I have been back in the United States for about a week. I miss Ethiopia but its always good to be home. Here are some initial thoughts about my trip.
Materialistically, Ethiopia is one the poorest nations in the world. You need only browse Google for a few minutes to see the low marks on per capita income, GDP, and the other statistics that we Americans deem important.
I’m sure many of you have heard about the orphan problem in Ethiopia, the AIDS crisis, the poverty, the corruption and so on. I have known about these things for a number of years, and I thought I was prepared to encounter them on this trip.
I was not prepared. Orphans, AIDS crisis, poverty…..these were all just ideas to me. Maybe I am exposing my own naiveté, or hardness of heart, but I didn’t realize that these ideas only mean something because the people they effect are real life people. People with all the same emotions, feelings, needs and desires as you and me. The hundreds of orphans that I met over the last two weeks, each one is real. Each one is precious. Each one has personality. Before this trip, I never thought of it that way. Call me ignorant, call me heartless, call me stupid…..they are probably all true.
In America, our whole society is set up so that you can avoid encountering the seriousness of real life problems if you want to. Personally, over the 29 years of my life I had successfully avoided meeting people with HIV, people in extreme poverty, abandoned children, sick people and even death for the most part. These are all issues that for most of my life I chose to ignore, the same way many of you choose to ignore. I am not judging. I am stating fact.
One thing I learned in Ethiopia is how deeply sinful I can be. Eric Ludy (youtube him) calls it “depraved indifference”. In other words, the indifference I show to lives of the poor around the world is a symptom of my sinful nature. For 28 years I knew that the majority of the world lives on less per day than what I spend on a Snickers bar. For 28 years I slept just fine and didn’t care at all.
Another thing I learned is how far gone human beings as a group are. The Bible teaches over and over again, that no one is innocent. All of us are wicked. We think wicked thoughts and do wicked deeds. In America we go through great lengths to try to keep our sin hidden. In Africa its more obvious in some ways but it’s the same sinful nature that we all share. In Africa there are abandoned children everywhere. Some of them were abandoned by parents who were too cowardly to take responsibility for them, so they made them leave to fend for themselves. In America, we think that our solution is cleaner but its just as bad, probably worse. Here, we simply eliminate our unwanted children before they are born. The evidence of our sin is gone before we see it. We keep it locked away in sterile clinics, and call it our choice. We are so humane here in the United States aren’t we? In truth, I don’t know how much more selfish a person can be than to abandon their own child. Yet this sin is rampant in each culture, just manifested slightly differently. We are all sinners that deserve nothing but punishment. Africa has helped me understand how deeply lost we are.
Sounds depressing huh? If you have seen any of our pictures from our trip, you will see me look happier than I have ever looked in my entire life. How does that make sense?
Jesus has changed my life, and he is changing lives in Ethiopia every day. The people of Ethiopia deserve nothing. We Americans deserve nothing. I deserve less than nothing. Yet God is reaching out to us all and offering us a gift so special its hard to even fathom. I met some amazing brothers and sisters in Ethiopia. People who love Jesus, and people who have been radically changed by Jesus.
I met boys who a few months prior were living on the streets, in gangs, addicted to drugs and marginalized in every way. Now, they were going to school and had a safe place to stay. More importantly though they knew how valuable they were to God . We all watched them sing songs to Jesus, and we all nearly broke down crying because of the joy they brought to our hearts.
I met fatherless toddlers. Some probably had fathers who had died. Mostly, their fathers were cowards and just left. They would see me and come running, screaming “Abba! Abba!”, lifting their hands so I would pick them up. They call any male they see paying attention to them “Daddy.” Many of these kids were starting to learn the stories about Jesus. In the Psalms, God promises to be a father to the fatherless. They need Jesus bad. They crave a loving father.
I met women who two weeks prior, were prostitutes on the streets of Addis Ababa. These were real women, just like the ones you see everyday. They were sweet, funny, and deeply broken. We were told that many of them are raped repeatedly doing what they do. Even those who are not go through trauma. Now they were learning a trade, getting counseling, and learning about Jesus.
Lastly we met Meron. Meron was maybe 17 years old. She’s a thin little girl with a sweet demeanor. She was quiet but not shy. She came right up to us and introduced herself. Meron’s parents had kicked her out of their house years ago. She lived with a relative who essentially enslaved her. When she ran away, she lived in hiding on the street for a little while, desperately trying to stay awake at night to avoid being hurt by street boys. She failed and was gang raped on the 4th night. We watched a video of her telling her story when we got back where she explained that she had wanted to kill herself. She had been found by Hope for the Hopeless 4 years ago and she is now going to school and has a safe place to stay. But better than that, she knows the Lord, and she knows how valuable she is to Him. This thin little girl probably doesn’t even weight 100 lbs. She’s not even an adult yet but she has tremendous power. Its obvious when you meet her, and its obvious in how God is using her now.
My point in writing all this is just to give you a snap shot of what my takeaways from the trip were. God is working on my heart and changing it. He is doing the same to countless people in Ethiopia and to people all over. My advice to you is this:
If you are not a believer, I urge you to examine yourself. Why don’t you believe? What do you believe? Have you looked into the evidence? Have you considered how well your own worldview matches up to the way the world really is? Jesus is real my friends. He is the truth. He is what the world is all about. Look into it for yourself. I would love to talk with any of you about why I think the way I do.
If you are a believer then I have a challenge for you. The problems in the world seem big and unfixable. If you are like me, you mostly either ignore the many issues, or throw money at the problems. But look at what it says in James: (Chapter 1, Verse 27)
Religion that is pure and undefiled before God, the Father, is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained from the world. (ESV)
I love the way The Message translation puts it:
Real religion, the kind that passes muster before God the Father, is this: Reach out to the homeless and loveless in their plight, and guard against corruption from the godless world.
Jesus came to the world to stand against hypocritical religion. Religion as most people practice it is utterly worthless. But Jesus’ brother is telling us what kinds of behavior result when you truly love Jesus. Is it telling us that we can ignore these issues or is it asking for our money? Visit the orphans, reach out to the homeless. We can do this every day. This is how we show love for our God.
Don’t ignore the beggar on the way home from work today. Maybe you can spare a dollar, or maybe at least say hello. Don’t just ignore the marginalized any longer. These people are created in the image of God. They are valuable. They need Jesus as bad as you or I do. Take a small step of obedience today. God can use even a small step, for tremendous good.
