Yard Sale

We would like to Thank everyone who donated items for our yard sale.  I, Deanna, put on a yard sale with the help of my parents this past weekend while Derek was gone to church camp with the youth from church. It was challenging but rewarding.  This year we are having more fundraisers and this yard sale was the first of many.  We made $338 toward our trip fund!! Thanks So Much for everyone's donation of items toward the yard sale.

It's Official!

Derek and I just sent in our final applications and the money we have raised thus far to go back to Ethiopia.  It's amazing that last year at this time the thought of going to Africa or any other country for a mission trip had never crossed our minds.  It's crazy how God guides and directs you to what he wants you to be doing with your life.  We still can't believe that we went to Ethiopia, came back and already planning the trip back.  

We are very eager to see the little brown faces of Kombolcha at the Grace Baptist Care Point.  

Please pray for us as we set out on this journey again to raise funds, supplies, 

get kids sponsored and be the hands and feet of God.

Please join us if you feel led to travel to Ethiopia on March 9-18, 2013.

Email me if you are interested in receiving more information.

dethepedsrn@yahoo.com

Make a Difference This Father’s Day!

This Father’s Day I am giving a gift that will bless a child.

One of our sponsors is making Father's Day Cards to raise money for the kids at Grace Baptist Care Point to get new school uniforms. 

Grace Baptist, sponsored byChildren’s HopeChest, is a carepoint for orphaned and impoverished children. Through the support of sponsors, Grace Baptist is able to provide food, clothing, education and Christian discipleship! However, the children have many other needs.

Last year, funds were raised to help purchase new shoes. You can see a pic of the children with their new shoes here. This year we will be raising funds for new school uniforms. There are, however, new students that have arrived at the carepoint and have not yet received new shoes. So we are also offering the cards from last year as an option to help purchase new shoes for these children.

You can celebrate your father (or husband) all while making a difference in the lives of these children just by making a monetary donation directly to Children’s HopeChest. (Your donation is 100% tax deductible.) You can choose to donate whatever amount you wish, but we ask for a minimum donation of $5 for each Father’s Day Card.  A school uniform costs $17.50 and a pair of shoes costs $18. I will mail one of the Father’s Day cards pictured below (your choice) to the man you choose to honor. You will also have the option to include a personalized message that will be printed on a separate piece of paper and can be added to the card. I am donating my time, and the cost to professionally print the cards. The postage has been donated by another sponsor family, so 100% of your donation goes straight to Grace Baptist for the uniforms or shoes!

Here’s what you need to do:

Go to http://wp.me/p1VbdE-1u2

Fill out the information to participate in this fundraiser

Update at Grace Baptist Care Point

We are delighted to share this update with you!  
On Saturday the following items were delivered to the children at Grace Baptist Care point:

• sweat pants and jacket for each child
• socks for each child
• 25 kgs (55 lbs) of Teff for each child/family
• 2.5 litters of cooking oil for each child/family

The Teff/oil is enough for one month (for a family of four)

Below are photos of the food distribution and the children in their new clothing.  The children's smiles are priceless.  

Thank you for sponsoring a child at Grace Baptist Church!   

The kids lined up in their new sweat pants and jackets.

Fiekre (Hope Chest worker in Ethiopia) with the kids.

Teff...the type of flour used in Ethiopia and what they use to make injera

The ladies at the care point distributing the teff for each child.

The kids are so happy just to get oil and teff...this means they can

eat at home as well and share with their families

Landscape and Wild Life on the way back to Addis Ababa

Families live in huts like the one seen above.

See all the ox?

These next 3 pics are some of my (Deanna) favorite landscape pics we took in Africa

These are some of my (Deanna) favorite trees in Africa.  

We stopped and saw the baboons that live on one of the mountains.

Village of huts

Before we left Kombolcha we paid a guy 5 Birr to sit on his Camel.  

Ethiopians see camels everyday so they thought we were pretty crazy to want to sit on a camel.  

Abby on the camel...camels are really tall and you really don't 

realize it until you are sitting on their hump.

This is a great view!

Derek living on the edge in Ethiopia

Video by Laura

This is an awesome video...the music brings back memories!!

We miss it so much!

Bonfire

After the children left on that last day we all went back to the hotel to rest and settle our thought.  After resting for 2 hours we headed back to the care point for a bonfire.  Grace Baptist Care Point teachers, pastor and others who help out held a bonfire in honor of our team.  Some of the older kids were still there and this was the time we got to encourage the staff of how awesome they were and how strong they were to be doing what they are doing for these kids.  It was odd because they were honoring us for helping them and giving them hope but they were the ones that needed to be honored.  

When we got back to the care point everything was all set up for a bonfire. 

Becka, Heidi, Sarah T. and Zalolem

In Ethiopia you have coffee and popcorn at a bonfire...here the ladies are popping 

the popcorn.  This popcorn is the best ever.  Instead of salt they sprinkle 

sugar on it while it is still hot.  It is awesome with Ethiopian coffee

We began with a prayer.  Imagine praying while in the background of the city you hear Muslim call to prayer over the loud speaker.  This was very powerful and you could feel God's presence as we prayed to God with the Muslim prayer in the background.  I'm not sure I can even explain it very well.  

In honor of our help and as a Thank You to our home churches

 the care point had banners made for us.

Derek accepted our churches banner.  

With our team of 16, we had 6 home churches from the U.S.

Abby and Derek with 2 of the care point kids whose

 family member helps out at the care point.

Rob and Greg (the pastors on our team) got the honor of lighting the bonfire.

Rob don't be mad at us for posting this pic

 but it's an awesome pic of the bonfire.

If you look closely you can see the ladies getting the coffee ready.

We had leftovers from the feast that day, bananas, popcorn and coffee.  

This is a very special lady.  This is Rachel, the main teacher for all 160 kids. 

She works so hard to advocate for the kids.  She speaks English and Amharic.  She was a great help translating for all of us while we were there.  God put her on this earth for a reason and she is making a huge difference in these kids lives.  They are lucky to have her.