May Trip To Ethiopia

This month, I am writing to you from Ethiopia, where I have been since the beginning of June. I love being back in Ethiopia, where so many of my childhood memories were formed. But most of all, I love being able to serve the wonderful people who live here.

This time I am blessed to travel with two of the people who recently joined our board: Nesta Campbell and Ryc Strader. We have been busy helping with the construction of a home for a widow with mossy foot disease and visiting the project clinics.

Birhanesh gets a new home!
One of the ways we minister in Soddo is to partner with local churches and the community to help build homes for impoverished widows with mossy foot disease. Birhanesh desperately needed a new home; in fact her old home had collapsed around her and she had to be rescued from it!

Here I am with Birhanesh and Nesta standing in front of the collapsed house. Birhanesh is raising her hands in praise and thanksgiving for the help she is receiving.

Mossy Foot Project provides metal sheeting for the roof, as well as a door and windows, hardware, and a trained carpenter to direct the construction. The local volunteers provide the poles and mudding and labor to complete the home. 

The new home begins to take shape with a sturdy frame of poles.

After the men put in long hours of labor, the women in the community prepared and served a lunch. We sat on a bench under the shade of a thorn tree and were served boiled beans with corn, corn bread, and salted tea brewed from coffee leaves.

Visiting clinics
Feleke is our wound care specialist. At one time, he also was a mossy foot patient. Now he supervises the workers at the clinic sites as well as treating patients. Because of his own experience, he is full of love and compassion for those he helps.

During our clinic visits, we observed the special care that the patients received. Feleke uses all his skills to help each patient on the path of healing.

One of our greatest needs is ongoing production of shoes for patients whose feet are too large to fit into regular shoes. The picture on the left below is an old, worn pair of the shoes that Mossy Foot Project produces.

Many patients need new shoes like these so that their feet can continue to improve.

Our clinics are in desperate need of shoes so they can be replaced before they get to this condition. We have seen many shoes in this condition at our clinics. If the patients do not have adequate foot protection, their feet soon deteriorate.