Ethiopia Reflection

• God, why I not understand my learning? God, open my brain.
• Why people have different colors? Why you made me black?
• God, why people hate each other?
• Why God doesn’t stop the conflict of Ethiopia? Why God doesn’t give love and unity for our country?
• God, can you give me a wife?
• Why did my father die in his young age?
• Why do you refuse wealth to our country Ethiopia?
• God, what do you want from all human beings?

Those are questions to God that my students wrote in one of their journal assignments. I must admit, I have many questions of my own:

• Why is there no clinic at MKS to help students with medical problems?
• Why can’t the MKS toilets be fixed so they don’t run all the time?
• How do I respond when a student asks for financial help?
• How is it possible that some students cannot afford a pen, a notebook, or soap (let alone tuition)?
• When will English teachers in Ethiopia help students use English rather than learn about English?
• Why I am always so cold, even in Ethiopia?
• God, what do you want from me?

While I ponder these questions, I feel grateful for the opportunities I had in Ethiopia:

• To live a simple life on the MKS campus
• To learn a new language and experience a new culture—a new way of thinking and being
• To make new friends
• To visit people in their homes—for coffee, food, conversations, prayer, and overnight stays
• To visit churches and experience different ways of expressing faith in God
• To join the MKS community of faith as they strive to follow God
• To teach full-time again after a hiatus during the pandemic
• To use my gifts and impact not only individual students but also an institution
• To be reminded that there are rewards greater than monetary ones

I feel grateful for the things that I learned, or re-learned:

• It’s good to step outside my comfort zone because there’s so much for me to learn.
• Learning stretches me. It makes me humbler and more compassionate.
• I love experiencing the big, broad world and all its people that God created.
• I love the children’s book entitled People by Peter Spier (1980). It highlights the way people are both different and similar. It celebrates the beauty of diversity and at the same time reminds me that people are people everywhere.
• It’s good to try to understand another. Even if I can’t understand, it’s good to be accepting.
• There are many things in life that I cannot control. This is hard for me—since I like to be in control.
• I wish I were more flexible by nature.

I feel grateful for the non-fiction books which helped me in my learning (plus the fiction books not mentioned here):

1. Acclimated to Africa, by Debbi DiGennaro (2015) helped me think about the views and behaviors of Africans compared to those of Westerners like myself. It reminded me that I shouldn’t expect others to think or act like I do.
2. African Friends and Money Matters, by David Maranz (2001) helped me understand the different economic systems in Africa and the West. It gave me a framework for thinking about some of the questions I have about poverty and wealth and my response when I am asked to support others financially.
3. The Wife’s Tale, by Aida Edemariam (2018) gave me a glimpse of Ethiopian religious and political history (of the 20^th century) through the eyes of a victim of early marriage.
4. The Hospital by the River, by Catherine Hamlin (2004) informed me about the prevalence of fistula in Ethiopia and the amazing work of fistula repairs done by Australian doctors Catherine and Reg Hamlin, who committed their entire adult lives to fistula patients in Ethiopia. This story inspired me so much.
5. One Thousand Gifts, by Ann Voskamp (2011) reminded me that there is wonder all around to be grateful for. I can see wonder every day while living in Ethiopia, but I don’t have to go to Ethiopia to see and experience wonder all around me.

Sixteen weeks in Ethiopia went so fast, and now I am back home in Mexico. Sixteen weeks is nothing when I think about the big picture of life, when I think about the almost 40 years that I’ve been teaching since graduating from college in 1983.

Yet all my experiences, abroad and at home, no matter the length, have shaped me into the person that I am today. In fact, they continue to shape me into who I am becoming as I question, ponder, and reflect. God, I thank you for being with me in this life-long journey of learning.

Three Women I Admire

While In Ethiopia, I met many women I admire. Today I feature the three female faculty members I worked with at Meserete Kristos Seminary.

Selamawit Stifanos is a Biblical scholar who currently teaches Systematic Theology, Pentateuch, and Prophetic Books. She’s been at MKS since 2000, and students love her. When I had students write a journal entry about a good teacher at MKS, many wrote about Selam. 

Selam earned a B.A. degree in Bible and Theology in 1999 from the Assembly of God Bible College in Addis Abebe. More than a decade later, she spent three years in Harrisonburg, Virginia earning an M.A. in Divinity at Eastern Mennonite Seminary in 2008. She loved Harrisonburg. She was amazed with how quiet and peaceful it was.

From Selam, I learned to aim for the middle in terms of teaching classes with mixed ability levels. “We do what we can,” she told me. She values the role that MKS faculty play in training leaders for the many Mennonite churches which are either fast-growing or newly begun.

Selam’s husband is a senior pastor at one of the biggest Mennonite congregations in the country. They have two grown sons, one of whom served us a delicious Christmas dinner after we went to church together.

Ayalnesh Erku is a Biblical scholar who currently teaches Church History and OT Historical books. She began teaching at MKS in 2014. Though it is still uncommon for women to preach in the Ethiopian Mennonite church, I had the privilege of hearing Ayalnesh preach in October. 

Before pursuing her own studies, Ayalnesh worked in local church ministry, teaching new believers, holding Bible studies. She understood God’s calling for her to be that of teaching. After earning a diploma in 2006, she returned to her local church hoping to be appointed to fulltime church ministry. But one of the elders was opposed to women in leadership positions. He didn’t want to give her even a single Bible study to lead. He said, “If I see a woman preaching, I will leave.”

Her husband felt very sad about this, so they changed their local church. Alaynesh worked as the Assistant Women and Family Coordinator for the Evangelical Church Fellowship of Ethiopia (ECFE). One of the projects she led focused on harmful traditional practices against women, such as early marriage and female genital mutilation. She sought to bring these issues into the curriculum of theological institutions in order to raise awareness. Meanwhile, she gave birth to two sons (now teens), earned her B.A. degree from Meserete Kristos College, began teaching at MKC (in 2014), and received an M.A. from EGST, the Ethiopian Graduate School of Theology (in 2016).

Ayalnesh is passionate about women in the church and women in leadership. When I first met her, she mentioned her studies of I Timothy 2 and I Peter 3, New Testament passages about women, which she hopes to publish someday. In addition to teaching at MKS, she works on women’s issues, particularly the role of women in ministry, peacebuilding, and community development. She gives trainings and participates in panel discussions. She leads adult Sunday School classes and preaches.

“My mother always encouraged me that I can be whatever I want,” she says. “Though I’ve faced lots of challenges, I have hope for the future.” The church now allows women as elders and pastors, but there are very few. In the future, Ayalnesh hopes that will change.

Tigist A. Dessie is the Distance Education coordinator at Meserete Kristos Seminary. In addition to her administrative duties, she teaches the class “Ministry to the Poor and Social Problems.” Her presence down the hall from my office was a steady support to me last semester.

Tigist loves sharing her testimony, as she calls it, “God’s story in my life.” She sometimes begins like this: “The reason I have this scar on my face is . . . .” When Tigist was a high school senior, she asked Jesus into her heart after a friend told her about Jesus’ love. Displeased by her decision to follow Jesus, her Orthodox family chased her from their home. Her aunt and others beat her with rubber and burned her with fire. During the beating, she had a vision of Jesus’ suffering, and she did not feel the beating.

Meserete Kristos Church members took Tigist to Addis Abebe where she had several years of treatment and four plastic surgeries but retained a still-disfigured face. More than a decade later, from 2006 to 2008, she spent two years in the U.S., receiving further surgeries and laser treatments. While in the U.S., she shared her testimony at different times. At a youth retreat in New York, 50 youth made a first-time decision for Christ and 22 youth renewed their commitment after hearing her amazing story.

Tigist first worked at MK College in 1997 as a librarian and cashier. She took one class each semester, with a sense that God was preparing her for ministry. She got a diploma in Bible and Christian Ministry from MKC in 2004, a B.A. from MKC in Peace and Conflict Transformation in 2011, and an M.A. in Development Studies from the Ethiopian Graduate School of Theology (EGST) in 2016.

In addition to teaching, Tigist is involved extensively in her local church and has a vision for the holistic transformation of society. She says, “Humans have physical, emotional, psychological, social, and spiritual needs. Hence, we must serve humankind holistically.” She is targeting the Amhara region, which has been home to much conflict and the influx of migrants in recent years. Tigist says, “The depth of poverty in both economy and thought is unbelievable.”

She also began a Christian family fellowship in 2002, hoping to reach unreached family members. “Glory to God,” Tigist says, “many of my relatives have come to know Jesus Christ.”

If you would like to communicate with Tigist, or partner with her in her endeavors, let me know. She would love for others to stand by her side and be partners in her vision for the transformation of society.

These three women enriched my life while at MKS, both on campus and off. I look forward to our continuing friendship.