Our Greatest Needs…
“What are your greatest needs?”
Not a week goes by without that question being asked of me by someone who is visiting the Day Care center. We have a lot of visitors who come to see what we are doing in the area of orphan prevention and keeping families together. We love having them come and see the center and dream about ways that they could partner with us. It is a great encouragement to us.
In the end, the question boils down to 2 answers. I’ll be bold and blunt since we have folks who keep asking what we need most.
1. Prayer – We need prayer support. We know that God has made a way in front of us and we are trying to follow Him. We also know that there are rough times, roadblocks, difficult decisions, delays, sickness and family situations that need His intervention. We also know that He is the One who provides, protects, encourages, and comforts as well as opens the hearts of Moms and Children to hear The Good News of Jesus. We need your prayers.
2. Family Sponsorships. We need family sponsorships. We still have approximately 34 sponsorship slots to fill for the project to be 100% funded. It amounts to about $1,000 per month in total. However, with that said, we have not had any new takers to become sponsors in the past 30 days. We’d love it if you would choose to sponsor a family and keep spreading the word. You can view the families at www.EmbracingHopeEthiopia.com/sponsorship/
Let me tell you, things are running great. But, we also have some dreams that our US Board recently discussed ..There is more work to do, but we need help to do it.
We need to get these last families sponsored and then we can dream with greater intensity.
The first dream is to start an after school project for EHE kids as they start Pre-Kindergarten and Elementary School. This would be a step down program for them – still walking with them for a distance, but in a less intensive way. Still having opportunities to impact the family with the love of Jesus in word and deed.
The second dream is to start another Day Care in a different area of the city. This is an area where Moms keep coming from – to the tune of 120 moms in 2 days time – asking for us to help them. The problem is that we are currently full, yet they are struggling. There is little money, little dignity, little food and little hope. We dream of creating an intervention that can include them.
This was highlighted for me today as a woman with a 3 month old baby with Downs Syndrome came to my window begging as I pulled into a local supermarket. She told me of the fact that she does not have money for milk nor does she have the capacity to breast feed. To give her money was not going to solve anything for her. However, our project is full and we cannot help anymore. The best I could give her today was to send her on her way. I know that I will see her again, and I’d love to have more to offer her. These are the moms we dream of helping, again.
Is God using EHE to make a difference? We believe so. Read what Jennifer, an EHE Board member who is a medical professional recently wrote after visiting us…
“Without sponsorship through Embracing Hope Ethiopia, this child would be dead!” That is all I could think as we drove to the hospital in Addis. I watched an EHE staff member navigate the crowds of people in the hospital admission area, comfort the child’s distraught mother, and get this child the medical help she needed. One month later, I returned to Ethiopia and witnessed the change in this family. “Amira” (name changed) has become healthy under the watchful eye of the EHE staff nurse. She has gained weight from eating nutritious food prepared by EHE cooks. And she is thriving mentally and emotionally under the care of EHE daycare workers. Thanks to EHE, Amira’s mother is able to work during the day, knowing her child is well-cared for. Hard physical labor makes this mother look tired and older than her years, but this all changes at the end of the day. As Amira runs into her mother’s arms, both faces light up with smiles of joy. This mother and daughter are together. They are supported and loved. They are learning what “Embracing Hope” means.
What’s our greatest need at this moment? To have the rest of our existing families sponsored…and to dream God sized dreams that He has placed in our hearts about the other families that are out there.
Will you join us?