Here's Beatrice, one of our trainees who lost her husband to Ebola in October 2014. Beatrice shows up early every morning and has quickly taken to the sewing machine. She's a leader in the class and always happily completes her work. Tenneh (who I'll talk about below) is behind her.

Today was the third day of class, and I'll be honest, I've never walked into a room as ready to thank God as I do when I see our beautiful trainees. I'm so grateful to have the money to start off the program, the participants to learn, and the clients to support our Kickstarter so we don't let these women down.

Tenneh, an Ebola survivor, started to get bored and sloppy with the drills everyone has to perform as they learn the machine. She's pregnant and blamed her restlessness on the baby (yes, we will already have our first Baby Bombchel coming in three months!).

When we had our closing prayer today, I reminded each of the women that when we met they told me they weren't doing anything all day at home. Now they're in a program that encourages them to eventually start their own businesses, so they shouldn't take that lightly.

The message I shared with them is that God can't give us more if we aren't grateful for what we have. I told Tenneh her Baby Bombchel isn't allowed to have a mom who doesn't work. She agreed and got back to it. I'm grateful that her spirit allows her to approach the work with a fresh face, even though she may get frustrated at times.

My Bombchels are awesome, and I hope you will follow us on Instagram and get to know them more and more each day! We have fast become family and I'm excited to see their growth, and mine!, over the next few months.

xo

January 20, 2016 — Archel Bernard