May Newsletter

May 2011

Update - Vol #5

Tom's Ministry Update:

As described in previous newsletters, Teresa and I have been very busy in rehabilitating an old KHC (Kale Heywet Church) mission house, making it ready to serve as our Project Ethiopia home base for operations.  Of course I viewed this task as just another remodeling job (complete rebuild of plumbing and sewer system, re-electrification of outlets and lighting, and some windows and doors replacements).  Early into this process, (that is, around mid-March) we came to realize that our efforts were yielding greater results than we ever imagined we would achieve.  Those results were, and continue to be, not simply based upon bricks & mortar, pipes & wires, but in relationships we have forged with so many Ethiopians; contractors, laborers, materials store clerks, materials transporters (truck, donkey drivers, and men on foot), neighbors, and many curious visitors.  Greetings in coming and going always include a “Hello! Are you fine?” and best of all, “God bless you.”; the latter so freely and unashamedly offered.  As Teresa and I often prayed for, before ever leaving the comforts and conveniences of our home, was to gain benefits by learning and living spiritual enrichment through experiencing the Ethiopian people and their cultures. Although we are able to mentor our Christian values to many and they in turn express an abundant gratitude for all the physical things and vocational teaching we are providing, it is Teresa and I who are receiving the lion’s share of benefits from this Project Ethiopia mission experience. 

Among many other rehab improvements, we have been able to bring water to the mission compound by connecting into the semi-reliable municipal supply from Arba Minch town.  We constructed a water tower with elevated storage tank (1000 liters capacity) for supplying water during municipal system outages, an in-ground cement septic tank for collection and run-off of our washing and toilet waste water and solids, construction of a “shinto bet” (waste pit) for disposal of garbage, and partial completion of a rain harvesting scheme for collecting rain water run-off from the metal roof of the house. At the time of this writing, we are beginning the construction of a 13,000 liter, ferro-cement rain water storage tank, using only cement and reinforcement materials of chicken and pig wire fencing.  This is a design practiced in the Samoa islands by the Peace Corps and if successful at our “base camp”, then we will plan to include this scheme out in the bush as another water provisioning scheme in addition to new well drilling and the repairs to any broken wells and hand pump equipment. 

Through your generosity of giving from your treasures, you have helped Project Ethiopia by supplementing a portion of the overall funding of all of our work.  We pray you will continue in this manner and challenge you to increase your giving and prayers for the most needy and greatly marginalized peoples.  In spite of their many hardships in life, they persevere with a smile on their dirtied faces, and they love to sing of their joy in and love of Our Lord Jesus Christ. God bless us all.

Prayer Requests:

• We are approaching the end of the KHC Mission house repairs. Thank youLord that no one has been hurt during this construction.
  
• Although the Project Ethiopia proposal was temporarily turned down, after some revisions are made, Tom will go back once more to seek the approval of the regional water and health board. Please pray that these three young men on the board will see the urgent need for the people in the community and how much this project could help them.
  
• Tom has been having much trouble with dryness (redness, itching like sandpaper) in his eyes. It is bothersome, and he has started blinking all the time.
  
•  After all the mishaps with loaned vehicles, we are now more than ever convinced of the need of having our own reliable truck. It is dangerous out here in the bush to be vulnerable like that. Please pray that someone or a group of people will give the funds necessary so that Project Ethiopia can purchase a truck
  

Last But Not Least...

...the continuation of Teresa’s trip by helicopter to the Tara tribal people.

Saturday morning dawned bright and clear in the SIM compound in Tikempt Ishet. We hurriedly ate our oatmeal to be ready when our friend Markus from HeliMission was to arrive. Suddenly in the distance we could hear the thumping of the heli as it approached our clearing. It is quite an experience to see a helicopter land in your backyard. As we looked across the valley, we could see maybe a hundred people sitting on the hillside waiting to watch the ‘giant bird’ take off again. This was a big event! Markus had brought along the pastor from his home church in Germany, and there was Ben, Yemi and myself. Also, a man named Kopitu, who was one of the first people to evangelize the Tara people. I was so excited to ride in a helicopter and I thought that Kopitu must be overwhelmed with the idea, but I was incorrect - he was an old hand at helicopters. Ben said that he had ridden many times with him to go out to other unreached people groups. So it was no big deal to him! Of course, we had to have a little ‘pilot humor’ from Markus as he pretended to not remember where ’that one switch was that makes it go up’  and then he mumbled loudly to himself, “Ok. Hold stick in right hand, push throttle thing forward, I think...??”  So we all had a nice, nervous laugh and buckled our seatbelts even tighter.

We lifted and flew over the jungle, following several rivers and gliding silently through the sky. I felt like a bird, flying effortlessly. We all wore helmets and microphones so we could talk to each other and Ben and Markus regaled us with stories of some of their previous flights into the bush. Amazing stories of how God had used them to not only save lives but share the Gospel. Miles and miles we flew and the only sign of people below us were a few scattered grass huts. There were absolutely no roads anywhere. No villages, no schools, nothing. These people were indeed, very isolated. In front of us loomed a huge mountain range and our destination on top - the Tara people. The year before, when they had landed in Tara, one of the leaders had asked them to save his son. The boy was very ill (he had tuberculosis and malaria) and was dying. Markus flew the boy to a hospital and got him treatment. Now he was standing at the front of the crowd with his father as we landed in a clearing on top of the mountain ridge where the Tara people live.

Everyone was all smiles and greeted us with hugs and handshakes. Ben and Markus were particularly welcomed with much warmth and affection. Ben had been working on translating the very first Bible stories into the Tara language. He got one out and showed it to a man and asked him to read it out loud. You should have seen the look of joy on the peoples faces as they recognized God’s Word was now in their own language They broke out in spontaneous celebration!

We all went to a hut to meet with the leaders. But so many people were crowding around outside trying to hear what was being said, that we finally decided to just move to the church so everyone could hear. We sat on a bench in the front of the church and then the singing began.  The rafters were shaking with the sound of them rejoicing!   Then Ben gave a short sermonette in Me’en, which was translated into Amharic and then into Tara. (This obviously makes a sermon last a long time, but no one seemed to mind.) Then, one of the men approached us and made a very heart-felt and passionate appeal. We were told that he was saying something like, “We are forgotten up here. We have no roads. We have no schools for our children. We have no medicine. We have no Bible teachers. Will you send someone to live among us and teach us?”

Then another man told us that the government gave the Tara people a grinding mill, but left it in a village many miles below where the road ended. It has been sitting there for a long time. They had tried to take it apart piece by piece and carry it up the mountain trail but it proved to be too treacherous and dangerous and so there it sat.  Well- that sounds like a job for....HeliMission! So the guys decided to go take a look at the mill and see if it could be taken up by helicopter. They needed a local guy to fly with them to show them the way so that meant yours truly had to stay behind. Try to imagine me, blondie, standing in a crowd of Africans waving goodbye as they lifted and left me there (before my mother has a heart attack reading this. the German pastor also stayed behind with me!)

The people showed us back to the hut where they offered us lunch. The only thing they eat is honey and berries. So we were served a big bowl of honey complete with honeycomb. It was so rich that I couldn’t eat it. I am amazed that they still have teeth left eating all that sweet honey!

Later on the heli came back with the exciting news that they could bring the mill up to them. What shouting and excitement went through the crowd!  They said their prayers had been answered and God had not forgotten them.

And so we left, with the promise of a future trip in a few weeks to bring the mill.  

 // Tom was fortunate to be able to go on that trip and he took video of the people carrying the heavy pieces of the mill over the land to the site they had prepared for the new village mill.//

What a remarkable journey I had. Thank you, Jesus, that I could be a part of this very important event to include hearing the first Bible stories translated into the Tara language and the answering of a peoples’ prayer for help to bring the grinding mill up to them.