A New Place to Follow Mossy Foot Project

We are excited to announce that our web site (www.mossyfoot.com) has recently been updated and now includes an integrated blog. All of the history from this blog has been moved over to our new site. We will be updating our new blog regularly at http://mossyfoot.com/our-stories/mossy-foot-project-blog/ and this blog will be retired.

We hope that you will check out our new site and let us know what you think.

Sight is Coming to Blind Eyes

Chapter 11 of the book of Isaiah has a powerful description of the coming reign of the Messiah, that includes this well-known verse:

"The wolf also shall dwell with the lamb, the leopard shall lie down with the young goat, the calf and the young lion and the fatling together; and a little child shall lead them." Is 11:6

Ethiopian child leading two blind adults

In Isaiah, this is a beautiful prophetic image. In Ethiopia, however, the concept of being led by a little child has a dark and tragic meaning rather than a glorious one. Because of poverty and lack of medical care, blindness is common in the rural villages. You will often see an adult being led from place to place by a young child.

The consequence of blindness for the adult is of course devastating for there is little work available for someone without eyesight. But the consequences for the child can also be drastic, eliminating any opportunity to attend school or enjoy free time with other children. Blindness for Zenebech, one Ethiopian widow with mossy foot disease, forced her to giving her youngest child away since she could not care for him.

This need recently drew the attention of a friend of the Mossy Foot Project, who has generously offered a financial gift that will allow for 100 mossy foot patients to receive cataract repair surgery. Medical Missions International has an eye clinic affiliated with Soddo Christian Hospital where the surgery will be performed. They have offered to train 3 staff members of Mossy Foot Project to identify patients that qualify for this surgery. The three Mossy Foot staff will in turn train the health care workers at the 16 Mossy Foot Project clinics. The gift covers the expense of surgery for 100 eyes as well as overnight lodging in Soddo and food for each patient identified as in need.

We are very grateful for the way God has moved to make this possible. Our approach has always been to treat our patients holistically, and this gift enables us do so in an even more complete way. And how wonderful to think that restoring sight to the blind will also restore childhood and the possibility of school to a boy or girl.

Sharon in Ethiopia: Between a Rock and a Hard Place

Here is the latest update from Sharon reporting on development progress at the Mossy Foot Project property in Soddo, Ethiopia:

Mark Launder and Workmen

“I am really excited that we are starting to build on the Mossy Foot property! It will be a blessing not to have to rent property in town.  Also, we will be able to install the right electrical wiring so that we can use all of our shoe making equipment. That will enable us to produce more shoes for the mossy foot patients at the clinics.

This past week we got estimates on all the things we will need to build the rock wall, the guard house, and "shint bate" (out house).  On Friday, materials were being delivered and by Monday a lot of work had already been done.

It is such a blessing to have Mark Launder here overseeing the building, expediting the progress, and ensuring good quality.  Since he is well acquainted with the culture and how things operate, he is able to navigate challenges that might stop someone else.

Sharon literally between a rock and a hard place

The work is labor intensive--with capstones being hand-hewn out of rock, cement mixed by hand, and large rocks being chipped by hand to go in the base for the wall.  I tried breaking the rock with a mallet for about 20 seconds and that was enough for me."

Please pray for Sharon's time in Ethiopia to be fruitful and for the good progress with the work on the Load. Pray also for the power of the Gospel to be that strong hammer that breaks the walls of resistance keeping those in darkness from seeing the Light of the Glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.

"Is not My word like a fire?” says the LORD,  “And like a hammer that breaks the rock in pieces?" Jeremiah 23:29

Sharon Daly and the Sterling College Team

Sharon Daly (on left) and Sterling College Team

Sharon Daly, Mossy Foot President, is currently in Soddo, Ethiopia on an extended 6 week visit at the Mossy Foot Project headquarters. This visit gives Sharon an opportunity to work with and encourage staff, visit the remote clinics, and see first hand the progress on developing property for future headquarters.

The visit will culminate with an important meeting in Addis Ababa with the Federal Ministry of Health Symposium from June 12-14 regarding treatment options for podoconiosis.

This past week Sharon hosted a team from Sterling College, Kansas led by Christian Dashiell, the school chaplain. The team included students as well as Christian’s mother Lisa, a nurse in Portland, Oregon, who once attended Sharon’s Alma Mater Rift Valley Academy in Kenya.

In addition to spending time at Mossy Foot headquarters, the team was able to visit several clinics and participate in a showing of the Jesus film where several hundred people came and heard the gospel message. Many of the viewers responded that night to the invitation to accept Jesus or rededicate their lives. On Sunday, the team celebrated the Lord’s day with a thriving congregation of several thousand believers near the university in Soddo.  The three-hour service included a lot of singing and dancing!

On their last day, the team traveled to Shanto to help with the building of a home for Birhane, a widow with four children. Two of Birhane’s children abandoned her because of her mossy foot disease. She was living in a little hut that had big open gaps in it that did not protect her family from the rain.

The team arrived to an exuberant welcome from the neighbors and church workers. Team members worked on the house, nailing on poles, making mud balls, and throwing them up to the mudder.  At first the Ethiopians did not want the ferenges (white people) to get their hands dirty but soon accepted the help and enjoyed their involvement. Birhane was profoundly touched that a new house was being built for her.

Sharon reports, “I am very grateful for this team’s time here with Mossy Foot, for their hearts to serve, and the way they related to the people.”

Please continue to pray for the Lord to pour out His wisdom and grace over Sharon as she seeks to encourage staff and support the work in Ethiopia.

This is Ato (Mr.) Anjulo’s story about how the Mossy Foot Project has helped transform his life.

"I was a pastor in a church when I developed mossy foot disease. As my feet swelled and large, bumpy growths appeared on my toes, I began to experience discrimination from the church elders. They no longer wanted to eat with me or wash their feet in the bucket in which I washed my feet. I was insulted and humiliated by my friends and family. People who knew me did not want to walk on the road where I walked. When I realized that I was being cast out, I began to consider a decision that I never thought I would make. I wanted to stop serving God.

Before I developed mossy foot disease, I was a well-known farmer. All the time I farmed I never wore shoes. None of my parents, brothers, or sisters before me had mossy foot disease. It all started with me. I didn’t know what caused it. My feet were so big that they wouldn’t fit into the largest shoes sold in town.

For eight long years I went to many places people suggested seeking treatment from clinics and cultural doctors. None of the places were able to help me.

One of my daughters got married. Her husband asked if anyone in her family was a mossy foot patient. Fearing that he would send her away, she told him that no one in her family had mossy foot. After her husband’s question, my daughter came to my home and took me to a new mossy foot clinic that had just opened in Bale town.

At the clinic things happened that made me smile. They gave me soap, bleach, and Whitefield ointment. As I faithfully followed instructions, came regularly to the clinic, and wore shoes, the size of my feet slowly improved. Soon I was able to wear size 46 shoes. Month after month the bad smell and growths on my feet got less and less. Two years after I started attending the Mossy Foot Project Clinic, I was able to fit into a size 41 shoe, then size 40 and, finally, I was able to wear normal shoes sold in the market.

I was highly motivated to start a business but did not have the funds to do so, so I asked a neighbor to loan me the money. He leant me money, but at a high rate of interest. When I did not earn enough to pay him, he took my only milk cow, which I had raised for hard times.

When I heard that the Mossy Foot Project gave interest free self-help loans to their patients, I decided to ask a clinic worker. After hearing my story, and because I volunteered for Mossy Foot, they decided to lend me 1000 birr (about $58.00) without interest. They told me to return 10% of the loan every month. This made it possible for me to buy food and clothes for myself and my children. Now in place of the milk cow taken by the other man, I have a milk cow and many sheep and goats.

Other people are surprised by how my life has changed and ask me what my secret is. I tell them that it was God and the Mossy Foot Project. When I encounter people with mossy foot disease, I take them to the Mossy Foot Clinic. I am a changed man both physically and spiritually. My neighbors respect me and I am again serving at my church as a respected pastor.”