What's a girl gotta do to get some sponsors here?

So for our first couple weeks we have managed to get six kids sponsored. Not quite the double and triple digits I was hoping for but hey it's a start! I'm hoping some of you cyber-geniuses can offer your wisdom and ideas on how to get the word out and convince people to join our mission? Comments would be amazing. :)

Ketma, we're coming for you!

We are heading back to Ethiopia this August for a week long trip to our CarePoint, Addis Ketma. This will be my first time getting to visit the community of Ketma and meeting our partner-community from Rochester, Minnesota.

I would like to invite those sponsoring children and those interested to join us on this trip and get to know Children’s HopeChest and our CarePoint in Ketma better. It is an eye opening, amazing experience that no description can truly explain.

We will be traveling August 1-8^th of this year. The cost will be around $2,800 (this includes airfare, lodging and meals in Ethiopia). The exact cost will fluctuate a little depending on what deal HopeChest can find for us with their travel agencies. You will need to have a valid passport and various vaccinations. I recommend contacting your general practice doctor and telling them the location where we will be traveling and finding out what vaccinations they recommend. Do it early because some of the vaccinations are time sensitive.

I hate to be so vague about the details but as of now we are just in the planning stages so I don’t have much to offer. We will have an informational meeting on Sunday March 22^nd at 4:00 PM at Boudreaux to discuss all the many details of this trip, so please come and invite anyone you think might be interested. I am hoping by this day we will have the details more concrete. Feel free to contact me if you have any questions (I’m sure you will) before the meeting and we can discuss. You are also free to roam around the Children's HopeChest website and read about Ketma's community, the partnership, and the way that CH operates. www.hopechest.org/community/ketma-2/

If you think you want to join us on this mission trip please let me know as soon as you can, even before the meeting. The number of people going will have some effect on cost and I would like to pin those details down as soon as possible!

My heart has been doing backflips all day at the thought of not only returning to Africa but getting to meet the people we are partnering with in person! We will get to spend time with the children and families whose lives we are changing, could anything be more awesome? I hope you can be a part of our efforts!

HAPPY LAUNCH DAY!!

Today is the day! The sun is shining, the snow is freezing, and the kiddos are awaiting sponsorship at our carepoint!!

Please check out the website for Children's Hopechest and read all about our carepoint at Addis Ketma. Then look at pictures of 50 of the children needing assistance and select one to sponsor!
http://www.hopechest.org/community/ketma-2/sponsor/


We would love it if you shared a picture of the child you selected on our facebook page at
https://www.facebook.com/groups/HopechestKetma/.


Help us spread the word!

Our site is READY!!

That should actually be in all caps because I AM SO EXCITED to launch the site and start signing up sponsors with our kiddos in need in Ketma.

To sponsor a child we are asking you to donate $38 a month.

With this money you provide these basic necessities for your sponsor kiddo. You can also write letters to them, send care packages whenever a group travels to Ketma, and receive letters/pictures from them as well.

To you that $38 is equivalent to eating at a sit down restaurant one less time a month. Buying one less shirt a month. Buying the off brand household products instead of name-brand.

But to this child it is equivalent to : food, clean water, clothing, basic medical care, and various Capital Improvement Projects that as a group we will make possible.

As someone who has sponsored for over two years now, I can promise you that these children notice that money in their life way more than you’ll notice not having it.

Right now we have around 150 children needing sponsorships.  We need your help!

Pictures from the trip

We forgot the best part

The turkeys cooked, potatoes are mashed, the wine is open (if you’re like my family anyways) and it’s time for the mayhem to begin. Typically what my family does is stand in a lopsided circle and hold hands, some of us with babies on our hips, some of us with eyes open to make funny faces at a nephew while we pray. During dinner we will take turns saying what we are most thankful for this year.

Somehow this year, between the madness of two pregnant sisters, a plethora of children running around, and puppies running between legs to catch fallen food, we missed out on my favorite part. 

Honestly, my family is composed of some of the most selfless, giving, compassionate people I’ve known. We are all very emotional and passionate people. We share our feelings of gratitude with each other and others on a regular basis. Ungrateful isn’t a word I would use to describe any of them. The truth is we are just very busy and distracted.

But the more I’ve thought about our wonderful Thanksgiving together the more it bothered me that we all forgot to include the best part: thanking each other for the love and support that has gotten us through another year and for all the blessings in our life. 

Being busy isn’t an excuse I want to accept for not telling the people I love thank you for all they’ve done for me. I don’t want myself or my family to get lazy about our gratitude. Forgetting to be thankful for every single thing will lead us to be less concerned about what others don’t have. I would bet a billion dollars (or whatever may be in my bank account) that none of the children I hung out with in Ethiopia would forget to be thankful for even one second for some of the conveniences I take for granted every day. It’s Thanksgiving so I expect to see a big fat turkey on the table; I don’t take into account how much that meat would mean to an Ethiopian family. I get wrapped up in my taken-for-granted traditions and forget that the cost of that turkey could support an entire family for a month or more in Ethiopia and countries like it.

Realizing this doesn’t mean that I can’t enjoy Thanksgiving or the Holidays just because I can’t give every African family a big Thanksgiving dinner. It would be unreasonable to give up everything in my lifestyle and try to match my world to theirs or vice versa. Our societies are different as well as our expectations. But at the very least I can remember to be thankful for what I have and help those who don’t have as much. 

Two months after returning from Ethiopia and here’s another self-realization. I’m sure this won’t be the last.

Ketma on my brain!

God always finds a way to talk to me through his servants when I need it most, and yet am not expecting it. Since I’ve been back from Ethiopia I’ve been on an inner-emotional roller coaster. I go up and down from feeling grateful, to feeling helpless, to feeling flat out angry. I’ve questioned my capability a lot, asking myself “can anything I do really make in impact in this region where the need is so great?”

I have to admit, like I’m sure most of the missionaries before me have admitted, sometimes I struggle with the overwhelming need of our world, not just in Ethiopia. It’s hard for me to keep in mind that by changing one life at a time, I am bettering the world, because sometimes that small change doesn’t feel like enough.

These pessimistic thoughts have stalled my progress and I could feel myself losing sight of my vision.

Luckily for me, God is unwavering and he is more optimistic than I could ever be alone. My friends from HopeChest continued to email and call, asking where my head is, asking where my heart is, and sending ideas on ways that might be perfect for me to get involved and stay there.

Their persistence has helped get me back on track.

Since returning from our trip my friend Ashley and I have been discussing with HopeChest different ways that our community can partner with an Ethiopian community and provide sponsorships and further a carepoint. I am so excited and overwhelmed that we finally found a partnership with a church in Rochester, MN who has struggled to get enough sponsors for the children in the area. I think together we can double or triple the amount of monthly donations and then start to work on bigger projects for the area of Ketma.

The area is close to a slum and the citizens are in dire need of clean and healthy water, discipleship, and prayer. The Carepoint is near Awassa, the city we spent most of our time in on our trip, and we will be working alongside our new friends on-site in Ethiopia, Alex and Tesfa, who are just amazing examples of Christ followers.

Now Ashley and I are going to set off on convincing our networks of family, friends, coworkers and neighbors to sponsor a child at $38 a month and help us help this area in need.

I can’t help but feel so overwhelmingly grateful and empowered that these people at HopeChest believe in us and believe we can make a difference. I’m so thankful for their understanding of my fluctuating emotions and that despite this they didn’t give up on my vision for me. Now I read this quote daily as a reminder that a small difference is all it takes to make someone’s world a better place.

“We ourselves feel that what we are doing is just a drop in the ocean. But the ocean would be less because of that missing drop.- Mother Theresa”