Archived Blog
Moved out
Ok so the story as far as the blog goes is that I’m gonna stick to this professional one, which is not nearly as editable but the previous blog is woefully unpredictable. So I’ve got the subscription link up again, it looks slightly different but it serves the same purpose. So if you want to receive an email any time I manage to get something on this site, subscribe using the link on the right. As I haven’t been able to write for a while so once again I’ll do my best to catch up on what’s happened over the past week or so. After returning from Kenya, I was back down to Sodere for the bi-annual SIM missionary conference at Sodere. It became apparent how much of a blessing the conference was; had it not been for that conference, we would not have had to be back from Kenya and would probably have stayed on. Considering the state of Kenya at present, we were very thankful we had left when we did. The actual conference was very enjoyable also. It lasted 5 days, from Monday to Friday. On Monday night, we had a New Years Eve party, though it was done so as to accommodate the younger children, so the countdown was done at 9.30. Anyway, some of the younger adults stayed up for midnight, marking the New Year by all jumping into the pool. The pool is filled from water from the hot springs, and had just been filled so it was absolutely roasting. Hotter than a bath. More like a giant, Olympic sized hot-tub. Good fun anyway. The speaker for the conference was Tom Stellar, a pastor from John Piper’s church who had come over to preach to us and he was very enjoyable. We all enjoyed each other’s company, getting to meet some of the other missionaries in Ethiopia, and relaxing in the pool. Brian had brought along a certain joke machine which gave great entertainment; he could use a remote to make a small box let out a loud noise of someone passing wind. As he knows most of the people at the conference, he was able to go around, placing it in their handbags, standing a small distance off and setting it off. Their immediate reaction was always “Brian!!!!”. It seems his reputation precedes his practical joking. On Saturday, once I got back, I had been asked by the parents of some of my students to stay at their house and keep their sons company. Which I didn’t mind doing, as their oldest son is the drummer at I.E.C. and is fantastic. So I was only too happy to oblige. It also meant I didn’t have to worry about meals for the couple of days. Tuesday of this week saw me go to help out with a project organised by Beza church, the lively one. It was truly an event of biblical proportions. They planned to go up to Entoto mountain, just behind Addis, to feed some 4000 hungry people who live on top of it. An enormous amount of planning had gone into the project, we started helping out in one of the 4 tents, plating up the Injera and arranging the soft drink ready for the people. I have never seen, nor will ever again see so much Injera in all my life. We waited for the people to come; however, although there were people there, there were more like about 400 rather than 4000. After a little enquiring, I found out what had happened. Apparently, Beza had had to ask the Orthodox Church on top of the mountain for permission to organise the event, and the church had given their permission. For some reason, on the day of the event, they had changed their mind, and told all the people on the mountain not to eat the food because it had not been blessed. The hungry people apparently would rather obey these priests’ wishes than be fed. It was very frustrating for Beza, who had gone to a lot of trouble to organise this event. As some of the girls said; it’s not the priests who are the hungry ones. Anyway, they packed all the Injera up and made arrangements to distribute it among the people of Addis; we wished them all the best with this, having had enough trouble of our own trying to distribute free food to starving people on a previous occasion. Street ministry this week on Wednesday night was very enjoyable, and encouraging as many of the boys on the street that we have been talking to on various occasions again showed a very keen interest in our message; Summer led some of them in prayer and they accepted Jesus into their lives. They all had a definite attitude change and all their faces were lit up afterwards; please pray that they will have a real conviction and their faith will take root. Today I moved off compound to move in with Brian. So it will take some getting used to, and may be tough for the first week or so until I adjust. I’m hoping to find ways to continue participating in all the activities on compound. It is exciting though, and I am looking forward to this new style of living.
Tonight some of us are planning to head out for a meal to celebrate a number of birthdays that are this month… and to hopefully check out a new cinema that has opened. This new cinema actually plays legal movies, new releases at that! Amazing. We’ve also managed to source a couple of pool tables that aren’t in a dodgy back alley shack so hopefully we can get a game or two of that.
Take care,
Niall
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