1) Adams Thermal Foundation Ethiopia (ATFE)

Did you know there's someone on our staff to help you with your child sponsorship experience?

 

This past May, we created a new position at Adams Thermal Foundation called the Sponsor Advocate. The core responsibility of the Sponsor Advocate is to help our friends and supporters engage and interact with the person(s) they sponsor. Part of this responsibility includes helping sponsors use their online Sponsorship Portal. The portal is a private web-page where sponsors can manage their sponsorship and correspond with those they sponsor. 

 

Cindy Schmitz is one of our new Sponsor Advocates. To help our friends and supporters get to know her, we've asked Cindy to share some thoughts about her new role with Adams Thermal Foundation. 

 

Q: What led you to volunteer for the position of Sponsor Advocate?

A: After working in technology and then as a home educator, I was hoping to spend time doing something that would include my love for Jesus and people, my passion for education, and heart for the gospel.

 

Q: Describe a "good day" serving as a Sponsor Advocate.

A: A good day includes learning something new about how God is using Adams Thermal Foundation to impact lives. I love hearing the excitement when a new sponsor decides to begin the sponsorship journey. There's also satisfaction when sponsors successfully log in to receive a letter from their sponsor child and are excited to write back. I recently had an instance where a 3-year old selected a child for her parents to sponsor and now prays every night for that child by name. That was a really good day!

 

Q: What impact do you hope to make in your new role?

A: My hope is to improve the communication between the Foundation and its supporters. It is satisfying getting to know the people who are involved and committed to this important work and helping them to connect so lives are changed by the love and truth of Jesus within the ongoing work of the Foundation.

 

Q: What can you tell others about the experience of sponsorship?

A: You might decide to sponsor children to bless them by investing in their lives, education, and families. But, be ready to be blessed in return as you pray for them, and they write to you. You will be encouraged by your sponsor children from the opposite side of the world as they express their hope in God and pray for you.

 

If you have questions or desire to go deeper with your sponsorship, Cindy is available to assist you via email at cindy@adamsthermalfoundation.org or via phone or text message at (605) 214-3212. 

 

Would you like to access your online Sponsorship Portal? We use an online tool called REACH that allows you to have 24/7 access to your sponsorship information. In addition to sending and receiving correspondence, you can edit your contact and payment information, review your donations, print your tax receipt documentation and manage your sponsorship account. If you have a sponsorship, your account information has already been added to REACH.

 

TO LOGIN TO YOUR SPONSORSHIP ACCOUNT, CLICK HERE 

 

1) Enter your email address in the space provided.

2) IMPORTANT - leave the password field blank!

3) Click the red "Sign in" button.

4) You'll receive another email with instructions to set up your password.

 

Welcome, Cindy! We're grateful to have you on the team!

The 4th Annual Scramble for Ethiopia once again has provided new sponsors for our kids and needed resources for the schools in Ethiopia. 

 

On Friday, August 28th, local golfers gathered at the Valley View Golf Course in Freeman, SD to support the cause of Ethiopia while playing 18 holes on a perfect, late summer day. The winning score was a very competitive 11 under par and the longest drive was just over 280 yards. The teams were comprised of married couples, work associates, regular golfing buddies and new as well as old friends. There was a drawing for a brand-new Ping driver and prizes for nearly every team that participated. 

 

The afternoon closed out with some tasty BBQ ribs and the opportunity to go home with a new best friend from Ethiopia. Four years ago, when host Stan Graber first imagined the event, he wanted to make sure that more of the at-risk children who attend Adams Thermal Academies in Ethiopia would have sponsors because of the event. So Stan pursued a lead donor to cover the cost of renting the course. As a result, the registration fees for every team could be used to sponsor a child for a full year. So as the proceedings were winding down, a member of each team selected a child to correspond with and pray for throughout the coming year. 

 

If you were unable to join us at the Scramble for Ethiopia this year, but still want to sponsor a child, you can CLICK HERE to get started. 

 

 

We're grateful for everyone that came out to support the 4th Annual Scramble for Ethiopia. And we're especially grateful to our awesome sponsors who made this event possible.

 

Jackson National Life Insurance Company (https://www.jackson.com/)

Samuelson Development (https://www.samuelsondevelopment.com/)

Skinner Financial Services (https://www.skinnerfinancial.net/)

Eric & Lori Yunag

 

Finally, our deep and heartfelt thanks go out to Stan Graber who hosted the Scramble for Ethiopia again this year. We appreciate your partnership and your heart for the children, Stan! (for more information about Stan's partnership with Adams Thermal Foundation, CLICK HERE)

In the age of sound bites, quips and memes, we've all become more prone to exaggeration. However, when we say we received a "ton" of books during our recent book drive for Ethiopia, we're not exaggerating at all! We didn't just receive a lot of books, we easily have more than a ton of books, by weight, that will be shipped to our schools in Hosanna and Ottoro for their libraries and to support their English Literacy initiatives. 

 

No, we didn't expect such an overwhelming response. Yes, they were very heavy! But it was all worthwhile in knowing what tremendous impact these books will have upon our students. The wealth of knowledge, ideas and inspiration contained in these bulging wooden crates will develop and enrich generations of learners who previously had only poverty and ignorance to look forward to. And that's very exciting!

 

Some might call it a "silver lining" on a dark cloud. Others might call it God's redemption of difficult circumstances. But the tentacles of COVID kept book buyers from traveling and retrieving large quantities of local public school curriculum for resale. So that which was bound for the dumpster was instead redirected to a half-empty shipping container already on it's way to the "poorest of the poor" in rural Ethiopia with clothing, computers and other learning materials for the schools. How amazing is that?

 

For everyone that took the time to donate from their personal home libraries . . . thank you. For everyone that went out and purchased new books for children who have no concept of "new" . . . thank you. For everyone who helped us navigate the communications channels to our local school administrators in charge of curriculum . . . thank you. And for everyone that helped us move, organize and crate literally thousands of pounds of books in the July heat . . . we say an extra special "THANK YOU". 

 

The hands that direct our circumstances from somewhere beyond our understanding have once again made provision for the precious lives entrusted to us in southern Ethiopia during a time of unprecedented crisis. How truly humbling it is to be part of this miraculous, ever-evolving plan.