December 27, 2006
Greetings to all!
We would like to wish you a very joyful Christmas from sunny
Dembi Dollo. We have now enjoyed our first Christmas this year
with nice get-togethers, parties, and dinners with our guests
Dorothy Hanson and David Reed and with students and staff here
at Bethel Evangelical Secondary School (BESS) in celebration of
our Savior’s birth. In a week and a half we’ll celebrate
Christmas again, this time according to the Ethiopian calendar.
The students always put together a beautiful drama and work hard
on a delicious meal.
This has been a very busy month both for us and for the church.
I (Mike) have been working on a team of colleagues from the development
office that is conducting a baseline community needs assessment
in the Hawa Galan Woreda (a “woreda” is the equivalent
of a county). This is a survey of all of the potential development
needs in the area, responding specifically to the problems identified
by representatives in the community. We have been working with
members of the community to identify the core problems they face
in terms of food security and human services. This work will guide
future project plans for the area by the Western Wollega Bethel
Synod of the Ethiopian Evangelical Church Mekane Yesus (EECMY).
The EECMY does this kind of work to show Christ’s love
to all, regardless of whether they know him. There is an increasing
need for this kind of outreach work throughout Ethiopia, as tensions
between Muslims and Christians here are increasing. Largely due
to the conflict in Somalia and the increase in fundamentalism
in Islam in Ethiopia, there have been a number of conflicts over
the last few months between Muslims and Christians. This is very
unfortunate, as Ethiopia has historically been a model of peaceful
interfaith relations. The Christian denominations have been meeting
throughout the country to address the conflicts and advocate for
peaceful solutions. Peace is an active and not a passive concept,
requiring hard work and lots of dialogue. The government has also
intervened, bringing together national Christian and Muslim leaders
to discuss the conflicts, and things have stabilized in western
Ethiopia. Please continue to pray for leaders of the church and
the Muslim community to work against violence and conflict.
By the way, we are far from the eastern border of Ethiopia with
Somalia, where the conflict is now going on.
This last month, I have also been busy learning to preach! In
the last month, I accepted invitations to give a Sunday sermon
in a church an hour’s walk from Dembi Dollo, an invitation
to give a devotion each morning for a week at the Synod office,
and a sermon at a conference of the Presbytery leaders (over 200
pastors in the audience—yikes!). Through this, I have really
developed a new appreciation for pastors—wow, it’s
a lot of work to write a sermon every Sunday on top of all of
the other ministries!
It has been wonderful to spend Christmas with Dorothy Hanson,
the PCUSA HIV/AIDS coordinator for East Africa, based in Addis
Ababa. She is like an adopted grandmother for Carolee. Also, David
Reed, a representative of the Ethiopia Education Endowment Fund
is here from Pennsylvania. We appreciate all of his meaningful
discussions with a wide range of people about educational quality.
Carolee is really getting organized! On Christmas morning she
lined up the presents and when we asked her what she was doing
she said, “making a circle.” She’s also really
enjoying her new sticker books from different people. Hailey,
our dog, is healthy, and she was happy for the extra treats that
have come with Christmas.
We wish you a blessed Christmas and a happy New Year!
Love,
Mike, Janelle, and Carolee
The 2007 Mission Yearbook for Prayer & Study, p. 329 |
