Holy Spirit Moves

After our local service on Sunday, Pastor Emanuel invited us to attend a ‘conference’ at a nearby rural chapel. Many from our congregation climbed into bijus[ 3 wheeled taxis] and 7 of us piled into a toyota for the short drive.We turned off the main road a few kilometers from Burayu and onto a rough dirt track rambling through eucalyptis groves and the occasional grain field.

We came to a small cluster of farm houses where many people had begun to gather. We untangled ourselves from the toyota truck and walked a short way to an outdoor pavillion made of poles and tarps. The ground was covered with fresh eucalyptis leaves and they gave off a lovely frangrance as we walked on them. A large group of worshippers had already gathered in the pavillion and we were given seats near the podium.        The guest speaker turned out to be the driver of the toyota,Mitiku.  A local elder opened the conference with prayer,  then Mitiku launched into an enthusiastic message about the power of the Holy Spirit to transform lives.

At several intervals the message would break and the music would begin and people would sing and dance and a man even began to play a large drum. Pastor Emanuel explained to me how King David’s wife Michal had disapproved of his dancing and that the Ethiopian people consider dance a form of worship just like David did.

Mitiku began to preach again and someone spoke up saying they had received a word of prophesy regarding a man at the conference. He came forward and they prayed over him and layed hands on him and he received a healing from the Holy Spirit.

A woman came forward and was prayed for and also received a blessing  The preaching continued for awhile and after some more music  Emanuel  gave a closing sermon .

I find the worship here to be inspiring and uplifting and I very much enjoy the music and dance. It is as though people here feel free to woship with all of there being, in our american churches we seem to have lost some of that along the way.

I love the worship services in my home church and I greatly value the teaching of the Word also. I just pray that we can find a way to incorporate the  enthusiasm I find in the Ethiopian church.      CW

Back Online Again

Well, after days of trying to diagnose our internet troubles we are finally online again. It seems that someone at the Gullele house thought they needed  our sim card more than we did. After a long and confusing visit to the TeleCom office we were able to purchase a new one and we are off and blogging  again.

The good news is that we have been given an absolutely  beautiful house in Burayu to live in free of rent until we leave for America. Our landlord ,Keefley, is a very gracious pentioner who has let us move into the ground floor  apt. of his lovely home. It seems he has a heart for missions and has his own vision of building a youth center and library in Burayu.

God indeed has blessed us beyond what we could have imagined.  We are learning our way around the town  and meeting new shop  keepers . On Tuesday Sandy and I and P. Emanuel took a  scenic trip by pony cart to the countryside . We met two young girls in beautiful dresses  sitting under a tree. I can imagine them planning their futures as they sat there in the shady grove of trees.

We should be all settled in by Friday . Then I hope to start teaching a Christmas Carol to our kids during the program on Saturday. If all goes well we can sing it at Church on the Sunday before Christmas. I’ll ask Sandy to video the performance for the blog, So be sure to stay tuned in.

Thank  You for your prayers,    Carole

Computer troubles

Hello everyone – this is Debbie from Lake Shastina Community Bible Church.  Many of you (like me) have been checking the blog frequently for an update from Carole and Sandy.  I just wanted to drop a note in the blog letting you know that the girls have been moving to a house in Burayu and they’ve had some trouble with their internet connection on the computer.  That is why we haven’t been hearing from them.  They are fine – sounds like they’ve had a few bumps with this new house.  Hopefully we’ll get the full story soon.

Let’s keep them in our prayers!

In Christ,

Debbie

jumprope to numbers

On Saturday we played jump rope with our Burayu kids  between class and lunch. We have successfully fed our children breakfast and lunch  for our second time. We have so much still to learn and to teach. Sandy and I decided to divide and conquer.  She agreed to take our littlest ones and walk with them and teach the words for the things they saw. I  found the older kids in my English class  already know there English alphabet and numbers.  It was the first time I have ever taught children our English language.  The kids are so bright and we laughed a lot as I drew pictures on the board and had them say the English word. We have a bit of work to do on pronunciations but it was an excellent beginning.  This video of  the kids was taken by Sandy.  She is much better at the photos than I am.  I’m beat!  Playing with kids and teaching is hard work.  That’s all for now.   CW

Our First Meal

Praise the Lord we made it through our first two weeks.

The first project from GGI was setting up a kitchen to feed a group of children breakfast and lunch on Saturdays. Last Saturday was our first. Carole and I thought, this is great…we can do this. How hard  could it be. As we set out to make our plan, we got out our pads of paper and started making a list. We got it on good authority that most everyone around here eats bread, or biscuits and tea for breakfast. For lunch, Injeura with Wat, and tea. – we were ready to tackle the job.

First, we needed to set up the kitchen – then feed the kids and hand out their school uniforms and books. We’ll have a wonderful day, we thought, even have candy to hand out, and stay within our budget. Heroes!

OK.. things didn’t go quite as planned.

You see, we live in Addis Ababa, and our mission is at a church in Brayeu – about 45 minutes away.   In Addis, they speak Amharic. In Brayeu, they speak Oromo. Our driver and interpreter speaks Amharic. Do you see how this could be a problem? Now… our pastor, Emanuel, speaks pretty good English if you can get past his thick Oromo accent…

We all sat down with our lists and went over everything. You think you understand a person is saying, and that person thinks they understand what you are saying. Everyone on the same page…But no one was on the same page. Not even in the same book. Carole and I with pastor Emanuel arranged for a simple but sturdy table to be built to cook on. We needed a shelf to hold pots and pans, and door for the kitchen with a lock, which needed to be installed before any supplies could go in.

Not knowing how to cook Wat, we decided to hire Buse (a young women who also knows no English) to cook for the first month and teach us. 

To save time and stress, we sent her out to buy the food, and some pots. She came back with some really big pots, and what looked like a lot of food. OK Lord, I’m thinking. I’m learning to trust You in all things. Carole and I were the only ones here feeling a little uptight. Everyone else was good and wanted to go get coffee. So, we went to get coffee. 

Saturday came. Twenty seven beautiful children were fed the most delicious and satisfying breakfast of macaroni, cooked with lentils in an array of vegetables and bread. We handed out uniforms and schoolbooks. They had their pictures taken. We all played ball until lunch was served. Buse, and a handful of dear sweet women served Wat with meat, Injeura, beats,cabbage sauteed with potatoes and bread. Carole and I didn’t get to learn how the Wat was made….Because of some confusion, we got there an hour late.

The table and the door is being painted, not to worry. We were over budget. We will do better next time. This is Africa.

Learning to trust Jesus, Sandy and Carole   <><

“My flesh and my heart faileth: but God is the strength of my heart and my portion for ever” - Psalm 73:26

Simple Enough

We served our fist breakfast and lunch today in Burayu. Buse and several other women from the church did the cooking this time but next week Sandy and will I do more to help prepare the meals.

It sounds simple enough. Cook for 25 children, get them all to wash their hands, quiet them down for a prayer, get them all in line  smallest to biggest,and to wait orderly for their turn to be served.

If I spoke Oromo or if the children spoke english this might be easier, but lets face it kids are basically the same every where. Just the concept of standing in lines  from smallest to biggest was a completely new idea for these kids.

They are all really wonderful, but I have to say some of them made quite an impression on me today; for example ,Dinka, a lanky  teenage boy was so helpful. He speaks some english and  could keep the boys in line and yet he was very gentle with the littlest of our girls. He is a natural leader.

Then there is Marta who always had a smile for me,and tiny little girls Bikiltu,Aster,and Lidya. Oh and there’s Mimi,she has such a sweetness to her.

And I cant leave out Komara, he is so eager for attention.  I can’t wait to learn all their names and what makes each one unique in God’s eyes.

Praise and Glory to God!       CW

traditional dancers

A Kitchen for Burayu Orphans

I think now is a good time to explain exactly what Sandy and I are doing here in Burayu. Grace Giving International, and our home churches and families are working together to provide a child sponsor program for at risk children in the town of Burayu. We are starting with a kitchen to serve 30 children. There are many more but we will begin small.

Our first week has been a blurr. We got settled in a house in Gullele sub city, Addis Ababa; Then jumped right into the frying pan. A proposal from a contractor for a locking door and a table, a menu and estimate from a local woman who will help us. This lovely young woman, Buse, went shopping with our driver Dowitt and made most of our purchases. It is better to use a local for shopping, they can get better deals and we need to make our resources go as far as possible.

Grace Giving International gave us our start up money for the kitchen and  an Ethiopian, Tolla Gada of Ethiopian Mission Society Churches, is helping with things like  refrigerator and stove.

God willing we will serve our first meal Saturday morning with lunch to follow at noon.    Pray that all goes well as we initiate this program.

Joyfully yours in Christ,

CW

PS:  if you are interested in sponsoring one of our Burayu Kids go to GGI website and may God bless your efforts.

What Wat

     Wat ,what is it? We met with Pastor Emanuel to discuss the food program and the coversation went along well enough until the topic of wat came up .One of the women who will be cooking for us asked him in amharic what wat we wanted to have her prepare so she could plan a budget so he asked Sandy and I what wat would we like? Not understanding the  question we politely queried ,what? Again he replied what wat do you like ? What? Wat. You know wat. No what? You see in the dialect here it is very hard to distinguish Wat from what . when we finally remembered that Wat is the sauce the enjeura bread is dipped we began to laugh very hard. So we had to explain what was so funny ; then we all had a good laugh together.  

      The day went  along pretty well and Pastor Emanuel invited us to join him and his friend Pastor Tolla for lunch at a restaurant nearby,we accepted. We  sat down to eat a tradional meal of enjeura and Wat.The food was excellent. A friend of Emanuel came in and greeted him ,then he extended his forearm and not underatanding the jesture ,we both shook his hand .He seemed a bit distressed by this and then he and the pastors all began to chuckle. Of course sandy and I are feeling quite in the dark at this pointso we asked what was the joke . It seems that in this culture because so much of food  is eaten without utensils,it is very important to wash before eating; once you have washed you don’t want to touch any thing but your food. The friend was very gracious and did not take offence, and of course we apologized profusely. Well things are going smoothly now ,customs understood and we are enjoying the meal; Emanuel ask Sandy if she would care for some more Wat, what she asks? You know Wat. Know what?  CW

Walking Above Burayu

On Wednesday afternoon Sandy and I took a walk above Burayu with Pastor Emanuel and Pastor Tolla. As we climbed the hill it became more rural and our walk took us past some grain fields and farms. A man with a pony cart laden with eucalyptus poles came down the hill towards Burayu.

We climbed even higher up the rutted road and I thought my lungs would burst from the thin air. We were hiking well above 8000 ft elevation. I didn’t want them to think I was some soft out of shape ferienj so I did my best to keep up .[ ferienj is what they call white people here.] We walked by some small very poor children who watched us with great curiosity.

A man who was very hunched over came out of his gate to greet us. Emanuel explained to us how this man had been miraculously healed of a crippling disease. The man is now a spirit filled evangelist and has reached out to help alcoholics in his community. He invited us into his courtyard and we found a lovely little chapel there where they pray and worship.I was so taken in by the moment I forgot to take any pictures there. From there we began our trek back down the hill and here comes the pony cart and the driver offered to give us a lift back down to the car where our driver Dowitt was waiting for us we accepted although it seemed like quite a load for the small horse. Things went well at first until we came to some very big ruts ,we made it through the first one alright and sighed with relief until we came to an even worse one, the little horse scrambled to keep the cart rolling and Emanuel had one foot on the ground to push the cart back out of the rut then the axle broke. I felt so bad for breaking his cart I gave 20 birr to get it repaired,I hope it was enough. We weren’t far from the car so we finished  the trek on foot. I have to say that it was quite funny looking back on it . Just one adventure for us with more to come.