Lessons from Ethiopia: Jamie Palmer

God’s presence in The Wesley’s recent mission to Ethiopia confronted me with realizations about myself, my team, and the various conditions of the world. Here are the takeaways I’ve found myself wanting to share with everyone I meet. 

Serving and being served 

In Ethiopia we were graciously served too many times to count. They were all especially generous with whatever food they had to offer. There was never a day that anyone went hungry; most days we stayed full. Also, the women would brew coffee or tea at least twice a day every day that we worked in Burayu, and the men would bring it out and serve it to us. Though we had come out to Burayu to teach, love, and care for their children and to work for their church, it seemed like we were most often the recipients of service. 

Hospitality

Hospitality and serving go hand in hand—we saw these virtues in every move the people of Masha made. From welcoming us with lively dancing and music to treating us to feasts we could barely finish (for which, luckily, we were able to reimburse them), their care for us was boundless. I had injured my foot shortly before flying off to Ethiopia, and though it was healed enough for me to eagerly endure a 4-hour hike to a local waterfall, I probably didn’t look the most agile. Men, young and old, were at my sides as we made a sharp descent, holding my hand and steadying me. An older man offered his knee and even his hand to step on in place of jumping a large gap. Hesitant as I was to do this, he and another man lifted me over the gap by the arms instead. All of this to share with us one of the most breathtaking parts of their homeland. But the event I’m most sure I will never forget happened when we first drove up to the church. 

The village was sectioned off with lovely fences made of eucalyptus wood and cactus-like plants, adorned with white flowers that looked almost like giant lilies. There was an opening leading to a short dirt pathway people would take up to the church, but it was not big enough for our vans to fit easily through. We were about to pull off to the side and find somewhere else to park when the boys of the village took up hatchets and began chopping down a chunk of fence. Shocked, we all wondered if we should try to stop them. But even if we had the foreknowledge that they would do something like this, I don’t know if we could have stopped them. This kind of hospitality is uncomfortable to us as Americans—we would never think of destroying our own work or infrastructure in order to accommodate outsiders. But the truth is, these Christians were showing Christ’s love in a way that I’ve never seen in my home country. I think that when someone new comes around our church or community, we should be like these Ethiopians, welcoming and accommodating them in radical ways that passerby might see as excessive, humbling, or shocking. After all, Jesus Himself shocked a lot of people with who He welcomed and how He welcomed them. I believe this is the meaning of the verse that tells us to welcome strangers as we would welcome Jesus Himself. If Jesus showed up at your house and couldn’t get through your fence, what would you do? 

Abundance, provision, perseverance 

God truly provided an abundance of children for us to teach and play with at the Sudanese refugee camp in Assosa. The camp was basically a city surrounded by walls. There were thousands of people, maybe 10,000, all of whom were not allowed to become Ethiopian citizens or work jobs, relying only on rations. It was a blessing, though, to be able to take several of them out to eat with us and to talk to the women who spoke English about their life experiences. For our children’s programs, at first we had a smaller group, and they were reserved and a little frightened of us. It was beautiful to watch them warm up over the next few days. Not only did the original kids open up to us, but more and more curious kids trickled in every hour we were there it seemed. We did the same children’s programs with them that we had been doing for the other groups, but since there were well over 200 kids, at times closer to 600, it was challenging. My best friend there introduced herself as Elizabeth—she was an older lady who was an invaluable help to us in wrangling the many, many children. With the help of older leaders like her and God’s grace, it went pretty well. The kids even ended up teaching us some of their own games when ours were a little rough on such a large scale! A version of duck duck goose that they showed us might have been the most fun game of all. Our missionary leader for that week pointed out that these kids pretty much never see visitors, much less do they have groups coming in to teach them about Bible stories. Praise the Lord that we were able to reach these children who have been sequestered away from society for most, if not all, of their lives. 

These are just a few of the stories I find myself jumping to share with people when they ask me about my mission trip. While I was in Ethiopia, I often found myself wishing I was back home, but now that I am back in America, any semblance of regret has vanished. I couldn’t be more thankful for the things that I learned while I was overseas, many of which I never would have seen in my home country. Thank God for all the events of my life and His guidance which have led me to where I am today.

Jamie is a junior at LA Tech and a member of this upcoming school year’s Wesley Discipleship Team. With her servant’s heart and kind nature, she has been a breath of fresh air ever since becoming a part of our community. She is an extremely talented pianist and enjoys writing and drawing, as well. We’re very blessed to know her!