Crops Pics & Update

I've not had communication from Desalegn for the past few months but today I saw that he posted an update about the Crops for Widows.  When I was there last year, the widows were requesting improved seed to plant and fertilizer.  It was difficult because I wanted them to have heirloom seed and make use of compost.  Their viewpoint is that the improved seed (genetically modified) gives them more to harvest - something they need to make it through the coming months.  The fertilizer helps grow the crop of course.  The drawback is that it's short sighted.  But how do you teach them to plan long term when they don't even have food for the next 3 months?  Heirloom seed is something they can harvest for food but also save some to harvest for seed.  They could store the seed and then plant it the next season without having the expense of buying bags of seed.  Harvesting crops for seed is time consuming, I know.  I've been doing it recently with herbs that I planted this past spring.  Likewise, the use of compost would provide nutrients to grow the crops without the expense.  Both, the improved seed and the chemical fertilizers are expensive.

Regardless of them doing it different than what I had planned, I'm thankful that it was done.  Crops planted and ready to harvest.  Thank you, thank you, THANK YOU friends who so generously donated towards the crops program in the past.  Please take a few minutes and check out the link to Desalegn's blog post.

click here to read more 

In December I'm planning to return to Ethiopia on a visioning trip with Children's Hope Chest.  I'll get to meet their staff and see various sites at different places in development.  I'm eager to see the development plan for Shanto and how it might include livestock and crops!

Long Overdue, I know

While I haven't posted lately, it doesn't mean that we're not involved with Ethiopia.  In fact, with each passing month, I desire to be more involved in Ethiopia.  I know the need.  I've seen it with my own eyes.  I am daily reminded of the choices women have to make because they don't have options.  He is my son:

But it's not just about my son.  It's about this lady, Judah's birth mom:

And about women like her.  These faces are the motivation for what we do.  Not just what we do, but what we ask God to do.  Bethany prays regularly for people in Ethiopia to have enough food.  From what I know, people are wonderful about supporting children to go to school.  And I'm thankful for that.  In fact, in November, friends of Ethiopia FOVC will looking for more sponsors for children like this:  

In the village of Shanto, where we've done most of our work with FOVC, they'll be adding 80-some kids.  Ethiopia FOVC will be partnering with Children's Hope Chest to impact more kids.  If you can spare $34 a month, it will be money well spent.  One of the things I love about Hope Chest is that you can go on trips and see YOUR sponsored child.  How cool is that?!?!?  You can see your impact!  If you're interested, leave a comment and I'll connect you with Ingrid, our sponsorship coordinator.  

Like I said, many people help with child sponsorships, or building schools/libraries, or digging wells.  These are all good things.  All things we've personally and financially supported.  But what happens when those kids are done with secondary school and ready for college?  They don't have the means to afford college and so they don't go.  Friends, it's not like here in the US where you get scholarships or financial aid or take out loans.  No money = no opportunity.  But, some friends are helping out with that.  Cliff and Mary have a non-profit that help older orphans go to college.  If you scroll back up to that pic of Judah's mom, you'll see two boys - soon to be teenagers.  They're in school and even learning ENGLISH.  But they have no hope for college.  How cool if they had that opportunity through an organization like Cliff and Mary's.  Through Higher Education 4 Ethiopia's Orphans, you can help sponsor a student to go to college.   I can't remember the exact dollar amount but I think it's something like $500 a year sends them to university!  Cliff and Mary are in Ethiopia right now with 3 students graduating and 10 more getting started.  I can't wait to hear about their trip when they get back

And then there's our work with widowed women.  Specifically in the field of agriculture since most the country is agriculture based.  That has been on hold for a bit but we're hoping to get that going in the coming months.  I'm starting discussions with Children's Hope Chest on that too.  I'm excited to see how that might progress once we get the children's sponsorships taken care of.

More in the months to come...