Biruk's Egg Project: A History and a Request

Two years ago our family started out on what seemed like a simple mission project: to buy a small number of laying hens, to provide those eggs to customers in exchange for donations, and to send those donations to a mission in Wuchale, Ethiopia, where two of our sons were born.

God always has bigger plans.

A History

Following their adoption in October 2013, Biruk and Tadesse frequently expressed concern about kids from their hometown of Wuchale. It was then that Biruk came up with the idea for the egg project, and life hasn't been the same since in the Van De Stroet home.

Grandma and Grandpa Van De Stroet donated a small old shed for our first chickens.

At first we laughed and thought we were overwhelmed with eggs.

Still, we found ourselves getting more and more chickens in order to satisfy the demands for farm fresh eggs.













Shortly thereafter, Biruk and I began speaking to local groups and churches about his vision to help children in Wuchale. Our mission became threefold:

1. To provide assistance to the EECMY mission in Wuchale through donations and sponsorships, but also to empower residents of Wuchale to build their own means of supporting themselves.

2. To educate others about the differences between first and third world countries.

3. To motivate others—no matter their age—to make a positive difference to those living in poverty, remembering that God can turn small offerings into big blessings (and those blessings flow in both directions).

Following a trip to Wuchale by our Ethiopian friend Abel, we were able to identify the EECMY mission there as a viable conduit for our funding and purpose. Already established in Wuchale, our new friend and missionary Melaku had plans in place to help the community, and he identified a number of ways Biruk's Egg Project could assist. Biruk decided that he most wanted the funding to go toward helping kids who were in need.

Individual sponsorships began. Sponsorships provided educational materials, food allowances, clothing allowances, and medical care. Later we also added general food assistance to the community because it was experiencing a drought.

While sponsorships were getting started, word spread about the project. Interest grew, and our flock of hens grew. What started out as fifteen minutes of washing eggs at the kitchen sink soon turned into an hour, and we began egg subscription services and weekly deliveries to Canton, SD residents and businesses.

We began looking for a small commercial egg washer and after a number of months found one made at Gibson Farms in Ohio. This sure beat washing eggs by hand! We also found someone willing to sell a used Pepsi cooler so we would have adequate space to refrigerate the growing number of eggs.

In the meantime, we knew and understood our responsibility for fiscal accountability, so we asked our friend and social worker Meselu to travel from Addis Ababa to Wuchale to check on the work that the mission was doing. Meselu, who has such a gentle heart for kids and our project, was able to meet Melaku and a few kids supported by our project.

What a joy it is to us to see videos of the kids sponsored by your donations to this project!


Meselu was able to visit with Tadesse and Biruk's Ethiopian mom Alem as well, and Melaku had been able to visit with Alem earlier. She gave her life to Christ during that meeting! Alem is doing fine, and we look forward to seeing her again.

Because of the incredible demand for eggs, we added another small henhouse, then eventually remodeled a larger shed to accommodate a large number of hens. Today we have 600-700 hens. (No one has volunteered to count them for an exact number.) Now we collect 40-45 dozen eggs per day, which is enough to fill a regular kitchen's refrigerator every single day.

Biruk does not handle the chores. It is beyond the amount of time and strength he has. (Don't tell him that last part.) In the summer Tadesse and Elijah feed the chickens (It's better than lifting weights, we say), Jerome and extended relatives do upkeep on the buildings and nests, and I collect and wash the eggs. Biruk continues to act as spokesperson and as biggest motivator to us all.

Sponsorship has expanded to include a new group of high school students, and we are excited to start a new initiative for Biruk's Egg Project. Melaku recommended that we buy hens for our sponsored kids' families as a means for food for themselves as well as a means of income. This picture speaks for itself, doesn't it?

We have learned so much—about chicken raising, of course—but more so about the tremendous support of our community and about the way blessings have a way of flowing backwards. We intended to be a blessing to others but wound up being amazed by God's perfect timing, the willingness of His people, and the perseverance of our brothers and sisters in Christ halfway around the world.

Our days are full. Our cup is overflowing. Our God is good.

A Request

A few people have asked how they can help besides subscribing, and we have the following ideas:

• Pray for the project's mission, and the children, families, and mission staff in Wuchale.
• Spread the word about the project. Our best marketing comes from our subscribers who tell their extended families, friends, and neighbors. Ask us for some business cards for you to hand out to interested people.
• Keep your eyes peeled for another large pop cooler for sale and let us know if you see one.
• Volunteer to be an egg washer occasionally. This job takes one to two hours per day and allows your to get your feet wet--and your hands dirty--with our project.
• Be a church coordinator and gather subscriptions from your church. We can deliver there and you can collect donations for the project.
• If you have experience in marketing, entrepreneurship, law, chicken farming, or ministry, volunteer to be an advisor for our project. Sometimes we have questions that we would like to bring up among a group of interested experts.
• Volunteer to deliver eggs to your place of work or a community you visit weekly. 
• Volunteer to deliver eggs to Canton subscribers occasionally (time commitment: three hours).

We are thankful to you because our egg project would not be successful without you.  Message us if you have questions about the project. We would love to give you more information.

Don't forget to follow us on Facebook!

Watch a KDLT video about the project.

**UPDATE: In 2017 we established a board of directors and were granted 501(c)(3) status through the IRS, which enables our subscribers and friends to donate money that is deductible on their income taxes. Our sponsorship numbers increased to 76. With any extra eggs we have, we support other nonprofits in our area.

Knowing Renato

His name is Renato, and he was three years old. His eyes radiated joy, and for my daughter who has spent the last two months in Haiti, he symbolized love as he daily reached his arms to her and said, "Big hug!"

Renato died last night on his way to the hospital, in the arms of his young nurse. Renato was an orphan but is now standing next to his Father, at the throne of God, impoverished no more. Renato's life was not in vain.

When you complain about wait times in your doctor's waiting room, I want you to think about the many Haitian children who die because they don't even have access to simple medical care. When you hug your children at night, remember to count yourselves blessed. When you lift up the handle on your faucet and fill up your glass, think of the millions of people around the world who have no access to clean drinking water. Count your blessings, but don't stop there. Find a mission and commit yourself to contributing to it and praying for it.

Don't feel guilty. Do something.

"Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.
Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth.
Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.
Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy.
Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God.
Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God."
--Matthew 5: 3-9


Donate to the Touch of Hope Mission here.

SaveSave

Vulnerability, Part 2

Sometimes people comment on how my writing feels real to them, and to me there is no greater compliment. I haven't always been that way—quite so willing to share my missteps and my embarrassment, so I thought I would fill you in a little on why I am the way I am, why I wear my heart on my sleeve and perhaps sometimes place myself in the precarious position to be teased, misunderstood, or even ridiculed.

Many years ago, following and actually even a little before the birth of my oldest child, I went through a period of months where I sunk into a pretty deep depression. I questioned my worth, my direction. My whole outlook was maybe not bitter toward others, but self-loathing. I could see the value in others but not in myself. No matter what I did, it wasn't good enough for the measure I had set up for myself. Really, my hormones had probably gone haywire, and it resulted in a spiritual and emotional battle neither my husband nor I was prepared for.

Not only did I feel lost, but I was in hiding and ashamed. My husband knew, but I hid this spiritual starvation from my close family and even my closest friends. That turned out to be the worst thing I could have done.

Following the healing I received (by the grace of God) and the excruciating pain of grieving my brother's suicide years later, I realized that far too many people feel alone: alone in humiliation, alone in pain, alone in sadness. Much of this isolation comes because we refuse to talk about the very things that matter.

I live in northwest Iowa, an area infamous for the prim and proper persona, where supposedly hair is perfect and makeup is always done before one leaves the house. This is where our kids are always kind and generous, where our houses are dust-free, where our husbands make enough money to make us comfortable but not so much as to call ourselves wealthy. I live in an area where happiness is not only valued but expected because our lives are just so—well, perfect. But you see, all of  this is just a facade which we hide behind because the struggles are here as much as they are anywhere else. We just hide it well. From my estimation, that is a sin of pride.

As I realized that people around me (and if I'm honest, I as well) were hurting from all their perceptions of their neighbors' perfection, I realized that we were being stripped of our joy, and I came across Brene Brown's Ted Talk "The Power of Vulnerability." My friends, it turns out that her research shows that one of the characteristics that allows people to feel joy is their release from perfection, their willingness to be vulnerable with others. And really, isn't recognizing our own vulnerability the only way to see our need for the grace supplied by Jesus' death and resurrection?

Slowly and by measured steps, I have been pursuing vulnerability. I am trying to lift up even my worst traits, the characteristics I'm still working on, the missteps and humiliations, and trying to realize that God can use me even with them, in spite of them, or even because of them.

Don't you think it's possible that our awesome, mysterious, wonderful God can take even those moments and make a lesson out of them? What if your moment could be an inspiration to others? What if it reminds them they are not alone? What if God can use you even in the midst of heartache and pain? What if your vulnerability that is eclipsed by joy can be a change agent for those around you? What if your mess-turned-message is the most important sermon they will hear this week? What if your remembrance of pain allows you an empathy to see others as God sees them?

I am seeing and feeling the truth of it. When I have less to hide, I can have more to give.

Today I encourage you to watch the TED Talk linked above, and I ask God to show both you and me those places where our vulnerability may open the eyes of another to God's incredible blessings of true joy.

Me---A Little Too Vulnerable

Sometimes I wonder if God puts situations in front of us for entertainment value—His, not ours. Or maybe my jokester brother is up there in heaven saying, "Would you please put Tami in this situation?" since he is no longer here with us to make us laugh. I'm teasing, of course. There is no biblical reasoning to say that God plays with our minds.

Today is laundry day. I woke up at 4:00 a.m. questioning whether my boys had clean clothes to wear to school. So I got up and began washing, drying, and folding. I don't mind, really, because I am an early bird anyway.

But today isn't just a simple laundry day. Today I was excited to attend a little birthday party at Laura's Lattes in Canton because one of my close friends just turned 50. Our close knit group of friends doesn't get together often enough, and I miss them.

Anyway, because it is laundry day, I did what any sanity-loving mom does and grabbed the jeans I wore yesterday (for just a few hours) off the floor and pulled them on quickly before I ran out the door. When I reached Canton I stopped at the local pharmacy to buy my friend a present and card, and then was on my way to meet them.

Now, you have to realize one thing. My friends are smart. And cool. And accomplished. One of the first things my friend Nancy said to me was, "Have you been writing?" Accountability—I like that in a friend. One of the last things I said as I left was how I am lucky to have them as my friends. These three friends and I have been laughing and encouraging each other for close to 25 years.

After our two hours of visiting, I hustled out the back door to get home. As I approached my pick up, what I saw on the running board just below the driver's side door stopped me in my tracks. A bunched-up pair of navy blue underwear lay there, looking an awful lot like the pair I wore yesterday.

Uh, yeah. Yesterday's underwear which were likely at one point inside the pant leg of yesterday's jeans which I. Was. Currently. WEARING.

So of course my life flashed before my eyes—or at least my life of the previous three hours. I imagined myself walking through the pharmacy, gracefully trailing my navy blue underwear behind me. Or I thought of myself standing in line for my chai latte at the coffee shop, other patrons' mouths agape behind me and the baristas pointing and giggling as I went on my way. 

Following my brief pause, I grabbed the underwear, threw them into the pick up cab, and laughed maniacally all the way home, likely frightening passersby. I also called two of my sisters-in-law and related the story (I will probably be getting underwear for Christmas for the next ten years). I texted my friends, too, but none will admit to finding my underwear and placing them on my pick up. I don't think I'll ever look the coffee shop baristas in the eye again.

I figure God needed to give me a little humble pie today. Or maybe He thinks I need to die my hair red. Or become a missionary to Africa. Regardless, I got the point, God. No need for a repeat lesson.

All in the Numbers

I have an aversion to numbers, a problem I discovered when in my high school algebra class. Even though I understood geometry quite a bit better, high school was the end of my positive relationship with math. Since then, I have enjoyed posting a number of memes on my social media pages:

The irritation I felt toward numbers didn't end in high school. By the time I reached graduate school, I had to study just enough statistics in order to better understand educational measurement, margins of error, and standard deviations. From there I had to decide whether my master's thesis research would be quantitative or qualitative. Quantitative would have involved collecting data by measurement and then analyzing that data. Qualitative meant exploring human behavior through interviews and observation. I chose quantitative. Just joking.

Numbers followed me to work as well. As I taught high school English for a number of years, I noticed that a gradual shift was happening away from the beauty of literature and creative writing to progress measured by the means of standardized testing. Later, in my marketing work, I learned about ROI, PPC, CPC, all terms related to the number of dollars a business earns or spends. With our farming business, our banker would come out once a year to tally our long, middle, and short-term assets and compare them to our long, middle, and short-term liabilities in an effort to calculate our net worth.

Numbers had become not only a part of my life, but a focus. I had bought into the philosophy that numbers defined me, and unfortunately, through the years I have somehow subscribed to the saying that "If it can't be measured, it doesn't exist." Worth had to be measured.

You see, I weigh myself almost daily, thinking that the number on the scale is an accurate representation of whether I am attractive. On my bad days as a stay at home mom, I sometimes look at my lack of personal income as a failure to contribute to our family's needs. Just as foolishly, I notice way too often how many likes my Facebook status just received. The effect? Many times I have become disgusted with myself because my numbers in various areas of my life don't always add up to what I want them to.

So this morning I did what every Christian should do when faced with a personal dilemma. I looked to my Bible. Surely numbers can't be as important there.

This was the first thing I found:

There you go. A whole book written about numbers. And I thought, you have to be kidding me.

Still, though I am no Bible scholar, I know it well enough to know that the census of the Old Testament and the measurements of the temple and Noah's ark are really not the crux of the Bible message. Nope, the Bible message can more accurately be explained by 5 + 2 ≠ 5,000 but 5 + 2 + J = 5,000. A number of times in the Gospels (Matthew 14, Luke 9, Mark 6, John 6),  we are told the story of the five loaves and two fish and the feeding of the 5,000 people who had been listening to Jesus but were hungry. The disciples asked Jesus how they were supposed to feed the followers, and Jesus took the meager offering of five loaves and two fish, and He made it enough—not just enough, but with some to spare. Now, we can view this as a ridiculous amount of redundancy in the Bible; after all, the story is repeated four times. Better yet, we can see it as something so important that it is repeated four times just to make sure it sticks. What we come with is not enough, but what what we come with plus what Jesus provides is more than enough.

You see, we can keep measuring ourselves with our imaginary yardsticks. We can keep counting. We can keep setting that standard of success just a little bit higher, knowing that the carrot will keep us moving forward. Or we can understand that when we bring what we have, what we have been blessed with, to the table as an offering to our God, He will make up the difference.

That's a whole lot more encouraging than algebra, isn't it?

The Big Fix

This morning as I was getting out of bed, I was thinking about how to spend my spa gift card that my mother-in-law and father-in-law gave me for Christmas. Rather than the massage I had planned on, I mentioned to Jerome that I wondered whether a microdermabrasion could get rid of a scar on my nose. Jerome said, "But I don't even notice that scar."

I laughed and said, "That's just because you love me."

His response: "Right. Isn't that what matters?"

How true is that? When we first brought Tadesse home, I noticed the space where his front teeth were missing every time I looked at him. It's funny, though; I hardly notice it anymore. Then again, I love him. I see the crinkly nosed smiles. I see sparkle in his eyes when he is trying really hard to portray toughness. 

Movie Madness with the Van De Stroets

Last night my family went to the movies. Now, in interest of full disclosure, I'll let you know that I had planned to go with just my daughter to Mockingjay as sort of a girls' night out. However, since our sons had been asking to see Annie anyway, Jerome took them to the musical (there's irony in that) at the same theater.

Because I hate standing in last-minute lines for popcorn (and one has to buy popcorn), I asked Jerome to drop me off a little early so I could get the tickets and stand in line. After all, I love movies so much that I hate even missing the previews. Biruk and Tadesse went with me to help me carry the food and drinks and so they could spend a couple of their quarters on the video games before the movie started.

Response Requested

Yesterday I wrote about how I made the mistake of using a disciplinary system that was inappropriate for my kids and how learning to love my kids first, before expecting any kind of good behavior, really made a positive difference in our family life. Then I explained how God also loves us no matter what.

There's always more to a story than first meets the eye, isn't there? Every fight takes two. Every relationship takes commitment from both partners. Yesterday I wrote my blog on my phone while waiting for one of my sons at an appointment. As I drove home, I decided that I needed to write a part two, the rest of the story.

Learning to See Beyond Red

Back when we first brought Tadesse and Biruk home, we struggled so much to communicate. Behaviors that were acceptable in Ethiopia were not acceptable here, and without the language to explain it, we struggled. There were the big things like hitting and kicking, yes, but also a myriad of smaller behaviors like sitting on a stranger's car or grabbing a toy a sibling was playing with. 

We made a mistake—one of many, in fact—in those early days of our time together. Knowing that elementary teachers use a card system of green, yellow, and red to indicate when a child was doing great (green), when one was starting to show patterns of misbehavior or sometimes pushing our buttons both figuratively and literally (yellow), as well as when the child had really messed up (red), we decided to try it. Once  a person's red card was up, he or she lost allowance for the week. Even without the benefit of a common language, my two new boys understood very quickly how the cards worked.

Defaulting to Joy

When I was a kid, probably more specifically a teenager, I remember my mom constantly reminding me to smile. It drove me nuts. Why smile when I wasn't feeling happy? I had a whole rainbow of emotions: indifference, irritation, satisfaction, boredom, insolence, curiosity, contentment. According to my teenage self, only happiness called for a smile. The rest just didn't matter, and I could keep my countenance on any random expression.

The older I've become, the more I've realized how right she actually was. For your viewing pleasure, I Googled scowls and came up with these beauties: