 How do you make all that work together?

00:38:49.920 You have eight of your own.

00:38:51.180 You have four adopted.

00:38:54.120 How is life working?

00:38:57.280 So I just continually say God's mercies are new every day.

00:39:01.560 A lot of prayer.

00:39:03.880 We do homeschool our children.

00:39:06.240 And so that makes it easy for us to go back and forth.

00:39:12.360 And before we get to the closing out the program, I'd like to mention a few more things.

00:39:18.540 One is that we have been in the U.S. for a period of time, over a year now, because of there's

00:39:25.400 a terrible war in our area.

00:39:27.820 So I'd ask people to please pray for this war to end.

00:39:32.160 It started in August.

00:39:33.880 And within a two day period, there were over 2000 people that were killed just in our neighborhood.

00:39:40.380 And so it's been very traumatizing for our children, our families, our staff.

00:39:48.940 But the amazing thing is that our staff are quite brave and they know that they're doing God's work.

00:39:54.620 And so we've been able to continue running Grace Center despite the war.

00:40:00.320 And once, you know, several months after, I realized, you know, we probably are the only program that's continuing to run in the entire region, which is about 30 million people.

00:40:11.380 Um, everyone else has closed up their doors.

00:40:15.880 So we have, um, been able to keep going because our assistant director is wonderful.

00:40:22.940 Um, but we can't be there at the moment.

00:40:25.860 Um, and our staffer feel a little bit of relief that they don't have to worry about us, um, when we're there because they would want, they would never want anything bad to happen to us in the same way.

00:40:37.380 We don't want anything bad to happen to them, but they realize they have no choice and they have to be there and that God is going to use that.

00:40:44.920 And he's protecting them just in amazing ways.

00:40:48.260 Um, so we do pray for God's protection every day, um, for them.

00:40:53.400 And I would ask your listeners and viewers to please pray for an end to this war for peace.

00:40:59.740 Um, and the other thing is that I wanted to share a little bit more about some of the other things we offer, um, to the people.

00:41:07.220 Um, one of the things we do is, um, along with having a school and a children's home and a feeding program that provides thousands of meals a day.

00:41:15.900 Um, we also help women and children who are in prison.

00:41:20.780 So in Ethiopia, when a mom goes to prison, her children go to prison with her. 0.70

00:41:26.660 And one of the reasons is that is this protects the children from being killed in revenge of the alleged crime of the mother.

00:41:36.640 So when we first went into the prisons, um, we were actually approached by the local government who the local government loves what we do.

00:41:45.060 Um, the government bodies responsible for women and children have actually rated us the top charity in Ethiopia for three years.

00:41:52.660 Um, but they came and approached us.

00:41:55.620 You help everyone else.

00:41:56.740 Can you please help these, uh, families?

00:41:59.280 And we just had no idea that they existed because to be honest, I had gone to the prison before just to try to visit the people that were in prison.

00:42:06.360 And they wouldn't let me in because I was a foreigner.

00:42:09.220 So they approached us and we began going in immediately.

00:42:12.840 And we send all of those children to schools.

00:42:15.380 We minister to them.

00:42:16.740 We counsel them, um, pray with them.

00:42:19.720 And even after they're released from prison, we help them because imagine you've been in prison for 10 years.

00:42:25.340 You can't go back to your village because the revenge is still there.

00:42:29.520 More likely, what do you do?

00:42:31.620 And people won't hire you because they know you've been in prison.

00:42:34.440 And so we help all these families start their lives anew.

00:42:38.880 And so we've been doing that for a number of years as well.

00:42:41.740 And another thing that we do is, um, over the last couple of years, the water has been shut off 90% of the time.

00:42:50.920 So we were able to dig a deep well.

00:42:53.700 It's 300 feet deep.

00:42:55.200 And we were blown away to see that the well's overflowing with water.

00:42:58.920 It actually provides about 35 gallons of water per second.

00:43:02.780 And we realized that was enough to support the entire city where we live.

00:43:06.920 It's about 500,000 people where we're at.

00:43:09.600 And so we have over a thousand people a day coming to get water at this point.

00:43:14.020 And, um, that's just been another huge way that we can, you know, really reach people because we get a chance to talk to them and see them.

00:43:22.360 Um, and then one more thing I wanted to add is that we've been asked for many years to expand Grace Center beyond Bahadur.

00:43:31.520 And I always knew that Grace Center wasn't about the location.

00:43:34.060 It was about the people and God's people are everywhere.

00:43:37.360 And so we were given land in another area of Ethiopia, uh, called Debra Marcos.

00:43:42.680 It's about four hours South of Bahadur.

00:43:44.300 And we've officially begun construction on that land to be able to serve the people in that area.

00:43:50.320 And just like there weren't any programs like Grace Center when we first went to Bahadur, there weren't any programs in this area either.

00:43:59.100 350,000, no soup kitchens, nothing.

00:44:03.120 And so we have been able to go in there and we're going to start this program there.

00:44:07.480 And we're also expanding, um, looking at expanding to other parts of the world because we know that, um, God's heart is for his people to be well and to live out the life that he's called them to live.

00:44:20.560 And I believe that every person on the earth has a calling and, um, it's our job to help them to reach that point where they can live out their call.

00:44:32.940 Beautiful.

00:44:33.560 Some of these photos, I should just say that we've been playing as we've been speaking are your own.

00:44:38.420 Some of them also taken by others.

00:44:40.300 Uh, you have a beautiful, uh, photo book, uh, yourself available that, uh, what's that called and how can people get it?

00:44:48.160 Sure.

00:44:48.600 Um, our book is available on our website, gracecenterfoundation.org.

00:44:53.860 Um, if you go to the homepage and scroll down, you'll see the books.

00:44:58.100 The photo book is called Glimpse Africa, the Women of Bahadur.

00:45:02.220 And I spent about 10 years working on that book and putting together the stories.

00:45:05.880 It's basically before and after stories of the families that have come to us.

00:45:09.420 So you see the person that is very sickly and unwell, malnourished, and then you see them healed and well.

00:45:16.300 And most of the stories have these amazing, miraculous endings to them.

00:45:22.680 You know, um, we had one girl that was completely miraculously healed of complete heart failure and her heart was completely fine after praying for her for about a year.

00:45:32.920 So I love to share those stories with people.

00:45:36.460 And then the other book is called Mama Maharet.

00:45:39.580 Maharet means mercy.

00:45:40.980 And in Ethiopia, they think my name is mercy, not Marcy.

00:45:44.100 Um, and I'm, I'm happy about that because they always ask me, oh, your name's not mercy.

00:45:48.280 What does Marcy mean?

00:45:49.340 And I said, well, I don't know what it means.

00:45:51.260 I think it's the ruler of the planet Mars or something like that.

00:45:54.140 And they think, why would someone name their child that, you know, every name in Ethiopia has a meaning.

00:45:58.920 So they call me mercy, which is Maharet. 0.99

00:46:01.200 And so that is my story about a lot of what I share with you and so much more, um, about just these adventures of starting Grace Center and being in all these different countries in Africa and raising children and all the people that have come to us and things like that.

00:46:15.480 Beautiful. Now, a lot of people might want to support your work.

00:46:20.340 We have a life funder set up for you, uh, which, uh, is listed at the bottom of this video and shows up on the screen here.

00:46:26.680 Um, and what's your, what's your final message for the people, for the people, mostly of America, Canada, and the West who, who watch our program?

00:46:35.720 Sure. Um, we can't do this work without you.

00:46:39.800 We are mostly funded by individuals and it's people that just hear what we're doing and say,

00:46:45.140 I want to be a part of that.

00:46:46.640 And in addition, I think being pro-life is so much more than, um, just pregnant women or elderly.

00:46:55.980 It's the entire life process from conception to natural death.

00:47:01.120 And it's so important that we realize that every thing that we do for every person on this earth matters because we're doing it unto the Lord.

00:47:11.640 Beautiful.

00:47:12.280 Um,

00:47:13.420 I mean, uh, we're going to conclude in a second.

00:47:17.300 There's one question I failed to ask you that, uh, we're going to insert into it.

00:47:21.480 Um, and it's this, Marcy, in addition to bringing the, you know, food, nourishment, healthcare, and, and, uh, just basic care to, to people, how do you bring them the faith?

00:47:33.300 Well, we, um, we, um, we, um, we offer prayer for every person that comes to us.

00:47:40.420 We're well-connected with the, the local, um, church leaders, the priests.

00:47:46.440 Um, and, um, we mainly have conversations with people to be honest, because I found that one-on-one conversations in Ethiopia go really long way.

00:47:56.840 And usually it's, these people are already hungry for the Lord because they, um, have spent so much of their life suffering.

00:48:06.780 I mean, the stuff that we see there and the ways that these people have suffered, I wonder, how is this person still alive?

00:48:13.740 People come to us with these tumors and these growths that it's, it's like, they're like the lepers in the Bible. 0.73

00:48:20.760 People literally clear the streets when they walk through.

00:48:24.100 And when we're able to help them with all of their physical needs, they know that what we're saying about everything else must be true.

00:48:32.100 And so through that one-on-one conversation, we're able to help them come to know the faith and, um, steer them in the right direction.

00:48:40.980 And we also make it very intentional, you know, all of our staff, many of the people that we serve are Orthodox.

00:48:48.100 So they have a foundation of, of God, of the Trinity, but maybe they have never, um, been educated or been in church, um, because there's a lot of different rules that go along with that, um, similar to the Old Testament.

00:49:03.520 So for example, this boy that came to us with this very large growth on his foot that, um, again, people would clear the road when he would walk through, um, God spoke to him in a dream and told him he needed to get up and walk.

00:49:16.960 And he ended up at our gate, um, many, many miles away.

00:49:22.040 And, but he didn't know who God was.

00:49:25.300 He just knew he heard this voice and this voice had spoken to him.

00:49:30.280 And, um, it was interesting in his story, everyone kept saying, we're going to have to amputate your leg.

00:49:36.460 And he said, no, that's not what my dream was.

00:49:39.340 My dream was that someone would cut off this growth.

00:49:42.760 And, um, we ended up going to many different doctors.

00:49:47.320 And he said, well, I guess I came to the wrong place.

00:49:50.040 And I said, no, uh, give us another day.

00:49:52.660 We brought all of our staff to pray for him.

00:49:55.400 And we stood around him by the way, it wasn't all of our staff.

00:49:57.820 It was all of our administrative staff.

00:49:59.220 We have over 200 staff members at Grace Center.

00:50:01.720 So, um, all of our administrative staff, the next day I was meeting with a friend who was from Europe.

00:50:08.280 And I said, you know, I have this boy that came to us and let me know if there's anything you can do.

00:50:14.020 She was a physical therapist.

00:50:15.820 And she said, oh, send that photo to my, send that photo to me and I'll give it, send it to my husband.

00:50:20.960 I completely forgotten that her husband was a doctor.

00:50:24.380 And, um, we, by this time we had exhausted all those areas of getting him help.

00:50:29.220 And she texted me later that day.

00:50:32.260 She said, my husband said he'll do the surgery the next business day to remove the growth.

00:50:38.840 This is after we've been told by everyone, even one doctor said, I don't care where you go.

00:50:43.660 If you go to the United States or Europe, you are still going to have to have this leg amputated.

00:50:48.520 That's what one doctor said.

00:50:50.660 And so here we go.

00:50:51.740 We, this prayer was answered after we prayed for him and he had the surgery.

00:50:56.440 And I met with her the following week and I said, I just really want to thank you and your husband for doing this.

00:51:01.220 I mean, we, we looked everywhere and I kind of jokingly said, even this, this doctor told us that we'd have to have his leg amputated, even if we went to America.

00:51:09.780 And she responded and she said, well, actually that's probably true because my husband is the only husband, the only doctor in the world that specifies in doing this type of surgery for this type of tumor on the leg and foot.

00:51:25.040 And I kind of went, okay, God, you know, so these are the kinds of things we see every day, right?

00:51:33.700 It's just like, and, and the boy is, the boy is still with us.

00:51:38.700 He's a young adult.

00:51:39.480 He goes to school at night.

00:51:40.440 Cause my whole point in saying this was that he had never been able to go into the church or near to the church.

00:51:46.580 He was forced to stay outside watching the cattle his entire life until he came to us.

00:51:53.680 And so that has changed, obviously.

00:51:57.200 Yeah.

00:51:57.700 He has a new life.

00:51:58.840 Yes.

00:52:00.080 Marcy Erickson.

00:52:01.020 Thank you so much for sharing with us what you do.

00:52:03.600 I'm sure many, many people are going to want to join you in your mission.

00:52:08.280 God bless you.

00:52:09.140 And may he continue to bless you and all of your many, many children far beyond the eight you have, the four you adopted, but the many, many who would consider you their mother of mercy.

00:52:22.980 God bless you.

00:52:23.440 Thank you, John Henry.

00:52:24.320 God bless you and your beautiful family and all the work that you do.

00:52:27.300 We really appreciate it.

00:52:28.420 Thank you.

00:52:29.420 And God bless all of you.

00:52:31.400 And we'll see you next time.

00:52:32.500 We'll see you next time.

The John-Henry Westen Show - June 06, 2024

This Homeschooling Catholic Mom of 12 Serves 50k People in Ethiopia

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