As expected today was a really long day. Ryan landed in Addis and made it to the hotel around 1:15am. Since we were sharing a room for the night, I met him in the lobby with a big bear hug. I was so excited about him coming that I hadn’t slept yet. When we got back to the room, my mind was filled with thoughts of the coming day and I don’t think I slept for the few hours we had to sleep afterwards. We got up at 4:30am to leave for Hosanna. Needless to say, I was tired.
Typically, we allow a day to travel from Addis to Hosanna since it is long and the road is difficult. But we did not want to push back any of the programs previously scheduled. People have to walk long distances and changing plans on the fly won’t work. We left with a prayer for strength knowing God would work despite our weary bodies.
Mesfin assured us Hosanna was 3 hours away. After 3 hours on the road, we weren’t even close. I kept asking, “are we there yet?” to which he would respond, “it’s a little farther, I think.” I’m learning that Ethiopians don’t run on the same time as Americans. When I asked him about it later, he told me, “Just take whatever I tell you and double it.” That’s right, it took us 6 hours to get to Hosanna. We arrived at 11am (the time our program was to start), dropped our bags and got some lunch. Ryan kept saying, “don’t we need to go?” to which Mesfin would respond “chigger-yell” (“no problem”). It was his way of saying, we’ll get there when we get there. After a while, we finally left for Losho, which was about an hour away. When we arrived, no one acted like anything was wrong. They greeted us with smiles and hugs, and we started the program.
Losho is one of the oldest churches in the region. Mesfin’s father, Markos, is the preacher here so he knew most of the people. The program started with some singing and an admonition from several of the leading men. There wasn’t much structure (or time constraints) to the program and so each man talks until he is finished. I’ve learned that you just get up there when they point at you.
I spoke twice, sandwiching Ryan in the middle. Speaking with a translator came back to me quickly. Of course, Mesfin is an excellent translator which gave me a lot of confidence. I shared lessons with them from the psalms, encouraging them to get their eyes off the world and onto God. I urged them to be content and trust God has given us all we need. They are needed lessons for any time and culture. We become focused on the wrong things and the wrong people. We need to remember, how much or how little we have, Jesus is enough. Mesfin and I decided that would be our “word” for this trip.
After we taught, several men spoke to both us and the assembly. This is typical for the end of a program, and it is done by older men of the church. They gave us their thanks, blessed God, and blessed us and our families. It is always a humbling experience, especially this time. We are much younger than many of these people and yet they find our work a blessing. I thank my God he has allowed us to be used in this way.
Upon dismissal, we were led to Markos home for “lunch”. By now it was close to 3:30pm but we were hungry. They served traditional Ethiopian food, as well as boiled eggs, dabo (bread) and pasta for those of us with weak stomachs. We were joined by several preachers and leading young people from the area, whom we will work with next week, God willing.
We stayed a while, since this was Mesfin’s family, and of course had coffee. There is always coffee after a meal. Always. It doesn’t matter which meal or what hour. The coffee is fresh and it is goooood. This is the only place in the world I will drink black coffee.
Before we left, we took a group of preachers to our car to give them bibles. We cannot do this in public because everyone will swarm to get one. It’s not just because they are bibles. If people see you giving something away, they want one too. We gave them about 20 bibles before we left Losho.
On the way home I had trouble staying awake. We arrived around 6:30pm and I went straight to bed. It was a really long day, but I felt good. There’s nothing like hitting your pillow knowing you had given everything you had. I was weak, but God had strengthened me for the work that day.
igizī’ābiḥēri yimesigeni (exAH-BE-air ye-meh-skin)
"Thanks be to God"
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