Time to pray for preparations for the Bible conference with which the Blacks are helping.

Thursday/Dec 29…rest in Soyama We will be back at the KHC guesthouse. Evangelists from all over the District will be gathering this day for the annual Bible Conference. Pray for safe travel for these evangelists, and that they would come with open hearts to His leading. Pray that we would get some good rest & spiritual refreshment in preparation for the Conference.

Also pray for safety for the Blacks in light of political unrest and the warnings posted for U.S. citizens traveling there.

I’m supposed to be incognito, so I’ll just quickly pull back the Black-out curtains to take a quick peek around…

Here is a Christmas message by David Chilton, for free from Word Mp3.

And here is a picture of the Friedrich clan who once enjoyed hearing David preaching every Lord’s Day when he was our pastor, but who is grateful to have been worshipping with the saints this Christmas in church on this last Lord’s Day. The lamp post evokes images of Narnia, but it is part of the set of our play, which was great fun but had a short run. It will live on in our memories and on the DVD version which is sure to become a Christmas classic, supplanting the performances of the famous tale starring those great thespians George C. Scott, Albert Finney, and Michael Caine (our personal favorite). However, we will will only inflict the recording of our debut on close family, though I may inflict on those who remain a few pictures of the costumed Friedrichs in the near future.

*furtively pulls those curtains tightly closed before the crook comes to pull her offstage*

I apologize for being remiss in posting this latest prayer request for the Blacks’ journey. They will be in this rural area through tomorrow, after which I will add another update. Thank you for your continued prayers, and I thank Margaret for posting her personal prayer in the comments.

Friday/Dec23 thru Wednesday/Dec 28….rural ministry in Burji District The Burji church leaders have arranged this segment of our trip.

“This is our proposed programme for your visit (itinerary), we will take your advice if you have any new idea on this programme.” … This means that we will be traveling from church to church “in the bush”. (In this area of Ethiopia, the church was initially planted here about 55 years ago. Twenty-six churches now exist in the District, and they are sending missionaries to the nomads along the border with Kenya, and even to tribes in Kenya! The Burji District is the springboard to these far regions of Ethiopia & Kenya. Non-believers are animists/spirit worshippers or Muslims; a few are Orthodox.) We may sleep in homes with the Ethiopian people, or we may sleep on the floor of churches. We anticipate a ministry of teaching, evangelism and encouragement, working alongside the KHC church people. We will train them in the use of the projector, battery power, flannelgraph, etc. We will also distribute Bibles to the children who have completed the memory program, and new dresses to the wives of the evangelists. Many of these people do not know the national language; they only know their tribal tongue. We will speak thru an interpreter. It is possible that BeckyLynn will have to use her nursing skills for medical counsel to the people; there is no medical clinic or hospital anywhere in this section of Ethiopia. This will be a very high-intensity time of not only reaching out to the unreached, but also mentoring those in church leadership. It’s probable that many (perhaps most) of these people have never seen a “forengee” (white-faced foreigners); so our presence is likely to cause quite a stir! We will likely have no toilets except the bush, and we will likely be exposed to sickness (“Travelers Diarrhea”, mosquito diseases, bug bites, snakes/wild dogs/rats). Privacy will be non-existent. Also, we will be close to the equator at high elevation, so sunburn is almost unavoidable. We will likely be “sleep challenged”. Pray for physical protection from illness. Pray for good sleep & for us to rest in His provision of whatever sleep we get. Pray for us not to unconsciously offend in some cultural manner. Pray for us to stay in tune to the Holy Spirit’s guidance, even if we are pulled in many directions & are coping with fatigue or illness; pray for us to have a clear understanding of what needs He has sent us to aid, and what needs He wants us to forego. Pray for safety of our financial resources & protection from thievery or loss. Pray for receptive hearts and for good translators. Pray for BeckyLynn to remember how to operate all the electronic equipment & adapt her nursing knowledge to Ethiopia’s situation. Pray for grace in dealing with the lack of privacy.

Please be praying for this next leg of the Blacks” journey:

Thursday/Dec 22…travel to Soyama in Burji District This is a 12-14 hour trip. About 8-10 hours is on a 2-lane narrow highway with all kinds of animals as well as people sharing the road. The final 4-6 hours in on a small dirt road, which takes us to Soyama, the “county seat” of the Burji District. Soyama is a town of about 800 people. It has a post office (but no delivery system), a government school, a few government offices, a tele-center, about 3 telephones, and a generator that provides electricity a few hours in the evening. This is the most modern place in the Burji District & is home for the Soyama Town church and the Kale Heywot Church (KHC) district offices. We will stay in the guest house of the KHC, which is a nice bed in a mud-walled room, cement floor and detached outhouse; they bring us food from somewhere in town, and water comes from rain barrels for washing. (We filter & ionize the water for drinking purposes.) Pray for safe travel on the highway (no accident or getting lost). Pray for the car to work well; it will be loaded down with over 1000 books, electronic equipment, supplies, etc. Pray for protection from bandits; especially if we are late getting in & the sun is setting, bandits & wild animals are a danger.

Here’s a recent article for those interested in the Black’s missionary journey, to give some insight into the rich history of Ethiopia, a reminder of the rise and fall of nations. It’s sobering to reflect on the advanced civilizations that have come and gone, many from antiquity, and humbling to think that our own nation is certainly not exempt from the same judgments they experienced.

Ethiopia, one of the world’s poorest and least developed nations, is believed to contain some of civilization’s oldest archaeological troves under its rocky soil. Experts estimate that less than 7 percent of these artifacts have been found, meaning that Ethiopia could be on the brink of the same kind of major archaeological discoveries that began in late 19th-century Greece or 1920s Egypt.

“Aksum is one of the least known civilizations in the world,” said Fasil Giorghis, an Ethiopian architect and leader of a team of archaeologists and historians who are working in Aksum, as he hunched over reams of drawings in his office. “There are layers and layers of buildings and history here. There is major work to be done here. It’s an exciting thing for our country.”