Ethiopia Mission Update #2

Salamno! Peace be with you! Hello again everyone, it’s been another eventful week here in Ethiopia. This week has been filled with lots of travel and lots of playing with and teaching kids.

Last weekend we had our first VBS session with some local kids in Barayu and it was a roaring success! The tallest member of our team, Josh, played Goliath in a skit to great effect. After each skit, we played a game we learned from one of the ministry leaders that helped to drive home the lessons from the story. Following the game, we had a craft time which the children really enjoyed. They were very excited to craft elements of the different stories from Play-Doh. Time is pretty relaxed here in Ethiopia, and we experienced that vividly that day. We made sure to finish our program with enough time for all the parents to get their kids home by dinner time, so imagine our surprise when the parents came about an hour later than we expected! Thankfully, the children were very easy to entertain. Anything that we could use to play soccer or catch was more than enough to keep them occupied. Following VBS, we had one more work day where we were able to finish up some of the projects we had begun the previous week, and with this it was finally time for our first rest/excursion day!

For our excursion we ate some surprisingly delicious Mexican food at a restaurant in the capital city, then went to Unity Park, a beautiful gardens, zoo, and cultural exposition center. There, we learned more about the history of Ethiopia and explored artistic representations of all the different ethnic groups that make up the country. It was truly a privilege to learn the history of a country and culture that has been established here for thousands of years. One of the most interesting parts of the park is a self-guided tour through the old royal palace that has been converted into a museum. Through this tour we learned about the development of Ethiopia as a power in the world as well as its religious history dating all the way back to when the Queen of Sheba visited Solomon. After our adventure in Unity Park the Weeks’, our host family treated us to a very familiar meal – baked chicken and roasted veggies!

Rested and restored, we began preparations for the next leg of our adventure: a visit to a newly planted church in a very remote and rural town named Qeja. To reach this tiny community, we had to go on a road trip - 14 hours broken up into 2 days of travel. Despite the long drive, we were plenty entertained by the beautiful vistas we saw on every side - mountains and plains and stretches of painted sky (and baboons, too!). Upon finally arriving at the church, the Qeja community showered us with a warm and exceptionally hospitable welcome. When our Land Cruiser couldn't fit through the entrance, some of the men actually hacked down part of the cactus fence to let us through! From then on, we were firmly drawn into what life is like in the community. Once we were settled in, they sat us down for coffee, injera, cabbage, and qocho. Imagine our surprise when we were told this was only the prelude to our actual dinner! This level of generous hospitality was a consistent aspect of our stay. We were welcomed into the kitchen to sit with the ladies in the community as they (for what seemed like all day) cooked over a fire, and we watched as they skillfully made injera, qocho, soups, and other dishes. Also, throughout our stay we were blessed with spontaneous times of worship as many of the community's teens sang vibrant and joyful songs that resonated throughout the small church building. To top the experience off, we were surrounded by breathtaking views of the mountain, against the sky, especially at sunrise. Speaking of breathtaking views, our team was even able to hike to an incredible waterfall 1.5 hr away, safely guided all the way by a range of people from the church, from little kids to older adults.

As for the work we did in Qeja, our team led the local children in a sports outreach program and VBS lessons. For the sports outreach, we split the kids into younger and older groups. Half of our group played a series of games with the younger kids while tying in simple Christian lessons, while the other half played soccer with the older group. Finally, our whole team played an intense soccer game against 9 of the older group, where we suffered a crushing defeat of 0-4 (unsurprising). To congratulate the other team, we gifted them a soccer ball and cones. To finish our time with them that day, Akin shared a simple testimony with the group as Esey translated. The following two days, we continued to spend lots of time with the children as we taught them Bible lessons and played more games, and it was a joy to see how delighted the kids were to play with us despite the language barrier. On our final day in Qeja, we joined the community for worship. Our very own Caleb Adcox shared his testimony with the congregation and Travis Weeks shared a sermon about how the Christian faith sometimes requires us to make hard sacrifices for our own good. Finally, after more time with the kids in the afternoon, our group prayed a blessing over the church's leaders before we said our goodbyes. This community, so welcoming, warm, and kind, bid us farewell the same way they welcomed us- with genuine love. Our group was undoubtedly changed by this love they shared so generously We pray that the time we spent with them will bear fruit in their lives, and will continue to do so inours.

Next, we'll be returning back to Addis Ababa to rest a bit and continue our work at the Burayu Training Center.

Galata waaqayyoo!