They also categorized, listed,
and distributed a considerable amount of medicines to several
church clinics and hospitals in this area. This project opened
the door for a visit with doctors at the Dembi Dollo Hospital.
Four of the team took a day’s excursion to a distant preaching
post where the Reverend Michael Weller, a PC(USA) mission co-worker,
does evangelistic and development work with the Majangir people,
who are still hunters and gatherers. They are being encouraged
by local Ethiopian administrators to settle down at this site,
called Ullawata. By the synod’s efforts, they are being
enabled to build houses of mud-bricks, plant corn and vegetables,
and, most importantly, plant the church in their midst.
All of this and much more was taking place while school at Bethel
Evangelical Secondary School (BESS) was still in session. The
student body was introduced to the team through the morning chapel
programs as different members recounted their own faith journeys.
At the end of that week, at our Friday evening prayer/ praise
session held in the school dining room, another team-member taught
the Bible lesson. Then the group of 100 boarding girls and boys
gathered around the guests in seven smaller groups and spent more
than an hour talking and asking each other questions. That for
me was one of the highlights of our being together, something
new for many of the students whose faces showed their happiness.
The following week was taken up with first semester final exams,
so students were not so free to mingle and chat. One can only
trust that these personal encounters, though brief and probably
superficial, will plant seeds for understanding and acceptance
in intercultural relationships.
In my own experience, such deep and abiding friendships have
grown out of that busy two-week period back in 1995 when the first
group from Ohio came to Dembi Dollo in response to a call from
the town congregation to come and help them build their new church.
Two weeks ago, this fourth team worshipped in that large and beautiful
church with 1,000 regular worshippers, who gather there Sunday
after Sunday. Later in the week, after a fine meal of roasted
sheep, we talked with those elders and pastors about the evangelistic
outreach, youth program, hopes and dreams of that congregation.
Pray for church leaders and synod officials of these two Bethel
Mekane Yesus congregations here in Dembi Dollo. Such deep-rooted
ethnic, political, and economic problems persist that great wisdom
and courage from the Spirit are needed.
And continue to pray for the three educational institutions within
this synod: the Gidada Bible School for lay-leadership training,
Birhane Yesus Elementary and Middle School, and BESS. A letter
from the Revernd Richard W. Braun, member of the first work-team
in 1995, hand delivered to us just two weeks ago, announced that
after years of processing, the Ethiopia Education Endowment Fund
(EEEF) has been fully established with the Presbyterian Foundation.
Without the consistent efforts of Mr. Braun and other team members,
this dream would not have become a reality. Gifts of any size
will be appreciated and should be made out and sent to:
The Presbyterian Foundation
200 E. Twelfth Street
Jeffersonville, IN 47130
Please enclose a note that it’s for the Ethiopia Education
Endowment Fund Account No. 51094021.
Cordially,
Jo Ann Griffith
The 2004 Mission Yearbook for Prayer & Study, p.
51
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