Challenges & Issues

There are several challenges and issues facing the FH/E CHH program.

• Office evacuation from the current space: The government has provided the current office space for the last 3 years, however due to a shortage of offices we were told to move. We moved to 2 spaces because we couldn’t find a single space large enough. Consequently, the children do not have adequate play ground space. Also, the staff has not been able to focus on their normal activities while looking for new spaces.
  

• Impediment of legalizing the land process of Melkete:
  The legalization of Melkete’s land is still not finalized. The government needs to demarcate her land by putting a stone to show how much land she is given. She will legally own the land once this is done. Tilahun, a social worker, is patiently and diligently working to finalize this process.

Melkete

• Alemtsaye is facing a spiritual oppression:
  Alemtsaye is facing several challenges because of her spiritual oppression. This has caused her to miss 2 consecutive weeks of school, as well as causing her to try to hurt herself and others. Her close friend, Tseganesh, tries to protect her. The house she lives in does not allow her to attend church easily and she needs to go to church so that she may come to know Jesus and grow in Christ. Alemtsaye’s guardian needs encouragement to come to Christ in order to positively affect Alemtsaye’s faith base.

Alemtsaye

Please lift these challenges up to the Lord and pray He will help us to overcome them.

We have updates from Zeway!

We have many updates we’d like to share with you and will be posting them over the next few weeks. We thought we would start off with Prayer requests.

Prayer Requests

• Pray for the leaders in ZECF (Zeway Evangelical Church Fellowship) to give them strong focus on the first round of training on “God, the poor and the church” so that they may implement it in their respective churches.
• For Waqo Tunie as he has found himself in a very desperate situation and feels a deep sense of loneliness in his social interactions. Please lift him up in your prayers so he may be comforted and that the Lord will help him overcome this difficult situation.
• Pray for Alemtsehay to be freed from Satan’s oppression and possession.
• Pray for Demelash Beshir who is newly included in CHH (Child Head of Household). His mother died recently and he is experiencing much grief and suffering. He lives with his sister and three brothers and is currently the orphan head of household. Please also pray for his salvation.

Stay tuned for more updates & photos in the coming days.

Materials from Ethiopia and Development 101 Event

For those of you able to make it to last Saturday's Ethiopia and Development 101 event, you got to experience an incredible education! Andrew Simons, program director for FH Ethiopia, shared a wealth of knowledge on living and working in Ethiopia, international development, the plight of Ethiopian orphans, and much more. Below are the materials he shared with us, in case you want to learn more...

Ethiopia Presentation
Logical Framework for Orphan Project in Zeway
Ethiopia Test Questions

International Development 101: A Special Ethiopia Event

Bridges of Grace is hosting a special event on Saturday January 9th (1pm-4pm, Grace Covenant Church) featuring Andrew Simons, Ethiopia Program Director with Food for the Hungry International (FH). Andrew, who holds a Harvard graduate degree in international development, is in Texas for the holidays and will be speaking on:

- Holistic community development – how FH partners with local church, government, education, and community leaders to bring about physical, spiritual, emotional, and intellectual development to the world’s most needy;
- Ethiopia and Africa-specific development efforts – how FH (one of the most active and longest-serving Christian relief and development organizations working in Africa) is dealing with the AIDS crisis, the tsunami of orphans created by AIDS, and much more; and
- The Zeway, Ethiopia Orphan-Headed Household partnership – details on how Grace Covenant and other local Austin churches are partnering with FH and Christian churches in Zeway to support 300 orphans and to engage in holistic community development in Zeway.

Join us for an interactive dialog and discussion with local Austin pastors, lay leaders, and others who are working to develop their missions and global service programs, to learn more about what God is doing in Africa, and to hear expertise and stories from the front lines in Ethiopia.

If you plan to attend, please RSVP to hrbauer22@yahoo.com. Snacks and drinks will be provided. Please feel free to share this invitation with others!

November report from FH Ethiopia!

Here is the first report we have received from FH Ethiopia. It is full of wonderful updates, prayer requests, and continued evidence of God's work in Zeway. Please click below to be taken to the document for a wonderful read:

Zeway Partnership Report - November 2009 PDF document

The FH team in Zeway has included the following new prayer requests, so we ask that you join us in praying for these needs (note that “CHH” is their term for “child-headed household”):

• For Lidiya Ashebir and her siblings. She is facing a big life challenge as a girl living with HIV/AIDS worsen her situation, so please prayer for hope and purpose in her life.
• For Alemtsehay to be free from devil oppression and possession
• For Rukia Berisho so that she may not feel hopelessness in her current situation
• Grace to relate to and influence CHH for the kingdom of God
• Recruitment of two social workers
• Commitment of Zeway church fellowship for care and support of CHH and their siblings
• Better Zeway metro- weather for crop production
• The coming Ethiopian election at the end of May

Welcome Prayer Partners!

Thank you for checking out the Zeway update blogsite. This blog will be a private blog, accessible to only prayer partners and donors, to learn more about the progress of the Zeway partnership. There will be at least monthly updates from the Zeway staff that will be posted on this site. Prayer requests will also be updated regularly.

For this blog to be of best use to the Zeway partners, we are asking you to subscribe to blog feeds. If you do this, you will receive an email notification that the blog has been updated. You can then follow the link provided and read the latests from Zeway.

To the right of this post, you will see a space that allows you to subscribe to this blog. We hope you choose to do this!

This blog will serve as a communication tool between the orphan heads of households in Zeway, Ethiopia and sponsors in the USA.