Stuck in Addis
28 Feb 06
I live in Jimma. Really, I do. Granted I may not be there now, or the last five times that I've posted to my blog, but I really do, at least occasionally, live in Jimma. This weekend I came to Addis to teach a class for the field ordination program. I'm teaching "Science and Religion" on four Saturdays from 8am to 5pm. The plan was to head back on Monday. I came to Addis by bus but reserved a return flight in advance for Monday morning. By the time I reached Addis, I had already spoken with the NGO director several times, and of course had received additional projects. In one of the conversations I was instructed to attend a meeting with a partner organization on Tuesday afternoon (now). I arrived at their offices at 1:30pm, just in time for the meeting, only to find out that the meeting is actually tomorrow. So, not only do I get to stay in Addis an additional day, but I'll miss my flight. Luckily (?) Dan is driving to Jimma on Friday so I'll now be driving with him. Or so we hope. His car is supposedly coming out of the shop this afternoon, but you never really can tell.
Teaching the class was fun, and certainly a different experience than I'll ever have teaching in the states. I am teaching a make-up class for some of the district licensed pastors who are closest to reaching program completion. Because its not part of the regular rotation, I only have four students, one of whom missed on Saturday for family reasons. That left only three, one of whom speaks only passable English. The class is fairly heady stuff to begin with without adding in the complication of language, but I was quite happy with the results after the first session. They are all intelligent and eager to learn, and I expect that I'd be lucky to get three interested students from a class of twenty in the states anyway.
A few questions and requests:
1) My grandmother has my entire family on my mom's side frantically searching for a song written pre-prohibition encouraging people to vote for prohibition. Apparently it has something to do with yelling KERPLUNK and stomping one's foot. If anyone has information about this song, I am sure my family would appreciate.
2) I read something in the manual (of the Church of the Nazarene) the other day that I am curious about, and wondering if any of you Nazarene historians lurking on the blog can help me figure out. There is a line in the manual that states (paraphrased closely), "In world areas where it may cause inter-faith difficulties, regular bread may be substituted for unleavened." I can't make sense of this. I know of no-where in the world where any other faith would care that the Christians were eating unleavened bread. The only thing I can imagine is that in some parts of the world the Christians have a problem eating unleavened bread because they feel that's "Jewish." If this is the rational behind the manual insertion, then in effect the Nazarene Church is supporting anti-Semitism. I can only assume this isn't the case, which is why I want anyone who knows why to explain to me the inclusion of this line.
3) Finally and most importantly, I am trying to help Fayyaa raise funds to purchase a Land Cruiser. We have already raised 25,000 of 30,000 USD but are still 5,000 USD short. As you'll remember, Fayyaa is an NCM partner organization working on AIDS relief and prevention. For details on the project and this particular need please email me. This would be a great help to us. I'd love to see a congregation or two pick this up as a missions project, or for an individual donor to contribute any amount you are willing. In any case please continue to remember Ethiopia in your prayers.
Tell your sister I said the minstrel is in the show. She'll know what I mean.
Michael
I live in Jimma. Really, I do. Granted I may not be there now, or the last five times that I've posted to my blog, but I really do, at least occasionally, live in Jimma. This weekend I came to Addis to teach a class for the field ordination program. I'm teaching "Science and Religion" on four Saturdays from 8am to 5pm. The plan was to head back on Monday. I came to Addis by bus but reserved a return flight in advance for Monday morning. By the time I reached Addis, I had already spoken with the NGO director several times, and of course had received additional projects. In one of the conversations I was instructed to attend a meeting with a partner organization on Tuesday afternoon (now). I arrived at their offices at 1:30pm, just in time for the meeting, only to find out that the meeting is actually tomorrow. So, not only do I get to stay in Addis an additional day, but I'll miss my flight. Luckily (?) Dan is driving to Jimma on Friday so I'll now be driving with him. Or so we hope. His car is supposedly coming out of the shop this afternoon, but you never really can tell.
Teaching the class was fun, and certainly a different experience than I'll ever have teaching in the states. I am teaching a make-up class for some of the district licensed pastors who are closest to reaching program completion. Because its not part of the regular rotation, I only have four students, one of whom missed on Saturday for family reasons. That left only three, one of whom speaks only passable English. The class is fairly heady stuff to begin with without adding in the complication of language, but I was quite happy with the results after the first session. They are all intelligent and eager to learn, and I expect that I'd be lucky to get three interested students from a class of twenty in the states anyway.
A few questions and requests:
1) My grandmother has my entire family on my mom's side frantically searching for a song written pre-prohibition encouraging people to vote for prohibition. Apparently it has something to do with yelling KERPLUNK and stomping one's foot. If anyone has information about this song, I am sure my family would appreciate.
2) I read something in the manual (of the Church of the Nazarene) the other day that I am curious about, and wondering if any of you Nazarene historians lurking on the blog can help me figure out. There is a line in the manual that states (paraphrased closely), "In world areas where it may cause inter-faith difficulties, regular bread may be substituted for unleavened." I can't make sense of this. I know of no-where in the world where any other faith would care that the Christians were eating unleavened bread. The only thing I can imagine is that in some parts of the world the Christians have a problem eating unleavened bread because they feel that's "Jewish." If this is the rational behind the manual insertion, then in effect the Nazarene Church is supporting anti-Semitism. I can only assume this isn't the case, which is why I want anyone who knows why to explain to me the inclusion of this line.
3) Finally and most importantly, I am trying to help Fayyaa raise funds to purchase a Land Cruiser. We have already raised 25,000 of 30,000 USD but are still 5,000 USD short. As you'll remember, Fayyaa is an NCM partner organization working on AIDS relief and prevention. For details on the project and this particular need please email me. This would be a great help to us. I'd love to see a congregation or two pick this up as a missions project, or for an individual donor to contribute any amount you are willing. In any case please continue to remember Ethiopia in your prayers.
Tell your sister I said the minstrel is in the show. She'll know what I mean.
Michael
posted by Michael Rodgers at 7:28 AM
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