MEET MORNING LIGHT
(Addis Ababa, Ethiopia)
As the sole income provider for her family of eight, Shitu worked hard to earn money. Shitu made injera, a non-sweet pancake-like bread Ethiopians eat with meals, to sell each day. But she barely earned enough to scrape by. Without electricity, Shitu relied on the traditional way to prepare injera—wood and eucalyptus tree leaves. Whenever Shitu cooked the injera, her small mud house filled with smoke. The scent dominated the mud hut night and day and created family problems.
Her two teenage sons couldn’t tolerate the smoke and left home in search of work. Another son stopped attending school because he was teased for smelling like smoke. But if Shitu stopped making injera, she didn’t have another way to earn money.
Through a local government organization, Shitu was introduced to Morning Light. Shitu wanted to continue her injera business so Morning Light helped Shitu connect to the electrical power grid and purchase an electric griddle to use in cooking injera. Additionally, Morning Light provided Shitu’s children with uniforms, bags, and other supplies so they could fit in among their peers at school.
Since her encounter with Morning Light, Shitu’s life isn’t hazy, but filled with hope. Shitu’s family can eat three meals a day, her son returned to school, the rest of her kids attend school, one teenage son came back home, and they purchased a bed for the children. Shitu’s family is rising out of poverty and on the path of self-sufficiency.
Morning Light provides child education, helps empower women, and brings health services to the needy, serving 243 widows, single mothers, and orphans in the slums outside Addis Ababa.
GOD PROVIDED MORE WORKERS
This past year Morning Light secured five full-time employees and three part-time works to better serve participants in the ministry through Oakseed giving.
PRAY
Pray that students will come to faith in Jesus, glorify God in their studies, and be equipped to secure jobs when they grow up. Also, pray for parents to experience transformed hearts and lives as they hear the gospel.
PARTNER
In addition to prayer, here are tangible ways to provide for Morning Light as they minister to their community:
- School supplies: This gift provides a backpack and school supplies to an impoverished child. This gift allows a child to participate in school and also provides dignity in front of peers.
- Food and medical supplies: The students at Morning Light don’t have secure access to food or medical care. Often their families lack the funds to provide daily meals to every member of the family. Your gift will ensure a child has nutritious food and receives basic medical care.
- Stipend and bus vouchers: Volunteer tutors travel by public transportation to visit impoverished children to help with classwork because many parents are unable to assist their child. Your gift will provide a stipend and bus voucher for tutors.
- Income-generation training and business loans: Morning Light provides training and small business loans to impoverished women. Previous recipients are now providing for their families and selling clothing or food at the market.
- Where most needed: Your gift will minister to impoverished women and children.