Art Sale a Success!

Wood working from family and church friends

Photography from my dad and my friend

Mums in chalkboard painted pots from a friend

A step stool all decorated ready for a porch from my mother-in-law

Necklaces from friends

Crocheted  hats and scarves from friends

Embroidered towels and hand sewn items from my Mom

Hand crafted baby headbands and wonderful packaged bath salts from a friend

Hand Knit blanket from my sister-in-law

Art work from a church friend's daughter

Headbands from my son's cross country teammate

Paintings from a neighbor, my son's art teacher, and from a church member

Birdhouses from my father-in-law's friend

Baked goods from friends 

The list could go on and on and on!

And then there was all the help I had before, during, and after the sale...

Karen F.

Karen H.

Penny N.

Staci D.

Joanne

Cindy L.

Keith B.

Matt B.

Caleb

Gavin

Jenny H.

Dale H.

Mayra A.

Joyce V.

Steph B.

Paula U.

Susan B.

Brian and Cherie R.

Chance W.

Jorre D.

Jeanne J.

Laci S.

Anita P.

Jami L.

I know there are so many more because I found myself saying thank you in my sleep. Everywhere I turned, someone was helping me do something. 

It is HUMBLING.

It is OVERWHELMING.

It is GOD!

We made our goal! $2000 was raised for the kids' library at Kechene Care Point. 130 children will soon enjoy a corner just for them to study in with reference books, dictionaries, and some fun books to just read all while sitting on chairs at tables.

Thank you, Byers and Anderson Families, Dodgeville, and Hidden Valley Community Church!
You made a difference! God is so good!

What is this Art/Craft sale we speak of???

Art Sale? Crafts? Bake Sale?

It is all to benefit the kids at Kechene Care Point in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia where we have 130 children who are presently sponsored by folks here in the U.S. through Children's Hopechest. www.hopechest.org

All 100% of the money raised from the sale will go towards their "library." This will consist of reference books, a few shelves, a couple tables, and chairs and hopefully some "fun" books! We are excited since they don't expect it to all be done in one sale, but our goal is $3500!

Come help us achieve this goal and give these children a library they have never had before!

Where?  Hidden Valley Community Church

When?  Sat., Aug. 18 from 9a.m.-3 p.m.

What?  Over 20 artists/crafters featured with items like wood pens, trivets, cutting boards, crocheted hats, beautiful scarves, paintings and photographs, a girly table, baked goods, and even lunch of BBQ sandwiches, chips and lemonade.

Treading in new waters

As I emailed all the sponsors recently, we had some changes with this new idea of the children at our care point creating art to help support their school. The original idea was big and getting bigger. I felt as if we had something that could really grow and empower the children, but sometimes those ideas are too big, too fast.

In receiving the artwork from the children at Kechene and sending it all out to the sponsors who donated for the school's library we are presently raising funds for, it became a concern with Children's Hopechest that it could be child labor. I know we do this all the time in the States to raise money for schools like new playgrounds or improvements on classrooms. However, in a country like Ethiopia, it could be seen as a gray area and we MUST be careful.

So, the artwork has all been sent out to the sponsors as a gift from their sponsor children at Kechene. If they feel they would like to donate to the library, or anyone else who feels moved to do that, they can still go to the link www.go.hopechest.org/kechene-library and the funds will go directly to the library that Kechene so desperately needs. (This will consist of reference books like dictionaries, extra textbooks and thesauruses, as well as a shelf, tables and chairs.)

As far as empowering the children to help their own school, this is still a frustrating factor that I hope to work through with the organization, and Ethiopia for that matter. I strongly believe that empowerment and self-help is the key to growth and prosperity, but it is a battle I am not fighting alone, nor one to be solved overnight.  New waters may need some more treading, but we will keep swimming forward before giving up!
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
"Ironically," this verse was shared today at church...


"Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God so that at the Proper time He may exalt you." 1 Peter 5:6

Art work is HERE!

I have been a little giddy lately... the long awaited art work arrived last week and I have just now had the chance to photograph all of them and get them on line, all 127 of them. (3 children did not finish their painting when they were sent.:( )I will soon be sending them out to everyone so they can look for their sponsor child's art!

I'm excited because they are all so precious! They were done by the kids at Kechene during their art class knowing that they were going to their sponsors and that it would be making money for their own school! The goal is $3200 for shelves, reference books, extra textbooks, chairs and tables. Their new "library" is something I thought they would need and it turns out they are very much in need of these items.

I will send out an email soon to all the sponsors will ALL the art. The children painted their picture AND their names and reference numbers on the material (muslin I think) so folks can see who it belongs to. They are all so cute!

So, here is a sampler of the joyous, colorful pieces of creativity the little ones (Kindergardeners and 1st-3rd graders) have done for you...

Gotta Love them!

Garage Sale a success!

In April, it looked like Nov. 2012 would be the date to go back to Ethiopia to see all the children at Kechene and continue work to link sponsors with their sponsor child. However, since then, I have had clear direction that June 2013 is better timing for Caleb.

Since then, I had planned a garage sale to raise part of our enormous goal of $6000 so I set a lofty goal of $1000! In our small town, this is not very realistic. Most garage sales earn about $300 for a good sale. The heat last week was intense and it looked to be a very far reach.

I started to ask for donations for the sale from friends and family back in early June. I have a friend who has been very motivated to clean out their basement and she said this was the event she needed to get the job done. When the week came, last week, to start collecting the items, they really started coming! First a couple boxes from Matt's mom, then, a few more boxes from Matt's mom, then, more stuff from Matt's mom. (You get the idea...) Since we do not have a garage, I asked for people to bring things close to the garage sale date. Well, on Wed., Selam's room was packed full of stuff. I was starting to get worried that I would not get this all sold!

Our neighbors offered their amazing, new double car garage to use for the sale, Thank God!! By Thursday afternoon, it was PACKED! We had everything from kitchen tables, to furniture, to name brand clothes stack after stack. The donations came from people I have never met who heard from someone else that this sale was for our kids at Kechene.

I was so overwhelmed by not only the generosity, but the way folks were talking it out with friends and neighbors. The word spread quickly and by Thursday night when we closed the garage door before the sale, it barely closed. Now, my husband was really worried that we would not get rid of it all and we would be taking load after load to storage. It really was a lot of stuff!!! I reassured him that it would be ok and I'll take care of it. The verse, "Do not be anxious about ANYTHING, but in prayer and petition lift your cares to the Lord," became my verse for the weekend!

By Friday, people were lined up outside of the garage door before 7 a.m. The shoppers didn't stop coming until we closed at 4:00 p.m. We had already made over $600! Sat. was slower, but we still sold a ton! We even gave out $1 bags by the last half hour. Gavin, our 12 year old, had the idea to put out a donation bucket! Good thing, not only did it make us $82 on Friday, but another $42 on Sat! Plus, we were able to share what we were doing to everyone!

By the end of the garage sale, all of the big "stuff" was sold and all that was left was the little stuff that we were able to donate to We Care and Goodwill. The whopping total for the sale was $1008! (That's with all my expenses taken out from advertising and starter money.) How amazing!

HUGE thank yous go out to Mueller Implement for the donation of tables, Scott and Jami Lundell, Susan and Mike Bisbach, Tim and Mayra Angel, Keith and Connie Byers (my fearless mother-in-law and father-in-law for all the amazing donations and Connie's tireless help at the sale), Elizabeth Morgan, JT and Keeley Thomas for their garage usage, Anita Phillips, Bill and Lynn Abbott for their incredible lot of vintage toys and books, Cindy Wiker, Staci Driscoll (help at the sale and donations), Maggie Piper, Amanda Lockmann, Sandy Marty, Patty Steil, MacKenzie Johnson, and all the shoppers and donors who helped rack up the total!

Teacher comes to Kechene

"Cherokee Gives Back" is an organization that works to bring education to vulnerable areas around the world. They are located in North Carolina, but send volunteers out to spend 3-4 months at a location to assist in any way possible while also giving Americans experience in their field of work.

Colleen is one of those teachers sent by "Cherokee Gives Back" and has arrived at Kechene! She has a blog that she will be updating as she assists the children at Kechene with Math or whatever the staff needs her to do.

I added her blog to my favorite links so you can read it periodically as I will be doing. I asked several friends and family if this would be something to share and they all thought it was a valuable resource and reading a different perspective of the care point was really interesting. So, here is the entry I read this week, again, you can find the entire blog on my favorite links section in the right column down a ways.

FRIDAY, JUNE 22, 2012

Settling in

This past week, I have felt much more useful and much more productive at Kechene school. I am starting to get to know the kids and their different but totally cute personalities, and I literally cannot believe how smart they are! I am also getting to know the teachers well too, and that has been great. We have conversations about education, marriage, and just about life, usually while we are eating rice and cabbage for lunch (the students are totally silent during this time because they are concentrating so hard on eating their own food). And when we are feeling frustrated from the language barrier, we just go outside and play volleyball, and all is well.

I have only ended up teaching one day this week, for about half an hour. And believe me, it was tough (in a different way than in New Orleans, but still as tough for sure). Anyway, I asked the math teacher what he wanted me to teach, and he said "Anything! American math!" And I was like..uhhhh.....help haha. I know nothing about kindergarten curriculum, and at the time I had no idea how much math these student knew! So I decided to teach them order of operations, because it was clear that they could add and subtract (I focused on how to evaluate math expressions when they included parenthesis). Thus, I began my lesson to at least 30 six and seven year old kids. They had no notebooks or pencils,  so only a few kids could work out a problem at the same time on the chalkboard, which was quite problematic for my behavior management! Not to mention the language barrier, which was hard (although I am pretty good at counting in Amharic now, I must say!). Teaching was quite an experience... but I think I learned a lot from just jumping right into it, and I have a few ideas for improvement when I teach next time. I really want to teach an African geography lesson (they love pointing out things on their map).

I have found tutoring students during recess and breaks to be much more productive. The first time I had sat in on a class, I noticed one of the students was REALLY far behind the others. So at recess tapped him on the shoulder, and we practiced the English alphabet together. I made flashcards, because I noticed he could only do the alphabet in order. He really liked the hands-on activity. In fact, like five other kids gathered round and were studying with us! It was great. The next day, I started giving kids math problems. Now a few of them walk up to me and ask me to give them a problem right when they get to school, even though they have time to play outside then. Especially these two really cute kids named Besufucato and Limya (Limya has the biggest eyes I have ever seen!). Anway, it makes me really happy that they enjoy learning, this is going to take them far in life.

I am also working on a few other projects for the school, like writing a newsletter about the graduating kindergarteners and editing their school brochure. Also, one of the teachers is starting another school in his neighborhood, because none of the kids there have enough money to go otherwise (government school tuition is free, but students have to pay for uniforms, books, and meals). A church has donated land and labor to build a school house, but other than that they have no funds whatsoever. But this teacher has such a big heart, that I think it will work one way or another. I am helping him write a proposal and budget; it's a great learning experience for me! I hope the school will be successful because the kids deserve it.

So even though there are setbacks often, things are going really well over here. I almost feel like I have been living here for like a year! It's only been three weeks though.... :)

-Colleen

God has spoken, and His answer is "WAIT."

Well, after some restless days last week of feeling anxious over getting things done and shots taken care of, and $6000 raised by Nov., I prayed. I prayed for clarity like never before. I prayed over the email I sent to the sponsors for help with the trip. And I prayed for peace in our family about this decision.

God answered ALL of these prayers almost immediately after sending the emails out to the sponsors. I had just sent out the first email with an explanation that I was wanting to go back to Ethiopia and take our 16 year old son, Caleb when the phone rang. It was my friend, Susan informing me that I had 2 different conflicting reference numbers for which to give a donation for our trip. I thanked her and sent out another email with notes for the change. Again, I prayed that as it went out, if God wanted me to go back in Nov., to open the doors and raise the money. If God did not want me to go back in Nov., I told God that I was ok with that and that I just wanted to do His will. I truly meant it this time and felt peace almost instantly.

Well, almost immediately, I got another phone call. This time from my friend Kristen who just came back from Ethiopia with her son, Dalton. He is also 16 and will also be a junior. I asked her how her trip was with her son. She was very honest with me and said that she could NEVER have taken him during the school year since there was so much to process after their experiences at the care points. I totally know what she is talking about. It was very emotional for me upon coming back in 2010 and to think of our Caleb coming back with this load to process AND trying to catch up with missing 9 days of school was like the loudest message I have heard in a long time!

The decision was made. But then, Kristen made it even easier. She invited me to help her lead next June's trip back to Ethiopia to visit Kebron, her care point, Kechene and of course, Kind Hearts too, where our sponsor daughter attends school and building will be underway for a new school!  I had to start calling and writing all the people I would "disappoint." This actually turned out surprisingly well! I called a church friend who was planning on going in Nov., but when I told him the change, he was excited since his wife may be able to attend now with it being summer, and she is also a teacher. I wrote Karen, my dear friend who I would have been traveling with in Nov. She was also very understanding and was just happy we were finally at peace. I will really miss the experience with her!! But then, with Caleb, I explained and he was actually relieved, as was his friend's family who was also going to go. They are actually excited to not miss school and will be able to do their best their junior year. I also had to talk with Selam's mom in Ethiopia, who was just as excited as I was to meet and spend an entire weekend together in Addis. She was very understanding and agreed with me that it was a better time to come with Caleb.

And finally, my dear, patient husband, Matt. He did not say "I told you so." Rather, he was just excited for Caleb and his friend Chance to have the school year to focus on their studies and to then really experience Ethiopia! So, it all worked out all right, you see? God's plan brought peace. If we listen hard enough and are stubborn, like me, long enough, God will show us the way!

June 2013, ETHIOPIA, here we come!!