Ethiopia is calling!
After the good mid-year holiday we traveled back to Addis Ababa where we were to meet up with the guys who are running the most amusing rescue operation preventing infanticide.
It was in two days time that we were to travel down to Jinka, a place where an evil ancient practice called Mingi is still in effect. This is a belief that any child who is born either with defects or a peculiarity will bring an omen to the community or village. Therefore, the only way out is to kill the mingi as to prevent droughts and so on.
A child can be Mingi by virtue of the initial teeth growing from upper gums or being born out of wedlock or from a pregnancy that is unannounced. Insane, but very true! This is still happening in Ethiopia.
While my teammate, whose passport got stolen together with his bag, and I pursued an issue of a new one, we found ourselves effortlessly making friends and hanging out with them from time to time. We got a chance as well to go to one of the youngest charismatic churches here. After we attended one of the youth concerts, I was led to speak to the Pastor only after we actually had started off, when along the Church’ street, we happened to meet one poor youth who wanted accommodation assistance and ultimately find the clergy to help out. My goodness, the things that were on my mind, when we got to see the Pastor, were most of Ethiopia’s neighbouring countries – Sudan, Eritrea, Djibouti and Somalia.
So I bounced him some exciting questions about what his Church is doing and thinks about the unreached. Well, the first thing he mentioned was that his church has sent a missionary to Holland. Sorry sir… , but we are not talking Europe here.
Pastor: “Well, we do not give it (the mission) on the frontpage due to it’s value and sensitivity. If you know what I mean.”
Me: “Does that mean you have plans or are you already on the ground? I am getting impressions of coming back here to launch into reaching out to these places. It could be great and wonderful to have Ethiopians on board especially from this Church.”
Pastor: “Well, I can give you my email and you can write me, then we can take it up from there.”
At that very moment I knew the Lord had planned all the delays we faced here in Addis. “All things work for the good of those that love the Lord.” I can confirm that the Lord is busy with Ethiopia and that this place is surely in love with the Lord. Even though there is a lot of misdirection in terms of forms of worship. The people here exemplify living by the values of Christianity. There are exceptions of course, but if we are to go by majority rule, then majority wins. And how timely that I came to discover this Psalm 68:31 which says that Princes shall come out of Egypt : Ethiopia shall soon stretch out her hands unto God - KJV.
Also, you might want to know that some scientists say that human life began here especially after they discovered Lucy the ancient humanoid who is about 4.2 million years old. The Bible could not put it more explicitly than it does in Genesis 2:13 –
“And the name of the second river is the Gihon: the same is it that compasseth the whole land of Ethiopia.” KJV
How could all this be possible? And why does Ethiopia seem to be sleeping in the midst of all that is happening in the Christendom? Why is the world in short-supply of missionaries from Ethiopia? Why are most of Ethiopian neighbors in such desperate situations and so faraway from Christ?
As I keep on wondering and not getting answers, I am somehow getting restless and trying to see what the Lord is up to for this place and what he holds for me in relation to ministering to the hard-to-reach.
Out of all this I can only say that Ethiopia is calling. It may be calling you or it may be calling me, but the fact is… it is calling.
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