March 2, 2008

I am behind in writing these notes, as the date reflects. Brother Melvin Curry and I finished our teaching program at Yiragalem last Thursday. We had 34 preachers in our classes. Their ages ranged from the early 20s to mid 60s. These are countryside preachers, that is, they live in villages, work with a congregation in their area, and travel to other places as time and mostly money will allow. They asked good questions and seemed to appreciate our being with them. Contributors to this work provided money–around 30USD for the week–which covered travel to and from Yiragalem, their hotel expenses for 4 days, food; refreshments during the day were provided by the cafeteria at Furra College. Quite a bargain compared to American prices; yet, the money you contributed is far beyond their ability to provide for themselves. They all relayed their thanks for your interest and help. Furra College is the place we did our teaching. We rented a large classroom for the 4 days; it was a good place to have the classes. Yiragalem is 317 k. south of Addis, slightly southeast. Brother Curry, Zerihun, and I stayed at Furra College; rooms were bare minimum and the water pressure was (is) lacking, but all in all, it was a pleasurable week.

We traveled from Yirgalem back to Addis on Friday–a long day of travel. This was a slight change of plans. Brother Curry was to participate in a wedding ceremony on Saturday, and he had other appointments to take care of. We checked back into the National Hotel, this time sharing a room. Everything in such a place is generally old, clean enough, but lacks the amenities we take for granted. But it is certainly adequate for our needs. We ate supper in the hotel restaurant; I had some kind of steak (I think) with vegetables and french fries. Melvin had soup–this is his staple over here. Total price: 6 USD. I got up at 7AM and then left for Nazareth with Zerihun and our driver. Nazareth is some 75 k. south of Addis. It is located in the river valley need many sugar cane plantations. There is Wonji Gefersa–a new congregation has been planted here–and, Wonji Shoa. I have been to Wonji Shoa several times. The people who live in this area work in the sugar cane plantations, government owned. Lamboro is the preacher in Wonji Shoa–a hard and tireless worker. A new convert (Syefa Bekele) works in the Gefersa area (I met him this morning at the Nazareth worship service).

After getting checked into the Dire (Dee rah) International Hotel (brand new, very nice, 30USD per night), we immediately traveled 20 k. west to Deera. There is a small congregation of some 30 members; there are two faithful men who preach in this area. I was here last year. This area is extremely dusty. It is also an area with many Muslims. Capital improvements meant the road was paved all the way, which was quite nice. I taught three lessons; Zerihun translated for me. We were at Deera for 4 hours.

We traveled back to Nazareth and to the Dire Hotel (Hooteela). I rested for awhile, worked on postcards, and later Zerihun and I ate supper in the hotel restaurant. I had fried fish and vegetables; it was really pretty good. The coffee was good!

After a good nights sleep, I ate breakfast in my room (a few cookies and fruit cocktail). Zerihun and I went downtown and worshiped with the congregation here in Nazareth. The church has around 25 members and seems to be making progress. Toshoma and Sileshi are both good preachers, extremely active in contacting people. There were ten baptisms in this area this past week. After services this morning, one of the members, Tedele took us to a small “grocery store” where we had fresh mango juice–quite nice. While we were sitting and having our visit, a sidewalk thief ran past Toshoma’s wife, snatched her purse and then dropped into the underground sewer, not to be seen again! Naturally, it was upsetting to all involved.