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NEWSLETTERS

2012 January

Dear Friends and Family,

We hope this letter finds you and your families well. The month of January has been a month of almost non-stop visitors. We had two large teams come for a few days each, but almost constant visitors in between. Each group/individual has its/his own personality, so this month has been quite interesting as we have entertained guests from all over the place. But now it’s urgent to get back to all the year-end office work, as well as other necessary tasks such as this newsletter, that have been neglected.

January 7 was Christmas day in Ethiopia. We celebrated Christmas day with “our family” at Samuel’s Home. They invited us to share in their lunch of cultural Ethiopian food. We had a program of singing and various presentations by the kids, with “grandpa” (me) reading the Christmas story to them in Amharic. And then Peggy brought out gifts that she had wrapped for each of the kids as well as each of the parents and caretakers. It was obvious that it was the first time these ten kids had ever celebrated Christmas in this fashion, with each of them having a couple of presents to open. We thank those of you who helped by sending over clothes and toys and craft supplies to make this possible. When they got done, the living room didn’t look too much different from an American home after a gift exchange. Please see the attached picture.

Also please see the attached picture of nine of the kids praying before their meal. It was really touching, although I think Helen at the far left is peeking and Gulad (3rd from the right) is missing the point altogether. Natnael (Nathanael—age 13) got to sit with the adults.

After that came a God-ordained opportunity. Kasim is the house-father at Samuel’s Home. His Muslim father, shown to the right in the picture of the aftermath of the kids opening their gifts, had kicked him out of their home when he gave his life to Jesus as a child. As a result, Kasim grew up living in a boarding house at school. Kasim was very excited that his father, who years ago kicked him out of his home, had now come to Samuel’s Home to visit him and his huge new family. Kasim hinted that his father was becoming more tolerant of Christianity and Christians and this would be a good time for us to present the gospel to him. So, using the meaning of Christmas Day as the starting point, Peggy and I were able to explain the plan of salvation to him. Kasim was our translator, as Kasim’s father speaks Oromia, a language we don’t speak. And Kasim was glad for his father to hear the gospel from someone else, with his sole duty being to translate. His father later wanted to take pictures with us, hugged us, and thanked us very much for the message. We pray that he can receive Jesus into his heart before it is too late for him.

A similar thing happened the following day. We went with Temesgen, our long-time friend and Project Manager for Misgana Ministries, to visit his mother’s village of Bochessa (where we built the bridge three years ago). We sat with his mom in her little mud hut and Temesgen’s wife Addis prepared a coffee ceremony for us. Neighbors and relatives continued to drop in, both for coffee and to see the white people. Temesgen’s mother is Orthodox and many of her neighbors are Muslim. There is a picture attached showing the coffee ceremony, with Temesgen’s mother being the sweet little woman in blue in the center.

Suddenly, as I thought we were about to leave, Temesgen leaned over and said that enough people were now in the house that it would be a good time to present the gospel of Jesus Christ. So, once again, we launched from the Christmas story into the need for Jesus to come to this earth, what he did for us on the cross, and how they too could have this confidence of spending eternity in heaven rather than being in darkness and insecurity.

Thinking we had done a thorough job, we again prepared to leave, when one Muslim man said, “You have brought us good news. Now let me go back and discuss this with my family and my neighbors and we will get back to you.” The Ethiopians, as well as most Africans, are very relationship oriented, so they find great comfort in consensus opinions. So with a renewed effort we explained to him that he would stand alone before God on the day of judgment and his neighbors and friends would not be there with him. So, regardless, of what his relatives and friends may advise, it was a decision he had to make himself.

We have started work on three major construction projects which will keep us very busy for most of the year. We will write more about them later, but they are:

A 14 room (12 classroom) two-story expansion of our Lifesong-Meserete Kristos Primary School which will allow us to have two classrooms each of each grade from nursery school up to eighth grade
An additional four classroom building at our campus in Adami Tulu
A workshop being partially funded by memorials to my father when he died last year

Blessings to you and your families,

Gary and Peggy