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.

What if I don't know much about Ethiopia?

I have met several people lately who feel embarrassed that they don't know much about Ethiopia.  There is no reason to be embarrassed.  The beauty of living now is that we can begin to learn so much so quickly.  If you want some quick facts that can help you begin to understand this country I recommend going to BBC Africa.  Here's a link to quick facts about Ethiopia.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/country_profiles/1072164.stm

I hope this helps!