A very warm greeting from Nesibu...you should have seen Birtukan's!!
Trying to fit all of our donations into a small pickup - they did it!!
Us and YZM staff with all the donations
At Sobeta project meeting some children. They do SO much with so little.
These widows shared there stories and gave thanks to God and to Yezelalem Minch. They are amazing! There were many tears shed by all of us. We tried to express our thanks to them for being such amazing examples of faith and endurance in suffering. The translator could hardly get the message across because of the emotion he felt.
This woman grew this beautiful lettuce from seeds provided by YZM purchased with the money that Parkview Church donated!! She has food for her family and an income and more importantly, a greater since of worth!
This amazing women lives in this mud and stick building which she rents from the government for 3 birr/month. That is about 12 cents. Before YZM helped her to grow a garden and assisted her oldest child, she thought she and her family were all going to just die soon. She had a wonderful garden and allowed us into her house. With walls practically falling in and holes in the roof, it was still their home and she worked hard to maintain it. Her husband is terminally ill and she cares for her six children alone. She had recently fallen behind on rent and a few other things that added up to 50 birr. Phil was able to bless her with this gift which brought her to tears and moved everyone there. 50 birr is $3!
This is a typical living arrangement for many of the people we met today.
The eggs shown above were grown by chickens purchased by YZM using the money Parkview Church gave. This widow was given some hens and cages as a business start-up. She is able to help feed her family and sell the eggs. She is also planning to purchase a male chicken so she can raise more chickens soon. It is a successful business!
We loved meeting the people mentioned above, but the path to get there was quite treacherous! We all noticed that the Ethiopians hardly had any mud on there shoes, but we were all covered.
This woman was raising 4 children, none of which were born by her. She considered one particular girl an angel (now 10 years old) because last year when she was so sick she could not get out of bed, this little one brought her water and helped care for her. For this reason, she knew that it was a blessing from God.
Leaving the last area we visited we were "attacked" by many children, much to our delight. We played and joked with these children who seem to know the common language that we all speak....love.
Please keep praying that we would be able to soak all of this in and that ultimately we could be a blessing to Yezelalem Minch. Also, pray for these amazing people, who despite their constant interaction and involvement with orphaned and vulnerable children, still become very overwhelmed by the magnitude of the situation!
God Bless, we will see you tomorrow!
Dan
No comments:
Post a Comment