A story from Ethiopia

I received this email from our pastor's brother, who works for Cure International. It is a testimonial he received from a staff person in Ethiopia. I do not know much about their organization, but I am going to research it a bit. Here is their website:
www.cureinternational.org

I deleted the last names, and did not include the three pictures. But they are a beautiful Ethiopian family, and little baby Danial had a cleft lip. He may be very close in age to Eli, and certainly has the same big brown eyes. Praise the Lord for his laborers in ET!

Deriba and Astedu came to CURE hospital with their six month old baby with a great hope that their son Daniel would have a chance to be like one of the boys on the posters of CURE Deriba saw in their nearby town Sheno.

It was after surgery I talked with them while their face was happy and looked excited. I asked them about their experiences and the impact of the surgery brought to their lives. Deriba, the father was willing to tell me their story. Here is how he tells it.

I am the youngest from the family of nine children and all my brothers (5 of them) have been married. After our parents died there was no one for me to look for a wife and I was busy on the family farm land. My brothers arranged my marriage and I got married to Askale. After some time we knew that she was pregnant and we started to hope for the experience of being a father and mother.

Our home is far from town and we live in our family farm land a bit isolated from other villages. We are like a little village living as a big family together with my elder brothers. There is no clinic or health post in the area. For every need we need to walk for three hours to reach the nearby town. When my wife's delivery time came and her labor started we (my brothers and I) started walking to town carrying my wife with a small wooden bed. When her pain became stronger we couldn't go further instead left my wife for the women with us to help her on delivery. It was day time on plain grass land. Miraculously a health worker passing by came to us and helped my wife.

After the birth there were no shouts of joy, "Eleleta". I hear the baby crying but no smile was coming from my brother's wives. My wife and our relatives hid the child from me. They said "don't come near to her." We went back home and I was not able to see the baby. After a month accidentally, I was able to see his face. That moment I was devastated. I never saw a condition like that. I was depressed; crying like a little child as if he is dead. Knowing my discovery, my wife said the health worker told her this kind of thing happens and the baby can live with it, but I didn't believe it at all. Day and night I was thinking that "what kind of curse or spell is upon us?" My brother's family was also talking about my wife bringing curse and sin to our house and to the whole family.

Deriba continued to tell the story how he came to know about CURE. As he told me that he saw the CURE poster when he went to town to bring some items for home. It was the very hopeful moment for him; he copied the telephone numbers and called to the CURE hospital. He Came to the hospital on the appointment day with his family.

Deariba says he can't wait to go back to his village. He is overjoyed. His wife, though she is so quiet says that God visited them through CURE. After Deriba told me his experience and we praise God together when he received Jesus with his wife. He prayed with me and thanked God for what is done into his life. We are hopeful that Deriba's family village will be transformed by the love of God.


Note: "Elelta" is a cultural way of expressing with shouts of joy. Semitic origin