Shannon Family: Trip to Southern Ethiopia - Stop 1

Jerry had a great trip to Wera Boya, Ethiopia last week with a team of Vineyard folks from Ohio, Michigan and Missouri. Our primary mission there was to help build a church building and overall encouragement of a church there. What an amazing time.

Wera Boya is a 5km drive outside of the nearest town named Durame in the Southern region of Ethiopia known as the SNNPR. While it is only 5km outside of town, it took us well over an hour to get there because the rains had created quite the muddy mess for us to navigate. We made it, but it was some rough going, with a lot of pushing going on. Everytime we got stuck on the muddy road, all of the men and boys living in huts along the road ran out and helped push us out or dug channels to divert the water off of the road to make it easier to pass. It was an incredible encouragement.

After arriving in the village we found that the church members were already hard at work and had much more of the framing up than what we had anticipated. The women of the church greeted us with lively singing and dancing celebrating how God was lifting them out of oppression.

While there we got to experience so much! We had an amazing time loving on some of the children there. There were dozens of kids, who really just seemed to want a bit of love and touch. We also had plenty of opportunities to pray for the sick of the village. We were treated to some of the finest hospitality we have experienced here, people who have very little and who live very simple lives off of the land who were intent on feeding us huge meals everyday. It was beautiful, touching and humbling.

The people of Wera Boya are mostly subsistence farmers who grow a variety of crops, including coffee. The coffee trade provides them income for a couple of months a year when they sell the beans to the local coffee market, but within a few months they once again find themselves in the grip of poverty and exposed to the natural threats that come with subsistence farming. Despite their poverty, they are some of the most joyful people one could ever meet.

Our team got an inside look at what life is like in this village. For one, we got to be inside a hut as they prepared their meal over a charcoal fire in the center of hut and as the cow that is also housed inside the hut looked on. We got to see some of the effects of malnutrition and how simple infections and treatable diseases were bringing suffering to the children there. We also got to witness the water situation in the village. One day they brought around drinking water for the workers which had a distinctive muddy, red tint to it. As we asked around we found out that the water source was a spring that took 30 minutes round trip to walk to and which was not a clean source. A couple of members of the team made the journey with the women to get water one day - down a steep muddy trail, to a contaminated water hole - and then after filling their jugs made the back breaking journey back to the village carrying heavy jars of water. Women from the village make this journey 3 times per day to bring water back to the village that can make them sick to drink. But, when its your only water source, what else could you do? We saw first hand how a simple water well could revolutionize this village.

One day we also got to pray for an older woman (probably in her 70s) who had been blind and deaf for over 20 years. It was very clear in looking at her that she was blind and had been for some time. When we first met her she was laying in a dark corner of a hut with no way to communicate clearly with us. We took some time to pray for her and checked back in on her later in the afternoon. When we checked back in on her she told us that she could hear a bit better and that she could see light. We found this an encouragement that God was at work, so we prayed for her some more and then went home for the night. The next day we checked back in on her and she told us that she could hear better than she had for years and that she could see forms and shapes now. She still could not see clearly, but she could see. It reminded us of Jesus’ healing of the poor blind man in Mark 8 where the man saw "men walking around like trees" initially before he was fully healed by Jesus. We were encouraged and prayed some more.

I’d love to say that she was healed completely. We did not get to see it completely in our time there, at least. However, it was a huge joy when we were in the middle of a church service before we left the village and she walked into the church being led by a little boy. She sat in the back and smiled through the service and clapped to the music. However, the most encouraging thing I saw was hope that had been restored to this woman. The day before she was allowing flies to crawl all over her as we talked and prayed. She let them rest in her eyes and all over her face and eat at the sores on her legs. However, as we sat in that church service she was shooing all of the flies away as soon as they would try to land on her. To me, it was a sign that hope had returned to this beautiful daughter of God. A day before it seemed that she had given up and despair had set in, yet now a spark of hope had returned as she had experienced the Living God doing a work in her.

We closed our time there celebrating together in a time of worship in the new church that we had helped build. By Western standards it is nothing special - a shelter built of sticks and trees and tin and nails with a mud floor that will someday have mud walls. However, it is a meeting place for Jesus followers to gather and celebrate all that He is doing and has done that will assist them in being a community of hope to their village and area. Together we celebrated as newfound friends and brothers and sisters in The Lord while having many differences, also having Him in common. We had so much to celebrate - and celebrate we did - with much joy! Check out a video clip of one of the songs we did together, below...and please pray for the people of Wera Boya.