*** PHASE 1 goal is complete!! Praise God. By faith we are moving on and beginning to raise the funds necessary for Phase 2.
9 additional water wells, another classroom building (4 more classrooms) and a library! Please help spread the word and allow Dube Bute to be completely transformed. The new goal is an additional $150,540***
(You can watch a video of our time in Dube Bute at the bottom of this page)
Four years ago, our family began a journey that none could predicted - nor had we planned on - but God did.
Our dear friend Kristin went on a mission trip to Africa and sent us a video of highlights. As our family watched the beautiful work she and her team did in the orphanages, our children began asking if we “could bring one home”. Then they began to ask us if we you pray about it. That was the winter of 2007. 15 months later, we received an email with a beautiful picture of our son Abe, wearing a Texas Tech T-shirt. We knew God has His hand in this journey. Three months after that, our family, traveled to Addis Ababa, Ethiopia to bring home Abe. That is when we first began to fall in love with the country.
Kristin chronicled the trip through pictures and made a beautiful video of the day we first met Abe, using the song “Mighty to Save”. Because of that, the song has become our anthem. Abe immediately became our “ripple maker”. I like to say that Abe is the large boulder that came crashing into our otherwise very calm pond. Those ripples reached new heights six weeks later, when we received the devastating news that Abe had a severe brain injury from an inutero stroke. Those were hard days of suffering, but we have a God who is faithful, whose love and grace sustains. Good friends and family walked through those days - our faith grew deeper, our love for Ethiopia grew deeper and our desire to give something back to this country grew.
In November 2009, Emily and I went back to Ethiopia to bring home our son Eyasu. We had the privilege to meet his biological uncle who cared for him after both of his parents died from TB. The uncle cared for Eyasu and his biological brothers until he was 23 months old, and on the verge of dying from sickness and malnourishment. Also on this trip, we first met the staff of A Glimmer of Hope and began this beautiful relationship. From the very beginning, we had been looking for an organization to partner with. Once we met these guys, we knew this was the group doing big work, effective work and sustainable work.
Emily traveled back to Ethiopia in June to see completed projects of Glimmer - and the dream of returning to Eyasu’s village was born.
Another reason, Emily traveled in June, was to lay the ground work for EthiopiaSmile. In the spring of last year, the idea came to return to Ethiopia and use the gift of dentistry to love the people of Ethiopia, God moved in the hearts of over 60 people to join with us. Abe’s ripples just exponentially increased! So this passion for Ethiopia and it’s people reached out to our community.
In October, we visited Dube Bute, Eyasu’s village, we saw the need, we saw the extreme poverty, we saw the lack of clean water, the delapidated schools, the lack of basic health needs. Trusting God to do big things, we partnered with Glimmer to bring hope to Dube Bute.
This journey is a beautiful story of redemption, taking a dear orphan out of a dire situation, using him to inspire a community to make a difference in the lives of people a world away.
P.S. 100% of all donations go directly to projects in Dube Bute. Even the credit card transaction fee is covered by the Glimmer endowment!
