Derartu
This Christmas there were so many hilights that it's hard to know where to start, but one thing that surfaced the day after boxing day as I reflected over the holiday festivities while sipping my morning coffee was memory of the way we introduced Derartu to our family.
It was part of my hope that this Christmas we could begin a new family tradition to help keep us focused on the real reason for the season. I was delighted that everyone went along with it! At my request, the formal tree in the living room did not have any gifts underneath it. It had only a wooden cradle and to be placed inside it, I invited the family to write out their gift for Jesus. Then we gathered around and shared from our hearts, what we gave and why. Not all the family was present, and for some, this will be their glimpse at how my Christmas wish turned out. Even my sister Lark, who came with her son Ryan to join us for Christmas dinner, submitted her gift which was a written pledge of service that she intends to do this year. Thanks, Lark - it was a blessing to read what you want to do to help others! The family had decided to scrap the 'Gift Exchange Game' this year that we traditionally have done for the past 10 years or so. Instead, they each contributed the $10 gift amount towards purchasing a goat for a needy family in Burundi. The goat project is one of the 2010 Rice Raiser Campaign projects through FH Canada partners. It has a $3 - $1 CIDA matching grant. So, that goat gift will multiply to become 4 goats for four families. This is truely a gift that will provide a step up out of the severest poverty level for families and it is a pepetuating gift because when the goat has kids (usually they have two sets a year) one of the babies from the first set goes to another family. 
I was thrilled! Papa Mike had also purchased a goat for each of his 10 children/stepchildren so that means that all together, our family have purchased 12 + goats which multiplied by the CIDA grant will equal 49 goats! Forty nine families will now recieve this wonderful gift of a goat which will include vet care, training in goat care, composting, gardening, nutrition and so much more! Thank you family!! This remote area in Burundi will be impacted tremendously through these animals!
So, I invited the kids to share about their gifts to Jesus.
April shared that her gift began at her Dec. 9th birthday. When she was asked what she wanted for her birthday, she thought, considering all the blessings that she has, she really doesn't NEED anything. She expressed that instead of 'things' April would like to know that children are being fed and mothers who presently struggled to provide for them are able to care for their children. So she took her birthday money and gave it to purchase a goat for a family in Burundie. "I've always wanted to buy a goat!" April said. That is what spurred the rest of the kids to donate their $10 towards purchasing another goat. Then Grandma said she wanted to match that goat with yet another!!
Pam shared that she felt so blessed that God had given her and Sean baby Jack that her gift to Jesus would be to be the very best mother she could be to Jack because she realized that Jack was entrusted to her care, but he belongs to God first.
Randy and I then shared about our gift to Jesus. We are sponsoring an 11 yr. old Ethiopian girl named Derartu. We had the privelege of meeting her when we were there in November.
I had asked the FH Ethiopia staff if they could help me write a children's story about the life of a typical little village girl. The next morning at 7:00 am they took us to Derartu's home. We watched as Derartu made their morning coffee. Since her mother works long hours all day, Derartu is responsible to help cook the meals and clean the house. She is very adept with lighting the fire and cooking! Her mother goes to farmers, purchases vegetables from them and then sells them in the market place twice a week. Other than that, she helps in the fields or wherever she can find work.
We arrived at their place just after the sun rose. Derartu's brother had already gone to the village well to fetch water in their 5 gallon yellow plastic container that was a commonly seen throughout the whole region. Derartu's father was killed two years around in an uprising. I can't imagine what this young girl witnessed, but whatever it was, the desire to become a doctor was seeded in her. I was astounded to hear that, because there isn't even a high school in their village. Her older brother is 14 years old and since the family can't afford to buy the books and send him away to live in a village where there is a high school, he stays at home and repeats the grade he just passed. 
Derartu has watched her brother's frustration and to ensure that the same fate doesn't happen to her, she has looked for ways to earn money for herself. While helping her mother glean in other farmer's fields, she gathered some barely and ground it. Then, as she accompanied her mom to Saturday market, she sold the ground barley and purchased a chicken with the money. She intends to repeat this and purchase more chickens. Eventually she'll purchase goats and so on until she has the money to go to high school and somehow even university so that she can become a doctor. What an amazing young gal! The FH Ethiopia staff told Randy and I that this family has just been registered with their child sponsorship program. Well you know that we could not resist the wonderful opportunity to enter her life and sponsor her. What a great privelege to know that as a result of our sponsorship, she will be able to go to highschool. Not only that, but she'll be able to recieve medical care if ever needed as a result of the sponsorship and she and her family will not go hungry!!
At the end of the same day that we visited Darartu and her family, we were traveling back to the FH Ethiopia compound and who should we meet along the road, but Derartu and her mother loaded down with wood on their backs. Fuel for their cooking fire. What a hard life they lead! As I sipped my morning coffee and thought more about Derartu, it dawned upon me that perhaps Derartu is alread being a doctor though she doesn't even realize it. She is doctoring me and my confused perspective of 'needs' vs 'wants', through her life. Her 'needs' - just for daily survival, diminish my 'needs' and most certainly, when I stop to put thins into this perspective, disinigrate my 'wants'. I hope that through our relationship that will develop through letter writing, my greed will be medicated and that I will be able to care more about giving to others than wanting for myself. And, when you come to think about it...there is no doctor in our family yet...Derartu, I hope and pray that we can somehow help you attain your most excellent life goal of becoming a doctor...and along the way, you'll be adminstering healthy doses of selfishness prevention to us.
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