TUESDAY - my last full day in Ethiopia

Our pastor / church leader conference took a turn today.  Whereas yesterday we talked with our NGO and governmental friends about leadership principles in general while referencing Jesus and the Bible, today, the Bible was our textbook and Jesus our instructor on leadership principles expressed in the church.  We took a deliberate and passionate look at how our leadership is a direct result of our views of Christ and his leadership in our lives.  We looked at Nehemiah, one of the most famous and passionate leaders in Scripture.  We tied Jesus and Nehemiah together in parallel to express commonalities and to give us aid in leading our people.  Most of all, we took express care to indicate Jesus is a SERVANT leader.  I was surprised how that was reflected in the eyes of our friends here.  While they acknowledge Jesus as the servant leader, they struggled to come to terms with how to express that in a very top-down culture such as theirs.  With great love and care, we walked through more than 45 minutes of questions on that topic alone.  Perhaps if they had a better teacher (at least the taller one of the bunch). . . . . My friend Mike again did an awesome job teaching.  That him with our host and translator Wodineh.  We call him WO-di for short. 

After a fine lunch, we met again to begin a new phase - motivation.  Pastor Bill Foster from Cornerstone Fellowship in Midland arrived this morning at 7:15 in Addis Ababa.  He and Tuesday Jacobs, part of the Watch and Pray Ministries Operational staff, delayed their arrival to allow them to serve in Midland last weekend.  We put Bill right to work after lunch.  He's a firecracker and we knew it would be a great time for that.  Bless them - they got EXCITED!  You know it's good when you can get the "warble" from them - a high pitch roll of the tongue that sounds like "loo loo loo loo."  Do it in your best high voice and you'll get the idea.  Great talk and great expression of the passion of these beautiful people. 

The most interesting thing of the day was the last thing of the day.  We had been told there were some friends who had been through some severe persecution present at the meeting.  Our leader Getaneh had invited them.  His ministry - Watch and Pray - is the sponsoring organization for the event.  He personally had helped several of them and had led us a ministry to serve them.  He asked if they would be willing to let me do a brief interview with them on camera and let them tell their stories.  They agreed.  So after the meeting broke up, I set up my Canon 77D and had a talk.  Two of them were missing hands.  One of them a portion of his right arm.  One of them survived a burning attack on their thatched church.  I was focused on getting the stories properly recorded.  When I ended, I looked around me and there was a small crowd of Ethiopians to hear their story - each of them with tears in their eyes.  Then I looked at our American group and found the same.  I look forward to sharing the video of their stories when we return. 

On Wednesday, our conference will end.  It's been a wonderful and rich time - far too brief in some respects.  But my journey continues.  When I finish my teaching time - around midnight Texas time - I'll leave to go back to the airport.  I'm catching a flight to Nairobi, Kenya to meet with three more of our mission partners here in Africa.  It's only a two hour flight so it made sense to do this.  Two of the three I'll visit reflect a significant investment of time, energy and resources for FBC.  I'm excited to see them and they are OVER THE MOON that I'm coming.  As an added bonus, Nairobi is south of the equator.  I've never been south of the equator!  I'll come to you next time from the bottom half of the earth!