Posts from Ethiopia this week!

I have received several updates from Ethiopia this week during the week that Children's Hopchest traveled with a team of 26 people to our care point and 3 others. They spent Wed. loving on our little ones.

They handed out care packages and read the notes from their sponsors...

They spent lots of time talking with them...

They watched in amazement how so many children in one place can be so orderly...

They observed the joy they have for the little things...

Though I was sad to not be with the team this year and sad to not have gotten the chance to build the relationship with these kids and the staff at Kechene, God worked through each of those team members to bring what He wanted the kids to have this week. I learned a painful, yet valuable lesson this year...sometimes, we have to let go and allow others to do what we really want to do. This is difficult for me, especially after having the feelings of pure joy and pure serventhood I felt last year. The feeling one has when doing this type of work is amazing, but letting it go for others to get to experience while working for Christ is equally important.

Just wanted to share.

More to come after the team is back in the states with all their pictures and reflections.

Angels for Kechene!

Just recently, we were informed that there are 74 more children at our school in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia on top of the original 56 children. This really threw me for a loop. I have to be honest that I felt very overwhelmed and a little scared. These are all very vulnerable children coming to our care point for help, yet it was so much to do by myself!

I prayed a lot about that and what to do. We had just sponsored all 56 children, and then to have 74 more was a real blow! However, as I asked Matt to pray about it, we stepped back as a couple and asked God to do what He needed to do, even if it meant I had to let go of the reigns. I felt that I needed help and that our sponsors would really help if some would take 10 profiles and match them with families. Not only have a couple sponsors stepped up and really worked hard for these children, but God had another person in mind as well.

Within a couple weeks, I had a phone call from Children's Hopechest asking my permission for someone to join me in my quest for sponsorship of these new children! They had gotten a call from a family in North Carolina who would be adopting 2 children from Ethiopia soon and wanted to sponsor 2 children from our school. Not only that, but they really wanted to do more for them. The staff member at Hopechest told them about our school and how there were 74 more children and that it was a lot right now for one person to take. She told Missy, the mother of 2, that she would talk with me and ask what I thought. Of course, I said "YES!!"

So, since that conversation and that wonderful connection through Children's Hopechest, Missy (also a former teacher) has been working non-stop teach basics of sponsorship with these very vulnerable children who are new to Kechene and getting her first 10 sponsored! In fact, she is on her second set of 10 children. Missy is definitely my angel from above. Thank you God for your help!!

Another child gets a family from afar to write him, love him and sponsor him.

This was Missy's email about how this has impacted her life so far...

Hello to all of my Sponsor Families!

I thank God for each and every one of you every day.

This project has blessed my life and my heart so much more than I could ever put into words - and so much more than I could ever bless these children.
God is so good!

Meanwhile, another sponsor from Florida, Ashlie, (mother of two 1 year olds and one adopted from ET) took 10 profiles for our care point. Just this past week, I am happy to report that she has gotten all 10 of those children sponsored!! Again, another angel that God has placed in His plan to make this school full of children now with families. They now have a place to be fed, both spiritually and physically! Ryan, Ashlie and their 2 little boys.

Closer to home in East Central Wisconsin, we have a sponsor who has also been working hard and has gotten a few children sponsored! That makes 21 signed up and presently "sponsored!"

Wow! We so often have a hard time letting go of something that we think WE are supposed to do all by ourselves. How wrong we are. I just needed to TRUST and let Him do His job. We are only along for the ride.

Follow our climb to all 74 getting sponsored (temp. gauge on the right side of the blog)! If you are interested in sponsoring or in getting other families signed up, take it from one of these "angels" and contact me. "It is an amazing feeling of JOY when you connect one so vulnerable to a family, or when you open another family's eyes to the love they can share!"

Packages are off to North Dakota!!

I am happy to report that all 78 lbs. have been received in North Dakota! We will see them next in the hands of our little ones at Kechene in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia! I am so excited to see the photos of our little ones and their smiles on their faces! Oh, how I wish I could see it in person!

This is going to be a very exciting time, yet heartbreaking, personally. There is just so much that I can do...and it stops here this year. I cannot go with the team to Ethiopia to help hand out care packages, hugs, kisses and love from their sponsors. I have to allow new hearts to reach out to the little ones this year and do it for me as I was able to last year.

I guess sometimes you have to give up that "glory" feeling and pure JOY of the hands-on task and allow someone else to feel that JOY and that feeling that God gave me 11 months ago.

Thank you to the team of 21 people going this year on Nov. 12! My prayers and thoughts will be with you all week long and although I long desperately to be with you all, please pass my love on to these children through the gifts of all the sponsors and the love they send!

The Oasis - Our Ethiopian Adoption: Hope Chest

The Oasis - Our Ethiopian Adoption: Hope Chest

Wow, that's a lot of shirts!

We are almost there to sending out 74 t-shirts with little items carefully packaged for the extra kids at Kechene as well as the 50+ care packages ready to be sent as well. Unfortunately, we are needing to send them ALL through the mail to North Dakota first in order to get them to the family who are taking them to Ethiopia for us. The great thing is that they will have room for our packages, but it will be expensive to get them all there.

I have changed my thermometer of fundraising to an amount specific for the shipping costs to North Dakota. This will be a minimum of $150 and possibly over $200 to ship. I am sick about this since I know that this money could be used in so many other great ways other than the "Speedy Delivery" business. However, I also am reminded that none of the kids will ever get their packages until this is done so they can safely be sent with the family who is going. This is a hard thing to accept, yet also the only way for them to get there.

If you are interested in sending a small donation for this, please email me and I will send you my address. I have received some very generous donations. A HUGE thank you to those who have given already. Thank you, thank you, thank you!!

In Amheric, "Ameseqnalew!"

Care packages being prepared for Kechene!

Care packages coming!

Thank you everyone for sending all those care packages. We are getting closer to having one for every child. If you would like to donate for these care packages, but do not have a sponsor child, this is a great time to do it!

I am collecting t-shirts rolled up like a burrito with little items inside like a toothbrush, hair ties, matchbox car, stickers, neat pen or pencil, or gum. Then, rubber band it and drop it off at my house or contact me to send it here to my house. I will be sending these to Minnesota after next weekend.

These will be presented to the children in Nov. when Karen's team travels to our care point to get pictures and hand deliver these well thought out packages. What a blessing they will be to all these kids!

If you want to make a monetary donation towards the extra t-shirts for the new 70 children visiting Kechene on a daily basis, you may also contact me. We are getting closer to our goal!!

A new school year...for everyone!

Glad to announce that the kiddos at Kechene will be starting their new school year very soon and are equipped to begin! They have textbooks, uniforms, shoes, health check-ups, food, and families praying for them and supporting them financially to get them to the next grade! Thank you sponsors!

However, there are 70 children from the neighborhood who pass through the doors of Kechene daily to get a meal, and then they are off to the government school not far from Kechene. Thanks to this school, they are getting a meal for the day when otherwise, it would have been impossible to eat anything each day, other than what their parents can provide. This is a blessing, yet they do not, nor have never had anyone sponsor them. They were just old enough to attend the government school, thus missing the cut off to qualify for Kechene (where they could have been sponsored). These children are just as vulnerable and have been hungry for years! They are much smaller in size compared to an American child that age due to their lack of nutrition/food.

We have a new goal set for our special neighborhood in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia; 70 children from ages 10-15. These children are also crying out for a family to take them and to invite them into their families. To sponsor, of course, does not mean you are actually adopting a child, but rather giving the love one needs in their own country that we can provide while being a world apart. For $34 a month you are giving a child hope through letters that provide love, support, prayers, pictures, and a relationship. The money gets pooled together with all the sponsors' money from this care point to pay for much needed food (spicy, nutrition packed rice dish), medical care, education from 5 wonderful teachers, Bible lessons, and a community to keep an eye on them. They receive an "education" at the government school when they pass into the 4th grade, but there is lots of free time when they are not in school. That time can be spent at Kechene where the teachers add to their much needed educational appetite as well as their growing bodies' appetites.

This is Tsigereda. She is one of 70 in need of a sponsor.

Please pass this on to others who could possibly help get these kids a family from afar to love and support them like their neighborhood friends have at Kechene. We can do this together! That's what it is all about, after all! Have them contact me at gretabcg@hotmail.com and I will get them linked up with a child needing their support immediately. Thanks.

This is Balyo Gita. He is also in need of a sponsor.

This is Selam! She also began her first day of school at a local community college last Monday! What a great day that was! She has been here working at a farm in a training program for just about a year now and just recently was accepted into the Marketing Dept. at a local community college in Madison, WI. We are happy that she has begun a new chapter in her life. What a blessing it has been to have been a part of Selam's hopes and dreams. As she says, "God is so Good!"

Don't ever underestimate the power of God through your hands and feet! You may be the vessel God is using to help the least of these!! What a blessing that can be!