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church and country music sold separately

first things first, i'm sorry for leaving you hanging on day #2 of my retro diary! life happened fast upon my return and put the diary (errr, i mean, "man journal") on the back burner. however, i am putting on the front burner and writing about day #3 today! get excited and get lots in the words...

day number three started out without some good ol' bible verses blowing my mind. check out isaiah 58:6-10 and you'll see how it related to all things ethiopia and the work we were setting out to do.

with those words in my heart we headed off to church. yoseph, our translator, was taking us to the church that he attended. i was trying to prepare myself for an all amharic service... but my expectations were not enough to prepare for the passion and joy resounding throughout the building. i guess you could say that no one knows how to worship better than the africans!

i didn't understand a single word (except the amharic word for "thank you") but i was still moved by the mighty power of a worldwide God. incredible, really. my feeble words would not do the experience justice.

however, another thing that i'll take away from attending church in ethiopia is this: their pastor broke out a solo in the middle of the sermon (apparently this is quite common) and i plan on adding this to my preaching repertoire in the future. stay on the edge of your seat in anticipation for that one!

after spending a few hours at church, and having yoseph usher us out early (because "he didn't know when the service might end"), we headed back to the guest home. while there we spent our time playing and interacting with the local kids. what a blast! soccer, football, circus moves, vocab lessons. and then from there we headed to an ethiopian restaurant for dinner. no one spoke any english there (and we were without our translator!) so we said we'd like pasta. they knew the word pasta and wrote down 10 orders of pasta. a few minutes later they came back and said they didn't have pasta. in the end, they had pasta. typical ethiopian exchange, to say the least. all the while we laughed and smiled.

then our pasta arrived! spicy meat sauce but absolutely delicious. although, our dinner was the best part of our evening. while we were eating there was ethiopian techno music playing in the background and then out of nowhere clint back is blasting through the speakers (check it out!)! a special country music gift just for us...

you can't help but love ethiopian hospitality.

bright hope and cultures colliding

on my second day in ethiopia i was up and at em bright and early. i guess it would be safe to say that i was a bit excited. you see, today we were going to our first introduction to bright hope school (the school and students we had traveled all this way to serve).

on our drive there i was witness to the collision of cultures. young boys were shepherding their flock of sheep along the sidewalk. men were breaking apart asphalt with a sledgehammer all the while hammering away near their shoeless toes. some men were dressed in suits driving a mercedes. women were hauling pounds of sticks on their backs. young kids were polishing shoes on the street corner with a coca-cola sign as their backdrop. donkeys, cows, goats, and dogs stood mindlessly in the road. huts and shops made of tin and mud lined the roads. some places had yards. some places were developed. like i said, the cultures were colliding.

then we roll up to a gate that provides access to a leper community. we needed to drive through the community (in the district of addis known as korah, which i'll talk more about in a later post) in order to reach the gates of the school.

once we enter bright hope we're greeted by muzgabu, a bubbly, smiling, grateful, one-legged (he lost a leg years ago in a war) man. he tells that all we need to do is touch the wall and it will grow. all we need to do is touch they chicken coups and they will grow. all we need to do is touch the garden and it will grow. you could say he has the gift of encouragement! we tour the school grounds and get a small (very, very small) idea of what we'll be doing in a couple days when we begin working. it is all quite surreal.

bright hope is a public school in the middle of one of the most impoverished and forgotten districts of addis ababa yet it sits on this pristine hillside nestled up next to looming eucalyptus tree and lush, green acreage. it lives up to it's name, bright hope. bright hope smack dab in the middle of hopelessness. only God could have led us to such a destination. muzgabu says we are part of the hope and we tell him we're just thankful that God has allowed us to be a part of it.

yoseph the admirable: our ethiopian translator

here is the first installment of my ethiopia retro diary (or retro "journal" if that sounds more masculine)...

day #1:

i'm going to skip the flying and travel portion of the trip. we sat on planes for a long time. the end. when we arrived in addis ababa, ethiopia late at night the city was a sea of black. almost eerily dark for a city of 4 million people. turns out not much of addis is turned off during the night or doesn't have any electricity to turn off anyway. the next morning i was awakened by chanting prayers echoing from the nearest mosque. i groggily walked downstairs, and after i came to the realization i was actually in ethiopia, i began enjoying some fresh brewed coffee, waffles, and authentic mango juice. not exactly the third world i had imagined in the darkness. however, that imagining would become reality a few hours later as we drove through the city.

on our first day we met our translator, Yoseph, who would be our translator for our entire stay. a lot happened on this first day but it was mostly just one big sensory overload that i can't quite contain with words. so instead of listing this thing i saw and that thing i saw, i want to tell you about my newest friend, Yoseph. here's his story. may it inspire you as it's inspired me and may it make you say “only God” as it's made me say the same thing.

Yoseph grew up in addis ababa. his mother was a prostitute and consequently he never knew his father. when Yoseph was young, around the age of 10, his mother died from AIDS (his age and the time frame of all this is a little scattered in my mind but the details are strikingly clear). Yoseph was now an orphan. he lived on the streets for around 3 years doing what it took to survive. after he had lived on the street for these few years he was found and taken in by christian children's fund (now known as child fund international). he was given the case number 485 and was soon sponsored by a man in pennsylvania (a man who still doesn't know the impact he had on one boy's life). Yoseph's sponsor provided him with food, shelter, and an education. through this process and the influence of those at CCF Yoseph found Jesus. he knew that the rescue that had taken place in his life could only be attributed to Jesus and he committed to following Him for the rest of his life. Yoseph went on to finish college (where he studied marketing) and through all the education he received, he learned a valuable amount of english. Yoseph, now 29, has a wife and a 4 year old son. although he makes a living as a translator at the ethiopia guest home (where we stayed) he also spends his time pouring back into the kids on the very same streets he survived. his passion and goal is to start a ministry called Case 485 that ministers to the children on the streets of addis as well as pastor a church (i think we're kindered spirits!).

Yospeh shared this story with us the very first day we were there and i only grew to admire him more as i got to know him throughout our stay. i can't tell you enough how amazing of a man he is and how much I appreciate his heart and his friendship. my goal is to make my life count for the glory of Jesus like my friend, Yoseph, is doing. in fact, let's all make that our goal.

i met the future Prime Minister of Ethiopia!

just got back from ethiopia last night... i'm tired on many different levels. however in the days to come i'll be giving you a retrospective of my time there. but in the meantime here's a post from my time there. you can check out what other members of my team had to say here: www.journeyweb.net/ethiopiahopeblog

here's my post:

hi. my name is chris townley and i won! that’s right, i won… the birth lottery. and i won a game of thumb war against my new friends (and Bright Hope students) samell (6^th grade) and barnabas (8^th grade). but that’s not the point. the point is i had the privilege of being born in the U.S. and samir and barnabas were born in ethiopia with a lot less than myself. the difference between us is why i’m here. it reminds me of this haitian proverb that says something like, “God gives us everything we need, He just doesn’t share.” this may or may not be theologically correct but it is at the heart of what i’ve been experiencing in addis ababa, ethiopia. i need to share. i need to share money, time, experience, comfort, and love because sharing makes me, and those i share with, come alive.

it really is the sight of the kids that breaks apart my insides. children without homes or parents or food or water or extra clothes. how can this not shatter my heart? i have all of those things and i want to do my best to “give freely as i have received” (matthew 10:8). really, what i want to do is love these kids like Jesus loves me and today our team was privileged to love in a number of ways.

we moved huge boulders. we moved tiny rocks. we mixed cement… by hand! we moved some more rocks. we stacked rocks. we crushed big rocks into small rocks. you get the idea, right? today rocked!

we also got to explain to the students why we were there. some asked if we were charging them to build the wall, we told them it was because we loved them. some tried to do the work for us so we wouldn’t have to carry large loads of stones, they told us they loved us. it was a battle of serving one another. a beautiful thing!

i even had an 8^th grade girl ask me what my future plans were (to which my answer is irrelevant) and when i returned the question she told me that she wanted to be Prime Minister of Ethiopia. maybe i shook hands with the future of Ethiopia. what are your future plans?

the above thoughts are as jumbled as the experiences of the last 4 days. but wait! there’s more…

as we filled up sacks with avocado sized stones and hauled them some 500 yards down a skinny, hiking-trail-like path our backs started to ache, our arms began to feel weak, and our legs were shaking. but the 4 women who were carrying sacks of stones with us were as strong as the very rocks on their backs. they set the tone. they were the definition of strength and perseverance. and they did all this in plastic, slip-on shoes. i don’t think i can accurately describe the inspiration that radiated from these women. i can tell you, honestly, i’m not that strong.

you see, i want to do everything i can to emulate the joy of the Bright Hope students and the shear will of these ethiopian women. and in the process of learning, sharing, changing, and breaking i want my privileged american life to exude the love of Jesus, because if it does not show love it is utterly meaningless. today my life had meaning.

you don’t necessarily need to travel to ethiopia in order to experience love and meaning… but i’d say the trip would be well worth it!

which way is right?

i don't know about you but i spend a lot of time dreaming big dreams and then trying to decide what dream i'm "allowed" to pursue... if you will. that means i try to discern God's voice in the midst of my noisy life and that's never easy. i try to make sense of verses like this:

"my thoughts are nothing like your thoughts," says the Lord. "and my ways are far beyond anything you could imagine. for just as the heavens are higher than the earth, so my ways are higher than your ways and my thoughts higher than your thoughts."
isaiah 55:8-9

so today i was reading a book by the late kyle lake and he shared a prayer inspired by the above verses. i thought it was worth sharing. because, for me, it's worth praying.

here it is:

God, i hold fast to You right now for who You are, knowing full well that at this very moment You are not like me and i am not like You. right now, my thoughts are not Your thoughts, my ways are not entirely Your ways, my values are not entirely Your values. but, God, i still cling to You, and i approach my future amid this inevitable conflict of interests between Your ways and Your thoughts and my ways and my thoughts. and when Your ways and Your thoughts conflict with mine, i will strive to be the one who changes.

anticipating adventure... in ethiopia!

in 6 days i'll be on my way to ethiopia. yeah, that's right... ethiopia. and to be honest with you i don't even know how to prepare. i, mean, besides pack my bag, get my shots, snag a visa, and pray. it's not as if i can simulate the smells, the sights, the emotions.

i'm going over there with a team of 8 people and we're going to "build a wall"... or so we intend. there is a school there, bright hope school, that we've been supporting (we as in journey church). we've helped fund a well (a huge deal), a garden, chicken coups, chickens, chicken feed, and wall material. this wall is going to surround the school compound and property.

bright hope is in the middle of a nasty neighborhood in addis ababa. therefore, the wall is needed for protection. and that's where our team comes in. all i know about the building process for this wall is that the ethiopians do it old school. dig a trench. crush rock for cement. that kind of thing. again, how can i prepare for such a process? (i'm bringing work gloves and i'm doing lots of push-ups and crunches).

obviously, i don't know much. but what i do know- i need your help. and it's simple, really. could you pray for our team? think about our team? send good thoughts to our team? whatever it is you might do, could you do it for our team? because my hope is that we humbly enter another culture and another country and somehow make a difference... thanks in advance!

are you waiting for wagons and oxen? i was!

let's be honest... sometimes we read something (say, the bible) and it bores us, or puts us to sleep, or downright confuses us. i was reading my bible the other day (as i strive to read thru the bible in a year) and was wading through the book of numbers (which is full of words! who knew?).

here's what it says in numbers 7:6 & 9...

so moses took the wagons and oxen and presented them to the Levites (v.6)... but he gave none of the wagons or oxen to the Kohathite division, since they were required to carry the sacred objects of the tabernacle on their shoulders (v.9).

at first, this didn't mean anything to me. maybe i was just sleepy. but then God dropped this on me: there are times He will give us wagons and oxen and there are times He will want us to carry the objects.

what i'm learning in all this is that God will not make easier what wasn't intended to be easy.

God had called the kohathite division to carry the sacred objects of the tabernacle on their shoulders. this was their act of obedience, their burden to bear and because of this it was no accident or coincidence that God did NOT give them wagons and oxen as a gift. if He had done that, He would have removed their calling and their obedience.

God will not make easier what wasn't intended to be easy. And the truth is that following after God with our whole lives is NOT always easy. the faith comes into play when we are challenged to believe that the hard times are worth it. my prayer for you and for me is that we stop waiting for God to provide wagons and oxen and instead carry the sacred objects to the other side (the other side of where we are now). and let's not forget that God will be with us the entire time...

Mayday!

in the world of Stu Min (student ministries abbreved) we're about to embark on a series that we're calling... Mayday! When It All Comes Crashing Down.

and it's already hitting me in the deep, open portions of my heart. as i wrote yesterday, my heart is heavy with the heartache that inflicts our world. i have friends who lost a mother unexpectedly today, friends who lost a cousin to suicide yesterday, and friends who long to separate themselves from the drama of their world and find meaning, find who God created them to be. i feel this pain and God feels this pain. that's the motivating factor (and hope) for this series.

we all reach moments where all we can do is shout out "mayday!" because it really IS all crashing down. we're all the same. we're all in need of help. you see, it's a bit overwhelming to tackle a topic that hits all of us square in the chest. i'm trying to remember that i know a God who's proved His love. i'm trying to remember that God has shown us that He cares when He let Jesus hang on a cross. what proof! and i pray that my response to such unconditional love can only be more love. so for everyone that's crashing, remember there's Someone catching... because He loves you (and me).

let's pray that the students who are in ear shot, and anyone you know, can embrace such love and be rescued because of it. and remember, when we shout "mayday!" God can hear us.

i need to write aimlessly

i need to write aimlessly for a paragraph.

i'm not in california anymore. things are not sunny and easy and filled with vacation. the world is broken. i feel helpless when all i want to do is help. i see confusion and frustration and disappointment and discontent. i feel the reality of death. not just the death that follows life but the death of purpose and meaning. the death of souls and hearts. where is all the hope?

i need to continue writing aimlessly.

i want to bring hope. i want to bring hope because i believe that there is ALWAYS hope. i want to hug and teach and love and direct. i want to influence and save and console. i want everyone to have something worth living for. i want everyone to experience the person that God created them to be. i want to see the lost come home and the downtrodden redeemed. i want everyone to realize it's not over yet.

i'm writing aimlessly because it's only just begun. i want people to keep fighting. i want people to realize that they have something to live for even if they don't realize it just yet. i want to see people persevering rather than giving up. i want people to experience grace and peace. love and mercy. the kind that i, or anyone else, can't give. i want to see Jesus save you, just like He saved me. and i want to play a part in that story...