June 24, 2023. This day began with much excitement and a bit of trepidation! A huge event was happening that afternoon: the premiere of the Jesus film in not one but TWO tribal languages. Obviously we ourselves could not be in two places at once! Our team was to go to the village that speaks the language for which one of our team members had provided the financial support for translation and infrastructure work.
After breakfast we packed overnight bags since we wouldn't be returning to Addis Ababa until the following evening. We would spend quite a bit of time in our bus over the next couple of days, which provided many opportunities for conversations and getting to know others on our team better. Once we were finally loaded up (everything takes longer than scheduled, lol), we drove a couple of hours to a resort, where they had arranged for us to have lunch. Below are a few photos from our stop...some of the ladies changed into traditional dresses in honor of the special occasion.
Two mother-daughter duos! Julianne and Loree, Evangeline and Annada
Nate (works with the Jesus Film Project), myself, and Valerie (a long-time supporter of JFP)
Completely gratuitous photo of my after-lunch coffee. Mmmm!
Following our luxurious lunch, we boarded the bus again. Next stop would be at the Maro village! Two days prior, a nearby church had been burned down with worshippers inside. All precautions were taken. Many prayers went up. Police and military officers, along with many others, met us at the edge of the Maro village to escort us through town to the cultural center. You can see some of our escorts below.
This man is the voice actor for Jesus in the film recorded in his heart language!
It was like being in a major parade! Everyone was out to see the procession...lots of honking and waving and staring and shouting. It felt so strange, being treated like celebrities. The real heroes are those who invested their time, energy, and resources into making all of this happen. It was a true honor to be present at such a momentous event. Though the community is over 99% Muslim, the fact that the Jesus film was made in THEIR tribal language showed honor and respect to them as a people and culture. It is the first and only film thus far to be made in their heart language. It's hard for us to fathom just what a BIG DEAL this is, what it means to them.
Tobin and I are standing in front of the cultural center, where the film was to premier for the community leaders. I was loaned a scarf to wear, which sweet Etsub had to keep readjusting for me so I could wear it properly! The yellow, green, white, and red that you can see on the railing behind us are the particular colors of this tribe.
Front row: me, Evangeline, Etsub, Valerie
Back row: Mistre, Mary (I think?), Annada, Loree, Julianna
Waiting for the ceremonies to start
Moving the banner so the film can be projected onto the wall.
(The grasses, by the way, are put out deliberately; it's a traditional welcome.)
So we were in the cultural center maybe a couple of hours altogether. There were many acknowledgements and recognitions, not the least of which was honoring Dean, the man who funded the whole translation! He is a quiet, humble man who likely felt uncomfortable being recognized so publicly. I do think he enjoyed being able to hand out certificates to each of the voice actors who were also in attendance. I can only imagine how emotional all of this was for him, as this was the culmination of a project years in the making.
Not too surprisingly, more time was spent on ceremonial aspects than showing the actual film, though they did show clips! Imagine for these people: for the first time, hearing their own language in a movie! And by the way, if you've never seen the Jesus film, it is a decades-old movie based on the gospel of Luke. As their website states, "Not everyone can read or will read the Bible. Jesus Film Project delivers the story of Jesus on film so all can hear Him speak in their language and see His love play out on screen."
Following this time with the community leaders, some of us went outside and spent time with the children, who were curiously watching the proceedings. I did not take any photos at this time, completely caught up in the experience of interacting with so many precious children as we communicated in the universal language of smiles and laughter. Loree did capture a photo of me as we blew bubbles, which were a huge hit and cause for much amazement.
Marc came out after awhile and regaled everyone with some magic tricks! So fun! In this video he's making the kids' hands "squeak."
Meanwhile, Tobin and Evangeline had the opportunity to interview some key players in this project. Tobin is working on a feature for the World News Group to air on their podcast The World and Everything in It. And Evangeline is on staff with Cru (along with her husband Marc, both of whom we have supported for a number of years). I'll share what Evangeline sent out in her email update that just came out so you can read these amazing details in her own words:
At the premiere I was asked to interview Adelon Uri, 66-year-old man, who had been asking for the Jesus Film in his language and led the translation. Over 30 years ago Adelon saw the Jesus Film while in Bible school in English. Even though Adelon does not speak much English, he very slowly went word-for-word and translated the film into Amharic (the trade language in Ethiopia). THEN he did that again, translating it into his people's language. He went from home to home "under the tree, behind ditches, and under bridges," he said, showing the film by muting the volume and speaking the Gospel of Luke in his language over the film.
This is an extremely Muslim community who persecuted Adelon for talking about Jesus. 5 years ago a militant Muslim group burned down Adelon's home and buildings hoping he would be inside. When he survived they threw him in prison for 3 years.
"I prayed that I would see the Jesus Film in my people's language before I died. And today I have!" Adelon said. By God's grace, within months of getting out of jail Adelon found out the translation of the Bible into his language was funded and he immediately began helping with translation.
Hearing those words, my own fear melted away and I felt humbled. This man did not only face fear - he had endured beatings, the loss of all he owned, years in jail, and yet did not hesitate to lead the few believers in his community.
"We promise you, on behalf of my people, starting tomorrow, we will take this to our villages and we will make sure our people hear the gospel," Adelon vowed. The next day the Ethiopian team tried to contact him... and he was gone! Off taking the film to his people!
Here is one piece I don't want you to miss. Adelon did not take film showing equipment. He took his phone and an SD card. This is a community where most homes cannot be reached by roads. But thanks to your partnership in the gospel, Adelon could take the Gospel of Luke in the form of the Jesus Film on foot and into homes across his community where he can pass the film from his phone to others.
Evangeline and Adelon
The original plan was to join the people of the community in watching the Jesus film out in the open air. As the sun set, however, storm clouds rolled in. Some of our team sat in the busy, praying that the Lord might stop the rain so that the premiere could go on as planned. At the same time, we prayed that God's will would be done and most of all that His message would go forth and change hearts and lives. Pelting rain slowed, then stopped. We waited. And wondered. Not everyone in our team was back on the bus at this point. Tobin was recording interviews; communications were happening between Jesus film team members. Darkness fell, and a decision was made. Though the rain had stopped, equipment had malfunctioned, forcing the premiere in this village to be postponed.
However, the language premiere in the other village was still a go! Their film had been paused when the rain came, but they were able to restart it. So we had the opportunity to go to that showing, a "two-for-one," as Dean observed, allowing us the privilege to participate in two different community events. This was indeed a blessing for us, but more importantly, it was encouraging to the local believers, who were bolstered by the fact that we would come to support them despite the burning of a nearby church just two days before.
It was a bit of a drive to the other premiere, but we quietly joined those in attendance and watched from the triumphal entry through the end of the film. The reality of the gospel message - Jesus's great love for us and willingness to die in our place - is powerful as you watch events unfold on the screen. How much more powerful when you hear and understand the message in your heart language!
The hotel we stayed in that night was very close to this showing. We arrived and had dinner around 10pm. Ironically, though we were in a much more remote location, I had strong enough access to wi-fi that I was able to FaceTime Ted and the kids and share some of the day's incredible events! Granted, the hotel lost power for a time, water pressure in the shower was nonexistent, and I smashed a number of bugs I tried to forget about before going to sleep, but hey, lol. It really was a nice hotel. (Dean took this photo in daylight next morning.)
View from my window when I woke up
What a privilege to be an observer and participant in the events of this day. What a blessing to lift up our brothers and sisters in Christ in prayer. How humbling to be in the presence of those who have given their lives to spreading the gospel.
I will hold these memories in my heart for a long, long time.
Love what you're reading? Subscribe here for updates!
June 23, 2023. My first wake-up in Ethiopia (if you don't count my nap after arrival) was a little after 5am after a great night of sleep. I could hear the Muslim call to prayer over a loudspeaker in the distance and spent some time looking out from my 6th floor balcony, talking to God and just taking it all in. (Perhaps you can see a glimpse of the hotel pool, which is actually a natural hot springs? Unfortunately we never had time to try it out!)
I wandered around on the grounds for awhile, sat and journaled a little bit, then met some of our teammates for breakfast. I must say, the breakfast buffet was stellar! I loved the fresh papaya and watermelon plus made-to-order omelet. The kiwi-flavored water was unusual yet delicious. And I'm already missing the opportunity to splurge on Ethiopian coffee with pastries...
Moving on to the more important things...this day was dedicated to meeting the digital strategies team and learning about their work. We spent the day in their office, which occupies the whole 7th floor of a building called the Holy City Center. Digital Strategy Director Samson (Sami) Usmael noted, "Technology is the 'heart language' of this generation." I so appreciated the opportunity to hear about all the GOOD, amazing things God is doing through technology! All too often we only hear about the negative effects of living in the digital age, and while there is certainly much to be concerned about, what a blessing to hear about the many ways believers are redeeming this space for God's purposes.
Sami and Senay (pictured below) gave us a big-picture overview of some of the things the team has been doing.
We were each given a copy of the Annual Digital Strategies Report for 2022. In the report, Sami (the director) wrote:
"The ministry we are in is to empower the church and raise a new breed of missionaries, who can harvest the digital space for the glory of the Lord. We are seeing hundreds of churches and ministries joining the digital mission and thousands of individuals unleashed and empowered to do digital mission. We are overwhelmed with the fruits that we are seeing globally. I believe we are redefining the way to do missions in our generation. Today we are sending missionaries without the need to dislocate. We are helping them to do mission using their skills and tools at hand and the fruits are marvelous and transforming."
The Digital Strategies team is part of the Great Commission Ministry Ethiopia. (Perhaps our American friends are more familiar with Cru...GCM is the global name of this ministry.)
The nature and scope of the work this team does almost defies description. It's absolutely mind-blowing. In 2022 alone:
- 13,612,476 people were exposed to the gospel through their websites, social media, and applications.
- 1,965,637 people interacted with the content.
- 3,944 people connected to mentors via instant messaging platforms and emails.
- 62,935 people indicated they asked Jesus into their lives.
- 9,431 people were trained and equipped regarding digital purity and being digital missionaries.
There are many digital tools and platforms run by the Digital Strategies team...I'll just note a few here that might be relevant and helpful for English speakers!
- Every Student is a site (available in English, Amharic, and Afaan Oromo) with the same content in different languages helping people explore questions about who God is along with other spiritual concepts.
- The Jesus Film Project app is a full digital library of more than 200 full-length movies, miniseries, and short films produced to help the world know Jesus. Everything on the app is free to watch, download, and share.
- The God Tools app is a multilingual app that can help you easily and clearly share your faith with visually engaging presentations. Are you prepared for spiritual conversations? Are you confident in reaching out to others? This tool can help no matter how you feel!
- The Mentoring Ministry is something I'm personally very excited about, because I signed up as a mentor myself! This is an online mentoring opportunity that provides an easy, safe, and anonymous way to mentor. TMM connects people looking for help with particular struggles with volunteers who take mentorship training. It provides resources and guidance for mentors to journey with hurting people and eventually share the gospel and connect them with a local church. I've gone through the basic training thus far, and I am SUPER impressed with it! I'm excited to start this journey as a "digital missionary" myself!
All of this was a lot to take in. When I left for Ethiopia, I was under the impression that this team had something to do with a special app for missions, lol! Getting my brain wrapped around their work was vital for my own understanding but also for communicating with others just what these incredible young people are doing and how it is supporting GLOBAL missions! The Ethiopian team is leading the way in digital missions...organizations from all over the world are looking to them for help, training, resources, etc. And they deliver! At no cost to others! I'm so encouraged and inspired by their passion for reaching as many people as possible with the hope of Jesus, using their skills and talents for God's kingdom purposes.
By the time we left for lunch (probably mid-afternoon), our brains were spinning. We walked a few blocks to a restaurant, where about 2 dozen of us sat, visited, and ate a traditional Ethiopian meal, showcased below with my teammate Julianna, whose mother Loree works for the Jesus Film Project. (Loree is in the photo below this one.)
Probably I should have taken the photo BEFORE we attacked the food, lol, but it gives you an idea! I sampled everything on the plate...including raw meat, which I didn't know was raw until after it was in my system. Julianna's the brave one, since she ate it AFTER knowing it was raw! Tobin and Dean mostly munched through fries, and I confess I snitched some myself. Their French fries are pretty amazing!
After lunch, we went back to the office, where some of us with enough wi-fi coverage signed up as mentors with TMM. (Internet connectivity was often an issue...) Sami shared more information about some of the behind-the-scenes work on their platform: graphics, videos, and other content that users can take, personalize, and share. So believers in China, for example, can utilize these resources to share the gospel in their own circles.
(I hope I'm explaining these things correctly! My 48-year-old brain isn't wired for this level of technology!)
Nate, Loree, and I registered as mentors and worked on the first module of training through The Mentor Ministry. We left the Holy City Center that evening feeling overwhelmed (in a good way) and rather exhausted after our long days of travel plus learning all of this new information. We gladly accepted the suggestion of individually ordering room service for dinner. I think some (maybe all) of us were starting to notice some, er, digestive issues because of the unfamiliar foods...! I had a simple Greek salad with tomato soup from the hotel and then collapsed into bed. My night wasn't quite as restful as the previous one; jet lag kicked in and kept me drowsily awake for almost 3 hours in the middle of the night! But we had a FULL weekend ahead of us, so I was thankful for the couple of chunks of sleep I did get!
Love what you're reading? Subscribe here for updates!
After settling into our hotel rooms (and enjoying a hot shower and power nap), we met for lunch and introductions in the hotel restaurant. Then we headed out on foot to visit the palace, situated in the midst of a beautiful park including a zoo area and a "tour of Ethiopia," with representative structures and information about the various tribes and regions of the country. We only had about an hour and a half to explore--we could have spent all day there, as there was so much to see! But it was a wonderful introduction to the history and culture of this ancient, diverse country. From the palace grounds we walked a ways ("about 5 minutes," lol) to a beautiful park area with restaurants and fountains to enjoy an outdoor dinner by the water, followed by a Bellagio-type fountain display under a bright moon and shining Venus (I think). The dinner was our first taste of Ethiopian food. You can see my order in the photos below. Tobin ordered the same thing but found it too spicy for his liking (his spice threshold is very low!), so we added a French fry side dish and he was perfectly content with that. Since he fell asleep at the table while waiting for our food to arrive, Nate teased him mercilessly the rest of the trip!
Beautiful grounds with the city of Addis Ababa in the background
Important Ethiopian leaders/rulers from more recent history (notice the woman!)
Inside the palace throne room - so beautiful!
Of course we had to see SOME animals in Africa!
A replica of one of the types of tribal dwellings: notice how the bricks are turned perpendicular toward the top to allow for venting.
"Lucy" was discovered in Ethiopia in 1974. Though many have made claims about these fossils, the one thing that seems to be clear...is that no one can have a clear idea about what Lucy really looked like!
My first Ethiopian meal! Very flavorful!
Watching the fountains after dinner
All in all, it was a lovely way to spend our first full day in Ethiopia! We took taxis back to the hotel since we were all wiped out by this point. I think I was in bed by 9pm local time and got a wonderful night of sleep. Hooray for conquering jet lag!
Love what you're reading? Subscribe here for updates!
On Tuesday evening, June 20, my oldest son Tobin and I began our journey to Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. The Denver airport was unusually quiet, allowing us to check in, pass through security, and get to our gate with 2 hours to spare. The red-eye flight to Dulles departed Denver at 11:59pm and arrived at 5:21am. We made our way to the next gate and settled in, since our international flight didn't depart until 10:45am. Tobin promptly fell asleep, while I finished watching the mini series Shiny, Happy People. (I may do a separate blog post about that at some point...but I'll skip that rabbit trail for now.)
After a Chick-Fil-A breakfast, we met two other travelers on our team, Loree and her daughter Julianna, and began getting to know each other. Loree works for the Jesus Film Project. I was thankful we'd have other people with whom to navigate our arrival in Ethiopia, even though this was the first time any of us had been to Africa.
The 13-hour flight was uneventful. In between naps, I watched the excellent and sobering movie Till (highly recommend) as well as Soul. I blessed my friend MeLissa for her recommendation to wear compression socks, though I was happy to remove them once we got off the plane in Addis! We arrived at 7am, June 22, local time. Ethiopia is 9 hours ahead of Colorado. This means our total travel time (to include the drive to Denver and waiting at the gate for takeoff) was 26 hours.
This is a glimpse of the line to get through immigration! And when I say "line," I mean something more like "herd" (my friends who have lived in southern Italy will understand completely). Unbelievably, it only took about an hour to pass through. We were thankful our visas had arrived via email without issue a good two weeks before we left the USA. Some of our teammates had visa-related difficulties too complex to detail here. All of our baggage was waiting for us, so our next step was to meet the host team members who were there to greet us and take us to the hotel.
I do not have any photos or video of city traffic...but let me tell you, driving in Naples, Italy, may have only partially prepared me for the chaos that is Addis Ababa driving. I was thankful to NOT have to navigate crazy intersections with NO TRAFFIC LIGHTS! Somehow, though, it all works. There is an ebb and flow, and though I nearly had a heart attack multiple times at seeing people calmly walking across streets jammed with vehicles, clearly they know what they're doing. I never once saw an accident. And jaywalking must not be a thing over there. We arrived safely (and without harming any pedestrians) at the Hilton, where we checked in and settled into our rooms. Aaaahhh! Shower and a one-hour nap!
(Above: Going through security is a must to enter the hotel.)
Next post: Our first day in Ethiopia was really our only time to actually be tourists!
Love what you're reading? Subscribe here for updates!
My son Tobin and I are headed to Ethiopia for a mission trip next week!
Yes...this is a bit out of the blue. 🤣 As of Memorial Day, I didn't even know this event would be on our June calendar! Isn't God amazing?!
We have an incredible opportunity to join some missionary friends whom we have supported since the very beginning of their missionary career. We will get to be involved with their digital strategies team and see up close some of the work our friend does to support Christians in Africa with technology to help share the gospel, even being a part of evangelizing through digital means ourselves. I'm so excited to learn more about this!
Another amazing opportunity we have is to be present at the premiere of the Jesus film for two people groups who will be learning about Jesus in their heart language for the first time ever! Teaching God's Word is a passion of mine...I can't even put into words how grateful I am for the chance to see the transformative power of the gospel in action. ✝️
You know...we wrapped up my 6-week Be Rooted program the day I learned about this trip. I'm in awe at how God used the very material I wrote and taught to Christian homeschool mamas to encourage and prepare MY OWN HEART for this adventure.
Being deeply rooted in Jesus.
Living out our purpose.
Exploring possibilities.
Pursuing our passions.
All of these topics are part of the discipleship & coaching program God led me to write and present this spring...and here I am, humbly and gratefully receiving this immense opportunity to pursue passions the Lord wrote on my heart YEARS ago!!
Oh, friend! Are you rooted in Jesus?? Do you know him personally, and are you living out your God-given purpose? I yearn for others to walk in this freedom and joy! Reach out if you aren't...I'd be honored to chat more with you about this.
And stay tuned for our Adventures in Africa!!! ✈️
Love what you're reading? Subscribe here for updates!
