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Thursday, September 19, 2013

Care Packages for Ethiopia!

In two months, 25 volunteers from all over the U.S. will be travelling to Ethiopia to spend time teaching, caring for and mentoring the children at Kind Hearts and Trees of Glory CarePoints. One of the most memorable parts of our trip each year is delivering a care-package to each child from their sponsor family.


 





 
The children have gotten to know their sponsor families through letters, but to receive a special package along with a letter and photos, is an incredible gift for these kids - and you could see it on their faces as they recognized the photos and then held the package in their hands. Most of them could not believe that this package of gifts was for them. "For me??" they kept asking. "Yes - for you!" we kept explaining.

Currently - we have  nearly 200 children at Kind Hearts and 200 children at Trees of Glory. Each of these children has a sponsor family here in the USA that provides for them, prays for them and writes letters to them throughout the year.   If you are interested in sponsoring a child - please email me at kjwistrom@yahoo.com and I will match you with a child. ($34 per month provides nutritious food, clean water, clothing, medical care, education and Christian discipleship for one child.)

We will be delivering a care-package to each child from their sponsor family - so the information below is for each sponsor family with instructions on what to send me. We will be delivering packages to nearly 400 children!

Each care-package should include a letter and photos along with a few small items that you pick specifically for your child. Clothing is always needed - so I am recommending that each family purchase a shirt for their sponsor child as well. Wrap your gifts in the shirt (like a burrito) - then rubberband a label with your child's name, reference number, the care-point name (Kind Hearts or Trees of Glory) and your name on the outside of the package. Care-packages need to be sent to me by October 1. I will take pictures as each child receives their care-package from their sponsor family!

 Use the shirt as your package.  Remove any packaging from pencils, toothbrush,
matchbox car, etc. to keep your package compact and lightweight.

 Line up items in the center of the shirt.

Fold the sides of the shirt in, then roll everything together into the shirt (like a burrito).  

Clearly label the outside of your package with the CarePoint name,
Child's reference number, Child's name and your name and rubberband securely.

Tuesday, September 10, 2013

Eager Eyes Follow Along ...

With their bottoms scrunched together on the tippy classroom benches, four to five kids at a time hover over the same textbook to follow along with the daily lesson. 



Their teacher tap, tap, taps on the chalk board as one child stands to read from the textbook, in rhythm with the cadence their teacher is tapping.  Eager eyes follow along in the book, and the kids try to scrunch closer together to see better.

At Kind Hearts in Ethiopia, 200 children are attending class every day knowing full well how important their education is.  Knowing that it is a rare and wonderful opportunity and one that will help them step themselves and their families out of poverty.  Their eyes glow with the possibilities and they take notes with little nubs of pencils in notebooks that have every square inch of space filled with their tiny hand-writing - trying to preserve every precious piece of paper.




As the new school year gets underway in Ethiopia, textbooks are in short supply as class sizes grow and the pages of the books are becoming torn and tattered from over-use.




Let's provide our kids in Ethiopia with the resources they need to get the best possible education.  With grades pre-school thru 5th grade attending Kind Hearts school, we can purchase textbooks for each of the grades and provide a text book for each child!! 

Half of the funds have already been raised ... Would you please consider making a donation to fully fund this project?  Please click on the link below to make a donation and see our progress on this fund.  Click here  http://bit.ly/khbookfund

We need to raise about $4000 for text books for all grade levels and half of those funds have already been raised.  Would you help finish this fund?  http://bit.ly/khbookfund