A little late and a lot of emotions. Sigh.. This sums up the last week.
We had 2 teams here. One did VBS with the kids, one was a medical team that rocked the church. First off the VBS team had an emergency decent, assume the safety position kinda flight. It was super scary for all involved including us that were waiting at the airport. I really can not comprehend the craziness of those words coming out of the pilots mouth but I know that they were very shaken. After that incident the whole team was stuck in Sudan at a hotel where there were armed guards watching them and there passports were confiscated at the airport. Sigh..... 2 days late they made it here.
In the meantime the medical team made it safe and sound and we hit the ground running. Exchanging money, buying sheep, checking out the facilities for Mondays task. ( and they arrived on the 6:45 am flight!) troopers for sure. Sunday we headed to an orphanage in town called Kidane mehret. The doctors saw over 50 kids in 2 hours and then left for another orphanage about an hour outside of the city where they saw over 100 children. Anything from stitches to broken bones.
Monday morning we all set out for Korah. Monday medical was dedicated for Out of the Ashes sponsor kids and their families. The team saw over 200 people. To say that I was impressed would be an understatement. There were several times that I had tears in my eyes and walked away to shed them quietly. I don't think there was one family that didn't have some kind of severe medical issue. 2 families have parents ( or guardians) that will probably die within the next few months. I can't say this for sure but one set has severe Leprosy and all complications that come from it and one mom ( the dad is gone) has full blown AIDS. It makes me sad but on the other hand it makes me SO happy that out of the 3000 children that applied for this new program ( YES 3000!) that they were out of the ones chosen. They were chosen based on need first and then their desire to go to school. The day was long BUT Every child was accessed, every family member was checked out, every child received a back pack full of hygiene kits and vitamins ( thanks to 4M and Lori Printy) a new pair of shoes ( thank you to Erin Herman) a new shirt ( thank you to Alan Myers for the design) and a BEAUTIFUL profile picture ( thanks to Kiefer Printy).
In the next month or so we will start to profile kids that are in need of sponsorship. All of the details are not worked out yet since this program is brand new and just off of the ground. Final details will be announced before our Annual fundraising dinner in August, so stay tuned. What I do know is that sponsorship changes lives, ask anyone that has been here before or anyone that was here this summer and met the children first hand. Sponsorship fee will cover room and board and one of the best boarding schools in Addis, meals, uniforms, summer supplemental food, new shoes, new clothes, medical care, hygiene care and in the next 2 years an income generation project to help them support themselves when graduating school.
On Monday afternoon the team all finally arrived, exhausted and worn out but they were safe and sound! Brad had to leave Monday night after a short trip here ( 5 days). I thank the lord he was here there is no way I could have finished all of the home visits, airport pick up and all of the odds and ends for those 5 days. God knows I needed the emotional meltdown time with my hubby. Tuesday was another full day in Korah. The medical team Did open clinic In Korah. WOW I really have no words to explain what all they saw. If you read here it will tell you more about all they did. http://allmyeyescansee.com/2013/07/15/what-we-did-in-ethiopia/ . The VBS team also rocked the house~! Literally in some sense. We rocked out to Kingdom rock music, learned about Standing strong with Jesus! the kids listen with all of the hearts and did all of the actions and crafts with such pride! We fed Sheep ( 21 in all) to over 2100 people this week. All of the sponsor kids plus everyone that was standing in the alleys way on Monday, Wednesday and Friday. What a blessing it was to watch STARVING children and adults get fed.
The highlight of the week had to be the delivery of the beds to each and every persons house that they were purchased for. 17 beds, 17matresses, 17 blankets and sheet sets. Whoa, talk about humbling experience. Every person that we delivered to had no bed. All of them had a wooden something or other ( some of them rented for 5 birr a month which is a huge price when you only make 100 birr- $5) with cardboard on it. Yeah I can not comprehend it. Its hard to even put it into words. So I won't try. Most houses the beds took up over half of the space available. I t didn't matter though, not to them, most were crying and lots of tears fell. Thank you ALL who donated to this precious project.
Saturday we fed the homeless... Yeah. I will leave it at that.
Super emotional thinking about the remaining time here. Gotta figure out the right words to say about that. Love to all.
We had 2 teams here. One did VBS with the kids, one was a medical team that rocked the church. First off the VBS team had an emergency decent, assume the safety position kinda flight. It was super scary for all involved including us that were waiting at the airport. I really can not comprehend the craziness of those words coming out of the pilots mouth but I know that they were very shaken. After that incident the whole team was stuck in Sudan at a hotel where there were armed guards watching them and there passports were confiscated at the airport. Sigh..... 2 days late they made it here.
In the meantime the medical team made it safe and sound and we hit the ground running. Exchanging money, buying sheep, checking out the facilities for Mondays task. ( and they arrived on the 6:45 am flight!) troopers for sure. Sunday we headed to an orphanage in town called Kidane mehret. The doctors saw over 50 kids in 2 hours and then left for another orphanage about an hour outside of the city where they saw over 100 children. Anything from stitches to broken bones.
Monday morning we all set out for Korah. Monday medical was dedicated for Out of the Ashes sponsor kids and their families. The team saw over 200 people. To say that I was impressed would be an understatement. There were several times that I had tears in my eyes and walked away to shed them quietly. I don't think there was one family that didn't have some kind of severe medical issue. 2 families have parents ( or guardians) that will probably die within the next few months. I can't say this for sure but one set has severe Leprosy and all complications that come from it and one mom ( the dad is gone) has full blown AIDS. It makes me sad but on the other hand it makes me SO happy that out of the 3000 children that applied for this new program ( YES 3000!) that they were out of the ones chosen. They were chosen based on need first and then their desire to go to school. The day was long BUT Every child was accessed, every family member was checked out, every child received a back pack full of hygiene kits and vitamins ( thanks to 4M and Lori Printy) a new pair of shoes ( thank you to Erin Herman) a new shirt ( thank you to Alan Myers for the design) and a BEAUTIFUL profile picture ( thanks to Kiefer Printy).
In the next month or so we will start to profile kids that are in need of sponsorship. All of the details are not worked out yet since this program is brand new and just off of the ground. Final details will be announced before our Annual fundraising dinner in August, so stay tuned. What I do know is that sponsorship changes lives, ask anyone that has been here before or anyone that was here this summer and met the children first hand. Sponsorship fee will cover room and board and one of the best boarding schools in Addis, meals, uniforms, summer supplemental food, new shoes, new clothes, medical care, hygiene care and in the next 2 years an income generation project to help them support themselves when graduating school.
On Monday afternoon the team all finally arrived, exhausted and worn out but they were safe and sound! Brad had to leave Monday night after a short trip here ( 5 days). I thank the lord he was here there is no way I could have finished all of the home visits, airport pick up and all of the odds and ends for those 5 days. God knows I needed the emotional meltdown time with my hubby. Tuesday was another full day in Korah. The medical team Did open clinic In Korah. WOW I really have no words to explain what all they saw. If you read here it will tell you more about all they did. http://allmyeyescansee.com/2013/07/15/what-we-did-in-ethiopia/ . The VBS team also rocked the house~! Literally in some sense. We rocked out to Kingdom rock music, learned about Standing strong with Jesus! the kids listen with all of the hearts and did all of the actions and crafts with such pride! We fed Sheep ( 21 in all) to over 2100 people this week. All of the sponsor kids plus everyone that was standing in the alleys way on Monday, Wednesday and Friday. What a blessing it was to watch STARVING children and adults get fed.
The highlight of the week had to be the delivery of the beds to each and every persons house that they were purchased for. 17 beds, 17matresses, 17 blankets and sheet sets. Whoa, talk about humbling experience. Every person that we delivered to had no bed. All of them had a wooden something or other ( some of them rented for 5 birr a month which is a huge price when you only make 100 birr- $5) with cardboard on it. Yeah I can not comprehend it. Its hard to even put it into words. So I won't try. Most houses the beds took up over half of the space available. I t didn't matter though, not to them, most were crying and lots of tears fell. Thank you ALL who donated to this precious project.
Saturday we fed the homeless... Yeah. I will leave it at that.
Super emotional thinking about the remaining time here. Gotta figure out the right words to say about that. Love to all.
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