Matteos's great challenge

Matteos is a young evangelist living in Turmi, Ethiopia. It is dry and dusty and very remote. He is responsible for a huge area from the borders of Kenya and Sudan-and over 150,000 unreached people.
There used to be more evangelists serving in the bush, but several of them were killed and many others found the living conditions too harsh and left to go live in the cities of the north.
These tribal people live under fear of witchdoctors and curses from the many gods they worship. But now, their hearts have been opened and they are crying out to Matteos to teach them about God.
The great challenge Matteos faces is a lack of transportation.
Ato Halfa- a local businessman, has offered the use of his Isuzu truck to Matteos. But first he must obtain his drivers license. The cost to take this month-long training class is 6500 ethiopian birr
(approx. $350)  This is a huge amount of money to a man who barely makes $35 per month for his salary as an evangelist. Then he will need temporary support of approximately $200 per month to pay for gas and oil for the truck. He will also carry medical supplies and food to remote areas and people in need.
This is a lot of money. Is it for a good cause? Yes. Do peoples lives hang in the balance? Yes.
Can we here in America afford it? Yes.
Please help this young man and his family who are willing to reach out to these people.
Contact us if you want to help- you can also make donations through PayPal.

Galetos new life.......

Things have been really busy since I last posted about Galeto- the 16 yr old burned orphan boy we have taken in to live with us.
He has made tremendous progress! I can hardly believe it is the same boy. Now I change his bandages every day and using a bleach/water/vaseline combination his wounds are rapidly healing. I feel certain they will be completely healed by March. Then later this summer we can think about contractural release surgery for his arms (both arms are drawn up because of scar tissue)
Tom and our friend Paul (visiting us from Okinawa) made him a walker out of plastic pvc pipe and he took his first few halting steps with it. From there he graduated to a cane. Now he is walking on his own power and even kicking the soccer ball!
He continues to eat everything I put in front of him and has learned to play games and puzzles.

I gave him a stuffed panda bear and he cuddles it and sleeps with it every night. Even though physically he is around 16, emotionally he is more like 10. The trauma of his ordeal by fire has left him scarred in more ways than one. But every night Tom and I tuck him in and I ruffle his hair and kiss him goodnight. I tell him I love him and he says "I love you Tu-weesa".  That more than enough makes up for all the hassle and heartache.
In telling people about Galeto, we have come to realize something.
Truly, this was an awful, evil thing that someone did to this forgotten street boy. And I believe that Satan uses some people to do his evil work. But God has taken this terrible thing that happened to Galeto and brought much goodness out of it.
As he lay there in agony in the hospital bed-with no one sitting by him or caring--a concerned doctor told me about him. At the same time that Galeto cried out one night to God to let him die--I showed up the next morning. As we showed the compassion to him that Jesus commands each of us to do- others saw our example and were touched. They in turn responded with unselfish action.

celebrating Galetos first walk!

Galeto walking with his friend, Zak

People like Brenda, LeAnn and JoNell who sent me bandages and tape  from America.
People like Marianne, D&D, Josh, Callie and others in AM (you know who you are) who are even now encouraging Galeto and bringing him orange sodas while Tom and I revive ourselves with family and friends here in Texas.
People who have read these blogs and seen my posts on FaceBook now pray for this boy and ask about him.
When people allow themselves to be used by God and show compassion to others- it opens up the floodgates of blessings to all involved.
Galeto's life is very different now. He once sold peanuts and lottery cards to survive on the streets of Ethiopia. He slept on a piece of cardboard at night. He had no one.
But now he is NOT alone.
And although he went through a horrible trauma and ordeal- God has been with him the whole time.
Now he has a 'family' who cares for him. He has friends who bring him orange soda and play soccer with him. He is loved and tucked in at night. And he knows now that he was NOT forgotten by God- and that his future is brighter than before.

Embroidered Tea Towels

The women in my neighborhood in Ethiopia are always working hard: whether carrying heavy loads of sticks for the cooking fires, or jerry cans full of water, doing the family laundry by hand in an old wash basin-their work never stops. But in spite of all that, I would still see them working on hand-work or 'edj-sera' as they call it. It got me to thinking about how could we help these women better their lives somehow using their sewing talents. So I bought fabric, thread, hoops and showed them this pattern that I traced onto the tea towels. I don't sew myself-but thankfully they caught on real quick without my help! They worked very hard during the Fall making these beautiful towels to be sold here in the USA.
These precious women are all my friends-some are widows, some have no husband but several children. One has hands that are crippled by disease, but she still somehow manages to hold the needle with the knuckles of her hands.....
These women are poor, but not in spirit. Every day they face hardships that would
overwhelm most of us. They live in simple mud huts and go to church in the neighborhood where I live. They meet once a week under the shade of a tree and work on their ‘edj sera’ (hand work) They chatter happily about their families, and their dreams for their future.
Together we organized a co-op where these women could pool their resources to make tea towels that I then bring to America and sell for them. Then they re-invest part of the sales from the towels to purchase supplies to make more towels. Please help change the lives of these precious women and children in Ethiopia- each towel is only $15.00 Each towel is autographed on the back with the name of the woman who made the towel. Find the woman pictured below from your towel and then please pray for her!
100% of the proceeds from the sales of these towels go back to the women who crafted them.

"Children are flowers in Gods garden- tend them with prayer"

To find these towels in Tyler, Tx. go to Moss flower shop located in The Market  2210 Three Lakes Parkway (near Fresh grocery store Old Jacksonville Rd.) 
903.787.8822
Because of the positive response we have already got (especially thank you to GABC sunday school class members) we will be continuing to make these towels and they will be available for sale in the spring either on-line, or locally at Moss. Stay connected for more details!

Typical mud house that these women live in

Amarech

Rebekah and her daughter

Meseret

Almaz and her son, Obama

Banchi and her son

Elfanesh

Abaresh and her fiancee, Asfaw

Selamawit and daughter, Eskadar

Bertukan and sons

Emebet

Galeto's Big Move

It has been two weeks now since Galeto came home to live with us. His progress has been remarkable. There is a smile most of the time on his face and he is steadily eating us out of house and home! haha! But I don't care because I can see he is making good progress. He is much stronger now and not so feeble. Some days we carry him outdoors to get some fresh air. Sometimes we carry him out to the living room to watch a movie with us, or to join in on sunday evening Bible study. (He likes our singing, but seems to lose interest once the preaching begins. Kind of like some folks we all know! haha)

Every three days it is time to change his bandages. It is such torture, for him AND me. Please pray that he will heal quickly so that neither one of us has to do this much longer. Each day I do some sort of physical therapy on him. Stretching his bent legs, stretching his bent arms. It hurts him but it has to be done. I know how it feels since I have gone through similar experiences as a child recovering from hip surgery. I was in a full body cast for 3 months and had to learn to walk again. Now I am thankful for that experience because I can empathize with Galeto and push him through his pain toward a better life.

Some days are worse than others. He moans and cries out in his sleep, probably dreaming about when he was set on fire. This happened almost 8 months ago. There is no telling what kind of emotional trauma this has had on him. He doesnt try to talk very much. A very quiet boy. But his smile lights his face up and THAT speaks volumes!

Several church members have come to see him and have prayed for him, tears streaking down his cheeks, he was visibly moved to have them there. They reminded him that God didn’t want him to die. He was burned over 50% of his body, a life threatening critical injury. Everyone at the hospital thought he would die. But he didn’t.

I asked them to tell him that God has a plan for his life, a good future, that's why he lived. That's why he is living with us right now, so that through Tom and I and other people here, Galeto can see and feel Gods love and have hope for a good future......

church women come and offer prayers and songs for Galeto

Shamaya's Joy

When I first moved to Ethiopia and would tell people my name, Teresa, they usually ask me what it means. I thought that was a strange thing to ask, but soon I came to know that in   They were kind of embarrassed for me too!

Ethiopia, everyones’ name means something. I was kind of embarrassed to say “umm, nothing.”

                                                                                

Typical ones I hear are Genet which means “Blessing” or if born near a holiday like easter Tinsai (means “Resurrection”), Ferris (means horse), and if the baby looks like the father- Hulemaya (“Seems like me”)

I have already told you about my young friend Zakarias. He is the 14 yr old boy with the terrible infection on his head. I first met him through a tragedy in his family. His father contracted malaria and it went cerebral-made him delirious and violent and one night with

his machete he killed his own 8 yr old daughter, Hannah. After a short time in the hospital and then some jail time, he was released. As horrific as this was, Shamaya(his wife) allowed him to come back into their home. When friends asked her about this decision, she told them that she is a christian and God still loved him. (although lots of this explanation was lost in the translation-basically she said she loved him.

I could not fathom reacting like that. But life went on...I continued to take Zak to the hospital 3x week for dressing changes...and then came the news that his mother was pregnant. Wow. I was stunned. But nine months later, the baby was born. It was a girl and she was named,”Asserasach”, which means “because of you my sorrow is forgotten”. Shamaya, a strong Christian woman, had prayed to the Lord to give her another child-a girl-to ease the sorrow in her heart. And so there she was! Shamaya was holding her baby and was beaming, her face was radiant with joy and peace-and a broken family was healed.

Galeto Update 2

When I returned to Ethiopia after the summer in Texas, I was anxious to see how Galeto was doing. I hoped that the measures I had taken had proved to be helpful to him, and that he had continued to make progress.

When I saw him I cried inside. He was pitiful. Still laying in a filthy sheet, curled into a fetal position with his head completely covered, as if to shut out the world around him. Even worse, he could not walk now. No one ever made him get out of bed to walk and exercise his limbs, and so his legs had atrophied,to the point that they are now bent permanently. My heart ached for him. He had been doing so well when I left.

I guess that the absence of someone who cared for him (even me, a relative stranger to him), left him with no more hope. He simply withdrew into himself. Although Tom and a few friends of mine had gone to see him in my absence, they said that he never uncovered his head or talked to them. 

After the shock of seeing him like this, I was more determined than ever to help this boy. There is a male nurse named Terefu who has always been very helpful to me. He is the one who had been teaching me how to change the dressings on Galetos’ burns.

I found him and made an appointment to change the dressings the next day. I went out and searched the entire town looking for 4x4 gauze bandages, but none were to be found. With 6-7 drugstores, none of them had gauze bandages. The hospital was completely out and they had several nurses cutting up rolls of gauze into 4” squares. (The conveniences of Walgreens and CVC Drugstores are unheard of here....be thankful if you have them where you live!).

I won't go into detail of the ordeal involved with cleaning and changing burn wounds, but it is incredibly painful. I went out and bought him some pain meds and syringes for injections to help the pain. It gave him small relief. This is a public, government run hospital. People are admitted all the time, but the burden of paying for the medicine, latex gloves worn by doctors, bandages, IV bags, etc.. all must be paid for by the patient and his family and relatives. Also the daily care of feeding, emptying bedpans, etc, all done by family members. Every patient has a small cluster of people around him all the time all day long. Except Galeto. He is all alone.

But not anymore! Tom and I are taking him home with us to care for him there.
I don’t know how long it will be for. He will need future surgeries to un-fuse his chin from his chest, but that will have to wait for now. He is too weak to survive any surgeries and too weak to survive what would be an agonizing 9 hour drive over bumpy roads to Addis. (I was told there is a burn unit in a hospital there. Who knows what the level of care is? But the beds are all filled right now.)

So, he goes home with us! Our housekeeper speaks Wolaiyta (Galetos tribal language) and so she will be a huge help in healing this boy emotionally. She will be able to tell him all the things I’ve wanted to say to encourage him. And he will be comforted and kissed every night by someone who cares for him. And together we can show him that God loves him and has not forgotten him! 

I’ll keep you posted on his recovery.

In His joyful service,
Teresa

Galeto...a boy not forgotten by God

I first heard of him from our friend Dr. Barry, the Australian surgeon here in Arba Minch. We were at our usual Sunday evening Bible study and he mentioned some of the cases he was currently operating on. One in particular, caught my attention. A street boy had been brought to the hospital. He was approx. 17 yrs old. He is one of those kids that have no family, no relatives, and so he must survive any way he can. He has no home, so he simply finds a place out of the way where he can curl up and sleep at night. One night while he was sleeping, a cruel, evil man doused him with gasoline and set him on fire, then left him to die. I couldn't get that poor boy out of my mind, so I went the next morning to try and find him in the hospital.

I walked through the ward, bed by bed until I saw him. He was curled up in a fetal position with his back to the room. This was Galeto. 

He was horribly burned over 50% of his entire upper body-shoulders and both arms-and his chin had fused to his chest from scar tissue. He had already been in the hospital for 2 months. He has no family-no parents-no friends- no one has come to see him. He is all alone, and in great pain. There is no pain medication for him. When they change his bandages and cleanse his wounds-they used a dry sponge to scrape his raw, tender red wounds. Can you imagine his agony? Absolutely nothing is ever given to him to cope with the pain. He has no money to pay for medicine or bandages. Dr. Barry said he basically had given up living and wanted to die. Who can blame him?

So I knelt down alongside him and stroked his cheek, and told him that God loves him. He has seen your suffering and sent me to help you. Can I be your friend? He arched his eyebrows (that means yes in their culture), and with that I had a new friend! 

By the time I met him, none of the nurses liked him because he soiled his bed all the time. Bedpans are available, but it is the family’s responsibility to help the patient use the pan and to clean it out. Galeto had no one to help him with this and so he would just lay in his own feces and urine all day long. All week long. I am not exaggerating.

The first time I began to help wash and cleanse his wounds, he had a soiled sheet that he had wrapped up in a pile hiding his feces. I know he was ashamed to be like that-but what could he do? No one would help him-not even the nurses. He was completely alone and naked. His only clothing was burned off him. So I bought him a couple of t-shirts and shorts and underwear and a pair of sandals. Then I got him up out of bed and started walking. I got someone to translate for me and told him that he must exercise his arms especially or he would lose the use of them. The scar tissue had already started to draw his arms up. After a few days of me coming he started to smile and seemed eager to get out of bed and walk. I knew the nurses and other patients didn’t like Galeto, mainly because he couldn’t use the bedpan and he stank. So I wondered how I could get them to rally around him-to start to like him? 
 
I know that God planted this idea in my head to go buy some packages of cookies. I brought them to Galeto and suggested that he share them with the other men in the ward. I will never forget this image I have of him. A poor, wounded boy, wrapped only with a towel around his waist and wearing a tank top-his arms bandaged up, walking over to each man in a bed and offering them a cookie. Some of them looked confused at first, but then they all smiled at him (and me) and said thank you. Galeto was wearing one of those grins that stretch from ear to ear! It was probably the first time in his life that he was able to actually share with someone-to give a gift to someone else. It was a powerful moment. Since that day, things seemed to have changed in the ward. The men smiled at us- the nurses started calling out encouragement to Galeto when we walked. He was making some good progress.

I knew I was going to be leaving in a few weeks to go to America to visit my family. I was concerned about his continued recovery without me there. So I made arrangements with a restaurant to deliver him lunch every other day. And with another person to bring him boiled eggs every other day. I asked several of my friends to go visit him from time to time.

I was hopeful that with that support system surrounding him, he would continue to progress. And so, I left for America.