| Ethiopia Trip Blog October 6th to October 21st, 2006 |
| Day #1: After more than 24-hours of traveling, we arrived safely in Ethiopia late on Saturday evening. Addis Ababa, the capital city of Ethiopia, has a new airport that is clean, modern and very impressive looking. It certainly is a significant upgrade over the old airport! The team is very weary from our long journey, but definitely glad to be here and excited for the adventure that awaits us over the next two weeks. All 12 team members and all 24 bags arrived with no problems . . . God is good. John and Kay McNally, our team leaders, picked-up the team at the airport and helped drive us to the Red Cross Center (RCC), where we are staying. The RCC is familiar ground for me, as I�ve stayed here numerous times in the past, so immediately I feel comfortable here which should help make the transition a little easier. Day #2: I woke up this morning at 4:00am to the sounds of the Muslim prayer call from the mosque behind the RCC. The Muslims are in the middle of celebrating Ramadan, their most important of holy days, so the chanting goes on all day and all night. Anyway, between the chanting and the dogs constantly barking, I got very little sleep last night. Today is Sunday . . . as such, we are going to attend morning worship at the International Evangelical Church. IEC is the largest English-speaking church in Addis and regularly attended by people of all different nationalities. It�s always a neat experience to worship with a diverse group of people that speak a variety of languages and come from various different cultures. The rest of the day we spent focusing on training and preparation for the coming week. Bob Green, the pastor at Arrow Heights Baptist Church, did not make the trip because of kidney stones. As such, much of the teaching responsibilities for the church leaders will squarely fall on me. I feel very inadequate and unprepared. I pray that God�s grace will be sufficient. Day #3 & #4: We spent the first few days this week working on several different projects in a community of four small villages about 1��2 hours outside of Addis. On Monday morning, J.B. � a young man from Jackson, TN serving as a missionary in Addis through Indigenous Outreach International (IOI) � and I did some teaching for a group of church leaders in Asgore. In the afternoon, we lead a True Love Waits camp at the local school in Awash Bune. On Tuesday morning, I helped the construction team with the building of a house in Awash Bune and again led the TLW camp in the afternoon. Several of the ladies on the team have been doing women�s ministry and also making home visits in the villages. Each evening, we meet as a team back at the Red Cross to discuss/debrief the events from the day�s work and it has been great to hear the positive reports on some of the things God is already doing. Day #5: This morning we finished up the True Love Waits camp at the school in Awash Bune. This was the first time (in Ethiopia) that TLW was taught in a non-church setting and primarily to non-believers. It was certainly a challenging experience and it was very evident that we were dealing with some serious spiritual warfare. On Tuesday, we were told � mid-lesson � that we could not talk about God or the Bible in the classroom. After resolving that issue in a way that was satisfactory for all parties involved, we decided to move the final day of sessions to a location off school property. Then today we were interrupted again, by a local government official who took issue with Negash, one of the Ethiopian team evangelists and our translator for the day. Clearly, Satan did not want the students to hear such an important message like TLW. Still, the students responded positively to our challenge to remain abstinent before marriage and monogamous within marriage. Day #6: Today was a rather easy day. I helped with the construction team and we finished framing and roofing the 2nd house that we constructed in Awash Bune. We also had the opportunity to experience an authentic Ethiopian coffee ceremony and even help prepare the coffee. Day #7: The team divided into small groups today and our group had the privilege of visiting an orphanage in a small community within Addis call Zenbework, as well as making several home visits. The first home we visited contained a blended family � a mother and father (who both lost previous spouses to HIV/AIDS), four children, and one niece (whose mother also passed away). During the visit, I had the opportunity to preach the gospel to them and both parents, as well as two of the children, prayed to receive Christ. We also heard positive reports from the other group that made home visits today and continue to see evidence of God at work. I am constantly amazed at the faithfulness of some of the nationals who work as evangelists here. Negash Gemede is one of the evangelists and he is simply an amazing and gifted man of God. He is an incredible example . . . he is passionate about preaching the gospel and has a real burden for reaching the people of his country. I have heard people describe him as �a modern-day Apostle Paul� and I consider it a privilege to have known him these past five years and to call him a friend. Day #8: This morning we visited the church in Repi, which is Negash�s home church. They have a partnership with Compassion International Ministry (http://www.compassion.com) and reach over 300 children in that community. We had the opportunity to meet with the teenagers in this church and over 100 students attended the gathering. Doyle, Joanna, and I shared our testimonies, played �Simon Says� with them (a BIG favorite among the young people here), and taught them from the scriptures. At the end of the meeting, I preached the gospel straight-up and one young lady accepted Christ as Lord and Savior. In the afternoon, we ate lunch and then went shopping. While at a coffee shop, I met a famous Ethiopian actor/writer/producer � Telahun Gugessa � who is also a fellow believer. We talked for several minutes and he invited us to visit his church sometime. I told him that we would be very busy this next week, but maybe something could be worked out on a future trip. Day #9: Today we went to the church at Repi for morning worship. Afterwards, we ate brunch at the Sheraton Hotel in Addis, which is one of the nicest hotels in all of Africa. This is always a nice surprise for the teams and is kind of like an �oasis in the desert� for at least a few hours. However, it also provides such a dramatic contrast with the poverty that covers the rest of the city and usually provides some teachable moments for the team. The remainder of the day was spent on some much needed rest & relaxation at the Red Cross Center and preparing for the week ahead. Day #10: Today we returned again to the church at Repi. The women focused on children�s ministry and working with the hundreds of children involved in the Compassion International program. The men � i.e. Doyle and myself � worked construction all day and we helped haul rocks from the riverbed (to lay a foundation for a classroom), paint a new classroom, and repair the road to the village which had washed away during the rainy season. It was a productive, but physically challenging day. Day #11: This morning we had the privilege of visiting a completed water project in one of the villages just outside of Repi. This project helped create a source of clean water for the people in this village and is a perfect example of how the Community Health Evangelism (CHE) process should work. It�s amazing to see how, by meeting the most basic of human needs, the door is opened in a village for the local churches and evangelists to share the gospel and help lead people to Christ. In the evening, we visited Samine Addis Kedan Church � Asrat�s home church � to lead the youth meeting there. Day #12: Today, both the men and women provided some valuable teaching for church leaders/evangelists and their wives at the Shalom Church in Addis. Later in the evening, we again helped lead a youth meeting . . . this time at Akaki Kale Hiwot Church, which is Fikre�s home church. It was a busy and tiring day. Day #13: On our second to last day in Ethiopia, we went on an out-country experience to visit several Muslim communities about three hours south of Addis. The first village we visited � Andola � was predominantly Muslim, but had a small evangelical church that was growing. The land in this part of the country is very dry and barren and they typically do not get enough rain during the year to produce the resources they need. Because they have been unable to dig wells in the area, they usually have to walk 10 kilometers (the equivalent of 6.25 miles) one way to the nearest water source. There are also no schools in the area and the children, if they go to school, have to walk very far to get an education. The second church we visited was in Reafu Hergesa and it was located very near a Muslim mosque. God has blessed this church and it has grown to more than 300 members and helped plant 24 smaller churches in the area. The mosque now stands empty. The surprise of the day came when we encountered a group of people moving a herd of 300 camels along the roadside. Camels are not seen in Addis Ababa, only in southern Ethiopia, so this was a rare treat. Our final visit of the day was to a small village called Ali, which was five miles south of the middle of nowhere. We seriously thought that we were in the most remote part of Africa at this point. In this village, a church was started by the son of a Muslim shake who had converted to Christianity after receiving a vision from the Lord. His father disowned him and has threatened to kill him, but he remains faithful and has helped lead many others to Christ including his best friend (who also originally rejected him), as well as his brother and sister. The church now boasts 45 converts and meets in a tiny church building (that is literally no bigger than a large walk-in closet!) made of mud and covered with a plastic blue tarp underneath an acacia tree. It is simply amazing to see how God has worked in these Muslim communities and to see the passion and joy of the people who face very real and serious persecution on a daily basis. Both individuals and churches in America could certainly learn a LOT about living the Christian life from our brothers and sisters here in Ethiopia! Day #14: The team spent our final day in Addis Ababa shopping, eating and traveling to the airport . . . eager to return home to see our families and to also share about the trip. Overall, it was an incredible trip for the entire team filled with many great stories and life-changing experiences. Personally, this trip has helped me to further develop a sense of vision for what God is doing in Ethiopia and a renewed passion for helping to reach the people there.y. Thanks for your time and may God bless you abundantly! |