Exciting plans for uniforms and future textbooks!

Just this week, I got an email from a friend who works for Lands' End uniform dept. She is a sponsor with her family and wanted to get more involved with the fund raising for the uniforms at Kechene! We are presently around $750 with almost $700 left. However, she and her team at work are working hard to get a bake sale planned for Feb. 18! A slide show will be shown and perhaps a match by Lands' End! This is such great news because these people work with schools around the world who order uniforms from them. They make the uniform orders just right for children who attend very elite schools. The uniforms we are raising money for are for children with uniforms that is so tattered that they don't fit or stay up at times, and these kids have to have a uniform in order to get an education. We are excited to see what these efforts bring. I will keep the blog informed!

Also, I recently heard from a church member of Hidden Valley who teaches Karate. He was so touched by one of the presentations that I shared that he would like to donate one month's payments from his Karate Feb. classes for the uniforms at Kechene. What a big heart for these kids he has!

I am so amazed by hearts being moved all around me and so encouraged by the stories that people share with me about how their involvement has changed their familys' lives!!

Sharing our stories...

Tonight, Selam (my new friend from Ethiopia living here in our little town) and I got to share our stories to a wonderful group of women. I started with the trip and what we did while in Ethiopia in Nov. I shared our tasks of building relationships through Hopechest and with the children at the two care points, Kind Hearts and Trees of Glory. I shared what it means to be a sponsor and how I was able to meet our sponsor daughter, Bizuayehu. I was proud of myself for not breaking down tonight as I shared the special picture of Biz with the gracious group. Usually, all I have to do is start talking about Biz and it's like my emotions have no control. It hits a really tender nerve to share the connection I feel to that special little girl. I continued to share the doors that have opened since returning from Ethiopia and how the task I seem to have been given seems like it's one of God's tasks with us only being the vessels to get it done.

This is usually how I share my story, but tonight, I was able to introduce Selam, a former Ethiopian orphan. She was able to bring such reality to the entire evening. On occasion, Selam tearfully shared her connection with a family who took her into their family. She said they were a caring Christian family and adopted her into their home for the summer times. I wondered how many Christians here would do that and take someone into their home every summer as this teacher and his family did for Selam. Something for me to really think about.

What a blessing she is to those who meet her. She is so delightful and real! I feel so blessed to have met up with this new friend of mine. We look forward to some other speaking engagements we can share with others together.

A letter from Biz...

We got a letter yesterday from our little Bizuayehu! What a great surprise that was!! Alemnesh, the teacher, wrote for Biz as she wrote a little letter to us and wrote down her questions and her prayer request for her family.

It was ironic that I got a letter from both our little boy in Brazil through World Vision and from Biz with Hopechest on the same day! Our little boy in Brazil has a brain tumor and is in the hospital. We did not hear anything new, but I fear opening World Vision letters lately because of his condition. We were so saddened to hear it is malignant, but we are glad that the government in Brazil is paying for his hospital stay. Not much we can do at this point, but continue to send letters and pray for him. Very difficult to accept yet we know his family is taken care of. We continue to send letters and sponsorship, yet are warned by World Vision of his condition. :(

The letter from Biz was so sweet. She called us "her family" and in her question to us, she asked when we would be coming back to Ethiopia?" Her prayer request was to pray for her family. Her drawings were of beautiful flowers and with bright colors of pink and yellow. I can just see her drawing her picture for us and tearfully smile as I think of her there in her little broken chair and rough edged wooden table top working on her letter for us.

We love you, Biz. We love you, Jose Carlos. Our children from afar.

Selam

This weekend, I had the pleasure of meeting a new friend from Ethiopia, here in our own town. She works for "Global Cows" (see the link http://globalcow.com/) but was assigned to a farming client of ours here in southwest Wisconsin! Not only is she from Ethiopia, but she was an orphan who was raised by an orphanage/boarding school for those without parents or who could not support them. Selam's mother was mentally ill and her father had died. She eventually was on the street trying to survive with her mother. The government spotted her as "vulnerable" and took her to one of their government orphanages. There, she received sponsors from Europe and an education. More importantly, she received a "family" through her amazing teacher and his family.

Unfortunately, the government orphanage did not share her sponsor letters with her or allow her to know them. This made me so sad. This was a chance for the sponsors to share their love with her and develop a relationship with her. She really missed that.

With Children's Hopechest, they are able to direct the correspondences, letters and photos to get it to the right people so the little ones, like Selam, can get the most out of having a sponsor. There was more from her story...

The others in the orphanage, however, did not do as well, and therefore are presently not able to support themselves in Ethiopia. This concerns her greatly and, thus, is driven by their lack of resources and future so she is working hard to be able to go back to Ethiopia and help her fellow "orphans".

The people of Ethiopia are so much like this. If one is more blessed than others they reach out and help their fellow neighbor or friend. I was so touched by her story since I have seen kids like her as an orphan through the children at all the care points I visited with Children's Hopechest. They all had a story like Selam's. However, the amazing thing is this...

WE HAVE THE RESOURCES AND INFORMATION TO HELP THEM NOW!

We can change their lives forever with our $34/month or $20 for a uniform. How easy for us to make this decision and how much hope it gives the little one-- the little Selams.

As a family, we are looking forward to hearing more about her incredible story of survival and her fight for her future. She is going to be ok, as she says, but her friends from the orphanage are the "little ones" who may not have had the relationships or sponsors that Selam had. They are in her heart everyday and in my heart to help now. We do have the chance to change their story.

Uniforms tattered and worn...

If you want to go to school in Ethiopia, you betterhave a uniform. If you want to have a job after school, you better have an education. Huh, I guess a uniform is a must. Fortunately for Kechene students, they have uniforms that were handed down. Unfortunately for Kechene students, they are tattered and worn. The sweaters were torn in many places showing off elbows and undershirts. Boys' pants were held up by string and their zippers were all broken.

If you would like to help these kids get a uniform, you can!! For $20, a girl can get a new sweater, blouse, and skirt to wear to school. For $20, a boy can get a new white shirt, sweater, and pants to go to school.

1. Go to www.hopechest.org and click the GIVE tab.

2. Then in the Choose a Fund box, choose the SPECIFIED GIFT choice.

3. Add the amount you wish to donate for uniforms

4. Fill in the Reference Box for ET2101000 (Kechene number)

5. In the notes area, specify "UNIFORMS"

6. Enter the rest of the information necessary

You've just given to our UNIFORM Fund and have helped to give these kids their education and hope for their future! As my new friend from Ethiopia told me just tonight, "Education is EVERYTHING! It's our future!"

Thank you so much!

Sponsorship is coming, little ones...

19 children left to be sponsored. All with a story. All vulnerable and looking for HOPE!

27 and counting...

If you would have asked me in December if we would have 27 children sponsored by early Jan., I'd have said, "No way! We can't do that!" However, I so often forget who is in charge! Oooops! Not me.

Out of 55 children, we have 27 sponsored and several others ready to sponsor very soon. I am so excited to show some of the kids who are now sponsored. Soon, we will be showing them with new, leather shoes, uniforms, t-shirts, and more smiles!!!

If you are interested in helping with any of these, let me know. We will be starting a fund for uniforms this month and I am presently working on a design for the t-shirts.

Sponsored as of today...




This is Zewdnesh. When she came outside to get her picture taken, she could not wait to pose just the right way for the camera. She was a little more model-like with her smile until Karen and I tried to say, "smile" in Amheric. I guess we sounded funny because she and all the others just giggled as we took the picture. So, Zewdnesh, you'll have to do your serious look another time. :)

Thank you to all of you who have sponsored these little ones. As they would say to you, "May you and your families be truly blessed."

...52, 53, 54, 55. We did it!

Thank you to Miss Sami at www.littlegoody2-shoes.blogspot.com

She raised enough money to send to Children's Hopechest for 55 shoes to Kechene Care Point.

The kids will now get shoes to cover those toes...



To replace the shoes that are just too small...




And just shoes in general.


Soon, we will see those shoes on these feet and they will be ... priceless!