“Love Van” Bound for Ethiopia

UPDATE: Thursday, December 21st, 2006

Dear Friends,

Yesterday we filled the Ethiopian Love Van; and I mean FILLED!!!

Our hallways, conference room, kitchen and part of two storage units were filled! We had to start packing, before we got buried alive. So many of you sent so much! People gathered things from their churches and drove across states to deliver it.  Other people brought their children to give us a hug (our favorite part). Still others arranged their Thanksgiving holiday so that they could stop by our offices with their donations. We unpacked, sorted and repacked for weeks. Even our employees’ parents and spouses helped us. Now I know how Santa’s elves feel.

It was AMAZING how many things we got into the van. We stuffed the formula under the seats (from the coupons and gift certificates we were given)  then loaded the school books, notebooks, pencils, art supplies and other heavy things on the floor. The Bible story felt figures and felt boards were loaded; then hundreds of diapers were packed everywhere.  Next, came the strollers, crutches, bouncy chairs, therapeutic equipment, toys and other big bulky items. Finally, we stuffed in dozens and dozens of bags of wonderful clothing and shoes! I wish you all could have been here to see it. You can see the link to the pictures here! We have also asked our staff to take pictures, when they deliver the van, so that we can share those with you too.

We can’t thank you enough! Trying to feed, educate, clothe, and medicate hundreds of children each year is really difficult!! Especially since they come to us in rags, shoeless, hungry and some very ill.

Next year, we might be able to send a container. The hospital that we are helping to build, needs beds, large equipment — well, everything that a hospital needs! One of our Board members can buy a lot of it at a real deal. I know a container can be very expensive and there is the added problem of moving the items through two countries, but we will pray about it. If any of you have any advice about that, please call us.

There are several boxes left, and I am sure more will come (you can see them in one of the pictures). Since we don’t want to waste a thing, we have already repacked what we have and are going to send a box to every family adopting from Ethiopia, to hand carry when they travel. If you don’t want to do this, please contact Emily at admin@cwa.org, by the 5th of January. Since every adult can take two suitcases, we hope that they will fill one of their suitcases with the donations. Bob is going back to Ethiopia in a couple of weeks, and he is going to hand carry the terrific soccer uniforms and trophies that were sent, so they can have them for the season.

Bless you all and Merry Christmas.

Love from (a tired) Tomilee Harding and your CWA family

P. S. Thank you for the beautiful Christmas cards, we have them up on our bulletin boards and we enjoy them so much!

To donate toward the freight costs of shipping the van to Ethiopia, you can use our secure online donation form at: https://www.cwa.org/DonationForm.aspx