For three weeks in July, I stayed in Addis Ababa,
Ethiopia, where I lived at the office compound of Transformation Love, a child
sponsorship ministry in a blighted area known as Korē. During the day, we visited the homes of the women
and children who benefit from the ministry, and at night, I taught a philosophy
and theology class at Evangelical Theological College.
Learning
about Korē
My first experience with Ethiopia was in 2010 when I
went there to help with a course at ETC, and also to check out this blighted
area called Korē. Korē is an area in
Addis Ababa, where approximately 80,000 people live in small, shanty homes made
from sticks, mud, and metal sheeting, with severe limitations to food, clean
water, and basic sanitation. Plastic
tarps are also used on homes as shelter from the rain, which comes down in torrents
in the winter months (summer months for Americans). Korē started out as a leper colony decades
ago and centered around ALERT hospital, which ministered to these people. With the industrialization and development of
Addis, Korē soon became a highly populated place where lepers, HIV victims, widows,
and orphans abounded. In addition to a labor-intensive
way of life, Korē is a place where there is abuse, prostitution, and violence. The only refuge has been the refuse of the
city dump, Koshē, offering scant food supplies, and plastic to be rummaged for
sale.
My first experience in Korē involved visiting women
in dark, windowless, mud homes, who sat in lonely desperation with HIV while
their children wandered the streets amid animal waste, garbage, muddy pits
scattered among crude, stepping stones, and where men and boys played pool
during the day and drank away whatever money they had in alcoholic doldrums. Where were the husbands? There were all gone: gone with abandonment,
or death by disease, or to another city to find another meager labor position,
making mere dollars per day. I saw food
stands, which was good, but on a closer look, the food was covered with
hundreds of flies. Women and children
washed their clothes in dirty tubs of water.
There were blind people. There
were lepers. These walk the streets in
awkward, mechanical, uneasiness. Some
men wander the streets with nothing on but a shirt, walking in a
half-daze.
What possible hope can these people have for this
life? The question weighed me down with
a heaviness too difficult to explain. This place shook me to the core. I’m reminded of a recent song by Pearl Jam –
not exactly Captain Christian K-Love– but a poignant criticism of the suffering
people undergo even with the hope of a blissful afterlife. The lyrics say, “Go to heaven, that’s swell,
how do you like your living hell?”
Well, that all sounds bleak, doesn’t it? As Christians, even though we have the hope
of a new heavens and a new earth, we are indeed called to bring hope to the
hurting in the here and now. But
how? How is this to be done?
Transformation
Love
Just before I left Addis Ababa on my first trip
there, I learned of a child sponsorship ministry. This ministry helps children to go through school,
all the way through college, so they can get decent jobs and have a hope for
their future. The ministry also gives
families a month’s supply of food so women don’t have to forage for things in
the dangerous dump. They get soap for
both bodies and clothes. Children get
uniforms and supplies for school, which is a must if a child is to go to
school. (Education is free in Addis, but
families must supply both uniforms and books.
Otherwise, children are not allowed in school).
Having been to Korē three times now, I have seen how
Transformation Love helps women and children, and some men, by showing the
compassion of Christ through physical and spiritual nourishment. There is nourishment for the whole person in
terms of food, shelter, medicine, education, Bible study, worship, and
prayer. I have seen the youth in TL
graduate from high school with high honors and pursue education in nursing, IT,
business, and pastoral ministry. Transformation
Love and other ministries like it truly help people break the cycle of
poverty.
Still, there are a number of challenges that lie
ahead. Korē is developing
economically. Roads, sidewalks, banks
and other business, shopping centers, and large, expensive homes are converging
on Korē from its outer rim. The city of
Addis is under current plans to move the dump further outside the city, and
therefore, people are investing in construction projects in Korē. This means jobs for many people doing many
different things, and it is hard to deny the goodness of this development. However, what this also does, is raise the
rent for the disenfranchised who either are unable to work these jobs due to
lack of education or sickness, or both.
We have therefore a great challenge ahead of us, and
this includes plans for both housing and the creation of jobs for the
women. What kind of jobs can we help
create for women who are sick and carry the stigma of HIV, and who are also
uneducated, and are unable to work at a bank, for example? These are the questions we are now asking,
and there is still much work to be done for these poorest of the poor.
Teaching
at ETC
At
the college and seminary, the course on philosophy and theology covered the
history of western thought, along with major theologians and theological
movements within the Christian church from its inception until now. Wanting to maximize the potential of
relevance, I asked my students to tell me the challenges to the gospel in their
culture, and they said they involve primarily the teachings of the Ethiopian
Orthodox Church, Islam, African Traditional Religion, and Cultural problems,
which are similar to our own here in the U.S.
First,
the EOC teaches that because Jesus is divine, he is unable to intercede on
behalf of sinners before God. Therefore,
people are to pray to Mary, angels, and saints, and receive blessings by
incantations, kissing the church gate, blessings from the priest, and other
similar things. This brings in a lot of
syncretism with pagan religion, and even witchcraft into the lives of people.
Second,
there is the great challenge of Islam, which comprises 35-40% of the population
in Ethiopia. There have been cases of
violent persecution. Doctrinally, however,
Islam teaches the impossibility of God becoming a Man in Christ, that the Bible
is corrupted, that the concept of the atonement of Christ on the cross is
blasphemous, as Allah would never allow one of his prophets to suffer shame, and
that people must pay for their own sins, and may not receive forgiveness by
means of the punishment of another.
African
Traditional Religion is a third challenge for the gospel, as it teaches that God,
the Supreme Being, is distant, unknown, and only to be feared; this means that
life on earth involves appeasing good and evil spirits in order to be blessed.
These spirits are arbitrary, and cannot be trusted, so it seems that fear is a
constant emotion in ATR adherents.
In
Ethiopian culture, as in our own, there are problems of fatherlessness,
divorce, pornography, drug and alcohol addiction, depression, abortion, &
hints of homosexuality imported by the West’s dominant, secular worldview. My Ethiopian students they are experiencing a
whole host of challenges imported by the West through social & news media,
movies, tv shows, and the like.
In A Nutshell
I
want to thank my local church, Corinth Reformed Church, for all the support I’ve had, and for everyone else who supported me and my family in
prayer, encouragement, and in finances. I couldn’t do this without you all. Although I was in Ethiopia in body, you were
there in spirit. As Paul thanked the
Philippian Christians for their partnership with him in the gospel, so I also
thank my local church, and everyone who gave financially and prayed for me and helped take care of my family. Our
Ethiopian brothers and sisters in Christ rejoice at the visitation of their
American friends. They rejoice with
hugs, kisses, handshakes, and tears. It
means so much to them to have someone come such a long way to visit, teach, and
show love and compassion. I do hope to
go back next year, as the college has given me this invitation. Thank you again. May the Lord bless you all richly in Christ
Jesus. Amen.
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