Tuesday

Tuesday - Morning

Yesterday we were encouraged by the eagerness of the evangelists to learn.  They volunteered to participate, to teach the group and learn new teaching skills, to practice sharing the gospel with each other.

Some of the evangelists meeting in a small group to discuss their experience sharing the gospel using the 4-page tract.

Carl preached on Mark 3 - “follow me” great teaching style! Carl chose one person to be Jesus, and has that person choose 12 disciples from the room.  At first the disciples only stood up, and did not follow.  Then they followed and stood in line on the stage.  Would Jesus’ disciples be neatly standing in a line? No, they would be gathered in a group listening to him and watching.  They are learning from him.

When they are close to Jesus, they can’t help but be close to each other.  When we follow Jesus, we have fellowship with one another.  We learn from Jesus.  We gain authority that Jesus gives to us.  The authority and power that we have in Christ come from being with Him and being with our fellow believers.

Rich taught a simple, concise method of evangelism. The Ethiopians practiced using the material Rich shared. Then they went out into the city in small groups to share their faith.

After dinner we gathered to debrief and hear their report.

Evangelism - they share with such boldness. Even while practicing a new method, they were willing to go out right away to meet with people on the streets.

All I kept thinking was how challenging it would be to get together a group of 65 men and women back home who would be this eager to walk around a crowded mall, sharing their faith and the good news of Jesus. There are many cultural differences that make the task of evalgelism to strangers a greater challenge in the States.

Tuesday - Afternoon/Evening

Susanna teaching about the first lesson: assurance of salvation.

Susanna taught about assurance of salvation.  She simply and powerfully communicated the truth that we were lost and destined to die and that Christ has the power to save us.  We call out to Jesus from a place of desperation.  He hears us when we call to him and has the power to save us from death. Once we are in His hands, nothing can separate us from Jesus.

It was so encouraging to see the knowledge that these evangelists have of the Scripture and their enthusiasm for teaching others about Jesus. After I shared the first of our seven follow-up lessons, I asked for volunteers to come up front and practice teaching what they’d just heard. We coached them in the material and also in the method of teaching. In Ethiopia, most teaching is lecture style. We are encouraging the evangelists to engage their students with questions and discussion about the material. Our hope is that as they engage the new believers with questions and discussion, they will impart both knowledge and a change of attitude.

 Please continue to pray that God would give us discernment to know what to teach and how to teach so that me may best encourage and equip these evangelists to disciple young believers.

The beautiful creation in Jima, Ethiopia praises God.  We pray that more of His children here will come to know His grace and love and join in the praises of creation as they are reconciled to God through Christ.

This tree may be what Dara, our dear friend and Rich's daughter, remembers as a 'fire tree' from Nigeria.

Monday morning

Day 3 - Morning

Sunday we drove 8 hours south of Addis Ababa to Jima, a middle size city with a university. It

hardly seems real that we’re here. Almost like a dream. Driving through the countryside, we saw

many round straw and mud huts. When we crossed several muddy rivers, I saw women

washing clothes and laundry draped over the foliage surrounding a stream, drying in the sun. In

the low farm land, there were herds of cows and goats walking along the roads: some with

attending boy with sticks, some unattended and wearily close to our fast moving van! As we

were ascending into the hills, we encountered a family of baboons encamped on the road side

scrounging for food scraps. Since the journey was hot and long and the roads windy, I was

grateful for our pit stops, once for breakfast at a hotel’s beautiful courtyard cafe and once for

Cokes and coffee at a small village shop. Praise the Lord we arrived in Jima with no accidents.

Once while driving through a small village, the driver slammed the breaks, throwing all of us into

each other (no seat belts here) narrowly avoiding a collision with a donkey cart!

Please pray for us as we meet the evangelists today. We are excited to see what God has

planned for us here. Surely it will be unexpected and good since the Lord is full of surprises and

good gifts! This morning we prayed to Jesus while listening to the 5 am Muslim call to prayer. I

think I will feel less like I’m moving through a dream once we begin interacting with the

evangelists we've come all this way to meet!

From Daniel:

This trip has been a funny mix of nostalgia and new experiences.

It feels similar to the short-term trips I took to Reynosa, Mexico 2002-2008. Lots of people living

day to day with the clothes on their backs. Lots of children, teens, and young people. Makeshift

soccer fields in parking lots and fields. Fruit sold by the basket, small huts with corrugated roofs.

Drinking water in bottles, glass bottle cokes and small shops and restaurants in the front room of

family homes.

It feels different because I know no Amharic. I am not here to play soccer and connect through

sports. I’m going to be leading a conference of grown men and women who are already

sacrificing much for the sake of the gospel. I wake in the predawn hours to Muslim prayer calls

instead of the gentle encouragement of friends to get up and pray before dawn at La Alianza

church with other believers.

I have also never seen large stretches of rural subsistence farms with adobe and stick houses.

There are probably similar areas in Mexico, but we never drove through them.

SIM guest house in Addis Ababa

We arrived in Addis Ababa this morning.  God provided for smooth flight connections, good interaction with seat-mates who said they would pray for us.

It is sunny and 70 degrees out.  Bouganvilla, geraniums, lantana, and canna all in bloom.  Traffic in the streets like high school students when the bell signals the end of the school day-- weaving in and out, communicating and being aware of everything around in what seems a collective somewhat chaotic flow.

We are staying at the SIM (Serving In Missions) guest house here.  We walked to a cafe to have a macchiato and some breakfast with Eyasu, who waited patiently for 2 hours as we waited in line for our visas at the airport.  On our walk we passed a park built in the communist era and the country's largest hospital.

A view of the park during our walk.  Eyasu informed us that this park was built in Ethiopia's Communist era.

Red star on top of the tower in the park.

Rich couldn't remember the name of the really good coffee drink.  Then we found out that it was simply macchiato with an Ethiopian accent!

Almost as if it could be Starbucks.  Though i'm sure Kaldi's Cafe has better coffee.  

Rich and Eyasu walking up the street where the SIM guest house is located.  This picture does not do justice to the traffic previously mentioned=)

The Flight

We are on our way to Ethiopia.

How did we get here? How did we get into the position to teach 50 evangelists and pastors about discipleship? I know it’s not by my own merit or power.

I am a sinner saved by grace who wants to follow Jesus with all of his heart. This is what I've been thinking as we've been traveling.  I am reminded of what the Apostle Paul said:

I will boast all the more in my weakness, because Christ's strength is made perfect in my weakness. (2 Cor 12:9)

I am also reminded of Jesus' encouragement of his disciples when he says that they will go before kings and rulers and the Holy Spirit will give them the words to say.  How much more will he give us grace to communicate to our brothers and sisters here in Ethiopia?  It's an honor and a privilege to have this charge of sharing what we have studied and lived about growing as a disciple of Christ and helping others with that journey.