Anyone who wants to try Ethiopian food while helping a worthy cause is welcome to attend a fundraiser that benefits a humanitarian trip to the East African country through the organization Siloam Ethiopia.

Word of Life Evangelical Church, 175 Church St., Landisville, will host the fundraiser on Saturday, March 29, from noon to 4 p.m.

Volunteers will serve takeout meals featuring four traditional Ethiopian dishes: doro wat (spicy chicken dish), misir wat (spicy split lentils), atakilt wat (vegetable dish with cabbage, carrots, and potatoes), and non-spicy split yellow peas. The meals will include spices made in Ethiopia and homemade butter.

"What is exciting this time is one of our board members (who wishes to remain anonymous) will match (the money generated from the fundraiser) up to $8,000," said Wegayhu Ketema, who is taking the mission trip along with her oldest son, Ephraim Getahun.

To preorder a meal or for more information about the takeout meal, call or text Ketema at 717-669-0930.

"We are very thankful for the people of Lancaster County because without them, we can't do what we do," Ketema said. "We are just their foot to go do the work. They are the engine for us. We are so grateful."

Ketema and Ephraim, who are both nurses, will be traveling to Harar, Ethiopia, from Thursday, May 1, to Tuesday, May 13, as part of their mission through Siloam Ethiopia.

"We have a free medical clinic for the poor and the homeless," Ketema said. She stated that Siloam Ethiopia is also helping to raise eight orphan girls, providing housing, food, and school supplies. "They are like our kids," Ketema said.

The money generated by the takeout dinner helps pay for two physician assistants and a secretary, housekeeper, and house mom for the girls.

Siloam Ethiopia assists seven satellite clinics, six schools, and a home for the elderly, providing supplies and performing checkups for patients. Ketema and Ephraim will make home visits for people who are unable to travel to the clinics. "When we see a need, we try to help the people with that need," said Ketema.

She is returning to Ethiopia despite a harrowing experience in a previous visit. In 2023, Ketema was exposed to mold while cleaning a storage room and wound up in the hospital four times after returning to Lancaster County.

"That's another reason I am so grateful. I came back here, and the doctors gave me the right medication to give me back my life," Ketema said. "We don't have that kind of treatment where I come from."

Ketema took a circuitous route to Lancaster County. Born in Ethiopia, she went to high school in Djibouti. Her mother sent her to England for two years to learn English. Ketema finished high school in India and studied nursing.

Ketema and Demeke Getahun, now one of the pastors at Word of Life Evangelical Church, married in Kenya and came to Lancaster County in 1989.

Ketema works at Lancaster Rehabilitation Hospital and volunteers at Hope Within Ministries' free clinic in Elizabethtown.

"What I love about being a nurse is this country gave me so much; for me this is a way to give back," she said. "I love to care for my patients. It just is amazing."

Ketema knew she wanted to become a nurse when she was 8 years old and living with her grandmother, Yeshi Tesema, in a one-room house.

One cold morning, she was sitting outside on a rock people-watching. "I saw a nurse drive by," she said. "In Ethiopia in those days, you didn't see a lot of people driving cars. It was very rare. I always used to look at her and wish to be a nurse someday."

Her wish came true. "Through all the ups and downs in life, the Lord gave me a chance to be a nurse, and my desire is to help people," she said.

Demeke had a dream of his own, telling his wife in 1991 that he wanted to go back to Ethiopia and open a free clinic. "When he said that, I thought, 'Wow, this is what I want to do.' God found that for us," said Ketema. "We prayed and we waited. We had three kids, and we let the kids grow up. In 2015, we decided to form a group of people to become a ministry. We went and started it in 2018."

Ketema sees familiar faces on her trips back home. "It is amazing because some of the people are the people who raised me up," she said. "They come and bring me bread. It's overwhelming. I literally cry because those are the people who can't even afford to buy Tylenol when they have a headache or when their back hurts. To be able to give back to the people who raised me up, it just is overwhelming. Now I am taking my son. I want him to see."