Tuesday, November 26, 2013

Computer for College

Electronics are VERY expensive in Ethiopia. The government taxes 100% on certain items like cars and electronics. Because of this owning a computer is an extreme luxury that many cannot afford. One of our sponsored families is in college. She is studying engineering and is in her last year. She told Monte when he was there in September, that it will be very hard to complete her college degree without a computer. With this decree, the cycle of poverty can come to an end for this three generation family that lives in a 8x10 one room house.

This week we are going to raise money for a computer for B. We have so much to be thankful for this Holiday season and if you feel led, we would love to have you join us in blessing B with a brand new computer!

The computer will be bought on Black Friday, but we will continue to raise support for it through the end of December (or until sufficient funds are raised). There is a Paypal donate link on the right hand side of the blog labeled "Computer for "B"".  

Thursday, October 17, 2013

KIDS 4 KORAH

We are in the midst of planning a dinner and silent auction for December.
 
In preparation of the event, the Alexander kids came up with a great idea to help make money for Korah! They have been creating bracelets nonstop this week.



The originally thought was to sell them at the fundraiser, but a friend on Facebook bought 4 as soon as we posted a picture of them making them. That gave us an idea...

We are going to sell them to EVERYONE in hopes that this bracelet will bring awareness for the people living in Korah.

We suggest a donation of $1 per bracelet and adding a $1 per order for shipping. If there is a color scheme you would like, let us know!

Donate through the link below! Don't forget to let us know how many and what colors you would like.
 
THANK YOU!

 


Wednesday, September 25, 2013

He was changed...

Hi, my name is Isaac and I just turned 12 years old. I am the oldest of eight kids. Five of them were born in Ethiopia.


My parents started a nonprofit to help the families that live in Korah, Ethiopia. The people there dig through the trash dump for food. We help 49 families through monthly sponsorship, so they don’t have to eat the food they find in the dump. I recently took my first missions trip with my dad and brother to visit our sponsored families in Korah.
 

Many of the people that live there have Polio, TB, crippled and leprosy. It was a little scary seeing people with missing fingers and legs (from leprosy), but I got used to it quickly because it was everywhere. The people are kind and their smiles are real.

One of the sponsored families that we visited really spoke to my heart. He is very crippled from polio. He has to use shoes on his hands, because he uses his hands and feet to walk. He doesn’t let being crippled stop him though. His dream is to own a small business making furniture. He wants to work to provide for his family. So many of the stories are similar to his, but his inspired me.


Being with the people in Korah taught me a lot of things. They taught me to always have hope. They have nothing and live beside a trash dump, but they still have dreams. They taught me that I need to be grateful for the things I take for granted. Clean water, fresh food and a warm dry house are things that they don’t have, but I have them without even thinking about it. My parents live simply so they can give and now I really understand why.  




Friday, September 20, 2013

Through the eyes of a child...

Hi! My name is John and I am 10 years old. I was able to go to Ethiopia with my dad and older brother, Isaac. Five of my brothers and sisters are from there and I was excited to see their birth country for the first time.
 
We went to Korah. It is a trash dump in the capital city, Addis Ababa. The people that live there pick through the trash for their food. They also get things from the trash to sell. It was sad to me and very different from America.
 
 
We went during the rainy season and it rained a lot. Most of the streets are dirt turned mud and the puddles were green. I don’t know why they were green, but I am guessing it is because of the trash and pollution.
 
 
 The houses were small one room homes. Almost all of them only had one bed and a couch. Most had mud floors and torn up roofs that the rain would leak through. The nice houses out were made of cow poop. The other houses were made out of only blankets. Because it was the rainy season it was cold (Korah is about 7,000 ft above sea level). I don’t know how they stayed warm at night.
 
 
The people that lived there were happy. They smiled a lot. When we visited them, they gave us food (popcorn and bananas) and Buna (coffee). The kids loved my blond hair and touched it all day long.  I made many friends that I will never forget.
 

 They taught me that I should be more thankful than I am.  They taught me that I don’t need as much as I have. They taught me that loving others can make a huge difference.
 




 I miss it there and I can’t wait to go back!

Thursday, July 18, 2013

27 Days Ago...

This post was written by a dear friend of one of our board members. She was recently in Ethiopia and visited Korah. I (Tisha) asked her if she would be willing to share her experience with us. She agreed...
 
27 days ago my heart changed forever.  I cannot type this without crying.  My kids want to know what is wrong.  How could I tell an 8 and 5 year old?  I couldn't.  Not yet anyway.  I need to do this.  I need to share what God allowed me to experience, but it's just so hard.  Just keep typing.....just keep typing.....just keep typing. 
 
27 days ago my husband and I and a team from our church had the privilege of visiting Korah.  And I do mean it was a a privilege from the deepest part of my heart.  I think everyone should have to go there.  You'll never see such love and loss in the same place anywhere else.  If I were a believer in this type of event, I'd be certain I had an out of body experience and then just returned home, trying to process what dream or other reality I just awakened from.  But I don't believe in that type of thing.  I know for certain I was in Korah by God's ordinance and he used that/is using that in His people for His glory.  We were truly there, no matter how foreign it seems.  My mind and heart are still there all the time.
 
27 days ago I saw things that I knew existed.  I'd read about them.  I'd seen pictures of them on the internet.  Did that prepare me?  Not in the least.  There's an area in my heart that couldn't be touched through pictures and words as it was through the touch of those people and through the contact made with my tear-filled eyes and through the biggest smiles you've ever seen.  Through the touch of a leper's hand.  My heart longs to see them again.  Truly longs.
 
When Tisha asked me if I'd like to share about my time in Korah, I immediately thought to myself, "no way."  I didn't want to make myself think in depth about any of it or try to share it.  It's very hard.  Maybe hard isn't exactly the right word.  It's deep.  It's vulnerable.  I'd never want to give the impression that I wish I hadn't gone there.  It's quite the opposite.  Hang in there as I attempt to give you a small glimpse of my experience, and it is small.  I won't go into everything.  We were only there for about an hour and a half or so.  It doesn't matter.  It could've been 5 minutes or 5 days.  I lost all sense of time while there.  All sense of many things for that matter.
 
As we walked through the mud alleys of Korah, it was the most surreal I've ever felt.  Sometimes I still ask myself, "did I really go there and see what I saw?  Are those really human beings on Earth that I saw living like that?  Is that real?  Those are human beings!  How can this be?!?!"  We went with Pastor Tesfaye into the church.  It's about the size of an average American living room and about 250 people go there each week to worship.  He's telling us his story of how he grew up there and how he ministers there now.  It's a testimony I'm not at liberty to share with you, but I pray someday he does share it with everyone.  It's something to be heard to say the least.  It starts to rain hard, or at least it sounds hard on the tin roof, so we move into a smaller room where they teach the children.  We then go to a couple of homes in Korah to deliver care packages. 
 
The first family we deliver them to is a husband, wife, and daughter.  He is blind, but Tesfaye tells him about each item in the bags.  You can see the gratefulness in all of their hearts.  The smiles are contagious.  All of the children around us holding onto us are tugging at areas in my heart that I didn't know existed.  We walk to the next home to take packages to a teenage girl and her parents.  I cannot hold it together.  I'm crying so hard and trying so hard to hold it back, but I can't.  A young man that lives there grabs me and tells me it's going to be ok.  They're going to be ok.  I'm going to be ok.  The teenage girl is also so grateful. 
 
We go into a home.  The home is very small, and there are 20-30 people living in it.  It is as dark as night in there.  There is one small bulb trying to give light, but struggling greatly.  As my husband and I and a few other people go in, it is tight quarters to say the least.  There are 2 twin sized mattresses that each sleep 4 people curled up each night.  I can still see it all so clearly in my mind.  There's an elderly woman sitting on one of the mattresses.  She keeps looking at me.  She stares at me and pats the bed next to her.  She wants me to sit with her.  I sit next to her and she embraces me and we just sit there together.  She looks at me as to say, "it's ok."  Here are people who have no earthly hope, only eternal hope.  Here are people just trying to exist, not even stay afloat.  Here they are and they're telling me it'll be ok?!?!  What a gift.  What a humbling gift.  As I'm sitting with her, I look on the floor and there's a boy lying under a blanket.  Our eyes meet and he sits up.  He takes one hand out from under the cover.  He grabs my hand with it to say hello.  His hand is burning hot.  I am certain he is very ill with some disease and the nurse in me wants to take care of him.  The mother and heart in me wants to lie next to him and hold him.  As our eyes adjust to the light, or darkness rather, more and more eyes and faces appear in this room.  We can't believe how many people are crammed into this home along with their very few belongings. 
 
As we are leaving Korah, we have a following of many people and children.  I didn't want to leave.  I wanted to stay and talk to them.  I wanted to ask the woman that I sat with on the bed many questions.  I wanted to ask her how she does it.  How does she feel such rejection and abandonment and still smile and embrace others.  How did she minister to my heart when I'm the one who "has it all?"  She has nothing in the world's eyes.  Less than nothing.  But she has a peace like no other.  It can only be from God and I pray she knows Him intimately.
 
God has taken me through very rough waters and valleys in my short 35 years.  I've lived through years of abuse, abandonment, drug and alcohol issues.  We went through an illness last year with our youngest that could have taken her life.  I've been through rough stuff.  My very short time in Korah is right up there with the roughest things God has ever brought me through.  Except this won't go away.  This pulls at my heart several times each day and I praise God for it.  Praise Jesus that I got to see this.  Praise Jesus that we can minister to these people and they to us.  Praise God.
 
27 days ago my heart changed.  It wont' be the same from here on out.  I long to see those people again.  I long to do something to further the kingdom of God in Korah.  I will be with many of those people someday again.  I pray the Lord takes our family back there again someday for His glory.  I know one thing for sure.  Someday we will look right into the very face of Jesus and praise Him and my brothers and sisters in Korah will be next to me.  I won't long for them to have hope anymore.  I won't long to change their lives anymore.  There will be a new Heaven and a new Earth.  Praise God that this is not our forever home.  
 
Thank you for allowing me to share my heart for Korah with you.  You wouldn't know it by this post, but I'm one of the funnest people you'd ever meet:)  Please pray for these peoples' hearts.  Many of them know the Lord, but many do not.  Praise God for Pastor Tesfaye who constantly reaches out to them.  Thank you thank you thank you.
~Sallie Smith

Monday, June 17, 2013

hygiene and medical supplies for Korah

*** THIS FUNDRAISER IS NOW OVER ***

If you lived on less than a $1 per day, you wouldn't have the luxury of buying things like, deodorant, soap, Band-Aids or shampoo. Not having proper hygiene can result in many different medical issues. That is the reason we have started this fundraiser. To bring hygiene and medical items to our friends in Korah!

We have a team going to Korah at the end of August and we would like to bring over the toiletry and medical supplies that they need. The church there has ample room to store everything, so we would like to bring over as much as we can.

If you are not local... you can still get involved! We have a donate button on the top right of the blog. If you would rather donate with a check, just email us at aheartforkorah@gmail.com and we will give you our mailing address. We have a friend who is donating her time and couponing talent to get as much as she can at a ridiculously low price, making your dollar go further!

100% that is donated will be used to buy the supplies. We have a donor that will cover all Paypal's fees.

If you are local and want to drop things off, please email us and we can arrange that!

We continue to be humbled by the outpouring of love and support from people all over the world! Thank you! We currently have 35 families sponsored on a monthly basis and we will be adding 15 new families to the blog in the next week.

"Anyone who has two shirts should share with the one who has none, and anyone who has food should do the same." Luke 3:11

Monday, April 8, 2013

Rainy Season Fundraiser

THIS FUNDRAISER HAS ENDED! We are so thankful for the $2,000 that was donated!

The rainy season in Ethiopia starts around the 2nd week of June. It'll last for 2 months. Two long months. Some of the families living in Korah only have blankets draped over wood for protection. That is their home. Their only protection from the rain and cold. I honestly can't explain it as well as the pictures do. Take some time to look at the pictures below...




Can you imagine? These blankets are going to get wet and start leaking into their homes. That means their dirt floors will be mud. They will be cold and more susceptible to sickness. Breaks. My. Heart.

Addis Ababa is 7,500 feet above sea level. It gets in the low 50s at night.  I was there during the rainy season in 2009 and I was chilly the whole time. Keep in mind I was staying in a nice hotel.

These families need more things for the rainy season. More things they can't afford. This fact has been on my heart since we started this ministry.

Here are the things they need more of:

Charcoal~ $15 for a large bag
Plastic~ $8-10 each
Coffee~ $5-6 for 2 pounds















They also need nice blankets to keep warm. Those are $20-25 each.

If you would like to help A Heart For Korah get these supplies in Ethiopia, please click on the donate button on the right side of our blog. 100% of the money raised will go directly to Ethiopia. A donation of any amount is welcomed and appreciated!

If you have any questions, please contact us at aheartforkorah@gmail.com.

“Anyone who has two shirts should share with the one who has none, and anyone who has food should do the same.” Luke 3:11