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.

The poor can't help the poor

The poor can’t help the poor.

I heard this preached a few years ago when we were in a place of transition and I was wanting to fast track the process to come to Ethiopia.  I thought that maybe THIS was the reason why it still hadn’t happened.  We were far from rich and struggled to pay our bills even, yet trusted God always to supply our needs.  Ideas started rolling through my head about businesses I could start that would support us long term while we were in Ethiopia serving the “poor”. 

I arranged a meeting with a business coach to see how I could further my innovative ideas.  The whole meeting ended up being about how there was a LOT that I NEEDED to do before I even thought about moving to Ethiopia, all based on her theology about missions.  This totally left me discouraged and emotionally unrested about the possibility that her words were true!  Thankfully I had Connect Group that night and had friends who prayed for me and dispelled the lies that the enemy started placing in my mind. 

The poor can’t help the poor, was also quite possibly one of these lies.  Did Jesus come as a rich man to earth, desiring to be the financial solution for all those who had nothing?  No.  What is poverty anyway?  Is it relative?  Is it living week to week? Is it having nothing to call your own? Having no assets and a million liabilities?  Is it a spirit or mind set that can be broken? 

Like other situations in my life, where I’ve been told to earn more and displace other priorities in my life like my family, I decided to operate in the opposite to what I’d been advised.  As a couple we decided to sell our home, which inevitably made us poorer.  We had nothing to call our own as we left New Zealand, other than the belongings we carried in our 24 suitcases.  We had no business to feed into our bank account, no residual income, no interest accumulating in any investments we had made.  We literally left as poor people –not even sure of how we would make our monthly payments.

Poverty lingered in our destination and we had nothing to offer as far as money was concerned.  Oh, such an awkward situation to be in.  I mean, after all, aren’t all ferenjis (foreigners) meant to have stash loads of money when they come to places like Ethiopia?   Um, not these ferenjis.  We discovered that all we had to give was what we had in our hearts and in our experiences.

 

But somehow we saw God provide even though we had nothing.  Miraculously answering prayers and showing us how BIG He is and how much He loves to bless His children who walk in obedience to Him.  What was this?  HOPE we could share with those who had no hope about their own financial situation out of personal experience of God's provision - it became our testimony.  He also taught us that poverty is a mindset.  It’s a place of comparison where we think that we need MORE and desire to be like those who HAVE more.  Does that not describe most of the developed world?  It certainly described the environments where we came from and the people we worked with in South Auckland.

Through the process of trust that we went through and continue to go through, God has shown us His abundance, and He has done so even more in the past couple of months.  As I went to pay the USD$900 that we owed for our children’s visas and was thinking about how much money we were "wasting" God reminded me of a dream I had just prior to leaving New Zealand, after we sold our house.  My dream was about me making a cake for my friend.  I had to walk to her house along the road and through a school and as I walked along, people kept coming up and asking me for some cake.  I let them take some and piece by piece the cake became smaller and smaller until there were only crumbs left.  I asked God what this dreamt meant as it left me quite disturbed and I knew it was a God dream and didn’t want to miss the message He was sending.  I had my own interpretations which ended up being dismissed when I went to church that Sunday.  Ps Sam Monk shared a message about giving- I think he was going through a series at that time.  He said “Some people think that God’s provision is like a cake.  That we think that when God gives out that His supply runs out and that all is left are crumbs. But God’s supply is not like that…that His supply never runs out.”  This lesson has comforted me many times over the last year.  It changed my mindset before I left for Ethiopia.  My poverty mind set was gone and the mind set of abundance was born. 

God is a God of abundance.  He is able to create something out of nothing and He seemingly continues to do so in our lives . From this place, we are able to minister to those who may seem poor to the rest of the world, but whose faith and belief in what God is able to do is so much richer than most Christians in the developed world.  They have and continue to minister to us as we have ministered to them.  

Rev 12:11  And they have conquered him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, for they loved not their lives even unto death. 

A New Season.

I never would have imagined ten years ago, that I would be sitting here in the Kuala Lumpur airport on my way back to Ethiopia.  I never would have imagined ten years ago, that I would have traveled as much as I have in the past year and have people travel to meet us and totally affect our lives so dramatically.  I remember being asked ten years ago where I wanted to be in ten years’ time and as a stay at home mother, I found it hard to see past the next day, let alone the next year or ten years.  Yes, I had dreams and aspirations, but they seemed far too ambitious and not very realistic.  Even the dream I held for Ethiopia.

I was sharing with a friend this week my thoughts on the whole stay-at-home mum season.  It really is a difficult season because there are no immediate rewards or appreciation.  Life is tough and you often feel isolated and frustrated because it feels like you aren’t really contributing to society or the better good…but now I see that actually you are…so much more than you can imagine. 

The season of staying home with your kids, with no audience or applause is really the season of character growth.  As attitudes and reactions manifest themselves through the pressure that is put on you by these little people who really have no idea what power they have on your life, STUFF is dealt with – if we so choose it to affect us in that way. 

Like I named my last blog post- Children are a blessing.  But sometimes it hard to see that through the mess they drag through the house, the continual requests (in tones often unpleasant to the ear) and the fights they have with each other.  I guess we are not anywhere near perfection yet, but sometimes there is a glimmer of satisfaction for all of those days spent at home, when one of my children says or does something that brings me great joy and makes me realize how actually amazing my kids are.

So that season has past, at least having little children at home has past…and I’m about to go into this new season as Ministry representative/Administrator for Blessing the Children Oz!  And I’m so excited about it.  And my children are excited about it and my husband has been amazingly supportive of it.  He is such a secure man right now. I couldn’t imagine ten years ago that he would be the man that he is today either.  I am so thankful for the changes God has allowed to happen in his life.

There is a challenge that lays ahead but I am thankful for the people God has placed around us to support us.  I am thankful for Glen and Catherine McIntyre and their belief in us to be able to do this thing and to hold down this responsibility.  I guess our gifts have made a way for us and as we inspire people to realize their gifts, that there will be a ripple effect of that. 

So BCO have a big vision and I guess I’ll unveil more as time permits, but please continue to keep us in your prayers.  Please keep believing that God can do far more with you than you could ever imagine.  Please know God’s grace to take someone like me and use me in such a way for the furtherance of His Kingdom around the world.  I am thankful that “God has chosen the foolish things of the world to shame the wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the world to shame the things which are strong”

Children are a blessing

 I used to think that having a big family was a huge disadvantage in travel- in doing “mission work” in a third world country.  The costs, risks and excuses increase and so does the opposition- I mean, it’s okay if WE want to go overseas and do this thing, but if it’s not something the KIDS want to do, then surely we should consider their desires and dreams and accommodate them.  I guess this has become a part of New Zealand culture for sure, where the children’s needs and wants are at the forefront of a parents priorities.  But are children able to make decisions based on unseen future consequences?  No. Are their friends and family who want to see them grow up, develop and love them, also able to think about the best for these kids? I don’t believe so. 

“How can we have reverse culture shock, when we didn’t get culture shock in the first place?” says Jamal (15) as he eats his Red Rooster chicken like it’s on a plate of injera with his fingers.  This is his first trip back to the Western land of Australia after almost a year in Ethiopia.  His four brothers and sisters have neither been shocked so far in the past two days since we left “home” (that is, Ethiopia.)  He is right in some ways.  They really DIDN’T have much cultural shock when we arrived into Ethiopia nor in the months that followed.  They adjusted so so so much better than we could have hoped for.  They have managed to conquer their fears, their friendly natures and social abilities really worked to their advantage as they adjusted to the many differences that Ethiopia brought. 

What I must conclude and encourage is that doing mission work with many children can only be a good thing.  The environment is consistent as it is full of familiar people, language and the culture that a family develops over the years.  Not only this, but it requires a new level of companionship as a family that can only benefit your children.  Our family, though still far from perfect, is so much closer than when we were preparing to leave New Zealand a year ago. 

Then, my daughters would hardly give me kisses or cuddles any more- especially in front of their friends-not to mention their 14 year old brother.  Now they do- unashamedly.  This is one part of the Ethiopian culture that I love- their sense of physical affection and ability to give it without embarrassment-especially within the context of the family.  It puts us families to shame.  They also have times of prayer and fellowhips around coffee, which to some extent we have adopted but not nearly as much as the average Ethiopian families that we know and love.  They also put us to shame. 

But for ten months, we didn’t have a TV or playstation.  We had and enjoyed many family times, playing games, reading, having family devotions and prayers and getting out and playing games with others.  We have eaten in restaurants as a family as we can afford to do so in Ethiopia.  We have seen and experienced so much more which has only been beneficial to our children- even in the tough times where we have had to deal with certain challenges like being picked on or finding out our friends have HIV-the discussions and problem solving conversations that have come as a result will only have helped our kids to deal with bigger problems in the future.

It doesn’t take rocket science to figure out, that what we did, in taking our kids out of their naturaly environment in New Zealand and risking all, despite the opposition we faced from friends and family and those who don’t even know us, was worth it.  On the way out of Ethiopia, the lovely lady who served us in the airport, inempt with capacity to handle this group booking, said frustratedly to her colleague, in front of my children, that I had way too many kids.  Oh, what a false belief she holds.  How little does she know how much better then world is because my children exist.  How much joy they have brought not only to us, but to those we work with and love in Debre Zeiit and how much more they will bring into the lives of those they will touch throughout their lives because of this experience.  I love my kids so much.  They are the joy that has held me together many times throughout my adulthood. 

Psa 127:3-5  Behold, children are a heritage from the LORD, the fruit of the womb a reward. Like arrows in the hand of a warrior are the children of one's youth. Blessed is the man who fills his quiver with them! He shall not be put to shame when he speaks with his enemies in the gate.