The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly

First the good:

I just received this update regarding the Trees of Glory shoe fundraiser:

I have great news! The shoe fund for the kids at Trees of Glory is already done! See my blog for an update at www.family-from-afar.blogspot.com

I expected this to take a few months, because I did not anticipate the immediate and dedicated response from our own sponsors. Within 24 hours, the fund was kicked off by 2 sponsor families - and then finished by a third sponsor!!!! I know that a few others gave online as well - and so we now have $1560 (we needed $1,512) in the fund. A phone call will be made on Monday morning to Ethiopia with the good news!!!

When I spoke with the staff at Children's Hopechest about setting up the shoe fund, they said, "When Simret(the director of Trees of Glory) hears about this, she will cry!" Neither of us expected to be able to tell her the good news so soon!

Our next priority is to be able to hire teachers so that the kids can start attending school at the care-point in September. The two teachers' monthly salaries will total $250. ($140 per month for the head teacher, and $110 for the assistant teacher - and yes, that is their entire monthly salary!)

If you, or anyone you know, would be interested in "sponsoring" a teacher so that we can provide for their monthly salary, please contact me at www.kjwistrom@yahoo.com. Establishing the school so that the kids can get an EDUCATION is of utmost importance. We could even split the monthly "sponsorship" between several families at $50 or $25 per month. Please let me know of anyone who may be interested! (We have 2 families that sponsor and write letters to the teachers at Kind Hearts care-point, and we hope to do the same for Trees of Glory.).

Isn't that awesome!! I had told the kids about the shoe project and we were planning on counting up all of their piggy bank money to buy a pair of shoes for a child. Since the need was met so fast, we'll have to donate to the next project instead.

Ok, now for the Bad and the Ugly:

The link that I'm going to direct you to is that of an adoptive mother who is in Ethiopia right now with Ordinary Heros doing mission work. She posted the most heart wrenching description of her experience yesterday in the Korah Dump-a mountain of trash that is the dump in Addis Ababa and is home (yes-HOME) to an estimated 130,000 people.

I was reading the post to Nick and couldn't finish it without crying. It is just unimaginable that PEOPLE call this place of filth and disease "home." Children are being raised and orphaned in this deplorable place. IT JUST ISN'T RIGHT.

Read about it here and pray about what you can do to help.

(the post is long, but worth your time)

Proverbs 24:12

Once our eyes are opened, we can not pretend that we don't know what to do. God who weighs our hearts and keeps our souls, knows that we know and hold us responsible to ACT.