And in the quiet, I hear Your voice

This has been a good week; it’s been quieter but productive in different ways.  We needed some down time this week to recuperate.  The boys are doing great, but Larry and I have both been fighting a cold.  I lost and developed a sinus infection.  Thankfully, we headed back into Addis today, and I was able to pick up a Z-pack at the pharmacy.  No prescription needed, and it only cost $4.15.  I’ve needed the medicine for about 3 days, but it wasn’t available in Bantu.  We got a tiny taste of what it must be like for so many here with no access to common medicines.  However, we knew when we could get the medication I needed and that we could afford it.  So many here do not have that luxury.

One of the best parts about this quieter week has been the chance to stay home more and spend time with our helpers.  We are blessed with such wonderful people who share our lives with us every day.  Waarkinesh, Katama, and Taro have been true gifts to us this summer.  These past few days gave us valuable time to get to know them better and talk about what they plan to do once we leave.  Taro is very gifted in languages and knows Oromiffa, Amharic, and very good English.  He feels that God may be calling him to teach and pastor.  Katama desires to be an evangelist, but he needs training in order to do that.  Some of the best tools for evangelism are training in biblical storytelling and memorizing Bible stories.  This week we put together a 14 story evangelism tract and the lesson each story teaches about the Gospel.  With Taro’s help in translating, Larry has been teaching them a story each day and demonstrating how to retell it.  It’s so great to see them in the guard house practicing telling the stories to each other. 

We’re excited about the possibility of continuing this training at the churches in this region.  Perhaps this could be a way to equip these congregations for evangelism in their villages and the surrounding communities.  Berhanu spent several afternoons this week working with me to translate the lessons for each story into Oromiffa.  Storytelling is valuable in this area where many people do not have access to a Bible or are unable to read.  We are working on downloading an MP3 version of the oral Oromiffa New Testament that could be uploaded onto the church computer and hopefully mobile devices.  If this works out, those who cannot read would still be able to hear and memorize Bible stories.  We would appreciate prayer as we work to get this done before we leave next week. 

Sunday we drove out to the little community of Jijigaa for a Bible conference (revival).  Many of the other congregations came for the conference, and Larry preached about how Jesus opens our eyes to the truth.  The conference lasted 3 hours and was a challenge for the boys, but they did really well.  We were thankful to have been a part of such an important day in the life of the Jijigaa church. 

Monday evening I was able to meet with the women’s program again as we worked on learning more of the five stories in the Jesus Is Lord series.  So far we’ve covered ones that teach ‘God loves us just as we are,’ ‘We are all sinners,’ ‘Jesus forgives sins,’ and ‘Jesus is Lord.’  We finish next week with ‘I must make a decision to follow Christ.’  I hope and pray that these stories will be fruitful, and that the women will be able to and desire to share them with friends and neighbors. 

Last night we showed the “Jesus Film” in Oromiffa at the Bantu church.  What a captive audience!  It was awesome to see their reactions to the story on the screen and in their own language.  We are scheduled to show it this next week in Jijigaa also.  We would love to be able to take it to some of our other missionary church communities, but we won’t be able to during the rainy season.  While some of the areas are passable by horse cart during the day, it’s just not a trip that possible after dark. 

Lastly, the boys had a great time playing an impromptu game of soccer one day this week with Waarkinesh’s son and Pastor Tesfaye’s son.  They were playing in the field near our house, and Larry took the boys over to join them.  We have a hard time not getting mobbed when we go into town, but Dawit and Mosisa are familiar to us and very sweet with the boys.  We followed the soccer game with some rocket balloons (thank you Debbie Leatherwood!), and it was just such a fun and normal time for the boys. 

This is our last trip into Addis before we return in 11 days and head to the airport to come home.  Would you please keep us in your prayers during these final days in Ethiopia and as we travel home?  We are so thankful for all of your encouragement and support!

We didn't take a lot of pics this week since we worked at home so much on the evangelism course and translation, but here are a couple to share.

 The boys and their friends, Dawit and Mosisa.

 The Jijigaa Bible Conference...I know this is a dark picture, but that's a praise. It's dark because so many people are crowded into a small room and many more are filling the doorway, blocking the light!

 This is the view over the valley as you stand on top of the hill behind our house.  Isn't this a beautiful country?

One of the mountain tops on the way up to Bottonee.  We have loved living out in the country these past nine weeks.