2012 Ethiopia Mission Trip - Day 2

Peace House

Our first stop of the day was at what is billed as Peace House.  It is a large, very old home (more than 100 years old and with walls made from mud and straw).  The upper part of the house still needs additional repairs before it will be used, but the hope is to eventually turn that part of the building into a vocational training center.  For now, this house's (what some of us call Ady's mother's house because Ady has graciously donated it rent-free to the Moriah ministry) lower rooms are used for the Peace Center gatherings of boys still living on the streets.  Today, I presented a couple of scripture verses (Colossions 1:15, 27) and a brief talk to the boys after they finished their Bible study and light breakfast.  Then, we toured the other rooms where the teen boys now living in that home sleep, and also the very tiny kitchen used for these boys' meal preparation.  But the big event of the morning there was the dedication of the toilets!

Street boys at a morning Peace Center gathering for breakfast and Bible study.

Yes, folks, the new toilets and showers were not opened until today because they were awaiting my arrival to do the ribbon-cutting and dedication.  When I was told this a couple of weeks before, I thought it was rather funny, but on this day I learned how significant an event this truly was.  A local government official was there, a television cameraman, my MDEC colleagues, the current owner who has donated the house and compound, and many other family members who are now living in this compound.  I was told that nearly 100 people from 10 families will use these toilets, and that it is truly a major blessing in the lives of this community.  So, I cut the purple ribbon with Wanna Balina, the Moriah director, and following his speech and the government official's speech, I was asked to also say a few words on behalf of those donors who made the funds available for to bring this project to fruition.


There are four toilets in the building, two for the community, and two for the boys living at Peace House.



Cutting the ribbon at the dedication.

After lunch, we returned to Grace House where Andy McKellar and I taught the boys English.  I had the little boys and Andy took the big fellas.  We had great fun playing card puzzle word spelling and recognition games, and doing question/answer practice.  We also read a funny story about four hungry wild boars.  The bigger boys worked with primary readers we had brought along telling stories about Jesus.  This activity will resume in the next few days.  The boys were off from school between semesters, but they couldn't escape English class while we were there (!).  Even the little ones have English in the primary schools and they are doing well.


English class.



Andy reads a story about four hungry wild boars.

All the while we were teaching English, Jo Roberts and Dannette McKellar were doing editorial work on the MDEC website.  They seemed to enjoy that work, so I believe we divvied up the responsibilities in a good way.  They have much more work to do on that effort, and appear to be looking forward to getting back on the project.

This evening, we were invited to a good friend of mine's home to visit.  She had gotten married only two weeks ago, and told us we were the first to visit her and her husband in their new home.  While there, we were treated to another coffee ceremony and then provided a wonderful Ethiopian meal.  For those of you who may be unfamiliar with this style of dining, no utensils are used and the food is served from a large common platter in the middle of a group of people.  Various kinds fo stews (called wot) are ladled onto Injera, a sponge-like pancake type of staple food.  This is then torn apart and used in one's right hand to pick up the food.  We had a beef dish and green beans with carrots.  It was a lovely meal with wonderful people, and I was glad to share this with my small team.

Jo, Dannette and Andy had never visited Ethiopia before, so they are experiencing many new things.  I hope one day many of you reading this might be able to also come and experience this culture, the wonderful people here, and the love and grace of God occurring in this place.