The Siloam Ethiopia clinic in Harar, Ethiopia, is in need of a blood chemistry machine. "The blood chemistry machine will check hemoglobin count, cholesterol, blood sugar, and liver function," explained Wegayhu Ketema, one of the founders of the clinic. Ketema went on to explain that the in-depth blood analysis provided by the machine can help detect deficiencies and hidden diseases among the poor and homeless the free clinic serves.

To start raising the $25,000 that is needed to purchase the machine, Ketema's church, Ethiopian Evangelical Church in Lancaster, 175 Church St., Landisville, will offer a curbside Ethiopian meal by donation from noon to 5 p.m. on Saturday, March 6. The menu will include doro wat, which is a spicy chicken stew; misir wat, which is a spicy pink lentil; atikilt wat, which includes spicy cabbage, carrot; and potato; and kik alicha, a dish with spicy yellow split peas. Those purchasing meals will have a choice of three dishes served with injera, which is a thin Ethiopian bread.

Asked how much she hopes the meal will raise, Ketema refused to speculate. "I don't want to underestimate the Lord," she said. Ketema's faith has already brought her far. A decade ago, the clinic she helped found in Harar was still a dream she had held since the age of 8. Raised in Harar, Ketema would see a nurse driving herself to work each morning and dream of one day becoming a nurse and helping her people. Ironically, Ketema had to leave her homeland to make that happen.

"My mother sent us to England to learn English and then to India," explained Ketema, who was licensed as a nurse in India in 1985. She moved to Djibouti in East Africa, where she worked in a private clinic and became a Christian in 1988. Politics in the Muslim country caused her to flee to Nairobi, Kenya, along with her fiance, Demeke Getahun, who is now her husband. In 1989, the door opened for them to travel to the U.S. as refugees, relocating first to Sioux Falls, S.D., and then to York, where a Living Word Church was supportive of their church back in Djibouti. Because she was not licensed in the U.S., Ketema worked as a nurse's aide in several nursing homes, eventually moving from York to Lancaster and beginning to attend Ethiopian Evangelical. After six years, Ketema obtained her LPN license. She received her RN in 2013. "I love what I do," said Ketema. "The Lord has been so gracious to me."

In 1999, Ketema felt the Lord leading her to pray about the clinic she hoped to open in Harar. "In 2015, we organized a few friends and started a board," shared Ketema, who traveled to Ethiopia to assess the feasibility of a clinic in 2015. The clinic began serving patients in 2018. The organization is in the process of digging a fifth well to serve the clinic because water is so scarce in the area. In addition to the clinic, a home and a house mother for five orphan girls are supported by the ministry.

Organizers request that those who wish to order a takeout meal do so by Wednesday, March 3, by emailing wmketema@gmail.com or eeclancaster@gmail.com or calling 717-669-0930 or 717-874-8510. For more information about Siloam Ethiopia, readers may visit http://www.siloamethio.org.