Ways to Fulfill a Pledge

Thank you for partnering with us financially. It is because of folks who have made these pledges that we are able to move forward! Some folks have been wondering how to go about fulfilling these pledges. Here are a couple of ways:

1. You can mail in a check. The check should be made out to Lancaster Vineyard Church and mark Ethiopia in the memo line. You can mail the check to Lancaster Vineyard Church, Attn: Ethiopia, PO Box 6101, Lancaster, PA 17607. If you are used to writing checks, this one is the most cost effective on our end.

2. You can give online. On our website you will notice a link that says "Donate Now through Network for Good." By clicking on it you will be able to give either a one time gift or set it up to make a recurring gift.

3. You can also give through paypal (www.paypal.com), through Lancaster Vineyard. Our paypal id is contributions@lancastervineyard.com. Just mark the payment "Ethiopia" in the notes field.

Thank you so much for partnering with us by pledging and for fulfilling your pledge. Because of people like you, together we are able to do together what no one of us can do alone.

We leave November 6th!

We've got the tickets, so we will be moving to Ethiopia on November 6th. We'll depart from Washington DC Dulles and fly to Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. We'll have a 4 hour layover and then go the rest of the way to Addis Ababa.

We've raised 80% of our support via pledges so we felt we could leave, while we'll continue to work at raising the rest of our support.

Ethiopia, here we come!

We're almost there!!! Update on Mission to Ethiopia from jerry shannon on Vimeo.

Preparations

Things are moving!  Yesterday I drove to DC to drop our paperwork off at the Ethiopian Embassy.   I stayed overnight with Christy's aunt and uncle and today drove back to the embassy and everything is in order.  I left with visas in hand!

Its been fun being in DC for the past day.  Everywhere I go I keep bumping into Ethiopian folks.

Today we also hit a bump with our medical insurance because of some tests and symptoms that I had 5 years ago which never diagnosed anything.  However, because of those tests, it made my policy unable to be underwritten with a company.   However, within a couple of hours some folks were able to help me find better coverage for a bit less cost.  We now have medical insurance to cover us in the need of a major medical incident or if we needed evacuated for treatment.

We've found flights for November 6th, but am just waiting to raise the final $700 + of startup funds and $160 in monthly support.  We are so close.  My hope is to buy the tickets by Friday!

Peace!

An unsung hero in Ethiopia

Here is a great article talking about an unsung here named Dr. Catherine Hamlin who has devoted her life to helping young women in Ethiopia.  While this article mentions nothing about faith, it was faith in God that first motivated Catherine and her late husband Dr. Reg Hamlin to move to Ethiopia over 50 years ago.  This wooing of them to Ethiopia is talked about at length in their book, "The Hospital by The River," but was left out of a documentary done by Nova last year titled, "A Walk to Beautiful."   By the way, Dr. Hamlin is now in her 80's and still practicing medicine among the forgotten in Ethiopia.  The article below is from www.nazret.com (10/13/2009).

Ethiopia - Catherine Hamlin should have been awarded Nobel Peace Prize not Obama
Much has been said whether Obama truly deserves the Nobel Peace Prize. Obama is a great communicator but he surely does not deserve the Nobel Peace Prize, for the very simple fact that he has nothing to show for it. The Nobel committee in Oslo may need to pay a visit to Ethiopia, to witness what Dr. Catherine Hamlin has been working tirelessly for over 50 years in Ethiopia, providing free fistula repair surgery to poor women suffering from childbirth injuries. For us Ethiopians, she is a God sent, having changed the lives of so many women. It is way past overdue for the Nobel committee, to stop political posturing and award the prize to deserved individuals like Dr. Hamlin.

Here is a profile of Dr. Hamlin from Wiki
E. Catherine Hamlin, AC (24/01/24) is an Australian obstetrician and gynecologist, the co-founder of Addis Ababa Fistula Hospital in Ethiopia with her late husband Dr. Reg Hamlin. The Addis Ababa Fistula Hospital is the world's only medical center dedicated exclusively to providing free fistula repair surgery to poor women suffering from childbirth injuries. Dr. Hamlin has been recognized by the United Nations agency UNFPA as a pioneer in fistula surgery for her development of techniques and procedures for obstetric fistula treatment.
Most patients are destitute when they arrive and cannot afford to pay for the surgery, so the surgery is provided for free. In addition to the main hospital in Ethiopia's capital, Dr. Hamlin has opened three new Hospitals in the Ethiopian cities of Bahir Dar, Mekele and Yirgalem, and she is opening two more in Harrar and Metu. The Hospital is also a global center of expertise in fistula repair and trains surgeons from around the world. In 2008, the Hospital will move more aggressively into the important area of fistula prevention with the opening of the Hamlin Midwifery College in Addis Ababa. The growing network of Hospitals -- the Hamlin Fistula Hospitals -- and the Midwifery College are supported largely by private donors in Australia, the UK and the United States. The largest of the dedicated support organizations is the Fistula Foundation, located in Santa Clara, California.

Dr. Hamlin was born in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. After graduating from the University of Sydney Medical School in 1946, she (then Catherine Nicholson) took a resident position at the Crown Street Women's Hospital under the medical directorship of Dr. Reginald Hamlin, whom she later married. In 1959, Catherine and her husband traveled to Ethiopia to establish a school of midwifery in Addis Ababa. Fifteen years later, they founded Addis Ababa Fistula Hospital. Dr. Hamlin, her late husband and their team of doctors and staff have treated more than 34,000 women, returning health and dignity to otherwise often forgotten women.

Dr. Hamlin has been awarded honorary fellowships in the medical associations of Australia, England and the United States. In 1995, Dr. Hamlin was awarded Australia's highest honour, being made a Companion of the Order of Australia. She is the author of the best-selling book The Hospital by the River. In 2004, she received the coveted "Best Practices in Global Health Award" from the Global Health Council. She has been described as a modern day "Mother Teresa" in an editorial by Pulitzer Prize winning writer Nicholas Kristof of the New York Times. Also, Dr. Hamlin appeared on the Oprah Winfrey television show in January 2004. The episode was included in Ms. Winfrey's 20-year anthology collection. Ms. Winfrey traveled to the Hospital and filmed another episode for her show, broadcast in December 2005. A new documentary, "A Walk to Beautiful," which features five Ethiopian women who are treated and cured by Dr. Hamlin and her team at the Addis Ababa Fistula Hospital, will air on the PBS show NOVA in Spring of 2008. The film was produced by Engel Entertainment in New York; NOVA and the Fistula Foundation are the largest supporters of the production.

Hope Lives...a challenging read so far!

I started reading a book that I had gotten awhile ago titled Hope Lives. It was written by Amber Van Schooneveld. It is a book with daily readings and now has a kit for churches to walk through over the course of 5 weeks which was written by Rick Olmstead, pastor of the Fort Collins Vineyard.

While I expected it to be challenging, I didn’t expect these words within the first day’s reading. Here is what the author writes,

“Sure, I grew up pinching pennies, but I was always well-fed; it was always and expectation that I would go to college, get a good job with health benefits, buy a house. Far from the despair reigning in certain pockets of the world, my industrialized world and I are thriving. We have more material wealth than any other generation in history. I drive down the street and see huge hospitals and hulking high schools; I see homes squatting like hotels; I see megacorps and megamalls and megachurches. My church buddies and I are thriving, too - we have our many church meetings, our building campaigns, our community outreaches playing Frisbee at the park with Starbucks afterward.

Put simply, we are prospering. But never able to leave well enough alone, I still can’t help but wonder, as I sip Starbucks on an easy Sunday afternoon: Is this pleasing God? Is this his vision of what his world should look like?”

I guess that’s the question that Christy and I first started asking a while ago - “is the way we’re living pleasing God?” I believe that’s a question God desires us to be asking - “Does my current lifestyle bring You pleasure, or is my current lifestyle designed to bring pleasure to myself? I love the fact that this author started asking that question. May all of us find ourselves in that same spot of asking the question, “Is this pleasing God?” as we look at every area of our lives, habits, churches and culture - especially as we remember God’s heart for the poor as we find ourselves surrounded by affluence.

This question is one that God answers. The author goes on to share Isaiah 58. When you get a chance, check it out, and may God use it to challenge each of us in what is pleasing to Him.

We've moved...Another step closer

On Tuesday evening we loaded up a moving truck and headed off to Christy's parents in Hollidaysburg (just outside of Altoona, PA) where we will stay until we leave for Ethiopia. It was a good move, but we are beat. Many thanks to Jason, Kirsten, Dave, Darice, Matt and Jim who all gave us their hands, feet and backs in loading the truck. Also thanks to Sonya and Ann-Marie who helped us with the final clean of the house that took most of the day on Wednesday.

Thursday we got everything stored at Christy's parents. At first I was hoping that we could leave right away for Ethiopia, but now when I see how tired we are after having pushed so hard for the past couple of months, I am glad to have some refocus and gear up time. We'll have a couple of weeks ahead of us of planning, schooling, packing and continuing to raise support from here.

Our hope is to leave by the end of October. Before we can leave we need to raise about another $550 in monthly support and approx $2500 in one time gifts. Altogether we need to raise about another $1,100 in monthly support to be fully funded. (to date we've raised over $1,900 in monthly support). If you've been thinking about supporting us and just haven't gotten around to it, there are a couple of ways you can. You can click the Donate Now button on the right column or you can send a check to LVC, Box 6101, Lancaster, PA 17607. Please mark on the check, ETHIOPIA and if you are planning on sending it monthly, please put a little note in there to let the folks who record it know. If it is a monthly pledge, could you also drop me an email at shannonjerry@gmail.com so I can keep tracking our pledges here?

So, it feels like we are moving closer...still not quite close enough to leave...but hope to share that date with you very soon!

Thanks so much for your continued support, love, prayers and encouragement!