Work and Rest

We have had the opportunity to engage in many facets of ministry this week; it’s been an exciting and fruitful seven days.  Saturday was mainly spent working at the Bantu church construction site.  The majority of the walls, doors, and window frames are completed, and this past weekend the trusses went up to support the roof.  The Bantu church is gray stone with peaked windows all around, and it is situated next to a massive African tree.  The trusses are huge and elevate the roof of the church high above other buildings in Bantu.  As one of our guards, Katama, said as he watched the trusses go up from our house, “guyyaa baareedaa!” or “beautiful day!”  It will be a beautiful house of the Lord when it is completed. 

Much work was also needed on the Bantu church well this week.  It is a relatively deep well compared to many hand-dug wells in the area, and it has had a problem with caving in at the bottom.  The men have worked all week to dig out and sink concrete supports down to the water line.  It’s incredible how far down the digger climbs into the well.  We were also blessed to have Ted Mettetal and Jimmy Leatherwood from Hope Springs Water here this week.  They have been rehabilitating a truck-mounted drilling rig that will be able to bore deep water wells in the near future.  Ted and Jimmy also worked on getting a solar-power pump up and running for the Bantu church well.  This will allow the church to pump water even on days the electricity is off. 

Sunday morning we traveled out to Bili Malima, the village where The Woodlands team held VBS, and met with 16 believers for the first service of their new church plant.  It was quite a journey.  We drove as far as we could until the mud got too deep, and then we walked the remainder of the way.  Larry carried Matthew, Berhanu carried the guitar, I carried the backpack with all our Bibles, and the boys just worked not to fall over in the mud.  Our feet were covered in mud by the time we made it to the house for church, but the difficulty in getting there only made the occasion more meaningful.  Larry preached a message on new life, and it is so awesome to contemplate the new life God is bringing to this community.

I got to meet with the Bantu Ladies’ program on Monday evening for their weekly meeting.  It was such a great experience to be with these women as they worshiped and prayed.  They were very gracious to allow me to join with them.  While we are here, I will have the opportunity to share some biblical storytelling practices with them.  Our goal is to teach them the methods of biblical storytelling just like the pastors learn in the Bible Institute.  We’re focusing on five stories that teach “Jesus is Lord” that they can memorize and tell to friends, neighbors, and family members who are unbelievers.  I had a wonderful time sharing with the women and learning from them.

On the more personal side of things, Thursday night we got to host Berhanu, Shewa, and their baby, Yacob, for dinner in our home.  We are so thankful for their friendship and fellowship, and we loved the chance to play with Yacob.  I have also started working with Berhanu on learning some computer programs that would be useful for the Bantu church.  He is a tremendous help for us in learning the Oromiffa language.  We also got a goat this week, compliments of Jim.  The grass in our yard has grown pretty long now that a fence is up and keeps grazing livestock out, and we thought a goat would solve the problem and be fun for the boys.  He is a little black billy goat about six months old, and it’s fun to see the boys lead him around the way they do Baxter back home.  We named him “Abdi” which in Oromiffa means “hope.” 

It has rained like crazy over the past five days, multiple times a day.  The ground is completely saturated and the mud is everywhere and deep.  As inconvenient as it is for us, rain is life to the people here who survive as subsistence farmers.  It does make ministry challenging though…we are planning to go out to Abebee to distribute 2000 Meals 4 Multitudes and to show the Jesus film in Oromiffa at the Bantu church as a community event.  We are waiting for an evening without rain to show the film and dry enough ground that we can cross the rivers on the road to Abebee. 

We did brave the trek out to Abebee on Thursday afternoon so that we could coordinate a day to distribute meals. We made it halfway in the car and only got stuck in the mud once.  Then we waded through a creek, traveled by “gaarrii” or horse cart to the river, waded the river, and traveled by gaarrii to the Abebee church.  We are (hopefully) set to distribute meals on Monday.  While there we discovered the Abebee church well was out of commission, so Larry and the pastors were able to get that back up and running.  Then we made the long (and muddy) trip home.  Thursday morning, in the midst of a rain storm, we stood at our front door and watched a moth migration.  Thousands of moths flew past our house…it was a great picture of perseverance under trial.

Tonight Larry is picking up his mother, Linda, at the airport for a ten day stay!  We are so excited to have Mimi visit and experience life here with us.  It will be a great encouragement to us as we reach the halfway point of our summer here in Ethiopia.  Would you pray for continued opportunities this week as Larry preaches Sunday morning in Bantu, we distribute Meals 4 Multitudes in Abebee and Bottonee, the ladies’ program, showing the Jesus film, and whatever else God places in our path?!  We will head back into town next Monday evening (July 7) for our weekly Addis trip.  Have a wonderful week!