renault

isn’t life bizarre?  one moment we can be sitting outside a frankfurt restaurant conversing for an hour and a half with four european businessmen on the existence of God and the implications of such topics.  the next day we are sitting in a nice hotel in the middle of an african city filled with extreme poverty.  stepping out of the gates, the contrast hit us forcefully as a wave of kids hit us out of nowhere.  four or five of them quickly began talking with us, some of them laying out their stories, their need for money for school, etc.  expecting this tsunami, i had purposefully emptied my pockets of money before i left the hotel grounds, understanding the impossibility of meeting the overwhelming need, and in an effort to, at least for today, be able to explore and interact with the people freely, with the ability to say, “all i have is my paper and pen and my harmonica.”  i just wanted to talk with and maybe pray for people.  my little buddy derege tried to sell me a map as soon as he approached me.  they have a fantastic drive to work and earn a living, but so little opportunity.  dawit (amharic for david) approached us and walked with us too.  he was probably in his 20s, and his english was excellent.  when i asked what his job was, he showed me his little license card and indicated he was a tour guide.  i told him we just wanted to walk around, but by the end of the day, he had dispelled several confusing situations and led us around addis so kindly and skillfully that we were happy to give him a few hundred birr (maybe 30 dollars) and thank him for being so kind to us.  during the day, we visited the grounds of an orthodox monastery, where people kissed the gates and kneeled on the earth bowing towards the church, crossing themselves religiously.  we had ethiopian coffee (bunna) on the side of the road, bought the kids sodas, and talked with the locals.  andrew wanted to buy his buddy yared some shoes to replace the ones which were falling off his feet.  this idea morphed into a walk to the small weekend market where drew, andrew, and david bought shoes for the five kids who had been with us for the past couple hours.  i think the kids were really blessed by receiving these things that they hadn’t even asked for.  an old man struck up a conversation with me and i was able to briefly talk with him about his life and language, and pray for him.

this country has so much religion, so much spirituality, though many of them are perhaps so very confused about the doctrines of the Word and the implications of the gospel.  there is also a large amount of satanic darkness in this country, and i think i’ll have more to say about that later in the week.

we took a picture at the end of the day and gathered the kids in a big huddle to pray for them.

this evening, andrew and i got some amharic lessons from our bellhop friend yoseph.

i am praying for discernment.  being among so much poverty, need, and spiritual darkness introduces the need to distinguish between evil and good, and to discern which needs God is calling me to meet and which people he wants me to minister to.  it is simply impossible to do it all.  andrew and i talked about it tonight.  i am asking for more discernment, and that God would lead us by his Spirit.  

please also pray for us as we still await the release of our cameras and lights.  they are at the airport.  we didn’t have sufficient paperwork to get them through customs, due to some misunderstandings with the ethiopian embassy in washington.  this morning carolyn and i went with wondy to a government agency downtown and by God’s providence received clear direction from one of the authorities about what we have to do.  the process is clear, but we need God’s grace if all the pieces are going to fall into place so that we can get our equipment out by monday.  it pushes our agenda back a little, but we have some space worked into the schedule.  please pray for God’s will to be done, and that we would get the cameras out by monday.  

andrew added some pictures he took to my flickr here.

love to all,

john david