Our ministry trip was totally different than in October 2015. Diverse as they are, God’s grace is abundant in both. It isn’t geographic differences, our Lord provides according to the needs of His Body. Our God is working in both ministers as well as the ministry.
In October we traveled daily out of Addis Ababa. This May 2016 trip was based in three geographical ministry regions. It was long and physical. But more than that, it was a faith trip through the “redwoods” of Ethiopia. Our Father continues to shape us into the image of His Son through varied communities within His Body. Love reigns! Our loving Lord is preparing His Church for a wedding. Our trip is one small token step in His Bride’s preparation of a forth coming eternal event.
The Spiritual discernment we discuss in GraceNotes is evident in the eyes and hearts of these people both young and old. In fact, the message of GraceNotes finds very fertile ground within this loving, gentile people. It is like sowing seed in very good soil. We are so blessed to participate in Grace!
It is difficult to convey the many different impacts in this trip. The insertion of a white man is itself a significant impact in remote Ethiopia but the hidden messages any white man might bring lifts the value of words spoken and arouses the attention of listeners. These very bright people are not taken in by shallow deceit or deceptive winks. They are eager to learn truth. It is truth that is resonating in these hearts of Christ’s Body. This is becoming our mission, exposing God’s truth within Christ’s Body.
Many years ago Helen and I hosted a recently divorced woman from North Dakota. She was Lutheran so we began visiting local Lutheran churches in our area of Mesa, AZ. She finally decided on a Baptist church so we began attending this medium sized Baptist church. After months of both Sunday School and church attendance, we became sensitive to the ineffectiveness of the gospel messages for our new friend. There was nothing particularly wrong with the messaging but, for our new friend, it was not hitting the need of a searching soul.
I shared my concern with new friends at our “new church” and was encouraged to express my concerns to the pastor and staff. My comments were warmly received and I promptly prepared a teaching syllabus for a new Sunday School class, Grace Class. The next thing I knew I was assigned a classroom and thus became the seed for what has become GraceNotes. I bring this up here for several reasons. The audience for God’s Word in Ethiopia is not theologically biased. In other words, these believers are not conditioned by doctrinal teaching coloring the meaning of verses or a passage. They are, rather, equipped “to hear” what scripture is saying.
Another significant condition of our Ethiopian audience is their interest and focus. The “things” of the world, in Ethiopia, have not reach the distraction level resident in America. There are not football and basketball choices to compete for their spiritual time and interest. They have focused concern about eternal truth so they can add spiritual value into their temporal experience.
There was dependency upon neighbors in our early American culture. In order to survive a new harsh environment, people needed each other. There was a kind of integrity between people which was honored and understood. Like Ethiopia, the family culture was very strong. This conditioning of love within families prepares hearts for a truth message rooted in love. Perfect love casts out fear producing a candid response of honest expectation for the message of God’s Word. These Ethiopian hearts are receptive vessels for God’s righteous truth just as was our founding ancestors.
This sharp contrast of sowing God’s Word in Ethiopian soil with the US Body of Christ is the same reason we undertook some years ago the Grace Class in Mesa, AZ. Our evangelical community is in diluted forms of righteousness and activity lacking resurrection power. We were created new in the image of God’s Son with resurrection power, Eph. 4:24. We are light because we are in Christ. This clear gospel message seems to elude believers who themselves, being in Christ, seem not in possession of this truth’s vital principle. Like Joshua, it is one thing to have the land and another to possess it. If we live in the Spirit, we need to walk in the Spirit, Gal. 5:25.
One of the outcomes of this trip is the interest of the Ethiopian Brethren Church to receive a composite written presentation of the “in Christ” gospel principle so they can translate it into Amharic for use as a leadership teaching tool. We are beginning to pull this together but it will take some time bringing this together into a printable format. Pray as we put this project together. We are invited to return in December.
Our direct flight from Dulles to Addis was a little over 13 hours arriving on a Sunday morning. I don’t think I slept at all on the plane so we started physically impaired as we began our ministry from the airport in Addis Ababa. Our first stop was Adama, about 50 miles to the southeast of Addis.
On our way we stopped to pick up Gareth Bolton from the UK who is with OM International. We shared good fellowship for an hour before dropping him off at a church as we continued to our church location several miles further down the road. I preached a Sunday sermon concerning who we are in Christ as viewed from Romans 8:1-3. We picked up Gareth on our return trip and arrived back in Addis in time for a late dinner being joined by Malou, Gareth’s wife who travels with him when possible. Like our first trip in October, this was an Amharic church. This is the official language of Ethiopia but not spoken by all the people. Gareth spoke at an Oromo church.
Addis is a large metropolitan area of over 5 million people. Driving is an art as well as a skill. We were leave at 6AM the next morning to beat the traffic.
I packed my backpack for two nights as we were headed for Oromo country, further out from Addis into the ridges and mountains. Oromo is the largest spoken language but there are many minor languages. Oromo is also prevalent in Adama where we preached on Sunday. English is the most common foreign language but there is also a heavy Italian influence.
My host had car trouble so our start was delayed a short while. We final hit the road about 6:30 and stopped for breakfast outside of town. Still running a little late, we found the battery went dead on our old Toyota 4X trip vehicle. There are no Autozones in Ethiopia. Getting a battery replacement was a challenge and pushing the car down hill didn’t work either. Our driver managed to finagle a used one from someone in the neighborhood. So now we are really running late!
There are over 100 Ethiopian Brethren churches where they speak Oromo which, I’m told, is a harder language than Amharic. We visited three different Oromo churches in a remote (rocky dirt roads) in the highlands of Ethiopia east of Addis Ababa and north of Ginchi.
The first location was a village called Ela. We stopped in town to get directions which, it turned out, was just a block away from the pastor’s house where we were invited for a ritual coffee gathering for guests. This took a good hour and I found the need of a bathroom which is a little awkward since they don’t have either toilet plumbing or facets with running water. What they have is a small enclosure with a hole dug in the ground which is flushed with a pitcher of water.
Ela was a memorable first stop. The coffee ritual was not uncommon but we walked from there to the church which was tucked away in a quiet secluded neighborhood. The church was being used for baby sitting as parents had begun their work day. One small child girl stopped and stared at this white man intruding into her safe space and suddenly felt panicked by the threat of my white intrusion and began screaming in fright. She was immediately rescued and held in loving, safe arms.
The other children were playful and tried to give me “five” from my quick retreating hand. One small girl and I became immediate fast friends.
The church itself was part of a multi-building compound. There was a small meeting room to the rear of the church building were we came together and met with four men from the church plus the pastor. Our group consisted of our driver (my body guard), a board member from Addis, an Oromo interpreter and my host, Mulugeta. Mulugeta was also the Amharic interpreter as needed. Our driver and myself were freed from this internal church meeting and given the freedom to roam the area so long as I was in the care of my “body guard.”
We visited some of the trails leading to the town and a couple market areas, one for animals and one for general merchandise. I drew a lot of attention walking in the general population and didn’t linger long, exposed to the wider mix of the populace. We returned after more than an hour and found the meeting still discussing serious issues. Another hour passed before I was sought out and asked to lead a devotional. I spoke on grieving our Holy Spirit who abides within us.
We left this location for Bake, another stop on the way to Ginde Berate which was at the end of this dirt road traveling across the length of a mountain ridge along its long apex. This was our “hotel” destination where we stayed for two nights. The same lack of plumbing and water was characteristic of this whole trip, even at the “hotel.” I used the hotel for my down time to rest up. My speaking voice was getting a little raspy so our driver took me to my room when it was convenient.
I spoke primarily out of Ephesians 4:24 and Romans 8 emphasizing not only our position in Christ but our righteous life created after the image of Christ with resurrection power to actually live our redeemed life. The sermons were principle based while the teaching sessions were targeted on knowing the written word using Galatians 2:20 as a model.
We had a teaching session in Ginde Berate of about 40 to 50 men who came from about 20 local churches. We taught the message of God’s righteous creation within us for the first session and then followed with the message of God’s logos visibly shining through these vessels of clay in which we live. The power that creates new life within us is the same power sustaining grace in us to be consumed by faith. This is the message we are to synthesize into a reproducible study guide for translation purposes.
It was an all day trip to get back to Addis from the mountain tops of Oromia. Over half of the trip was on the mountain dirt roads which require a heavy duty vehicle. Ours was heavy duty all right, but well wore with use and age. This ministry is in need of a replacement vehicle to travel these mountainous roads. Replacement cost is about $50,000 … this is the price for a good used Toyota with 4 wheel drive. The Ethiopian government has a hefty 300% tax on imported vehicles. The used car market in Ethiopian is an industry unto itself dominated by Toyota parts.
Our third ministry location was an Amharic church located about 150 miles south of Addis in the Rift Valley. The primary language in this area is Sidama where the majority of the coffee is grown. Hawassa is a modern city of about 300,000 next to the lake of the same name. This is the major population center for southern Ethiopia and has some political tensions. There is a major Ethiopian University here and the streets of the city are wide and modern.
Our ministry experience was unique and challenging. We were prepared to speak from Romans 8 but the audience through me for a loop. I was greeted by many children as I entered the church yard through a corrugated sheet metal door from the street, which is normal. There always seem to children lingering at the entrance when I enter. There was singing and praying already in process within the church building as we entered the church yard.
Our party of four greeted a couple adults who were standing by awaiting our arrival. The driver had to park our car after letting us out. After he arrived, we made our way into the church building which was very dimly lit. The construction of these churches typically do not have windows and lightening can be a simple light bulb or two hanging from a suspended wire.
There were four empty chairs on the right side the stage area which we went in to occupy. I looked out to the audience and was stunned to see the whole church was occupied with children and teenagers. There were only a few adults scattered about and the people on the stage were children also. They were giving testimony and reading scripture as well as performing music.
I turned to Mulugeta and told him I can’t preach Romans 8 to these children. So we switched to 1John and spoke of God’s love. Love and Light is a good subject for both young and old alike.
I’m still not sure I understand what was going on in this small neighborhood of Hawassa. They don’t have a full time pastor but what they do have is believers who have gone into the local community and offered Jesus for a Sunday morning worship for children. This was a beautiful service for young people who have responded with joy unspeakable and full of glory. These children have an adult testimony.
This was a great lesson for me and a wonderful testimony of God’s faithfulness and grace. It takes only $200 a month to support a full time single pastor and this new church plant is thriving because they have only a building …. Oh yes, they have the love of Jesus in their hearts and the breath of Jesus in their mouths.
Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in thy sight, Oh Lord, my rock and redeemer. Amen (Psalm 19:14).