Pray for Rain!

It's rainy season in Ethiopia, when for about three months straight it usually rains every day. The abundance of rain during this time gets the country through the rest of the dry months of the year. During my early time in Addis, it only rained about two days out of every three, and that never for very long. Sometimes there were two or three days in a row without rain. I was given to understand that this is very unusual. After a couple weeks of an unusually dry rainy season, some began to be concerned. I heard that it hadn't been this dry since just before the last big famine, when the lack of rain caused many to die of starvation.

Steve brought this before the class on Tuesday, and we prayed for rain. Fifteen minutes later, what I can only describe as a storm descended on Addis. Never have I seen so much rain. It even began to hail. It continued to rain for a couple of hours, God's life-giving rain sweeping away much of the filth of the streets of Addis. Wednesday and Thursday we prayed for rain, and Wednesday and Thursday God set loose the rainclouds on Ethiopia.

This is a very different post than it would have been had I composed it before Tuesday, before I saw God's repeated acts of faithfulness on behalf of his servants in Ethiopia. Praise God who is not far from the prayers of His people!

Please pray that God would continue to bring rain upon Ethiopia, so that our brothers and sisters there would have enough to eat. "The effective prayer of a righteous man can accomplish much. Elijah was a man with a nature like ours, and he prayed earnestly that it would not rain, and it did not rain on the earth for three years and six months. Then he prayed again, and the sky poured rain and the earth produced its fruit." James 5:16-18

Bunna-licious

That's right. The coffee gets its own post.

Ethiopia is well-known for its coffee. Ethiopians even claim that
this is the birthplace of coffee. I can't vouch for that, but I can
vouch for the fact that Ethiopian coffee is the best and cheapest I've
ever had. Bunna is very strong (but not bitter), and it's usually
taken with a lot of sugar. Down country (what they call parts of
Ethiopia lower than Addis Ababa) they sometimes take it with salt and
butter; I've heard that it's simply awful, and I have no desire to
partake of that particular cultural experience.

A variety of different types of coffee drinks are also available. My
favorite is the Ethiopian macchiato, a testimony, I'm sure, to the
days when Ethiopia was occupied by Mussolini's Italy. Historical
sidenote: Ethiopians are very proud that theirs is the only African
nation never to be conquered by a Western power. They conveniently
neglect to mention the time that they were conquered by a Western
power.

Second to the taste of coffee is the price. Normal bunna usually runs
Birr2 or less ($0.20), and a macchiato is usually around Birr3-4
($0.30-0.40). I don't know what I'll do when I get back to the States
and I have to pay ten times as much for lower quality coffee at
Starbucks.

A Day in the Life

Now that I've settled into something resembling a routine here, let me
give you an idea of what a "normal" day for me here in Addis consists.

5 to 6 am (7 to 8 pm CA time)
Time to get up. I get some good time in the Word and in prayer before
a quick shower and putting on my dress clothes. Here in Ethiopia they
dress up for class, unlike in California.

7:15 am
The staff ring the bell for breakfast. It's very loud. I try to
navigate the sweet spot between being the first one there and being
too late to get fed (which is around five minutes late). Breakfast
always, always consists of porridge and fruit, with one other item
(usually toast) for "variety."

8:00 am
I make my last minute preparations before leaving with Steve Strauss
for EGST, the Ethiopian Graduate School of Theology. These include
making sure I have all my books and my umbrella (it's rainy season
here and can rain literally at any moment), as well as filling up my
water bottle from The Golden Spigot, a faucet here at HQ that
dispenses filtered water (the water in Ethiopia is not generally safe
to drink). The walk to EGST is about 3 km (I've ceased to think in
miles, but I think it's about 2 miles). The way there isn't too bad,
since it's mostly downhill, but it's always either very dusty (if it
hasn't been raining) or very muddy (all the rest of the time). So, I
never get to EGST looking very nice.

9:00 am
Steve's class on Issues in Christology in Ethiopian Context. We get
teatime about halfway through the three-hour class. As far as I can
gather, all of Ethiopia grinds to a halt about 10:00 am for tea.

12:00pm
Lunch, usually at ETC (Evangelical Theological College), where I can
get good traditional Ethiopian food and a soda for Birr10-15 (about
$1-1.50), which is a good deal even for Ethiopia. Sometimes I'll
frequent other traditional restaurants in the area or even a "Western"
restaurant if I must (don't think McDonald's; think Ethiopians trying
to do American food, not usually poorly).

2:00 pm
I have a good three-hour block in the afternoon in which I don't have
anything scheduled. This can look pretty much like anything:
exploring the town, shopping at the little booths around the city,
visiting a local café for bunna (amazing Ethiopian coffee), talking to
people I meet on the street, doing TA work for Steve, catching up on
correspondence, or, like today, updating my blog.

5:30 pm
Dinner time at HQ. Sometimes I'll go out for dinner, or sometimes
I'll skip it if I had a particularly big lunch. In Ethiopia, lunch is
the biggest meal of the day.

7:00 pm
An hour or two to unwind. Sometimes read, sometimes take a nap.
Sometimes I have to catch up on reading for Steve's class, so that
I'll know what we're talking about.

8:30 pm
Catch up and debrief on the day's activities as a team in the SIM
dining room. Sometimes Raymond and Peter and I play "Speed Scrabble."
Usually we're too tired to be in too talkative a mood. Or at least I
am.

9:00 pm
Time for bed. If I can fall asleep to the sound of blaring Ethiopian
music from the nightclub next door…

Embracing My Inner Hyena

As some of you know, I'm here primarily to observe theological
education overseas to see if that ministry might be a good fit for me
in the future. What follows is a sketch of what that has looked like
so far.

For the past week and a half I've been auditing Steve Strauss's class
on Issues in Christology in an Ethiopian Context. We spent the first
six days constructing a Christology from a biblical-theological
perspective, talking about Mark's theology of Christ, John's theology
of Christ, and so on. We also went over many of the titles of Jesus,
from "Christ" to "Son of Man" and "Son of God."

Just today we began talking about Christology in Ethiopian context. A
bit of background: in the fifth century, the Christian church held
what is known as the Council of Chalcedon to discuss how best to
express Jesus being fully God and fully man. What they came to there
was the formulation, "Two natures (divine and human) and one person."
This did not satisfy everyone, and there remained a branch of
Christianity known as Monophysitism (from the Greek for "one nature").
Christianity came to Ethiopia mainly by a couple of Monophysites,
and, barring a few interruptions, has remained predominantly
Monophysite, though they prefer the term "Miaphysite" (meaning,
basically, "one nature" also), though I can't understand why the
former is offensive but the latter isn't. Wars have been fought
several times in Ethiopia over this very issue. This contributes to a
lot of tension between the Miaphysite Ethiopian Orthodox and the
Chalcedonian Ethiopian Evangelicals. Since Chalcedon is associated
with imperialistic Western influence (that's another story entirely),
the Orthodox accuse the Evangelicals of not being authentically
Ethiopian, and the Evangelicals accuse Orthodox of not being
authentically Christian.

So, a challenge for Evangelicals in this context is expressing correct
Christology in culturally-sensitive terms. Does one insist on using
the language of Chalcedon and get branded "a hyena of the West"? Do
you affirm that Jesus has one nature, just to fit in, but in your
heart give your terms different meaning? Or, do you attempt to avoid
the debate entirely and just affirm that Jesus is fully God and fully
man, saying nothing else? Right now, I'm leaning toward being the
hyena. But, ask me when I get back, and I'll let you know what I've
decided.

~Hyena Jack

Life in Addis

Let me give you just a snapshot of life here in Addis Ababa. Only a
snapshot, because I've only been here a week and only explored one
corner of the city; however, from talking to people who know better
than I, my experience has, in some ways, been representative.

The City and Its People

Addis Ababa has somewhere around four million people, and its
religious makeup is similar to that of Ethiopia as a whole, which
differs based on who you're talking to and what their angle is, but is
about 40% Ethiopian Orthodox, 40% Muslim, 10% Protestant, and 10%
Other. Most (though certainly not all) Orthodox and Muslims in Addis
are nominal; that is, they are not faithful in the practice of their
religion.

The city sprawls over a wide area, and there are a few tall buildings,
but nothing like LA. The big buildings are mostly govermental
agencies. Disclaimer: I'll be coming back with few pictures from this
trip. If you're seen photographing a government building, they may
assume you're a Communist spy and arrest you. Since this is the
capital, almost any picture of the city would have a goverment
building in the background.

The city is pretty dirty. Garbage piles up in huge heaps on the
streets and sidewalks some places. Because it's rainy season, there
is also mud pretty much everywhere. It's been interesting walking to
the seminary in my dress shoes. There are shoe shiners everywhere; I
got my shoes shined this morning (for only $0.10!), but they just got
dirty again. What's the point? For some reason that I haven't yet
puzzled out, public urination is accepted, so the odor of the city is
not exactly charming. The poor are everywhere; I've never been
anywhere where poverty has been so ubiquitous. It's heart-breaking.
Beggars also are everywhere; here in Addis, beggar does not
automatically mean poor. The Orthodox Church teaches that giving alms
helps you earn your salvation, so begging has become a legitimate
career path. High-profile foreign aid efforts have also made white
people targets for begging. If I walk anywhere, I am accosted by
"Ferenj! Ferenj!" ("Foreigner!") and palms held out for hand-outs.

Addis has very good, cheap public transportation. It is also easy to
walk about the city if one wishes. These are two facets of Addis that
I much prefer to LA. Hills are everywhere, so whether I walk or take
a minibus usually has a good deal to do with whether it's up- or
downhill. I walk downhill to the seminary most mornings, walk halfway
back, and then take a minibus the rest of the way, for only Birr0.70
(about $0.07).

The Food

Traditional Ethiopian food is injera wat. Injera is a sort of
flatbread that tastes like sourdough and has the size and consistency
of a large crepe. Pieces of injera are torn off and used (with the
right hand only!) to scoop up "wat," which is either meat or
vegetables with sauces. It's very good. I try to have injera wat
everyday. The food is cheap, also. I had "tibs" (lamb with onions
and peppers) and a Coke today for Birr15 (about $1.50).

At SIM HQ, we have traditional Ethiopian breakfast everyday: porridge,
fruit, and coffee. Porridge is ok, but it's so bland! I'm not sure
I'd have it on purpose. Lunches and dinners are Western fare, which
is kind of disappointing. It's not always Western food done very
well, either, so I usually try to have at least lunch or dinner
off-campus everyday.

If you have any questions about life in Addis or about Ethiopian
culture, leave your comments as questions, and I'll do my best to
respond to them.

Blessings,
Jack

Waking to a Dream

I'm now on Day 6 of my travels, and this is my first chance to update this blog. I'll try to be more consistent from now on.

My first two days were spent traveling. I was in airports and airplanes for a solid thirty hours and lost ten more hours crossing time zones before finally arriving in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia on Thursday night. Some highlights of these days include (but are not limited to) the following. A man in a red turban with intense eyes and an untamed beard fell asleep next to me on the plane, and his head was leaning closer and closer to my shoulder. He started awake and, much to my relief, he re-adjusted his position. What brought me no relief was that, when he had finally settled, he rested his head on my chest. At first I was shocked. Then, I was a bit irritated. Who does this guy think he is, invading my personal space? Finally, I realized the only reasonable response to the situation, and I chuckled quietly to myself and continued reading my book. I also managed to get my toiletries confiscated by the Dutch authorities. Apparently
the particular brand of body wash I use must have presented a threat to their national security.

I was "adopted" by a team here who are teaching at the Evangelical Theological College. I've learned a good deal from Steve Strauss already about theological contextualization and some of the challenges of living and teaching overseas. His class on Ethiopian Christology began today, and I enjoyed sitting in on this first session. I'll go into greater detail when I have a better sampling of the class.

The last few nights I've woken up during the night and thought that I was back home in California. It's like waking up into a dream, realizing that I'm actually in Africa. It's not only my location that is dreamlike. In a dream, have you ever found yourself doing or saying things (for better or worse!) you would never do or say in the waking world? I'm having the same sort of experience, except that I find myself saying or doing things here in Ethiopia that I wouldn't normally do in California, nor even believed myself capable of. I'll often venture into the city on my own to go exploring and will interact with strangers I meet, sometimes (rather naturally) turning the conversation to the things of God. Sometimes I'll speak with people in Amharic, not even particularly self-consciously. I know only a dozen or two phrases, but I've had more facility with the language than I had expected to have. Through all these things I can tell that God is working in me. Thank you all for your prayers!

~Jack

I, Person. You, Sheep.

Yesterday I went to Borders to see if they had an Amharic phrasebook (the national language of Ethiopia). I was pretty skeptical; how many people in the La Habra area would be interested in learning Amharic? I became a bit more hopeful when I saw their selection; besides having phrasebooks in languages I would expect, like French, German, and Spanish, they had books on Farsi, Indonesian, Gaelic, and other (what I would consider) more obscure languages. There was nothing under "A," but many of the phrasebooks were out of alphabetical order. (Maybe they were placed in the order of each language's respective alphabet.) After a bit of searching, I found a small Amharic phrasebook tucked away in the Mandarin section. Success!

I took it home and started thumbing through it right away. The first words I learned were "inay" ("I"), "akal" ("person"), "ante" or "anchee" ("you"), and "beug" ("sheep"). Later in the day I learned "Seulam" ("Peace," a greeting, much like "Shalom"; Hebrew and Amharic are even related languages), "Yikerta" ("Excuse me"), "Seme Jack no" ("My name is Jack"), and, probably most importantly, "Bunna yimtaleny" ("I'll have coffee"). Ethiopia is known as the birthplace of coffee and grows some of the world's best, so I'm really looking forward to spending time in a coffee house ("bunna bet"), hopefully meeting and making friends with some of the people in Addis.

I leave one week from tomorrow. It's coming quickly. I figure that I have just enough time to study this phrasebook to be dangerous. There's nothing like accidentally insulting someone in their heart language...

~Jack

Waiting to Expatriate

Two weeks from tomorrow, I'll be 9,000 miles from home. It hasn't sunk in yet. I don't know if it will until I step outside the airport, greeted by the cool night air of Ethiopian summer.

Though the trip still doesn't feel completely real to me yet, its reality does make itself felt in some ways. Today at the tutoring center at which I work, I was assigned a new student. He wants to cram for the SAT, so I was trying to schedule him in what slots I have available. Next Monday I have a meeting, but the Monday after that I have free. And the Monday after that? No, I'll be spending the rest of the month in Africa. How odd.

I sent off my first batch of support letters today. I know that the Lord will provide, as He has in the past. "If He did not spare His own Son but gave Him over for us all, how will He not also with Him graciously give us all things?" For Him who paid the price of death for us all, the price of a short-term trip to Ethiopia is nothing. But still I worry. Pray for me, that my faith should not fail.

Blessings on you all,

~Jack