Author: peterjang73

Sorry I didn’t update last night but I was somewhat tired.

Yesterday, after our morning class, the 4-member team left for Jinma, a place about 7 hours by car from here. They will be leading praise and worship tomorrow at the church there so please pray for John who will lead praise and Pastor Shawn as he will give the message. As previously agreed, Joy and I stayed behind to take care of our Christine. It turned out to be a good afternoon as I got to know Christine better and her history. I strongly encourage those of you that do not know her to take time to ask her how she came to be where she is today. Oh and our people here wanted to know who has been attending the prayer meetings, and for Christine, she wanted to know who cried as Soojin read the report e-mails. 🙂 The three of us also discussed on our church status and ideas and so it was rather helpful as well.

We had a quiet dinner between the three of us after some more talk and sharing, we ended the night. However, Christine did have another incident but nothing too serious. But as of today, her lower body is pretty much out of commission and catheter is still inside her.

Morning everyone! (For you, it’s evening)

Sorry for being late on update but we had power outage last night and so no internet either.

Before anything, we wanted to ask the Send Team to pray for our sister, Christine’s health. As many of you know, she left the States with temporary loss of her sight. She has been a real good trooper and has been trusting God so well so far! However, she had some difficulty more lately as she wasn’t able to pee and her legs started to get numb. She told us that she could feel God working and encouraging her to go still. But with her bladder giving more pressure last night, she was very worried and was thinking about going to ER here to get a catheter in to get the urine out. However, we were so blessed to have Dorothy here who is also a RN (Registered Nurse) and knew that she could do it herself. Alternate solution was for us to take Christine to ER only to wait several hours for the catheter procedure. But not only did Dorothy offer to do the procedure for her, but she offered to go and buy the catheter herself which was only about $1.50! When she returned, and I suggested to Christine that she should buy several before we head back, she lighted up saying that that’s an awesome idea as it could save her several hundred dollars and she added in how God must have wanted her to get sick so that she could save all this money! We were so encouraged to see Christine holding up so well, and for God to send us Dorothy who has been taking such an excellent care of all of us! Christine wanted to see if she could pee before the morning but she felt too much pressure in her bladder and thus the catheter was put in. What made this incredible is that this was all done with FLASH LIGHTS as power was out!! And just as Dorothy finished, the power came back on!! Christine believed that that was God’s way of saying “See? I have provided everything and every person you need! Even a nurse who can do catheter insertion in the dark!” We all have been so encouraged to see Christine’s spirits being so lifted up. Though her body feels at attack by Satan, she told us again and again that her spirit has been much at peace. Please continue to pray for her health and for UTI to not happen (Urinary Tract Infection). We are fortunate to have Dorothy stay with us while the four of our team (Joanna, Pastor Shawn, Jade, and John) go to Jinma to visit.

As for yesterday, we had (authentic) Chinese food for lunch yesterday with one of the missionary, Rachel. She has been also an amazing insight into the mission aspects, and she has been a wonderful reminder how you can still be a missionary (and in her words) in front of a TV at home by praying for the countries and missionaries! She also told us an amazing story of how lots of Chinese have been coming to African countries like Sudan to work but in the process, find out about Christ, become saved, and after few years, RETURN to China with the good news!!! God is truly amazing! Traditional concept of sending missionaries to mainland China is being shaken totally! Now we can just go to countries like Sudan where China sends lots of construction-related workers and help in their hearing of God’s Good News and having them be the missionary back to China!! We were even more blessed to have Jade with us so that she could order for us!!

After much good discussion, we headed over to “Korean Hospital” (Myungsung Christian Medical Center) to be the mediators between their head administration, Elder Moon, and Rachel. Rachel has been very much interested in working with the Korean Hospital as they plan on building a nursing school in few years. Rachel, who is also a nurse, wanted some of the far out clinics’ nurses to get a chance to learn and be trained further. MCM gave us a tour thanks to a great PR/Marketing brother, Markos, who is half Czech and half Ethiopian! His English was perfect! Then we had some time of presentation and discussion with the director of MCM, Elder Moon from Myungsung Presbyterian Church in Korea. Their vision was so in line with Rachel’s of empowering the local people and teaching them to be the next nurses and doctors, it was great that we were able to “hook up” Rachel! We will pray for the three far west clinics to get some help and be able to work together! I also wanted to add that Elder Moon wanted to ask all other Korean-Americans who are able to speak both languages (Korean and English) to prayerfully consider short- and long-term missions with MCM as he told us that they feel the language barriers as most are Korean missionary and volunteer nurses and doctors. Elder Moon shared how they need help in both administration side as well as in medicine and in technology.

We learned a lot and wanted to maintain a great relationship with these great people. Now, it’s Friday morning as four of our team members are preparing for the 3-day trip to Jinma, an eight-hour trip by car. Please pray for their safe journey and to see God’s wonderful works, and to have open eyes to see how we can be a part of it, if that’s God will for us. Thank you!

It was a rather slow morning except that Pastor Shawn was given the opportunity to preach to the staff at BSCO (Bethel Synod Compound). His message was based on Mark 3 on who is your neighbor. Brief and to the point, he stated how both Koreans and Ethiopians both treated extended family and friends as our own family and that things should carry on for others’ sake. Peter will be giving tomorrow’s message so please pray for humility and continuity.

After lunch of spaghetti (but with local touch), we took off to visit both of the orphanages that Haregewoin began for the AIDS-related orphans. First one we visited was for the HIV negative and honestly, it felt more like an institute as Haregewoin became better known and received more support. However, when we visited the HIV positive compound, things were different from the start. Many of the kids were receiving ARV (Anti-Retro Viral) medicines, and since you need lots of energy to fight off the disease, they get fed very well. You need to understand that as I have been emphasizing, if you or your family member has AIDS, you are shunned entirely from the society, just like in the old days when Jews shunned the lepers. So for HIV-positive orphans to not only get an orphanage but also to receive extra care and medication, this is totally unheard of in Ethiopia. Kids, though knowing sick, were live. Again, in the words of Pastor Ayamo, positive living in Christ. And soon as we busted out balloons, things definitely got rolling! And even more so when the kids started to sing songs and do some incredible traditional dances!! (You gotta see the videos when they are available!). Again, it was a heart-warming time to re-realize that these kids did not need our pity, but rather to give them support by accepting them for who they are despite the fact that they have AIDS and are shunned by the society. Our guide, Public Health Nurse Tesfa, again pointed out how discrimination continues to reign in society and that it needs to stop.

And for dinner, with the offer from Pastor Ayano, we had a chance to have an authentic Ethiopian cuisine tonight! Great food and we had a chance to see some traditional dances and they were incredible! Again, you have to see the videos! There were times when the female dancers swung their hair in a crazy X formation and still managed to continue dancing! Though it was supposed to be a relaxing time, most of us were very tired. Peter drank too much coffee from yesterday during the coffee ceremony in Jaja (long story), and most had trouble sleeping solidly. It’s going to be another busy day tomorrow with more teaching and visiting the “Korean Hospital” with Rachel to get the two organizations introduced and see how they can both help each other. Good night.

Hi again…
So we had another full day today. We taught English and computer classes in the morning. Jade was brilliant with coming up with ideas of incorporating skills and active participation by asking for a project of coming up with a computer ad.

In the afternoon, we had the pleasure to go to a part of Addis Ababa called Jaja. It’s the part of the town abandoned by the city and the people, and currently is the sole community area for HIV/AIDS infected people. It’s so sad to find out that in today’s times, people still shun out others based solely on superstition and indifference. We met a family who were shunned out from a nearby neighborhood just because the father was HIV positive. The organization we went to Jaja with (forget the name now) supplied 300 birrs (~$33) to setup a tent so that they can live and carry on.

Our guide, Mr. Teferi told us of Pastor Solomon who is HIV-positive himself but was so convicted of how one can live positively if he/she can trust God and live. He married a HIV-positive woman (after having lost all of his family, ie. wife and kids) and have a 1 year old daughter who is HIV-negative. His perspective on life was just so tremendously God-centered and not situation-oriented that we were all just so very encouraged.

Of course, knowing that, when we got down to the community village (had to walk down the hills as it’s not accessible by cars), we met in a hut put up by mud. We went into it to be greeted by a group of children and some adults. These are the epitome of poverty, living on a less than $1/day and having lost at least one parent to AIDS, and having been outcast. However, we could sense that there wasn’t a total hopelessness. They greeted us with dramas and songs, and the traditional Ethiopian coffee ceremony. The condition may have been terrible (Peter got about 20 flea bites on his left leg) but one could sense that they had joy about them and in their lives. Pastor Shawn totally won the little kids over by lifting them up, letting them ride on his back, and we could sense the parents’ being touched by our actions that showed them that we did not reject them for who they are. It was hard for all of us to suppress the tears from our eyes because we did not want them to think that we pitied them or anything, which we didn’t. We were all so touched how Mr. Teferi (who is only 32 years old!) kept reminding us, and through Dorothy (who is just a wonderful woman of God, by the way) that it’s all about positive living in Christ, being content with what God has given us.

We all left just so blessed and wanting to desperately help these who need some of the most basic needs of life like latrines. One of the biggest prayer request is God’s discernment for us in how to prioritize and which “projects” (I don’t want to call it that) to support. Christine did awesome just by being brave enough to go down these treacherous hills (remember she’s still blind) and showing to these kids that even us the “have all Americans” can still lack something. Joy is feeling a bit sick and tired today so please continue to pray for her well-being. Gotta go now… Good night.

It’s late Monday here near 11 pm so it’s about 4 pm your time. We are well. Joy felt a bit sick in the morning but she is better now. Christine’s sight is still in recovery process but she’s a mighty big trooper.

So far, we had a full day. After an 8 am morning service with Pastor Teferi, he along with 4 other missionaries, gave us a run down on the history of Bethel Synod (their adapted name for Presbyterian). We also got to hear some missionaries’ testimonies and what they have been doing. We also asked what their thoughts were on short-term mission trips. Some emphasized on the importance of long-term missions while others encouraged any kind of help. We had a good discussion about it and our decision for the time being is that we would try to encourage other local Houston churches to get involved so that there would be more coverage.

And then we had a tour of Bethel Mekane Yesus School, a school for the girls. This is a school started by the Bethel Synod almost 20 years ago and got a good view on the status. It is very much run down but has been great at supporting the girls’ education, which is rare here.

After lunch, we had visit with Pastor Yama who is an HIV-positive advocate on making the country aware and face this taboo. He had lost his wife and kids to it. We also met a sister Meskara who also had lost both parents and few siblings. In their fight against the country’s ignorance and taboo, they have been sharing their lives trying make aware that even though one has the virus, we can still live in happiness if we trust Christ with our lives. That didn’t do even half of the justice of Pastor Ayama’s passion.

We had also learned of a Korean hospital in the area and missionary sister Rachel wanted to start some kind of cooperative relationship and Joanna and Peter wanted to help start to bridge the gap.

In the evening, we met up with the sisters who are staying in the hostel nearby and got a chance to learn a bit about their lives. Most have lost their parents to AIDS and are learning to keep on living in Christ.

We are going to start teaching tomorrow and visit some orphanages in the afternoon. Please pray for our health (high altitude of 8000 ft is a bit hard to get used to) as well as everyone’s alertness and open heart to whoever we meet.

So! We have arrived here in Addis Ababa! Thank God! After what felt like forever, we landed safely! Christine is doing well though she is still blind. Pastor Shawn lost his bag for a bit but they eventually found it!

We are all in good spirit here. We met up with Dorothy, the PC-USA missionary, who showed us the Bethel Synod Compound we are staying at. It’s too nice!

Please pray for us as the biggest difficulty has been dealing with street beggars that flood the car if it stops even for a bit. Lots of disfigured, sick, and just hungry people here. Dorothy warned us against giving food out (or even money!) blindly ’cause they fight for the food!

Just wanted to let you all know we are here. We can’t wait to see what God has in store for us! We have morning service @ 8 am here. Thank you for your prayers!

Peter on behalf of the Team.