Mission

I was 6 years old when I announced to my mother that one day I wanted to be a missionary to Ethiopia.  Back then, my parents had bought a vinyl record called “Psalty’s Worship Workshop: A heart to change the world.”  It was basically an audio theatre production that not only had music about “going into the world” and being a missionary but it also had verbal scripted conversations happening between each song.  I do believe that the word “missionary” was used in there somewhere for me to desire to become a “missionary” at such a young age with no model of what that looked like around me.

Over the years, however, my view of the word “missionary” has changed.  Through taking various Missions classes and being involved in church life in New Zealand, I came to realise that being a missionary wasn’t just about long distance travel or  pioneering new churches or programmes across the ocean.  When I moved to South Auckland and started getting involved with the children’s ministry in our church, I remember my mother saying to me “this is your mission field now.”  Perhaps, I thought, that this is how far I will go in terms of leaving my homeland (the North Shore) and going into “all the world.”  South Auckland was, indeed far from the culture that I was brought up in and these children that we picked up off the street were very needy and somewhat “poor”.

A song we used to sing with the kids in Otara was a song that went “Be a missionary everyday…” and we encouraged people to reach out into their community, into their family and not think that they had to spend a lot of money to evangelize the world.  This started to be comfortable with me, especially as I read and heard about “missionaries” who had ignorantly colonized different countries including our own.  So called “missionaries” who had done more damage than good as they intruded on foreign lands with the intention of imposing their own culture on the indigenous people without thought or care to preserve the rich culture that already existed.  Yes, I was happy to drop my ambition to be a “missionary” but I was not ready to drop my desire to go to Ethiopia to help the needy.

I was left however, with no other option but to do what I wanted to do, under the guise of a “Mission Trip”.  Even though a short term stint, the fact that you come under the umbrella of a “Mission organisation” and are on a “Mission Trip” somehow, makes you a Missionary.  I wonder if one day, we will be able to rename this phenomenon that is the “Mission Trip” to something a little more Post-Modern.  I guess, yes, we are on a mission.   But we were on a mission before we left New Zealand also.  We look at the New Testament and see Paul’s missionary journeys and we compare that to today.  Yet I’ve just found another journey that is a little closer to home, and a little more reflective of what I see here happening today.  It’s found in 1 Kings 10 and it comes straight out of Ethiopia. 

Now when the queen of Sheba heard of the fame of Solomon concerning the name of the LORD, she came to test him with hard questions.  She came to Jerusalem with a very great retinue, with camels bearing spices and very much gold and precious stones. And when she came to Solomon, she told him all that was on her mind. And Solomon answered all her questions; there was nothing hidden from the king that he could not explain to her. And when the queen of Sheba had seen all the wisdom of Solomon, the house that he had built, the food of his table, the seating of his officials, and the attendance of his servants, their clothing, his cupbearers, and his burnt offerings that he offered at the house of the LORD, there was no more breath in her. And she said to the king, "The report was true that I heard in my own land of your words and of your wisdom, but I did not believe the reports until I came and my own eyes had seen it. And behold, the half was not told me. Your wisdom and prosperity surpass the report that I heard.”

 Today, what I see is people, like us, coming here to Ethiopia because of what they have heard.  We came here, not only because there is need here, but because we found this great organization on the internet and we wanted to be a part of what they are doing.  We only knew of what we had read on their website, but it all sounded great to us and resonated with so much of what we believed to be good and wise.  It was an organization that worked with widows and orphans (something that the Bible says repeatedly that we should do.)  They worked holistically to meet the needs of the orphans while working alongside their church.  They had plans for a Children’s Centre that would function to help meet the needs of the community.  Their motto was “Excellence in Everything” and they were all about equipping people to be effective in the ministry and in life in general.  They were not under one church but partnered with five churches.  There was a great model being utilized here and they were open to more vision. 

So like Queen Sheba, we packed up all our belongings, and we see others bring many gifts and great resources to see what is happening here.  Now after being here 8 weeks and having visitors join us from overseas, we get to see others witness the great work that is happening here and then leave even more supportive than when they have come.  There is a saying that I coined when I came to Ethiopia on my first trip that says “You don’t know until you Go!”  This is what Queen Sheba experienced and articulated when she said “The report was true that I heard in my own land of your words and of your wisdom, but I did not believe the reports until I came and my own eyes had seen it. And behold, the half was not told me. Your wisdom and prosperity surpass the report that I heard.”  Even though she was leaving Ethiopia to visit Israel and even though she went to find prosperity and add to it, she experienced many of the same emotions that we see others experience here. 

This is the kind of mission I like.  The mission where there is not a discovering of lack, but a discovering of fulfilment.  Where the impact of your visit is an encouragement to those you are visiting.  That it isn’t about creating something new, but adding to what is already going well.  This is what we are experiencing now.   We came to find that Ethiopia is progressing forward, that the people here are using wisdom in finding solutions to help meet the needs of the poor.  

Hearing great things about what is going on here, we encourage people to come and see for themselves because you really don’t know until you go.  And so we press forward and say, what more can we do?  How can we give, like Queen Sheba, a gift of blessing to endorse the work that is being done here and the wisdom that is being displayed?  In the last month we have seen people come and give generously to the work here and it encourages people to keep on going forward.  This is the feeling that should be left after such a trip.  Not a feeling of lack or discontentment.  So we also remain encouraged and move forward with great anticipation of what God is going to do in the future. Amen!

It takes a village to raise a child

Let me take you into the home I visited on my first home visit.  We walked through the gate of Sara’s house.   To the right we saw that their home was back dropped by one of the seven lakes that provide an oasis from the hustle and bustle of Debre Zeit.  We walked up a few stairs and into a dark room that was their home.  There was no natural light or lamps that lit up the home but I could see that it was made out of mud clad walls that were mixed with hay.  It looked old and was rented by the family from the government for only 2birr per month (the equivalent of NZ14c).  There was one bed on the left that we were welcomed to sit on.  The bed that slept all three females in the home, doubled as the lounge suite and Betty, their social worker sat on their wooden chest that doubled as their storage.  There were two of us visitors, Mariana from the Netherlands had come to see if there was a place for her at BCI.  She was asking many questions to Betty and also to myself.   As they talked, there were cockroaches running up and down the wall.  It was evidence of the lack of hygiene standards that existed in their home.

Like many houses, there is no bathroom.  The bath is a bucket and the water supply is not on site so water fetching is a daily ritual. The toilet is an outhouse with a hole in the ground.  It had been raining that morning, very heavily and I noticed that there were gaping spaces between the tin sheets that made up their roof.  I asked them if they had water coming through their roof, and of course the answer was yes.  A missionary had fixed her roof the year before but it still left room for improvement.  The smell of the house was also unsanitary, like cat urine on dirt.  There is no maintenance requirement from the government as she pays so little in rent so she is left to fend for herself.

The mother was beautiful.  She was young and had two daughters.  Her husband had died so she was left to care for her children on her own.  She worked when the girls were at school but this was as much as she could afford for her girls.  The girls are 7 and 5 and now able to attend school because Sara is sponsored through BCI.  They also get a monthly food budget.  She provides for her family by making and selling injera and also by cleaning houses.  She obviously has a great love for them and desires the best for them, but in Ethiopia, if you don’t work, you don’t get any money.

Another home we visited was of Siam.  Siam and her mother have HIV.  At the time we visited her, she was also sick with Tuberculosis.  They rent a home on the back of another property along with others who can’t afford their own homes.  The size of their whole house was the size of mine and Asaua’s bedroom here.  And our bedroom isn’t that big.  Yet their home did not have tiled floors with painted walls and an ensuite.  Their home was one room with one bed for their mother and 7 year old Siam and her 6 month old baby sister who Siam often has to look after while her mother goes to work.  See, if her mother does not work, she cannot pay the rent on her home.  She is in a desperate situation yet she is managing well.  She prepared for the five of us visiting her, a coffee ceremony.  Even though they hadn’t eaten all day, she had saved some coffee beans and popcorn for our visit.  Her baby sat on my lap, wet from her urine, and Siam sat on one of the two couches that they owned. 

Siam's mum and Betty outside their home

Siam's home.  With her social worker Betty and visiting Susan from America

Most of the homes of our children are like the ones I have just described.  There is a gap here in the care that we provide for these children and it is a very important one.  If the home environment is not good,  sanitary, or a place where the child feels safe and warm, then the rest of their well- being will suffer.  Studies show that seven out of ten children who live in such conditions will not succeed at school.  We can see the disturbance in these children.  They are restless at school.  They don’t sleep well and they are given more responsibilities than they deserve at their young age.

 

Some suffer with HIV or other diseases, and in the developed world, we would provide a sanitary environment for them, ensuring they are offered the best care.  Here, they have no choice but to keep living in the same environment they subsist in.  The mud floors should be tile like mine.  Their kitchen should have wipe-able benches so that they can ensure hygienic preparation of their food so as to not cause more illness.  The government provides medicine for HIV infected children so that they can live on with their disease.  But is it enough for them just to survive?  Should they not be protected from other potential diseases that exist?  Should they not be allowed the light of the sun to shine into their homes and welcome healthy minds and healthy bodies?  They are entitled to it as much as we are.

 

My desire for this area is to build a village.  A village like unto the Watoto Village in Uganda where one mother (usually a widow) cares for 8 orphans.  We can build many homes so that mothers like the ones I have described can have purpose and vision.  The village will be near the school so that the children can walk to school.  They will be purpose built and provide a warm, healthy environment for our children where they can be supported by others in the village and by the community around them- rather than isolated in remote areas where some who are disabled have to rely on the delivery of food and other necessities from other people. 

Will you pray about this vision with me?  With us?  Maybe you can help with making this dream a reality for our children.  We have 120 something children on our program right now, but this will mean that we will be able to take in more orphans and care for them as they deserve to be cared for.  But for us to take in more children, we will need more sponsors.  Really, a little does go a long way here.  It’s just a small sacrifice that we all need to take to show these children that they have value and that they too can be leaders In their families, community, city and nation.  We are here to raise leaders.