Project 1 student: Yonathan

I only spent about two hours with him.  His story is a difficult one.  His family, consisting of his mother and his brother, is struggling to make it.  Yonathan is an excellent student, but for obvious reasons his mind drifts from school to home all too often.  His teachers were hoping we could help him out so that he could focus on school.  When I met him I just wanted him to be able to be a kid again, or maybe for the first time.

Yonathan is an incredible 13 year old.  If there is anyone at Project 1 who is going to pull a trick on me I am sure it is him.  He loves playing soccer with the other kids and his laugh is contagious.  His eyes have seen a lot of life and they are heavy as if that is true.  Still, his heart is young, pure, and beginning to hope.  He is excelling in the 8th grade and is dreaming of what may be ahead for him.  When we asked him how we could pray for him, he said, "Pray for me to have a successful life and to succeed in school."  I look forward to watching him flourish.  For those of you who have invested in Project 1 so far, I want to thank you for impacting Yonathan.  His life is truly different because you had courage to give.  

Project 1 -Hair Styling School

Here are pictures of the women who are going through the hair styling school in Project 1. There are currently 10 women who wanted to leave their current life of prostitution to discover the plan God has for them.
Through this program they receive counseling, prayer support, hygiene and daily care instruction, daily meals, and a hair styling school.


Because of your financial and prayer support these women are able to discover their God created identity and begin to see what their worth in Jesus is. Just $50 a month supports the needs of one of the women in our program.

There is one thing that sticks with me the most about this group of women. Even though there have probably been times in their lives that they haven't felt all that beautiful, maybe even felt worthless or shameful, they are now choosing to learn to be able to make other women beautiful!!

Here are the winners of the prizes from Eyes That See......


Andy, Hannah, and Elijah Brown - Zebra from Ethiopia

Tim and Jina McCormick - Coffee from Gobena

Lauren Lebsack - Scarf from Ethiopia

Kristy Paulson - not-for-sale-yet Eyes That See t-shirt

Congratulations to our winners!!! Happy Thanksgiving!! Thank you to all of you for your wonderful support and encouragement to Eyes That See.

Drawing today!!

Thank you to all of you who sent us your contact information. You are now officially a part of the Eyes That See data base!!!

The results of the drawing are coming up soon..........


Stay tuned.......

Another gift that you can win.....

So if you've already sent your information to me nikki@eyesthatsee.org than you are entered to win this awesome prize......


1 lb of Fair Trade organic Gobena Ethiopian Coffee from our friends at Gobena. Please check them out to see the good things they are up to!

There's still time to get in on this gift - Thursday (Thanksgiving) is the last day to enter!!!

Thanks to the many of you that have already sent us your information. We are so glad to have you be a part of Eyes That See.

Heading Forward

The past few months have been incredible.  God has shown Himself so faithful in this first project.  The students are learning and growing.  The women are gaining hope and practical training.  We are seeing God's faithfulness as His word is being taught to everyone as they come by choice to learn the Bible on Saturdays.  This is what I want to do with my life.

We are at the point now where the kebele (sub city in Addis) is pleading with our staff to take more students in sponsorship.  The need is so great, and we are feeling led to take this step of faith.  The difficult part, of course, is that this costs more money.  It would cost about another $1,000 a month to bring in more children to this project.

At the same time, we are feeling that in the next few months it is time to open our second project within Addis.  We will spend time describing this in the next week on this blog and in a newsletter.  What we are asking is that you would join us in prayer for these projects.  Pray that God gives us courage to believe the funds will be available to care for His people.  Some of you will be led to give towards these projects.  Some may be called to support monthly, while others will be led to give a one time gift either now or before the year's end.  If that is you, please take courage and believe that He is faithful.  We are praying that God will provide richly in these last six weeks of the calendar year so that the needs of His students and women are met.  If you have questions, please email me at matt@eyesthatsee.org.  Thanks for everything friends.  We are honored to journey this together.

What good could come from this?

Sometimes we wonder what we have to offer.  Most of us our busy.  Most of us feel like our money is tight, our schedule is tight, and our mind is crammed full of things we are already forgetting.  Often we feel like we don't have anything really good to offer, so what is it even worth?
Last September I went to Ethiopia.  Many of you sent money along for our first project.  When I got there, rooms had already been worked on and were looking pretty great.  At the same time, I remember standing there thinking, 'I must be crazy.  Why do you have us doing this God?  What will really come of it?"  I was standing looking at rooms like this trying to imagine ministry happening.

I remember being excited about the new roof, but still wondering what would be able to be done in rooms like this.  I talked with my friend Phil about it and we trusted God would do what He had planned.  Before we left on the last day we got to meet the students at Project 1 and began to see what God would do through everyone's faithfulness.

Since we left so much has happened.  I got an update today that had me crying in Starbucks.  There are now ten women going through life skill and job training at Project 1.  They have had rough pasts and are now given a place to rest, dream, and move forward into what God has for them.  They decided together that they wanted to learn to do hair.  With that in mind, a salon school was started.  Here's one of the photos I received this morning.

Look at how this room is transformed! Look at the potential here!  I'm so grateful to be able to see God's Kingdom moving so powerfully, through very small, and simple things.  Thanks to all of you who are taking part in Eyes That See.  We are praying about expanding this project and will announce our new project next week.  All of this is dependent on God stirring the hearts of His people.  Thanks for joining us in this journey!