End of the Year Giving...

There is still time to give your end of the year donations to Eyes that See. As long as the envelope is postmarked by December 31st, you will receive tax credit. End of year statements will be mailed out in January.

Eyes That See
2705 Murray Hill Pike
Louisville, KY 40242

Thank you so much to so many of you who have given monetary donations to Eyes That See. We are honored by those of you who have chosen to give to Eyes That See in honor of loved ones for Christmas. It truly is a gift that will keep on giving.

God bless your 2011!

More T-Shirt options....

Sorry for our lack of posts, between being out of town for Christmas for a week and both Matt and my computer acting funny we are a little behind!!

Thanks for your patience. Along with our other shirts, here are two more t-shirt designs for sale.....

Women's scoop neck white t-shirt

Grey Keziah Project t-shirt

Eyes That See T-Shirts!!

The Eyes That See t-shirts are for sale!!!

$15 - plus $4.95 shipping per order

Available in sizes: Adult S, M, L, XL, 2XL, 3XL

Brown Eyes That See Shirt

Green ETS Shirt

For those of you in Eau Claire and surrounding areas orders can be picked up at Valleybrook Church. Shipping Charges do not apply.

To place order, please send email to nikki@eyesthatsee.org with shirt and size plus shipping address or if picking up shirt.

Thank you for your support! The money from these shirts will go to support The Keziah Project.

Check back for new styles soon.

Christmas Wish List

As you are Christmas shopping, I want to invite you to think about buying the twenty students at Project 1 a gift as well.  I talked to Endris, the project manager, and there are three distinct needs the project has to care for these students.

New Uniforms ($10 a piece) Many of these students were amazed that they would be gifted a uniform a few months ago.  They no longer had to wear pants with broken zippers or shirts that didn't fit.  Now, we are looking to buy them a second uniform so their first can not only be washed, but dried, mended and given back to them folded like new.  I cannot wait to see their faces as they are given this gift.  We have twenty students who would love this gift.


10 New Chairs ($30 a piece) We just added ten new students to our project.  Being that we are brand new, this means that they are needing chairs to sit on.  They use these chairs during the tutoring classes and during their meal times.

5 New Desks ($60 a piece) Like the chairs, we are needing desks.  The desks hold two students a piece, so we are only needing five.  When we add these chairs and desks the new students will feel fully engaged and welcome in the project.  We want them to feel safe and at home so that they can learn most effectively.

Thanks for partnering with us in this way.  If you have questions, please contact us or even comment below.

This Sunday!

Hi to all of you in Eau Claire.  Twenty-two inches?  Seriously?

Since you had to have a giant blizzard on our festive "I support Eyes That See" day, we want to let you know that everything is moved to this Sunday.  That means that Infinitea will be hosting the event again for us, t shirts will be for sale at Valleybrook, and Grant plans on dancing from the stage at some point during the announcements in one of the new t shirts.  This will only be at the eleven o'clock service, so make sure you are there.

For all of you not in Eau Claire you can now breathe a sigh of relief you didn't get 22 inches of snow.  More importantly, we will be having t shirts available for sale online.  We will put the designs up soon and you will be able to order by emailing partner@eyesthatsee.org.  Thanks everyone and enjoy the Christmas Season!

How to Get Involved

Hi friends

We wanted to give you a practical breakdown of what your support goes to as you give towards Eyes That See.  Here is a breakdown of ways that you can be a part of what God is doing through Eyes That See.

$7- monthly cost for one student to go to school and have their books provided.

$7- all twenty students receive a tutoring session.  We have four sessions a week.

$10- one month’s worth of meals provided to a student by Eyes That See.  For some of them, these are the only meals they eat.

$15- monthly cost for one woman to attend the hair stylist training.  (Each woman also receives meals, counseling, basic education and support outside of this expense.)

$36- monthly salary of our cook who feeds all the students and women in our program.

$50- monthly cost for utilities for the whole project.

$100- monthly cost to maintain our two buildings.  This includes paint to make the buildings feel more like home.

If you would like to partner in one of these ways with us, please contact us at partner@eyesthatsee.org or (715)529.9162

Infinitea's Support

If you live in Eau Claire, you know how great Infinitea Teahouse is.  Their tea is wonderful and the environment is incredible.  I loved stopping to visit when I lived in Eau Claire.  Whether you are a regular or you have never visited I want to invite you to go to Infinitea this Sunday for their "Valleybrook Charity Event."  They have partnered with Valleybrook Church to have extended hours this Sunday where from 12-5 20% of purchases goes to Eyes That See.  If you are free, please go and support this great business as they support us.  Thanks everyone!

Update on our Stylists

I got an update from Endris this week.  He was writing to us about the women who are getting training at Project 1 and I could wait for you to hear about what is happening.  Here's what Endris wrote.


" As we are starting the programmed we invited some professionals to counsel us on (other) programs that have been conducted on HIV+ and ladies like ours. They told us 50% of them usually drop off after starting the training.

 

After prayer, we admitted 12 women. We did this expecting at least two of them will be lost in the middle.  The amazing fact was none of them, except one of them who was disciplined for 3 absenses,  were unable to continue in the programme.

 

Now we have 11 of them taking the training. 

 

Thank the Lord for that."

There is really nothing different that we are doing here.  For whatever reason, God has chosen to pour His favor on this project and allow us to make a difference on these women's lives in real ways.  We are overjoyed by God's faithfulness being shown here.  Thanks for all of your prayer and support.

Who is Keziah?

"Who is Keziah?  Why did you name this project after her?"  Well, we are glad that you asked.

Many of us know the story of Job.  I cannot imagine having so much taken from me.  When we read Job we see that he remains faithful and everything is restored.  At one quick read it is easy to miss the emotions that he felt.  Sure, we read them, but read them quickly.  I've read his pain as if he only felt it for as long as it took me to read the page.  The truth is, for years Job's life was destroyed.  Then, the Lord restored the fortunes of Job.  Everything that he lost was restored twice as much.  This restoration didn't take the experience away.  Keep in mind, that wasn't God's point.  His new children didn't replace the old.  They didn't wipe away all the pain, but they were God's promise restored.

Job's middle daughter received a name that made it to the pages of Scripture.  Many daughters of the people of faith go unnamed, yet she has a wonderful name.  Her name is Keziah.  Job 42:15 says that "in all the land there were no women so beautiful as Job's daughters."  After all that loss comes Keziah, her beauty, and her full inheritance.  Job lived another 140 years and died "full of days." (Job 42:17)  We don't know much about Keziah's life, but we know that she saw the promise of God fulfilled and saw her family restored.

Our friends in Ethiopia have lost so much.  Some of them lost hope generations ago.  Some never knew their value.  Some lost sight of their worth along the way.  The project that we are beginning over the next few months will diligently work to see this hope restored.  We pray that we will have the honor of hearing these women's stories and seeing God's goodness reshape them in ways that man could never imagine.  We want to stand strong for them and believe when they are too weak to believe for themselves.  We want to cry with them when they first begin to grieve and cry again when they become self sufficient.  We want to see generations live as the "beauty of the land."

We will share this week how we plan on going about this, but we wanted to invite you into the foundation of the project first.   This project begins with the desire to see Keziah's story retold in the lives of our friends. This is a story of redemption, restoration and hope.

The Keziah Project

We are excited to announce our latest project for Eyes That See – The Keziah Project. The heart of this project will be restoring and redeeming the beauty of the women in Ethiopia. Many of these women that will be in this project will be in need of education, hope, love, and discovering their worth in Jesus.

The women will be going through a training process on such things as healthy living skills, basic education, literacy, and finance management. After finishing the life skills training, these women will be able to choose from an assortment of vocational trainings to be taught on site at our facility.

Throughout every stage of this, they will be shown who the Bible says Jesus is and who the Bible says they are through faith in Him.

With this our dream is that these women, many who are coming from a life of prostitution, abusive relationships, or extreme poverty, become self-sufficient followers of Christ.

New Project!

Hey everyone.  We want to invite you to check the blog tomorrow afternoon as we will unveil our new project!  We are so excited to start this over the next few months.  Make sure to check back on Thursday, December 2nd for the second project of Eyes That See.

World AIDS day and why we do what we do.

The tenth student in our program is Efrate. She lost both of her parents last year to HIV/AIDS.  She has no siblings or extended family that would step in for her.  At sixteen she was forced to find work to survive and ended up encountering abuse around every corner.

This story is replayed all too often.  Sometimes we, or a group of people like us, can step in and try to help restore hope to the child impacted by AIDS.  Sometimes the story goes untold.  For Efrate, she is safe now. She is back in school with girls her age.  She is remembering how to smile and laugh as the great staff led by Endris work to help piece her life together again.  She is dreaming of finishing school and having a successful life afterwards.  

AIDS is impacting lives all over.  It has changed the landscape of our family.  It has impacted some of our dear friends.  It has taken lives, weakened immune systems, and is even undetectable in some bloodstreams because of advanced medication.  

Whether you are drawn to our friends in Ethiopia or the many in the US impacted by AIDS, I hope that you pause today and acknowledge the One who is supreme over AIDS, poverty, laziness, and everything else.

May He bless our eyes to see and our ears to hear.