The Real Deal

"I have come to bring fire on the earth..."
Christ, ad 30 ~ (cf. lk. 12:49 )


Mission Journal, Day 2.

March 11, 2010.

Sitting on the plane ride a couple hours out of Rome, where we will stop & refuel.With "Ethiopian Airlines, Africa's finest fleet." Yes, that is interesting, and I am proud of them. The airport was chaotic, and I did not enjoy it.That is a shame, because I usually enjoy everything, and every aspect about making the trip. I think it was partially due to the fact that I got the wrong meeting time in my head, and I showed up a half hour late to out shove off prayer meeting at the church parking lot. I arrived at 5:27 am and everyone was already standing around in a circle praying, and I was very embarrassed. Uh, sorry... We left literally within five minutes of my arrival at the church parking lot at 5:30 am sharp. I did not even get a chance to see all who was present and thank them for there care and generous commitment. Sorry People.
With that being said, I am moving forward now, and up in the sky at 33,000 feet moving at 512 miles per hour ground speed, I am excited to realize that the trip has only yet (not even) begun. Ah, we just began to descend, perfect timing for this writing here.
I have been to Africa before, and I come to remembrance that the great part of this experience is going to come (and is already coming) from being submerged into this rich and different, colorful Ethiopian culture.

Sitting next to me on this flight is Badriya Robelie, who's name means literally, "Summer Rain." She lives in Seattle with her Husband and two children, of 8 years, and 14 months, and her mother. She is dressed in a head garb thing, and all wrapped up in multi-colorful robes. She has henna ink stained all over her fingers, for reasons she would not say specifically- probably from making henna art (body ink) on someone else.
She offered me her religious views. They were that if people like you and think you are a good person, then God will like you. But if people don't like you, and believe that you are a bad person, then God will not accept you.
She claimed that is what it says in the bible. I was intrigued to hear what her faith was comprised of - I did not argue, because my intention was to be her friend, since it is a long flight... However, I was tempted to give her my Bible, and say, "Here is the Bible. Show me where it says that here, so that I can read it over..." ...knowing, of course, that she would never find that in there. Unfortunately, at that time, my Bible was packed away, and the seat belt lights were still on, indicating that I was to sit still and stay there.

They are about to serve airplane food breakfast right now, and wow! This Ethiopian Airlines international flight is great! They really take care of you.


April 17, 2010:

Reflection:
I ended up having a few words with Badriya about her beliefs on that flight before we landed, since she brought it up in the first place, and her statements were puzzling. So I asked her what her faith is, and she told me she is a Muslim. She began to speak to me about her beliefs and family, and I listened. I told her that I am a christian. I asked her what she believes about Jesus. I found out that what she calls the Bible is actually the Q'uran, and she showed me her little pocket Q'uran attached to her keys in her handbag. I asked her again what she believes about Jesus. It was kind of a more tense conversation, since she like many people, are not very skilled in debates about Jesus.
I listened very carefully, and she told me that His name in the Q'uran is "Isa," and that he did not have a father, therefore God- Allah, as they call him, could not be his father. She also explained that Islam teaches that Isa did not Die, but Judas, his betrayer, died in His place. Judas had gone into a house to betray Isa to His accusers, and Isa then ascended into Heaven, and when Judas came out to reveal what had happened, they crucified him, thinking he was Isa instead. A bright story, filled with ... well, contradictions!!!
I had to be gentle with my words to her, since I know that she is not lying about what she had read, nor misrepresenting it. I have heard this Muslim story of Jesus before, on my last trip to Ethiopia, and I was not shocked. I was somewhat prepared for it, however my muscles of theological discourse were very weak and flabby :-( I showed her the Bible, and read to her from John chapter 5, Where Jesus was claiming that God is his Father, and he only does what He does.
I then took the route of asking questions, and got to the place where I had to say to her a few things about that story of Jesus, Isa, according to the Q'uran. I had to point out that the Q'uran contradicts the Bible, in this case. I also had to point out that the Q'uran recommends reading the Bible - both the Torah and the Gospels, when people are getting off track. ...
This is odd, so I asked her about her take on that.
She was not sure.
She tried the route of explaining to me that the Gospels that Christians have are not the same as the original.
I expressed to her that this is impossible, considering all the work that has gone into preserving the correct, word for word translation from the earliest texts. I included that the Bible has every time been translated from the original Hebrew, Greek, and Aramaic. I also mentioned that the last book of the New testament was written about 90 ad, only 60 years after Jesus' ministry. And the earliest Gospel - Mark- was written as early as 30 years after, however, being a compilation of stories (Most likely through Peter) that were likely already written before in an unorganized manner...
The Q'uran, I explained," was written about 500 ad, right?"
She agreed that this is the general time period of the Q'uran.
Thus I explained that the gospels that we have, were here before the Q'uran... and should be studied, not taken lightly, as being the more ancient text of the two.
She was a little visibly uncomfortable at this time, but she did not turn off to the conversation.
I asked her if she is familiar with the fact that Jesus' death is not just in the Gospels that we have and keep, but that it has been recorded in secular literature too. Her answer was silence.
I then explained that Jesus, Isa, really did die, he was crucified, and the nature of crucifixion is a bloody death- people did not survive crucifixions in general. I included that fact that they speared him in the side too, and made sure he was dead. I made sure that she knew that what the gospels and history said were in clear contradiction to what she was saying, and therefore what she had been taught.
She said that she is not good at talking about these things, but she will let me speak to one of her leaders.
I said "Great!" and gave her my Email address.
By the time we got off the plane, it seemed like we would not be speaking any more. But I have high hopes for her and Isa fighting it out someday, perhaps in her dreams.

Upon hearing the true gospel and receiving a real conviction from God, it takes on average about 6-9 years for a Muslim to accept the true gospel and the meaning it gives. Please say a Prayer for Badriya Robelie, and her Husband, and kids, and family today. God is calling her out of Islam, and into being a Muslim Background Believer (there is a growing population of these in secret in Muslim territories) Please pray for the spread of the truth about the Gospels among Muslims. "Mohammed is a False prophet, and Allah a false god," many Muslim Background Believers may tell you. Christianity is a faith under fire in the World, because we "proselytize," but Muslims are out-breeding other Europeans in Europe 2:1(roughly), according to the latest statistics. Perhaps Jihad is no longer done with guns and ammo alone. Perhaps it has been declared in the hospital delivery rooms too.
    Badriya needs Jesus, and she will need protection in the process. Please Pray for Badriya and her Husband, Kids, Mother, and extended family right now.



Mission Journal, Day 4.

March 13, 2010

Ethiopia is beautiful. Not that there are great or rare forests, or lush scenes, but vast; ancient. The people - seeing them in their own town, and in their own atmosphere, and how they thrive... I can see myself staying here longer.
    When we would see houses, apartments, streets and city lights, overlooking our valley in Los Angeles County, I see here handmade homes filled with love, Huts, and then Hotels, and buildings made of concrete, only works in progress half or one quarter completed - everywhere.
     Houses, or homes I should say, are made out of sticks, or thin logs.... Lumber? What's that? Lumber here is a whole tree cut down and cleaned. They all have a certain Charm to them - and beauty. They are not just huts thrown up and keeping off the rain, and other weather - each individual structure has a character of it's own. (I miss that in California, from before track homes came..)


   Well, my mind is numb, so much has happened, it will be hard to catch every detail & recreate it for you Here & Now. But I will try.

     You see, my/the mind wants to quantify, rationalize -to be able to see and perceive objectively all that I see and know in order to be able to relate things in words in an orderly and concise way...
   But that is against the creative process. And although you might think that there is nothing to create here, "just relate the facts," that is all false. I must use the facts to create and recreate the subjective reality of this trip, so that through your reading, you also may experience it. High call? ..we will see. :-)
      Whatever.
    But then again perhaps the mind loves to create because it loves to embellish, [or just lie outright?But it also loves to sterilize beautiful thoughts.. due to fear of their power?] So there must be, and therefore are facts that alone are self worthy. Well, then - here we go.



     We arrived at the airport in Humera.We found a huge wasteland - a desert wasteland, to be exact... and Hot, Hot, Hot, Hot! Not just wimpy hot.  No, like your skin is burning and you are not sweaty yet hot. Like you stood too close to the heater.. Yup.
And that was just morning.

Then Diane Ault, of e3 Partners said, "They want us to get off their property."
Fun greetings.
So we started to leave, after a half hour loading up the 4 x 4 bus.
     But, then the tire was flat... So we got off again! Hah! - (If they really wanted us to get lost, well, we ended up staying and relaxing in their office for about a half hour longer. Nice!)

      The airport was about three rooms wide. Ha! ( I am laughing out loud ;-)With doors of steel - remember - no lumber but tree trunks - and most of them did not open up all the way.  I thought that was highly amusing, being a builder in the past and everything. Also, everything is cement - as thick as possible, and all hand made, to keep the heat off as much as they can.

      Now why ever would anyone want to build anything at ALL out here in the middle of this barren desert, hot as  - just stupid! Where are these people expecting this to go? Ha! (Just for the record, I can't wait to find out!...d-;)

 Well....this town is right on the borders of two other countries...and I saw the river that divides them.  There was a toll bridge that was destroyed during the  war between Eritrea and Ethiopia.  They told me if anyone crosses the river, they will be shot...Nice!  So I jumped in and swam for it! When I made it across, I then ran and ran and ran and they fired and fired but kept missing!  When I woke up, it appeared as if no one had noticed.. Maybe I was day dreaming.
    There was the soldier in this bunker, kind of motley and ragged, with his loaded mounted rifle, pointing it out across the water....just waiting for someone.. There were about 200 people bathing in the water, too.  Interesting. We took no photos of military, or law enforcement, but they were all around.

We ate dinner....After, I went outside to enjoy the rest of the evening.  Nice, warm breeze with a view of the stars, people sitting at tables and chairs out on the front dirt lot, having beers and ingeera.  A guy came over and spoke with me for a while in broken English about why he thinks his life is bad.....he proceeded to give me the impression that he is in charge of the harlots that work at the hotel we were staying….along with the lights and repairing stuff, etc…..great.


Mission Journal, Day 5.




3/14/10 – Sunday

Today, we went to the Full Gospel Church – way out in the boonies – “zoned for churches."  There was the area for this church, then the area for the Mosque and then the area for the Christian Orthodox church.

 Our service was wild and crazy, yet organized and “Spirit-excitement” filled.

    It took about from 10:30 a.m., or so, until 1:00 p.m.  There was songs and stuff for a good 30 minutes or more, with singing, about four more parts during the service….lots of yelling – loud shouting and emotion during the messages.  There were about four individual messages, including the one our pastor, Brian Morehead, gave as well as the “vision” one of the members had, but not including the three testimonials given by our team. 
     And, of course, it wouldn’t have been complete without the snake sneaking in the back (or front) door….nice touch!



    Back “Home” – or the hotel – after the worship, around 6:00 p.m.

I am still intent on ignoring the spit marks and dried blood stains on the cement walls of my hotel room.  Definitely grateful to be staying in a hotel and in one of the nice parts of town….there are nicer, but this is where we are!

I spoke with Hiyabu today at church again….and I spoke with Gutamo (the “harlot keeper“…) briefly after my lunch of ingeera…..he does not seem to be engaging in any conversation at the moment….but he is acting "cool."

Words I learned today:

Amharic:
Geta Yebarrke  -- God Bless You

Tigrinya:
Gyota Yebarhhe  -- God Bless You.

As Taught by Anteneh Dejene,  my interpreter. Roma is our “Discipler.”



We met with our translators and disciplers today and everyone “chatted”  to get to know each others accent, vocal tone and intonations and we listened to each others testimonies.  I must write a lot about Anteneh’s testimony. Roma - lost her parents very young.  Anteneh found God from a friend telling him.  He works at a high salary job…things were not right….I have to rest.. more writing tomorrow…







Visit http://worldvision5000.wordpress.com/ethiopia-extreme-march-2010 to view or download your copy of the complete document. Thanks for your interest!