Dear friends,

I finally found time to sit down, relax with a good cup of coffee, and reflect on the past week. Picture this: Kristen is sitting nearby with her computer, and right next to her theology book on the living room table lays one pair of male underwear. Next to the underwear is an open pack of chocolate – the most expensive food item we own. Chocolate costs nearly $4, while we can buy an entire bread for 10 cent. Just across our living room table I see a pair of shoes (the size suggests a giant), computer power supplies, books, a huge pile of empty bags, and Andy, Phillip, and Cindy hanging out together on our “dining room table”, which is really part of the living room. This table serves us to eat, as a computer lab, to debrief our classes, and anything else that happens inside the house. Cindy is putting together a puzzle right now. Phillip is studying drivers-ed right now, though at 17 years of age he is determined to delay driving a car as long as possible. I think Andy is prepping for class right now, and Vic disappeared in his bedroom after a lively conversation of how to successfully educate students of an oral culture (the majority world) as well as the shift in church education in a post-literal culture back home.

You’ve get the idea: life in community is a stretch, yet on the other hand it is a blast! Earlier I overheard Cindy and Vic haggling with our maid over the price for washing our cloths – she wanted to earn $15/month more as we have so much dirty laundry. The guard in our house is here 24/7, and makes a whopping 1000 Burr a month. With a conversion rate of nearly 1:18 between USD and Burr, this is not exactly a lot. He is a really sweet Muslim man, has 6 kids. 3 kids stay with his wife in the countryside, two with his brother in Addis, and 1 sleeps with him in the little room outside of the main house. Every house + small yard here is surrounded by a solid wall with barbwire or broken glass to keep out the burglars. It seems every house has a guard. As soon as you exit the gate, you step onto a dirt road with rocks sticking out. You find relatively nice houses mixed up with people living in temporary shelters – maybe one room in which they do everything. Many areas smell like urine, and the creek through town seems to hold more human secrets than water. All things considered our neighborhood is probably an upper one. There are several embassies or consulates in it. We took over a house from Swiss missionaries who are out of the country. The house has two bathrooms, one accessible for everyone, and another only accessible through Kristen’s room. Kristen’s bathroom does not tolerate toilet paper, and the shower head needs to be held in the hand when we shower. The other bathroom is probably 7×4 foot, and the shower drain isn’t working, so we shower and then use a small water bucket to empty the plastic basin into the toilet to flush the toilet. I am in awe how well and easy life goes despite these minor obstacles. In the kitchen we clean water through a water filter system for drinking water. Cindy cooks for us daily, and everything she makes is from scratch. We had a Mexican night with tacos, Spaghetti with home-made spaghetti sauce, pancakes, cake, onion soup, and lots of other delicious, fresh food items. The house interior is simple, and decoration is mainly kids artwork from the family. Even an old piece of chocolate wrapping is attached to the wall to remind of the good Swiss chocolate that you won’t find in Addis. Overall, life in community is really fun.

Until end of last week we had stayed in SIM’s headquarter, which is located in a very busy part of town. I saw lots of poverty running early in the morning – many people sleep on the street. While the temperatures are nice right now, I cannot imagine sleeping in the rain. The streets are really lively, with people everywhere. Here and there you see a batch of goats on the street. While each neighborhood block (maybe 1×1 mile) connects houses via dirt roads, each block is surrounded by asphalt roads. These roads are busy filled with cars, traffic jams, and people constantly crossing the road. Even on their highway inside town, people run across the highway, risking their lives. The whole town smells like Diesel, because car exhaust is not regulated, and the 8000 feet elevation combined with streets going either up or down causes a ton of pollution. Last weekend we left town for a short hike. It was amazing to smell fresh air, and the nature reminded me of Colorado.

Temperatures are perfect these days – we have our windows open day and night, and both inside and outside it never feels too hot or cold. Unfortunately this will change ones the rain shows up for 80% of our days. For now, we enjoy every bit of sunshine.

Ethiopians are very friendly people, both on the street, and especially also at school. The school is relatively small, shares its property with the International church, and the way the school is designed with narrow walkways outside the building (like a motel) I cross the path with students all day. It is fun as students eagerly strike a conversation. Leading a discussion group twice a day requires constant preparation in addition to the class teaching. So on one hand, I find the days very long and hard, but on the other hand having 10-12 students of various ages entrusted into my care twice a day and help them grow is a phenomenal experience. I can tell a big difference between when classes started and students were shy because of teachers having a “high and elevated status,” and now by end of the week students no longer hesitating to speak up in class, ask questions, and defend their position. So far, one student by the name of Wana, invited me to have lunch with him and coffee, which is a sign of comfort behalf of the students with me, his “teacher.” I really enjoyed our lunch, and learned that Wana comes from the countryside originally, and his story has God’s hand all over it. When he arrived in Addis, he was in awe about the poverty and nobody seeming to care – so he started to reach out to prostitutes and also adopted 15 boys off the street (age 8-18) to get a good education and true childhood. Someone donated a house to him now to put up all the kids. To do the ministry well, Wana voluntarily lived for 55 days on the street to get a feel for this life – amazing, eh? He invited Libby, the kids and I to come visit their family and get a feel for his ministry. I am excited to take him up when my sweet family arrives.

The mix of students is great. They come from allover the country, some are relatively young, others accomplished lawyers, UN worker, teacher, pastors, etc.
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As you can imagine, I so much miss my wifey and all the kids. Just seeing their pictures on Lib’s blog is gratifying but also hard. I am so proud of Libby for approaching every day in Germany with a positive attitude, and she’s making many new friends in the free church in Bad Lausick – how wonderful. Living with the Andersons, Andy and Kristen is a humbling experience for me. Vic is a phenomenal leader, takes total care of us, teaches us, and observing his skillful way of dealing with the Ethiopians is eye-opening. If it was possible, I think Ethiopians would worship him as a deity. While I knoew that Vic is a good preaching class professor, I gained even more respect for him teaching the Bible. Vic and Dr. Strauss are known as the founders of the school here, and everyone working in the international church and the school was either a direct student of our profs, or at least thinks the world of them. Vic makes teaching a lot of fun – as we are not only concerned with just providing sound theological education, but also especially to teach in a way that meets the need for an oral society, and challenges the Ethiopians in areas that are culturally particularly in tension with the Gospel message. Vic helps us to contextualize our teaching tremendeously.

Cindy is a servant, just like Libby. She does so much in order for all of us to get to do the teaching. Cindy never every complains – though I can tell in her eyes when she had about enough of putting up with all of us. I wish I could express all my appreciation for her better. Phillip is a ton of fun to be around, and he can make Kristen laugh like nobody else. He’s so funny. Its great to see a 17 year old in action. Just watching the family is really helpful for me to think a bit more of our own family dynamics, and the realization what tremendous job Libby does to keep up with the kids and I. The Andersons make a huge sacrifice to have us live with them.

Andy is married to Christen, who had to stay in the US to work. I can tell Andy misses his wife a lot and it’s a big sacrifice for him to serve the students here. Andy and I share a room, and a bunk bed. It seems both he and I are very easy going and even keel – so sharing a room truly feels as natural to me as having a room to myself. I hope Andy has the same experience, as I usually get to bed a couple of hours after him and get up an hour early. Andy was here already last year, and masters the language in a way that helps to communicate. I am jealous – my Amharic skills are zero. Andy leads one of our two classes – the Survey of Doctrines, and he does a fine job.

Kristen is the fourth member on our teaching team, and as Andy she’s almost done with her ThM (Master of Theology degree). Both of them are so sound in their Bible knowledge – really amazes me, and boy it is humbling to see what they all know. As a woman, you start out with a disadvantage in teaching a male dominated class, but Kristen has really impressed everyone, and several students already took her out to lunch. To get to know her is a blast – feels almost as having sister. Makes me miss my sister-in-law Jenny. We all joke a lot with Kristen, and she holds her ground well as she grew up around 3 brothers. Several times a day however she points out how ready she is for Libby to arrive here. I thank God that He’s put Kristen and Libby on the same trip – I think this will be awesome for both of them. Seeing Vic, Phillip, Andy and I in action I think it is really helpful for the girls to have female companionship.

Today is a study day to prepare for next week. Tomorrow we plan on skipping church and instead do a trip into the mountains to hike up Mogli (~ twelve thousand feet). We are likely going to see life in the country side, true huts, and absorb a part of Ethiopian culture that is different from the city life of Addis Ababa.

Praise be to our creator! Thanks to everyone for keeping us in your prayers!
Shalom from Ethiopia, Falk