Day of Prayer for Ethiopia

Please join us for a day of prayer for Ethiopia on Sunday, April 25th. We're encouraging folks to have a couple of friends over and brew some Fair Trade* Ethiopian coffee and spend a bit of time praying for the people of Ethiopia.

This came after a good friend of ours, Jeff Mclain was saying how he remembers to pray for us by brewing Ethiopian coffee each day.  That's also how I used to pray for Hanna before we traveled to make her part of our family, I'd head out to Coffee Co. and grab an Ethiopian french press and pray for her.

Please join us in praying for this country.

(pdf version available at click here )




**Why Fair Trade Ethiopian coffee?  For one, Ethiopian Coffee is the finest coffee in the world.  Look for names like Sidamo or Harar (the best in my opinion), Jimma or Yirgacheffe.   Why fair trade?  Because that ensures that farmers here get a fair price for their beans and that they can provide for their family.   Sure, it costs a bit more, but the difference to a farmer who is facing questions of survival it is huge.  It truly is hard for an Ethiopian farmer to understand how the green beans that were bought from him for 40 cents per pound were used to make dozens of cups of coffee at a coffeeshop for $2US per cup.  Fair trade helps to make sure they get a fairer price when the price of coffee plummets on the exchange and helps to reduce the injustice and inequity towards the farmer.  Watch for names like Pura Vida, Peace Coffee, Equal Exchange, Dean's Beans or a host of others.  If you live in Lancaster, Prince Street Cafe sells fairtrade Ethiopian beans by the lb, too.

The Prayer of a Hero

This past week was the anniversary of the death of a hero of mine some 30 years ago. To the average person, you may not even recognize his name or know what he did. Yet, 30 years ago this man was assassinated while delivering Mass in San Salvador. He was a man who lived his final years for the poor and the outcast while being a voice for those who had lost theirs. He loved like Jesus in a setting where the slogan, "Be a patriot.Kill a priest." was circulating. His name was Archbishop Oscar Romero. And almost 20 years ago God used his story to spark something in me about the poor. Jesus used his life to make me start to wonder if maybe to "waste" my life on behalf of the poor would not be "wasting" my life at all. Jesus used this man's ministry and death to help me consider the depth of His compassion, love, mercy and justice for the forgotten. Here is a prayer of Oscar Romero that I happened across on my friend Brad Culver's blog. Check out Romero's prayer below...and Brad's blog at http://livingwaterfromanancientwell.blogspot.com/ .

A Prayer of Oscar Romero (1917 - 1980)
The kingdom is not only beyond our efforts,
it is even beyond our vision.
We accomplish in our lifetime only a tiny fraction
of the magnificent enterprise that is God's work.
Nothing we do is complete, which is a way of saying
that the kingdom always lies beyond us.
No statement says all that could be said.
No prayer fully expresses our faith.
No confession brings perfection.
No pastoral visit brings wholeness.
No program accomplishes the church's mission.
No set of goals and objectives includes everything.
This is what we are about.
We plant the seeds that one day will grow.
We water seeds already planted, knowing that they hold future promise.
We lay foundations that will need further development.
We provide yeast that produces far beyond our capabilities.
We cannot do everything, and there is a sense of liberation in realizing that.
This enables us to do something,
and to do it very well.
It may be incomplete,
but it is a beginning, a step along the way,
an opportunity for the Lord's grace to enter and do the rest.
We may never see the end results, but that is the difference
between the master builder and the worker.
We are workers, not master builders; ministers, not messiahs.
We are prophets of a future not our own.
Amen.

Trip to Bahir Dar - Day 4

Photos from our 2nd day in Bahir Dar, along Lake Tana...including our hiking trip to the Zege Peninsula and the Ura Kidane Meret Monastery that dates to the 14th Century.

Trip to Bahir Dar - Day 3

On Tuesday we traveled from Gonder, 3 hours south to Bahir Dar which lies on the Southern shore of Lake Tana (the 4th largest lake in Africa). Many of these photos are from our travels to Blue Nile Falls near Tis Isat village. Blue Nile Falls is a huge waterfall during the rainy season, but as you'll see is reduced to a small trickle during the dry season mainly because of a hydroelectric dam that a few years ago began diverting much of the water away from the falls in order to generate electricity. There also are some countryside photos and people pics.

Trip to Gonder - Day 2

Pictures of our trip to Gonder (northern Ethiopia) including visiting the Royal Compound which contains 7 castles from Emperors in the 17th and 18th centuries, Fasilida's Bath & 2nd residence which the emperor used and is still used today for annual Timket ceremonies when the huge pool is filled with water, and visit to Debre Berhan Selassie, an 18th century church which contains some of the greatest church artwork in all of Ethiopia.

Trip to Gonder - Day 1 Photos

Here are photos from our trip last week 12 hours north of Addis Ababa to Gonder.  Most of these pictures are from our journey there through some of the most beautiful scenery you can imagine, including the Blue Nile River Gorge.   It was quite a trip by bus...winding down the mountains and then back up - and it was amazing the people we saw along the way.

Monkey Business

Look out for these 3 kids with sticks.  They mean business!   After being overcome by monkeys while having lunch at an open air restaurant in Sodere, the waitstaff was kind enough to equip our Joshua, Micah & Caia with sticks in case the monkeys tried to eat off our plates.  And, that they did.  The monkeys came right up to the table and tried to steal food.  Crazy.

But, with a couple of mean looking monkey busters like these 3, the monkeys didn't stand a chance.  They took their job quite seriously and were good protectors of all of us and of our meals. 

And, you should have seen the glow on the kids faces.  How many restaurants have you been in that have encouraged the kids to be armed with big sticks to ward of the wild animals?   I mean, usually we are encouraging our kids to try to sit quietly and keep their hands the themselves in a public setting.  But, they were performing a public service, so I guess it was okay.

Beautiful Worship Song

Here's a worship song that was written by a young Ethiopian worship leader from Dessie, Ethiopia.  He shared it in a worship service during a recent Vineyard conference we were attending in Nazret.  It is a great example of people writing simple, indigenous, passionate worship songs.  God, please continue to place your song in the hearts of Ethiopians that express worship to you and that capture your heart for people!

ethiopian worship song from jerry shannon on Vimeo.