The ever expanding picture of God at work...

Last week we got the privilege and honor of being among a very diverse group of pastors and leaders as we all shared in what God is doing through the Vineyard movement across Africa.   We joined with pastors from Ethiopia, Brundi, Tanzania, South Africa, Zimbabwe, Norway, Sweden, Finland and The US with the common aim of seeking The Father for what He is doing in Africa.   The richness of histories and stories and experience in the room was touching and challenging.   Many of these folks face challenges that are outside of our box to this point in time.  They are facing issues such as developing churches in hostile environments or trying to train leaders in villages that are totally unaccessible and where there is no communication infrastructure.  They are facing how to develop training tools that can assist rural pastors who have difficulty reading and writing.   They are facing doing complex reconciliation between peoples and tribes that have warred with each other for generations.  They are facing the devastating effects of colonization and imperialism that stole much of the richness from the culture and planted a brand of Christianity that forced people to look like Westerners and act like Westerners, rather than just being Jesus' followers.   They are facing the total collapse of economies which has meant that there is absolutely no security in the money that they have in their pockets and that it is better for them to have that money in their pockets than in the bank.   They are facing working with difficult government situations and societies that are rocked by violence and crime as well as the effects of long term war.   They face many of the same difficulties that we can imagine the early church faced as they began to gather together diverse cultures and diverse histories with diverse education and spiritual baggage in order to establish a unified community that reflected The Kingdom of God while also reflecting elements of their cultures of origin.

Yet, despite these difficulties, these brothers and sisters in Christ continue to preach and demonstrate The Kingdom of God.  People are being healed.  Reconciliation is occurring.  People are coming to know Jesus.  People are joining in the process of wholeness.  Justice and mercy are kissing.   New communities of hope are being planted.   People are finding the dignity of having been created in the image of God.   Community among very diverse folks is being uncovered.  People are finding freedom.   People’s bellies are being filled as well as their souls.   Its a beautiful picture.  Great opposition.  Great challenges.  Great cost.  Yet, with perseverance there are great breakthroughs occurring.   Last week I found a whole new group of heroes!  Last week I also realized in a more profound way how much we truly need the heterogenous, multi-cultural, multi-national Kingdom community in order to more fully understand that God’s Kingdom is not constrained by culture or race or background or national boundary.   I need others if I ever hope to have God show me His Kingdom rather than what I’ve come to think of it as - and if I ever hope to take off my cultural blindness and prejudices to better be able to see what He is doing. 

I also think of the many sacrifices made by Jesus followers here in Ethiopia both in order to attend parts of this week of meetings, as well as to see God’s Kingdom expand.  Consider the person who knew that God wanted him there, so he took the time off of work to attend, yet he was unsure that his job would still be there when he returns.   Or, consider the pastors who traveled 500 kilometers to come to the meetings by bus on roads that do not always exist.   A journey of 500 kms here takes at least 10 hours.   Or, consider the women who cooked for us during the end of the week.  They served us breakfast, lunch and dinner, literally cooking almost around the clock as a sacrifice of love toward us. 

But, of course, these sacrifices are just a small peek into the daily sacrifices that pastors and leaders make here in order to see God’s Kingdom advance.  Consider the church that was planted in a rural area less than 2 years ago by a young man in his 20’s that has now planted 7 other rural churches - all of which he is providing some form of oversight to.   Or, consider the guy who oversees over 60 churches in very difficult areas who takes no salary from his work with them, but rather uses the income from his secular business to help support those churches.  Or consider the pastor who has not gotten paid in over a year because he saw the need for his church to have a building to serve their community, yet the church can’t afford to pay him and for the building, both.  Or, consider the many who have full time jobs but then are serving God in seeing His Kingdom come full time after hours too.   Or, consider those pastors who in the rural areas are involved in the messiness of not only holding worship services but also caring for the widows and orphans who make up a disproportionate percentage of their churches.  Or, consider those pastors who would love to be able to have a public space to meet in, yet there is no way they can afford to either rent or build even a small space where they could welcome more to come experience God's Presence with them..

Sacrifice here is on a different level.  And, it challenges me in the core of who I am.  Yet, I also see how God’s Kingdom breaks in when all of us are together and I happen to think that they somehow are linked.   There is a level of death to self in order to be raised in Christ that is practiced here that leads to a richness of our times together where we see God move in power.   I’ll confess that at times I have tried to strategize (not that strategy in and of itself is bad) about how to see God move in power and how to better experience His Presence breaking in.  I have longed to experience God’s Power and Presence in corporate settings that brings freedom and healing and where people are coming to know Jesus.   What I can share now, is what seems to be true here.  It comes from the laying down of lives (in the truest sense of the word) and the laying down of comfort and the laying down of success and the laying down of comfort and and entering into the process of death to my self, my needs and my wants along with the embrace of the messiness of ministry.  In that process the power of the resurrection comes out and The Kingdom of God keeps advancing.

We have so much to learn from our dear friends here...much more than we will ever teach them.

Getting at the Root...

One of the things that stands out in Addis Ababa is the number of street children who are here.  You may find them begging or shining shoes or selling gum or selling Ethiopian wooden toothbrushes.   Some will find themselves addicted to chat.  Many find themselves in a difficult spot where they are “stuck” in the city without means and without an education to try to find a way out.   A stark scene is to travel into Mexico Square early in the morning and see the dozens of children sleeping in the grass median strip.  According to our Ethiopian friends, some of the youngest have been trafficked from the countryside to be “used” in the raising of money by beggars and will eventually disappear.  These friends have petitioned the government to make it illegal for women to be able to beg with children because of the safety issues involved.  

Its a difficult scene in a land where there are now over 5.2 million people in need of emergency food aid, according to a report just released from the Ethiopian government  and the UN last week (200,000+ more than thought in December).   Life in the countryside is difficult.  So, the draw of coming to the city to make a living has a certain promise to it.   What has been explained to us is that there are people who go to the countryside promising children jobs in the textile factories and in other businesses.  It makes sense to a family to send one of their children to the city - it is one less mouth to feed and it has the promise of money returning to the family in the countryside where subsistence farming is prevalent, but where the yield continues to decrease, especially in the face of lack of rain.

So, children arrive, but within a short time the jobs dry up or they don’t materialize at all.  This leaves young children on their own.  Children younger than Joshua are left to provide for themselves, sleep on the streets and stay out of trouble.

What are the answers?  I’ve loved seeing what some folks are doing to reach out to these street kids and bring hope to them.  One guy (who grew up on the streets himself) has started a soccer club which helps give education and food to kids in Jesus’ name while also giving them a positive outlet.  They have uniforms and play organized games against street kids from other areas who also have organized teams.  Others are providing drop-in centers which help feed, shelter and educate kids while also giving them some skills.

I really love what some folks we met last week are doing, though.  They have started an agricultural project in a rural area where a lot of children are trafficked to the city from.   In this project they are helping to increase the yield for farmers so that all of the mouths can be fed, they are providing children with skills so that they do not need to go to the city to find work, and they are generating revenue from the sale of fruits and vegetables to help with the ministry expenses of reaching out to street children in Addis Ababa.  I love that here is a group of people who have the foresight to not just address the surface need of seeing kids fed and clothed and sheltered here in the city (one area of their ministry does this).   But, they also are tackling a larger issue that starts in the countryside with families needing to find provision.

My prayer since meeting these guys is that we can have insight in how to address some of these core issues.   What would God have us do to help tackle some of the root issues and not just the surface need.   God give us wisdom...

Hanna's Hair

I absolutely LOVE Hanna's hair when it's out of braids - just down and curly.  But it gets tangled very easily, and she HATES (aka- crying, screaming, wailing, etc, etc) having her hair combed, so up in braids it goes.

Today, I successfully put in my first corn rows.  I've tried before, but between a squiggly toddler and my lack of experience, I've never gotten a row longer than about a centimeter.  But today, we achieved 12 full rows!  Tigist said my "shurba" looks good, but I think she's just being nice.  It already looks frizzy, so we'll see how long it lasts.  Now if I can only get my parts straight....

I'm having problems getting pictures to post, but I think you should be able to access them  here:
photos of Hanna's braids