The girl who inspired me

When I was five years old, my parents made the decision to move our family of five to Melbourne Australia to be closer to my dad’s side of the family.  It was a short lived experience which produced life changing results.  My mum fell pregnant to twins while we were there, we learned a lot about Australian culture and it was during that period of time that I witnessed the famine in Ethiopia on the news and announced that one day I was to be a missionary there!

One of the most vivid memories I have of my first year in Australia and perhaps one of the things that inspired my previously mentioned announcement, was a tragedy that occurred at my school.  I can’t remember how and I can’t remember her name but there was a little girl who was in my year who passed away tragically at the age of seven.  I didn’t know this girl but I knew who she was.  The whole school was in mourning as they remembered her and thoughts in my mind focussed on one thing that was said about her. This girl was said to be so selfless that when she had celebrated her last birthday she asked not to receive any presents but she wanted to give presents away to those less fortunate. I was so inspired by this girl that I wondered what would be said about me when I died.  Would they be able to say amazing things about me like they did about her?  My conclusion was probably not!

But as I look forward to my birthday this Sunday, the milestone that brings me half way through my thirties, I want to be able to give away that which may have been given to me.  So I am asking you for a gift- yeah, apparently my sister says I do that often but I swear I don’t ;) And the gift I am asking for is a tradition my Nana Anuilagi Perese started on my maternal side of the family.   For our birthdays sometimes she would give us cash as we were growing up and the amount she would give was based on the year we were turning.  So as I turn 35 this year, I am asking for $35 from anyone who is willing to give to the cause.  It’s not a big ask really…like less than a night out at the movies, or a bucket of KFC for two Samoans haha. I know that this won’t quite pinch your pocket the way it could potentially enlarge some lives.

So what is the cause, you may be asking…I am SO glad you asked.

For the last four years, I have been burdened by the prostitute situation here in Ethiopia.  Since I was exposed to the complexities of this lifestyle while on a visit to Women at Risk in Nazaret, Ethiopia in 2009, I knew that some day, some way, I needed to support this area of ministry.  Prostitutes here are not in this business because it’s lucrative, nor because it is glamorous.  Normally they get into this lifestyle out of desperation and because of poverty.  And they normally stay in there because they don’t see any way out.  They work in a bar that fronts a room where they may get the equivalent of $1 or $2 a trick.  They risk their lives and their dignity just so they can survive.

Women at Risk showed these women that there was a way out and that’s also one of my new agenda’s.  Along with Zion Church support and a possible partner NGO, we are wanting to start a rehabilitation project for the women who line the street of Zion Church.   Some of them have already found freedom from this lifestyle but they need holistic rehabilitation.  There are some also who are wanting “out” but don’t know how to make the next move.  We want to open that door for them and show them the way through. 

This involves a day program that will run over the period of six months.  Through addiction rehabilitation, spiritual discipleship, skills training, business training and parenting classes, and one on one psychological counselling, we hope to bring redemption to these women.  Redemption meaning, restoring them back to the original purpose they were created for and setting them out into the world for greater things.

These women are mothers, daughters, sisters who have the potential to make a difference in their families and also a difference in their community and society.  They are women who have great value and worth.  Beautiful women who don’t know their beauty.  Often women who are reaping the consequences of their lifestyle through diseases such as HIV that, with great regret, have now been passed on to their children.  In the last month, we have heard of two toddlers who have died on this street from HIV.  Two babies who didn’t get to see their destiny fulfilled because of the desperation of their mothers to feed them.

Emebet is one of the women who has recently come off the street.  At first when we started talking to her she was totally apathetic about life and about her situation.  She didn’t want to change nor did she desire help.  Her four year old daughter who is the size of a small two year old, would wander the streets with her friend Fikir and when asked what her name was, we got Bararew (which means Cockroach), then Mita (which is also a non-name) and then finally when we asked Emebet what her daughters name was, she said she forgot. 

After a night of abuse by one man who came into her brothel and imprisoned her in her own home, she slowly started changing her mind.  She came and spoke with my Pastor and myself and shared her desire to get out of the brothel.  She had had enough.  She shared how she was brought up in a Christian home but her parents always fought and eventually she got sick of being in the middle of it so she ran away and lived on the streets.  After finding no way to earn a living she found herself in a brothel at the age of 16. 

While she knew what she was doing was wrong, she didn’t see any other way to live but she loved her daughter and she decided this wasn’t the lifestyle she wanted for her any more.  We talked to her about giving her daughter a new name and Pastor Birhanu suggested Bereket, which means Blessing.  She agreed and started on her journey to redemption.  From being under the curse of her former name “Cockroach”, she now is destined for Blessing!  Bereket is now the girl who is inspiring me.

Faithfully Emebet has been coming to the new believer’s classes every Sunday at 8am, she has moved out of her brothel and has started a new life.  She sat in church on Sunday so hungry to hear the message that when Bereket started crying because another girl had upset her, Emebet didn’t want to take her out so she wouldn’t disturb everyone, but then reluctantly she did and sat outside to listen.  This is what it’s all about!

But there’s more restoration that needs to happen.  More gaps that need to be filled.  And we need your help to fill it.  To support a woman in this program or one of our staff who will supply the rehabilitation process, please donate now.  Don’t be limited by what I have asked.  $35 a month would support one woman through this program for six months.  $350 could pay for our psychologist fees. You can contact me on michelle.tiatia@gmail.com and find out how you can donate.  If you live in New Zealand, you can deposit money into the Love Rescue Charitable Trust bank account which is open now and the account number is 01-1845-0016412 -00.  If you live in the States, you can send a check to Redeeming Love World Missions which has been set up to support this ministry.  Their address is Redeeming Love World Missions Fund at PO Box 209, Enid OK  73703.  Note that your donation is for Project Rescue.  100% of your money will go to these women and this project.  None of it will be kept for administration purposes.  

Fikir, daughter of a prostitute who died in the last year and potential beneficiary of this ministry

8 

Quantum Leap

Quantum Leap was one of my favourite shows growing up.  It was about a man who got to time travel back into different time zones and also into different people – male and female!  He had a travel buddy that always went with him, Al.  During his travels, he was going back to make right some wrongs or to settle some unsettled issues that those people had left undone.  He had a great responsibility and a rewarding job but he was never able to move on from that person’s life until he had completed the “mission.” 

Sometimes I feel like our lives can be just like that.  Like we go, not back into someone else’s life, but maybe back into areas or time zones in our own lives.  Circumstance happens to bring up some “stuff” in our inner being that we can trace back to our childhood or teenage years where there was something left undone. 

For me, this is how I viewed my broken foot experience.  Not only did my foot break, but I also suffered from a couple of really bad spouts of illness that left me bed ridden for at least a week all together.  In the early days a lady came and prayed for me and prophesied over me.  She had been praying for me the night before and asked God for a “word of knowledge” for me.  If you don’t know what that is, there are some good books out there in operating in the gifts of the Holy Spirit J

Anyway, her word for me, from God was that this was not from the devil.  That this was allowed by God because He wanted to spend some time with me.  And she was not the first person to tell me this message, so I have to believe it was from God.  See I am not the type of person who likes to rest.  I like to be doing something, going somewhere, spending time with people, helping people.  But as Christians, this can be damaging, even if it’s in the name of “ministry” because we can get so caught up that we forget to spend time with God. 

So I’m back in bed.  Resting.  Learning that going out is not always the best thing to do.  Learning that saying thank you is so important for building relationships that you depend on.  Learning that patience and time will calcify not only my bone but also the relationships and visions and purposes that may have been broken in the past.

While in that place God took me back into other time zones where I had been hurt.  He showed me that while He was COMPLETELY able and willing to heal my foot, that He was more out to heal my heart.  And that this “mission” he was on, was not going to finish until that had been completed.  My weary, broken, hole-ridden heart was about to be filled with His LOVE. 

I think if we all look back, we can see areas in our lives where we have been hurt, where our hearts have been broken, damaged, torn.  Those are the areas that, if not completely healed, will continue to surface and shape the way that we view our world and the future relationships we are entering into.  Hurt people, hurt people.  So important to know this when working with people.  If we are still in a place of hurt, we need to get that right! 

My life has been such a smorgasbord of different events that have shaped who I am today.  There have been good events and there have been bad.  There have been times where I’ve felt betrayed and times where I have been abused.  And over the years, God has brought healing to so many of those places. 

I continue to struggle though and never want to make out like I am perfect because I am so far from it.  I want to help people because I know what it’s like to feel unworthy, to feel shame and to feel unloved and unwanted.  The place that I help out of, though, is a place of restoration.  God has restored me and redeemed me from all of that “stuff”. 

My friend Marianne nailed it this morning when she read from James 1 in our devotion time:

Vs 2-8 Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything. If any of you lacks wisdom, you should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to you. But when you ask, you must believe and not doubt, because the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind. That person should not expect to receive anything from the Lord.  Such a person is double-minded and unstable in all they do.

What God wants us to be is “mature and complete” but that only comes when we face trials and have to persevere through that.  In those trial processes, we often come full frontal with the REAL us.  Let me own that- the real ME!  The ME that reacts and squirms like a baby when I don’t get my way!  Or the ME that realizes that she’s seeking satisfaction and recognition and love from people and not from the only one who can bring COMPLETE satisfaction-God.  That’s me. 

So sometimes I ask God for Him to help me to be mature and complete and so He sends me a trial or puts me through a test.  But that all comes with this promise found in verse 12 of the same chapter:

Blessed is the one who perseveres under trial because, having stood the test, that person will receive the crown of life that the Lord has promised to those who love him.

He LOVES us, oh, how HE loves US.  So we love Him, because He first loved us.  And because we know His love and His love has made us complete and mature, we are able to LOVE others and help them find the same thing.  This is my life.  I feel like I passed this test.  This recent one.  Not the final exam. But this one where He, the Creator of the Heavens and the Earth, laid me up in bed so HE could spend time with ME!  And show me all the places in my heart that needed healing, and I allowed HIM to heal me.  OH, I am so thankful for that Quantum Leap!

Quantum Leap

Quantum Leap was one of my favourite shows growing up.  If you weren't privileged enough to grow up in the 80s and 90s, I'll fill you in.  It was about a man who got to time travel back into different time zones and also into different people – male and female!  He had a travel buddy that always went with him, Al.  During his travels, he was going back to make right some wrongs or to settle some unsettled issues that those people had left undone.  He had a great responsibility and a rewarding job but he was never able to move on from that person’s life until he had completed the “mission.” 

Sometimes I feel like our lives can be just like that.  Like we go, not back into someone else’s life, but maybe back into areas or time zones in our own lives.  Circumstance happens to bring up some “stuff” in our inner being that we can trace back to our childhood or teenage years where there was something left undone. 

For me, this is how I viewed my broken foot experience.  Not only did my foot break, but I also suffered from a couple of really bad spouts of illness that left me bed ridden for at least a week all together.  In the early days a lady came and prayed for me and prophesied over me.  She had been praying for me the night before and asked God for a “word of knowledge” for me.  If you don’t know what that is, there are some good books out there in operating in the gifts of the Holy Spirit J

Anyway, her word for me, from God was that this was not from the devil.  That this was allowed by God because He wanted to spend some time with me.  And she was not the first person to tell me this message, so I have to believe it was from God.  See I am not the type of person who likes to rest.  I like to be doing something, going somewhere, spending time with people, helping people.  But as Christians, this can be damaging, even if it’s in the name of “ministry” because we can get so caught up that we forget to spend time with God. 

So I’m back in bed.  Resting.  Learning that going out is not always the best thing to do.  Learning that saying thank you is so important for building relationships that you depend on.  Learning that patience and time will calcify not only my bone but also the relationships and visions and purposes that may have been broken in the past.

While in that place God took me back into other time zones where I had been hurt.  He showed me that while He was COMPLETELY able and willing to heal my foot, that He was more out to heal my heart.  And that this “mission” he was on, was not going to finish until that had been completed.  My weary, broken, hole-ridden heart was about to be filled with His LOVE. 

I think if we all look back, we can see areas in our lives where we have been hurt, where our hearts have been broken, damaged, torn.  Those are the areas that, if not completely healed, will continue to surface and shape the way that we view our world and the future relationships we are entering into.  Hurt people, hurt people.  So important to know this when working with people.  If we are still in a place of hurt, we need to get that right! 

My life has been such a smorgasbord of different events that have shaped who I am today.  There have been good events and there have been bad.  There have been times where I’ve felt betrayed and times where I have been abused.  And over the years, God has brought healing to so many of those places. 

I continue to struggle though and never want to make out like I am perfect because I am so far from it.  I want to help people because I know what it’s like to feel unworthy, to feel shame and to feel unloved and unwanted.  The place that I help out of, though, is a place of restoration.  God has restored me and redeemed me from all of that “stuff”. 

My friend Marianne nailed it this morning when she read from James 1 in our devotion time:

Vs 2-8 Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything. If any of you lacks wisdom, you should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to you. But when you ask, you must believe and not doubt, because the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind. That person should not expect to receive anything from the Lord.  Such a person is double-minded and unstable in all they do.

What God wants us to be is “mature and complete” but that only comes when we face trials and have to persevere through that.  In those trial processes, we often come full frontal with the REAL us.  Let me own that- the real ME!  The ME that reacts and squirms like a baby when I don’t get my way!  Or the ME that realizes that she’s seeking satisfaction and recognition and love from people and not from the only one who can bring COMPLETE satisfaction-God.  That’s me. 

So sometimes I ask God for Him to help me to be mature and complete and so He sends me a trial or puts me through a test.  But that all comes with this promise found in verse 12 of the same chapter:

Blessed is the one who perseveres under trial because, having stood the test, that person will receive the crown of life that the Lord has promised to those who love him.

He LOVES us, oh, how HE loves US.  So we love Him, because He first loved us.  And because we know His love and His love has made us complete and mature, we are able to LOVE others and help them find the same thing.  This is my life.  I feel like I passed this test.  This recent one.  Not the final exam. But this one where He, the Creator of the Heavens and the Earth, laid me up in bed so HE could spend time with ME!  And show me all the places in my heart that needed healing, and I allowed HIM to heal me.  OH, I am so thankful for that Quantum Leap!

Thank you that I am not like THEM

I've gotta tell the truth. I am seriously afraid of offending someone with this post.  Or for coming across judgmental at least.  If it does offend you though, I am sorry.  If it challenges you, I am glad.

The thing is that we are all aware of the situation we are in.  We live in a world of injustice where the rich are getting richer and the poor are getting poorer.  As I see the injustice in income differences here and the little people are expected to survive on I am often disgusted. 

Many are apathetic about the situation and don’t want to get involved.  The images on TV of children hungry, alone and uncared for don’t penetrate past the TV screen.  Some, however, want to get involved and they risk life and limb to travel the globe into developing countries to help better the situation and fulfil the call to take care of the poor and orphaned.

 

We get to hang with people like this.  And we have been one of those people.  I like to call them short termers.  They are the amazing people who come for a visit for a short amount of time and then leave back to their home country. 

Different reactions to the short term experience emerge when people get back "home".  For me, New Zealand didn't feel like "home" anymore after I returned from Ethiopia in 2009.  While not getting into all the psychological reactions that I and others experience, there are definitely different responses that can either alter ones life or at least ones thoughts or worldviews.  An example that one of our old pastors used to use what that of Brooke Fraser’s after her trip to Rwanda- “Now that I have seen, I am responsible.”  

Hers is one of two responses that I feel are articulated in these verses below.  I believe that the heart for the poor, is the heart of God and essentially when we come to a place of poverty, we come to a place that is the heart of God and we worship Him there.  The context of these verses is in a place of worship.  It’s in a temple, but there are two attitudes that are expressed. Let’s have a look:

Luke 18:9-14

To some who were confident of their own righteousness and looked down on everyone else, Jesus told this parable: “Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee stood by himself and prayed: ‘God, I thank you that I am not like other people—robbers, evildoers, adulterers—or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week and give a tenth of all I get.’

“But the tax collector stood at a distance. He would not even look up to heaven, but beat his breast and said, ‘God, have mercy on me, a sinner.’

“I tell you that this man, rather than the other, went home justified before God. For all those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted.”

If we look at these verses not as a Pharisee and a tax collector but as two different kinds of short termers- there are those that can come here or to another country and leave back to their lives expressing this new attitude of gratefulness “God, I thank you that I am not like THEM!!”  And get on with their lives and be content with their own self righteousness and possessions. 

Then there are those who leave back to their lives who will say, “God, forgive me- help me to love THEM like you loved ME.” And go on their lives never again satisfied with what they POSSESS but what they can LACK now so that others might GAIN. 

God calls us to humble ourselves and to see others better than ourselves.  He has taken me through so many circumstances where this verse has been something I have had to struggle to BELIEVE and accept.  But it was my call to humility. He calls us to GIVE our lives so that others might live.  

The next few verses in Luke 18 sum it right up.  As you read about the rich ruler, remember that if you have a roof over your head, a car in your driveway, you would be called rich.

A certain ruler asked him, “Good teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?”

“Why do you call me good?” Jesus answered. “No one is good—except God alone. You know the commandments: ‘You shall not commit adultery, you shall not murder, you shall not steal, you shall not give false testimony, honor your father and mother.’”

“All these I have kept since I was a boy,” he said.

When Jesus heard this, he said to him, “You still lack one thing. Sell everything you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.”

When he heard this, he became very sad, because he was very wealthy. Jesus looked at him and said, “How hard it is for the rich to enter the kingdom of God! Indeed, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of God.”

Those who heard this asked, “Who then can be saved?”

Jesus replied, “What is impossible with man is possible with God.”

Peter said to him, “We have left all we had to follow you!”

“Truly I tell you,” Jesus said to them, “no one who has left home or wife or brothers or sisters or parents or children for the sake of the kingdom of God will fail to receive many times as much in this age, and in the age to come eternal life.”

Often I feel like we have it all messed up.  We hold on so tightly to things that this world values. We find it SO hard to give it away that we even disqualify verses like these as irrelevant to our current situation or cultural context.  But they are not. It's not that crazy to give it all away for the sake of following Jesus and residing in a place of worship with Him.  I mean, isn't that what He wants? 

November Update

Normally I don't put up our update letters for public viewing, but just to give people an idea of what's been going on lately and also give you a taste of what our update letters are like if you want to be added to our email list, here is our November update...

Thank you for all of your continued prayers.  We have seen some real breakthrough this month and we want to share some of that with you.  First of all, I alluded to an incident we experienced last month that kind of shook us up a bit.  That incident was (as my sister reminded me) a testimony of God’s protection, so I’ll share it with you and let you know what’s happened since. 

About a month ago my daughters and I (Michelle) went for a walk up a mountain in our town with our pastors 14 year old son.  We have walked up this mountain many times and after being sick for a little while and needing some fresh air and exercise, the girls and I headed up in the late afternoon as it was starting to get cool enough to walk outside.  After we conquered the mountain and quickly headed back down before it got dark, we were approached by three young men who were asking us for money.  As we didn’t have any money, they then proceeded to take off Kiara’s bracelet while I called Asaua on my phone to let him know what was happening.  I then gave my phone to Lydia to take and run away with as she was clearly afraid and I wanted to “handle it” without it getting too scary for her.  Anyway, my plan backfired and the young men chased her so she was stopped.  Our pastors son then intervened and was talking to them in Amharic but they pulled a knife out on him so I told them just to take the phone (which was an iPhone3G that I had been given for work) and they left us alone.  Asaua turned up not long after and the men all tried to hunt the boys down to no avail.  This was really our first incident where we have felt unsafe in Ethiopia and it is really something that could have happened in any other country, it’s just that here there is no emergency number you can call and no search equipment like patrol cars to keep you safe. 

What we do have, in more areas than just this though, is a God who shows up beyond what we HAVE or don’t HAVE.  That day, our pastor was in a conference at our church and the preacher had said to him that the devil was going to try and kill his children, but not to worry because God would protect them.  Really, this is just a confirmation for us and reminder that God did protect us that day.  We heard stories since then of people who have been killed on that mountain in similar situations. 

When we lived in Rotorua in 2005, God showed me this verse in Psa 4:8

  In peace I will both lie down and sleep; for you alone, O LORD, make me dwell in safety.

Only God can keep us safe, not our fears or worrying about being safe.  God promises protection when we walk in His will.  When they approached us, one of the boys showed me his teeth as they were chizzled into points and he was trying to scare me with it.  He said he was a vampire and he obviously thought that would have an effect on me- and maybe two years ago, it would have.  But I thank God that Fear doesn’t live here any more and it’s not something that I let feed my mind so I didn’t fear them at all as I knew God’s protection was with us. 

A week later, that same boy was caught and we had to go and identify him in the jail – with no hidde mirror, just an open veranda that they walked him out of in front of the prison cell.  I simultaneously lost my contact the same night as this incident so my eyesight was not good as I was wearing my friends glasses.  When they brought him out, I didn’t immediately recognize him so I asked him to come closer and I said in Amharic “Smile”.  He refused and kept this innocent face that made me question whether or not he really was the boy who tried to scare us that day.  So the police man slapped him on the head and told him to smile.  So he opened his mouth and the very thing that he tried to use to scare us, was the thing that in the end incriminated him.  There was no denying those teeth.  So this week  the four of us have to go to High Court in Nazaret and be witnesses for his case that will at least put him in jail for three years.  Suffice to say, that jail here is not like jail in first world countries.

So other than this exciting adventure we have been on, we also had our director from Australia here, and at the same time the directors from our other international offices, the USA and Canada also gathered here for a week of strategic planning and establishing our new NGO status.  Blessing the Children received NGO status at long last!  Praise God! The new name of our Social service is Blessing the Children Development organization (BCDO) which now runs separately from the school.   

While Glen was here he held some business training for business people in our town.  Even mothers of the children in our programme attended and it was really cool to see them dream bigger! 

We have also been accepted as Missionaries with the Mekane Yesus Church here in Ethiopia.  Mekane Yesus church is one of the oldest denominations here in Ethiopia and they have a long standing relationship with the government that is equalled to the Orthodox church’s relationship with the government.  They usually only accept Lutheran missionaries who have been sent from churches in Europe so we are breaking ground in many ways through this new relationship.  We are very thankful for this privilege of being able to serve under them. 

Another breakthrough we have experienced this month is not in Ethiopia, but is in New Zealand!  Our good friends have just established a charitable trust for us called Love Rescue Charitable Trust.  The purpose of this trust is to provide a channel whereby people can donate to the work here in Ethiopia as well as provide awareness for issues that are being experienced here that we know people want to help eradicate or improve or be a part of bringing Kingdom values and hope into.  I will keep you all informed on how you can partner with us through Love Rescue.  I believe we as Christians are all called to be Love Rescuers and this will be an avenue for some on how they can out work that.

We have also been experiencing some real growth in our International service ministry.  We officially launched our service at the beginning of the month and had many people come and celebrate with us.  Just after that, we had a new musician join us from Addis Ababa who is a graduate from the Mekane Yesus Jazz Music School which exists to empower worship leaders around Ethiopia.  He is an amazing musician and is adding real value to our music team.  We’re having new speakers and are looking forward to how God is going to continue to work through us in this ministry.

Please continue to pray for our visa situation.  We are having a hard time still, but hope is coming as we are now able to be assisted by the Mekane Yesus Church office.  Right now, our visas are ready to expire on Thursday!  We are going to apply for an extension and then pray that everything that needs to be done will be done and approved by the government so that we can stay for another year without all this run around!  I emailed a veteran missionary couple who served here for 50 years and asked them to pray for us.  They said that they arrived here on boat in 1954 and had to wait for four months in Aden for their visas to be approved.  It put a slightly different perspective on our situation!  But they also said this was their constant prayer, so when you pray for us, always pray for this situation please.

On the home front, Jamal is doing really well at school.  He is passing all his tests now in the Cambridge curriculum through Greek Community School (where he doesn’t learn Greek at all L ) But he is getting opportunities to do what he loves most- Dance and entertain people.  He went from performing at the school UN day to being asked to perform at the African Union Christmas Gala this Saturday which he is really excited about.  Matthias and Wesley are also doing really well.  Matthias is Grade 4 now and Wesley Grade 3 and they are loving it.  We got to skype call a school in Christchurch this past week and it was really cool that my kids got to share their experiences with other 7-9 year olds in Christchurch.  They are looking at doing some fundraising for us during this Christmas season.  Kiara and Lydia are doing well too.  They have completely recovered from the experience of last month and are based at the school with their dad where they get constant connection with the kids in the program.  They are also going out to their friends house two towns away every Friday.  There they are doing prophetic art, horse riding, swimming and baking.  I try and join them every now and then.  This family have become good friends of ours. 

People have been asking what our address is here so I just want to remind you of our details. 

Asaua and Michelle Tiatia

BCI Academy

P.O. Box 1465

Debre Zeit

East Shoa

Ethiopia

If you want to send over a care package, there are a few things that we are always in need of supplies for like:

Stationary

Clothes and shoes for our kids as they continue to grow

Headbands and hair ties

Cadbury Chocolate :)

Chocolate chips for baking

Dried fruit and nuts

Baking soda

Cereals

Reading books

Vegemite and Marmite

We would also love to build up a database of your addresses.  If you send us back an updated address for you we'd really appreciate it!  Have a great Christmas season wherever you are,  We are looking forward to having our first short term missionaries coming from Australia while in our new roles.  We would love to have some New Zealanders coming to join us in 2013 also!  Please pray about and talk about it with your friends and family and let us know if you're keen!  

Love and blessings from

Asaua and Michelle, Jamal, Kiara, Lydia, Matthias and Wesley Tiatia

If you would like to sign up to our monthly updates, or come off our update list, then let me know through my email address:

michelle.tiatia@gmail.com

ZION

“You are the light of the world, a city set on a hill cannot be hid…therefore, let your light so shine before men so they may see your good works and glorify your Father which is in Heaven.”  Matt 5:14,16.

Many churches take this verse literally and set their churches on hills, mountains and highly visible locations so that people will see their church, their cross, their flashing lights and be drawn to the “light”.  Especially in Ethiopia, we see churches and mosques vying for the best locations so they can show off the glory that exists in the beautiful architecture of their buildings. 

But Zion Church is set in the valley, in what is known as the “dirty corner” of Debre Zeit.  It’s set in the dark and down a dirt road that many people struggle to find.  The road where Zion Church resides is laden with bars and brothels.  It’s children are illegitimate and dirty.  Its women are hopeless and dry.  Its drainage is a gap on the side of the street where dirty water flows with used condoms and the stench of regret.   A little girl the size of one of my children at the age of one, is called “Cockroach” by her mother and the other children around.  Her mother forgot the name she gave her at birth and has neglected to feed or teach her any kind of language or social skills.  She walks around in bare feet and can’t even say how old she is, though she is four.

Yet the Light resonates from Zion Church so much brighter than any other church set on a hill.   Though it’s walls are made of wooden branches and curtain covered tarpaulin, it’s floors are made of rocks and stones, the anointing of God exists there and His presence is often tangible. 

The people are what make a church.  The people of this church are desperately in love with God.  They know His healing power and His grace to forgive them of their sins.  Women who once lived on the streets of Zion now live in the presence of God in this House.  They have a room outside that was built especially for them so that they could make injera and sell it to compensate for the income lost when they left their lifestyle of prostitution. 

And then there’s the café.  The café of Zion is also made of mud walls and mud floors, yet they sell the sweetest tea and nicest coffee.  They service the people of the street and the people of the church.  Once run by a co-operation of five women who needed job opportunities, the café is now run by Mulu who works tirelessly and sells her food for minimum prices to suit the local market.  Outside there is a guard who also sells fried bread or “Pasti” on the side.  For 1 Birr (the equivalent of 5c) you can buy a delicious pasti to go with the tea or coffee. 

The man behind this great church, it’s vision to be a light in the dark and the vision to change that community is our pastor.  His name is Rev Berhanu Balcha.  His anointing is strong and his love is deep.  It starts with his love for his wife and his children which is always so evident and a strong point of his ministry.  His prayer life and his leadership in prayer ministry in Zion Church would put most of the Christian world to shame, yet the results of his ministry reflect this great discipline he has.  His heart for the poor and the needy in the community keeps him up at night and draws him to help not only by prayer but through advocating for them to his networks in country and around the world.   Though this man does not receive a wage from his church, he still pulls money out of his pocket to give money for a child’s uniform or a visitor’s lunch.  His hospitality is gracious and in abundance.

There should probably be a book written about or by this man as I could really go on, but the key characteristic of this man is his humility.  He sat with us and our visitor Jasmine from New Zealand a couple of weeks ago and spoke of some of the testimonies of healing.  He spoke of a blind man that God had told him to pray for, and in obedience yet with some doubting, he prayed and the blind man could see again.  He spoke of a man who was brought into church dead, yet he didn’t know he was dead, God told him to pray for him and the man was made alive again.  This was not the first or the last of dead people coming back to life in his ministry, yet this would be hard for many people to believe, the people still live to tell the tale and we have heard their stories.  A woman who had HIV was healed through his ministry and in gratitude, gave a hand woven injera basket that lives to tell her tale and to collect money for the new building that is in the vision of this church.

I have learnt so much from Rev Berhanu.  His humble character and desire to see his church and his country develop and be set free from the clutches of the enemy astound me.  Many people travel to see the works that this man and his team do, yet not many people know of these humble servants.  Week after week the church building fills up on a Wednesday for six hours straight to receive healing.  This is preceded by a late night prayer meeting the night before by the prayer team in the Berhanu’s house.  There is fasting and seeking God and interceding on behalf of all those who come.

 Many have been healed and set free from demonic strongholds in this service.  Nigist, Rev Berhanu’s wife, who plays a big part in this ministry told us of a beautiful woman who had not spoken for many years and who had been bound up in a dark room by her hands and feet, was left mute until she came to a healing service one Wednesday.  Unable to speak, Nigist said to her, “Jesus will set you free”.  Tears came streaming down her face and after some prayer the girl started shouting “Yesus Geta New” (Jesus is Lord).  Now that girl has married, graduated with a diploma in accounting and continues to serve her Lord.

Recently I was able to join the prayer team for a week of mountain praying.  This program required that we get up at 5:10 every morning from Monday to Saturday to be at Sofa Mountain by 6am.  There we met with some of the prayer warriors from church.  We prayed over our city, prayed for it’s protection and covering and rebuked the works of the devil that are well known to occur in Debre Zeit-especially at this time of year with the annual Ilecha festival that happens at Lake Hora.  This was an amazing experience and we saw the results of answered prayer that weekend.

So this is why we attend Zion Church- though Lutheran in doctrine, it flows with the Holy Spirit.  We have a lot to learn and we are growing there.  We support the work that this church does and that is why we started an English service there.  We want you to support it’s work to and you can do this by praying, visiting or giving towards it’s church building fund.  They have a great vision to extend the Kingdom in this city.  

Yesus Geta New

Break my heart for what breaks Yours

There's a line in the song at the end of this blog that says, Break my heart for what breaks Yours.  I've known this song for a few years, but recently it has been the song of my heart.

When we get close to the heart of God, we hear his heartbeat for people.  We can hear His heart break as we come into contact with people who need His care most – who need that extended touch of love that they have neglected to receive; who have not known the grace and mercy that only a Father can give, and who look to only God as their source of supply and provision.  

When I came to Ethiopia in 2009, I wrote a poem as a therapy for what I had seen and what I was still trying to process.  It was called “New Flower” and you can read it here.  I read it out at church when I got back to New Zealand as my Powerpoint presentation failed to come together in time.  Instead I struggled my way through this poem and then totally choked up on these lines:

The Street boys in Ambo so dirty and torn

Not just their clothes but the families in which they were born

No dad or mum to kiss them goodnight

No house to call home, no hope in sight

So broken and hungry but kings of the street

Orphaned and lonely no shoes on their feet

Feeding the street boys in Ambo 2009

This was the heart breaking God did for me when I was here and then when Asaua came to Ethiopia  a year later.  Our heart was for the street kid and the orphaned.  I went back home and struggled with the fact that we had spare room in our home and in our communities, but these boys lacked the basic necessities of life.  This is the reason why we joined in the work at Blessing the children- because they were reaching out to orphaned children. 

This past week, God has once again broken our heart for the orphans in Ethiopia.  Even though we work with orphaned children, our hearts had become desensitized to their plight in some ways because we hear their stories every day and we feel like we’re doing something about it.

We attended a conference about the orphan crises in Ethiopia these past two days and I told one lady how we have 145 children in our programme, to which she replied “wow, that is so many!” But the response in my words and on my heart is that we are hardly scratching the surface.  There are around 5 million orphaned children in Ethiopia – that’s more than the population of New Zealand!  Orphaned children who either have no parents or just one, and the vast majority of them are orphaned because of HIV. 

Testimonies were shared at this conference and scriptures were given to endorse the reality of our mandate as Christians to care for the orphans and widows.  Some of these scriptures were as follows:

James 1:27 Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.

Matthew 25:31-40 When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, he will sit on his glorious throne. All the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate the people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. He will put the sheep on his right and the goats on his left.

“Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in,  I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.’ “Then the righteous will answer him, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?’ “The King will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.’

Micah 6:8 He has shown you, O mortal, what is good.  And what does the Lord require of you.  To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.

Isaiah 1:17  Learn to do right; seek justice.  Defend the oppressed. Take up the cause of the fatherless; plead the case of the widow.

Ephesians 1:3-6  Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ. For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. In love he predestined us for adoption to sonship through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will—to the praise of his glorious grace, which he has freely given us in the One he loves.

1 John 4:7-11 Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love. This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.

The theme that ran through these verses is that adoption was God’s idea- He, out of His love for us, adopted US!  The heart of the gospel is adoption.  He desires that we take up the cause of the fatherless, that we are used by Him, because He first loved us, to show His love to others – the least of these, those who need to be fed, loved, clothed, given shelter and when we do this, we do it for Him.  There is Jesus in each child we care for.  His heart beat is as close to them as it could ever be.   God’s sheep should do it instinctively because their heartbeat is that close to His.

A few days ago, some children who walk around our streets, and who often say hello to me were all together as I walked past.  These children are often seen climbing up on the rubbish dump trying to get some food.  They have no shoes and have obviously not been washed in a long time.  I like these kids because they don’t often ask me for anything, which compels me to give to them.  I didn’t know what their story was, but I have become more curious.  I tried talking to one girl the other day but she couldn’t give me any responses and I found out that she doesn’t speak Amharic. 

As I walked past them the other day, with my daughter Lydia, one boy said to me “Money” (in English), to which I replied “No” (I hate it when kids say money to me.) Then he said in amharic “Caramella yellum?” (You don’t have lollies/candy?) To which I replied “Caramella Yellengium” (I don’t have any lollies/candy)…so he asked one final question in Amharic – “What do you have?” and as I thought about what to reply, as I literally had nothing on me at that time, I said “Fikir, Bizu Fikir” (Love, much Love).  He said in amharic “Bonet? Bizu fikir Alish?” (Really, you have a lot of love?) Which I replied in Amharic “Yes, I have a lot of Love”. This is all I have to give - the love of Jesus.

And this is what these kids are hungry for, more than anything else.  As me and Lydia walked around to the guest house last night, we heard the children talking in an empty building they currently call home.  They look after themselves, but like the street boys in Ambo, they have no one to call mum or dad, or to tuck them in to bed at night, or to send them off to school with a packed lunch in the morning.  They are the kings and queens of the street.  We are compelled to help these children, if even temporarily.  There is something that needs to be done and as a representative of Christ, we can’t turn a blind eye. 

Our hearts are broken, as we pray and sing, break our hearts God, we must be ready to action the brokenness He shows us for His people..  Who will these children be?  What is their potential in Christ and how can we help them to realize it?  What can YOU do to help?  We’ll let you know.