Monday, October 17, 2011

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

Tuesday, September 27, 2011

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!"

Monday, September 19, 2011

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!!


Saturday, September 3, 2011

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!


Thursday, August 18, 2011

"We Got You Covered!"


WE DID IT!

56 children are all sponsored! They all have a family from afar that are writing to them and praying for them! They are ALL connected with a family! Such a great feeling!

Yesterday, I had a sponsor contact me. She had been reading the blog and each time she saw those pictures of kids left that were not sponsored, her heart just broke and she wanted to call and just sponsor them ALL! I know all of the sponsors, and others reading, feel this pull and desire to take them all! I hear it all the time. However, yesterday, she called to take the last 3. Someone was already interested in sponsoring, but hadn't had a chance to come over yet. She sponsored 2 of the last 3! So amazing what God will do with our hearts and then push us to just DO IT!

Then, last night the last child, Abele, was sponsored! What a momentous moment! The best part about it, was it was 2 boys and their siblings! Children themselves wanted to take on this risk, with their work money, their allowance, whatever they can do to be big brothers and sisters to this little boy so far away! It was really touching and I will never forget this entire experience summed up by these kids reaching out beyond their worlds for someone they don't even know. Thank you, Driscolls!
...and thank you everyone! WE DID IT!

Tuesday, August 16, 2011

Almost there!




3 KIDS LEFT!

Once there were 56 children in a very poor neighborhood of Addis Ababa, Ethiopia who were vulnerable, very poor, hungry, no money to attend school, yet they found a care point who would look after them and give then what they had. They started coming one by one until there were 56 in all! However, the food ran dry and the teachers weren't getting paid. There was no money left in the budget.

That was Nov. 2010. Today, 53 children are sponsored! Food is being served twice a day and the teachers are getting paid. Education is being offered to all 56 children as well as 72 others from the neighborhood! Children from the Kechene community in Addis Ababa are hearing the Gospel every day and learning about their God given talents and the plan God has for their lives.

All 53 children KNOW they are sponsored. They have been receiving letters, pictures, and hope from families here in the U.S. who contacted me because it broke their hearts and they wanted to DO SOMETHING! Well, they did! 53 children have hope and a future. They are able to eat every day, live in a community where they are loved and taken care of, and know God!

However, there are also 3 children that KNOW they are NOT sponsored. They are waiting for that connection to a family. They are waiting for that hope in having someone who will DO SOMETHING for them.

Abele - Just turned 5 in June. Loves sports, music, singing, writing stories, drawing, and reading, as well learning about farming.

Tsehaynesh- 10 years old. Alayu is 8 years old and his father has died.