Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.       James 1:27

Justice For Orphans is a U.S. based nonprofit whose mission is to rally the church for the cause of the fatherless, based on James 1:27. One of the ways JFO raises awareness about the needs of orphaned children and children in foster care is through a weekly radio show called Orphans No More, with JFO founder Sandra Flach.

This morning I spoke with Sandra about my own family’s journey of adoption, and how that lead to me to get involved with Partners With Ethiopia. Grab a cup of coffee and click the play button below to hear more, then head on over to Justice For Orphans to learn more about what they are doing to raise awareness for vulnerable children around the world.

 

The life of a widowed woman in rural Ethiopia is one of immense difficulty; with few opportunities to earn an income and support her family, a woman like Alemitu is often left to struggle and beg to feed her family.

Three years ago our wonderful donors supported Alemitu and 35 other widows in Shanto through the Widow’s Hope Livestock Development Project. Each woman received a cow and a sheep. Alemitu is just one of the women whose lives were changed by this program.

Alemitu’s livestock has since given birth and increased from one sheep and one cow to three cows and two sheep! Because of this she has been generating her own income and supporting her family independently.

Alemitu reports that her income from selling dairy products has enabled her to send her children to school, seek healthcare for them when they are sick, and improve their standard of living. She made sure to ask us to please thank all of the donors and supporters who made this program possible, so THANK YOU for believing in women like Alemitu!

Day 1.

It broke me.

 

150 of the most beautiful kids.

Kids with one parent, kids with no parents.

Kids with no parents and SIX siblings.

150 kids, and only 4 are sponsored.

 

 

Inside those gates was joy and singing and dancing and HOPE.

 

 

Outside those gates, driving away, all I felt was overwhelming despair.

I wasn’t thinking about Shanto or Dale, where 300 kids are sponsored and thriving.

I was only thinking about the immense need all around me, and feeling completely defeated, deflated, and inadequate. How could I presume to come here and help? I couldn’t do ANYthing. My ‘help’ was a tiny drop of water in a vast sea of need.

I was a poser. I couldn’t make a difference. I was nothing.

Yeah, Satan, he knows how to get to me. This was a spiritual attack of epic proportions. I had just flown halfway around the world to get smacked in the face with the knowledge that I was completely insignificant.

 

But then, this:

My brilliant friend Joanina, who grew up in rural Kenya and is now working at Dana Farber Cancer Institute in Boston, sent me the most encouraging message that same night. I am pretty sure she will never understand how very much I needed that message at that particular time, but GOD knew. It was Galatians 6:9, the New International Joanina Version, and it was like an ice cold Ethiopian Coke (with real sugar!) to my dry, thirsty soul. Joanina’s simple message revived my spirit.

Over and over again, God has shown me that He’s got this.

So I’ll work on being patient and waiting on him, trusting and resting in the knowledge that the kids in Boricha are HIS kids. He wants what’s best for them even more than I do.

Galatians 6:9 “And let us not grow weary while doing good, for in due season we shall reap if we do not lose heart.”

If you would like to be the hands and feet of Christ to one of our children awaiting a sponsor, please visit www.pwesponsorship.org

In rural Ethiopia, widowed mothers struggle to meet their children’s daily needs. Because of high rates of illiteracy and a lack of jobs, they have very few opportunities to find gainful employment. Inspired by James 1:27, our partner organization, FOVC, is working to change this in the village of Shanto.

A beautiful field of sweet potatoes in Shanto.

About a year ago we did some major fundraising for another phase of the Widow’s Hope Project, this time with a focus on crop farming. Thanks to a generous grant from a private foundation, and many individual donations, 71 widows received help in the form of agricultural training, improved seed, fertilizer, and farming tools.

The intention of the Widow’s Hope Projects is to create sustainable opportunities for widows to generate their own income. From the reports we’ve been receiving from  FOVC, the program has been wildly successful. We’ve received many accounts of women who were previously unable to meet all their children’s needs. Their kids were malnourished and not attending school on a regular basis, because the supplies needed to keep them in school were too much of a luxury.

Nigiste is one of the women who has been empowered by this project. We visited her farm last March, where she proudly showed us her beautiful fields of corn and sweet potatoes.

Now, after harvesting her crops, Nigiste’s children are well-fed and in school, and she has earned enough income from the sale of the excess produce to purchase a cow! A cow will improve her children’s nutrition through nourishing milk, and earn more income as she sells the excess milk. Nigiste’s success story is one of many, and we are so proud of these women and thankful for all our donors who made this program possible.

We are looking for monthly partners to help us sustain these types of income generating programs that empower vulnerable families. If you’re interested in becoming a monthly partner, please visit www.give2pwe.org to set up monthly recurring gifts. All gifts are tax deductible in the United States.

Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.  James 1:27