End It Movement

Did you know that slavery still exists, today, in 2014?    Human trafficking and slavery TODAY.  Men, women and children, enslaved for the perverse pleasures of the highest bidder, or the guy with $25.  98% of the people sold into slavery are women and children.

DID YOU KNOW?

As many as 17,500 people are trafficked into the United States annually?

Atlanta. Georgia is a major hub of human trafficking and ranked among the top 14 cities in the United States for the highest incidence of children used in prostitution.

An estimated 1.2 million children are trafficked each year.

EVERY MINUTE OF EVERY DAY, two (2) children, who should be playing and learning and enjoying life are sold into slavery? Children….yours, mine, theirs, ours…sold into hell on earth.

Want to get involved?  Want to help END IT? Get involved, get educated, get busy helping those who can’t help themselves.

Here are just a few ways you can be part of the solution.

Wellspring International

End It Movement

Polaris Project

International Justice Mission 

Our First Fresh Air Child

This has been a crazy busy week as we’ve shown our Fresh Air child all about life in the country (even though we technically live in a city). If you would like to read about all of our adventures, I posted the daily links below for you convenience.

Day 1 – The Frontier Culture Museum.
Day 2 - Company picnic and the park.
Day 3 – Swimming and smores.
Day 4 – Hiking and fishing.
Day 5- Errands and an outside concert.
Day 6 – A tea party and the County Fair.
Day 7 – Low key and a group picnic.

One of my favorite things from the week was the tea we had on Wednesday.  Here are a few photos that I didn’t included in the other post.

Just too much fun in this house this week!

Fundraising–How We Roll

This past weekend I had the opportunity to help host a bake sale and burger/hot dog stand for a fundraiser for my upcoming trip to Ethiopia.   There was a pile of prep work (baking, getting supplies etc.)

My girls were great little helpers, especially with the baking.  Although, we don’t just “bake”…we bake in character.   Laura Ingalls and Wichita Slim made the pink lemonade cookies. In all we made 110 bags of cookies to sell.

Then we (and the other gals from the team) spent several, 9 hour days, in this lovely little hot dog stand.   Memorial Day weekend is not supposed to have frost…it did though, and we almost froze!

We had a lot of support, and sold a gazillion dogs and burgers.   Well maybe not a gazillion, but we sold a lot.

Friday I’ll be setting up camp at a used curriculum sale, all proceeds of my sales will the be going to my trip.  Not to mention to several hundred dollars in books I’m mailing out on Monday!

So if you’ve wondered, yes, I’m busting my butt raising funds for my trip.   I still haven’t met my needed goal, but I’m working on it.  So if you are still thinking “Should I donate to this trip?”…the answer is YES!!

You can make a tax deductible donation via PayPal, simply by clicking here.

If you have already made a donation, THANK YOU from the bottom of my heart!

Ethiopia Bound

In recent months I’ve shared information with you about Project Hopeful Awassa and the great need for, Families In the Gap (FIG) workers and of course medical and financial needs for the region.

Awassa

Project Hopeful Awassa currently has a team in Ethiopia  sharing the gospel of Jesus while delivering several hundred pounds of shoes, purchasing cows and goats and building a playground for the beautiful orphaned children in Ajuuja.

Things are happening fast in Awassa.  God is opening doors, meeting needs and creating amazing opportunities where there seems to be only despair.   Equally as fast, this past week I was asked to go to Awassa in July…yes, July as in not quite 2 and a half months away.

This trip will serve a dual purpose (or more).  First, it will serve as a vision casting mission for the church plant that we’re working with here locally.   While there we will specifically be praying for God’s wisdom and direction on what the ministry’s next step will be in this region, and then we’ll bring that vision back to our church plant and get those folks involved.  We will also be spending time loving on the children and workers at Ajuuja, working on  labor intensive projects at the orphanage, buying and delivering cows and goats to local families and checking on our FIG families in the region. 

Because this opportunity has presented itself, with such a tight timeframe, there is LOTS to be done in a short amount of time.  My updated passport is on the way.  I’m attempting to find child care for my own girls while I’m gone, and of course there are finances needed for the trip.

If you would like to make a TAX DEDUCTIBLE donation to help me get to Ethiopia (and back home, home is good) you can either click on the donate button in the upper right hand corner of my blog, or you can click here.   If you would like to donate by check, please email me and we’ll make arrangements for that.   If you are unable to financially support me on this trip, don’t feel as though you can’t be a part of what’s happening, you can be in prayer for us, and that will be GREATLY appreciated!

Meet Eyerusalem. 

Her parents were injured when Eyerusalem was just 18 months old.

Somehow her father's motorcycle fuel tank caught fire and quickly spread in to the home igniting a kerosene can and sparked an explosion that burned her father badly and crippled her mother. He has recovered and is back to work but has scars and some enduring problems.

She was bedridden for a year and is now confined to this chair. 

A mother despite her circumstances that is filled with such joy.

We need to raise funds asap for her. 
We have the funds for the beginning already in Ethiopia but the hospital needed us to sign a contract that we would cover the funds for the whole amount before they would begin. We told our friends in Ethiopia to go ahead and sign that contract IN FAITH that the funds will come for this sweet momma.
And now we need your help!
The cost of the surgery with the doctor, medicine and hospital is to be around $1,900.
The gift of her being to walk again and fully take care of her daughter is PRICELESS.
We have sent scriptures from you to Emebet and Zewdu went to share them with her and to offer encouragement and prayer.

Zewdu shared this:
I have told all the messages and encouragements by each name and she was crying as I telling about your commitment. Her daughter, Eyerusalem was also at home and enjoyed our visit. One word Emebet said at last is that" I thank my God for giving you around here and abroad to support me. If God doesn't brought you all in my life, I would be history leaving my child for hardship in life much worse than mine. Your visit, words of encouragement and prayers have a meaning for my existence and please keep doing it day and night. By all these I am seeing my God helping me and has a bright future for me to raise my beloved child, Eyerusalem to live a life better than mine. God Bless You all for helping us and keep in touch with me.


Would you like to help us bless this family?
All funds received will go straight to her care and surgery.
(paypal button below..if you’d like to make a donation by check message me at awassaph@gmail.com )
Your tax deductible donation will go straight to her medical needs. 
If you would like to comment (or email them to me awassaph@gmail.com)  with encouraging words and prayers for her—we will make sure that she gets them.
Thank you!!

To learn more, and get further updates visit For Such As These.

Is Someone Missing?

As mothers, we often do a quick head count and make sure all of our children are safe and accounted for.   Have you ever done a head count, spotted all your children and still have a feeling that someone’s missing?

Perhaps God is calling you to be a Family in the Gap (FIG) for a child in another part of the world.  A child, who without you, may never have an opportunity to go to school, have enough food, or even live to be an adult.

A child like Mihrete.

Mihrete is a healthy, grade 2 girl.  Her brother and sister have already been adopted, and the whereabouts of her parents are unknown.   She needs someone to stand in the gap for her, is it you?

In your role as FIG you agree to:

• commit to praying regularly for “your” child 
• financially support for $30 per month

In addition to the above mentioned “requirements” for an FIG, you can also write to your child and send care packages IF you want.   

To become a FIG for Mihrete, email Charisa at awassaph@gmail.com

Seed To The Sower

We live on a pretty tight budget.  Sometimes being on a tight budget can really be hard.  It’s especially hard when you see opportunities for ministry (read: giving money to a worthy cause), and have to decline because there is no more wiggle room in the budget.  To be honest I started to feel really condemned for not being able to do certain things.  Then God gave me a rare opportunity. 

After combining two households a year ago, and then separating those two households again, I found myself drowning in a pile of stuff.  I hate clutter.  I also hate having a yard sale.  So I posted on Freecycle that I had a few end tables to give away.  (Freecycle is a Yahoo group that you can join and offer things for FREE, or ask for things for FREE when in need.)

Within 5 minutes of posting a lady called and wanted to know if she could come and get the tables.  She came by with her 3 children.  My heart broke for them.  You could tell they had all been through a LOT, and it had been bad.  Long story short, she’d fled an abusive relationship and had moved here from her home state to start over, with nothing but their clothes and her car.

I rather timidly said  something like “hey I have all of this stuff I’m going to get rid of if you want any of it”.   With the kids and the end tables shoved in the car, she couldn’t get anything else in there, so she asked if she could come back the next day while the kids were at school.

The next day she did return and spent about 45 minutes going through things that I’d forgotten we had.  I kept hearing her whisper these little comments like “oh God”…”I can’t believe this”…”oh my God”.

When we finished loading boxes into her car she thanked me, and gave me a big hug and started to cry.  Then she said “You don’t understand.  I just did my Christmas shopping out of your basement.  You had things that my kids had to leave behind.  You had a Dora doll!  I can make my kids cupcakes now, because I have a muffin tin.”  Yeah, so I’m blubbering at this point.

I was able to share with her about God while we stood there.  I shared about His love, faithfulness, provision and protection, and how He cares about little things like a Dora doll.

She left with a car load of “stuff”, but I think I received the bigger blessing.  As she was driving away, God reminded me of His Word.

2 Corinthians 9:10 Now he that ministers seed to the sower both minister bread for your food, and multiply your seed sown, and increase the fruits of your righteousness;

The New Living Translation words it like this

2 Corinthians 9:10 For God is the one who provides seed for the farmer and then bread to eat. In the same way, he will provide and increase your resources and then produce a great harvest of generosity in you.

That’s what I call a good day!

A Fully Tummy

My friend Chrissy at For Such as These will be heading to Africa this week  with her husband for their adoption court date.  Woot!  Woot!   Last week she found out that the orphanage where her infant son lives is in desperate need of formula for the infants that are being brought to them.

A true mother, with a servants heart, Chrissy asked if anyone would like to send supplies with them on their trip.  The thought of babies being hungry ANYWHERE is unthinkable.   It’s amazing how asking a few moms with little children can quickly get donations rolling in.     

This is what a full tummy is made of…and it’s on it’s way little ones!

Thanks so much to those who donated!