Ethiopia Trip Update #4
Another good day on the other side of the world. Every morning, I wake up baffled at the fact that I’m in Africa.
Today was the first day of the class I am teaching. We are considering how to “Preach Christ from All of Scripture.” The students had to come from various distances on the first day, so we weren’t too concerned with getting there on time. We arrived at the church around 9:15 and tried to address some technical hiccups. There is no Wi-Fi at the church, so we needed to use a 4G portable hotspot to connect with a student in North Africa. While it has worked in the past, it couldn’t handle the load today, so the students who know him made a video call to him on Telegram and propped their phones up. I’m guessing he wasn’t too happy with how much I moved around as I taught.
I began this morning by making a case for Christ-centered preaching from Luke 24, Genesis 3, and Acts 2. The students engaged with what I was saying, and I didn’t have to clarify my words on too many occasions. A few times, I struggled to find a more common word for something I was trying to say. The one word that really stumped me and was important to what I was saying was “ethereal.” I’m still unsure how to express that concept in a way they can better understand.
After teaching for nearly two hours, I was informed it was time for a coffee break. Those are important, and so I didn’t object. There is a small cafe on the church property. It was roughly a 150-yard walk, and the coffee awaited us. In both of my church coffee experiences here, they had small cups without handles. They are neat little cups, but I’m used to having a lot more coffee than those cups can hold. I guess that a standard coffee mug would hold at least two and a half of their cups.
After the coffee, we went back to work. I finished up Session 1, and we headed out to eat lunch.
Samuel is very cautious about what the people he brings from the States eat while they are here. We have limited time here and can’t risk me getting sick. The students ate at the cafe on the church property, but we went to the cafe at an International hotel that is nearby. Once again, I was super adventurous and had a hamburger.
The afternoon had us considering how Christ-centered preaching helps keep us from error. I was very excited about this session since I came up with the idea in November and was happy to have it “land” with the students. We went through various errors and heresies and discussed that preaching Christ helps keep us from making any of these errors ourselves.
We were done around 4:45 and made our way through the busy traffic. Traveling through Addis Ababa is an adventure. Very busy and has very few traffic lights. Drivers give a quick beep of the horn and stick out to get through. Because we don’t ever travel too fast, I find it to be a fun experience. My only safety concern is the people stepping out into the streets completely disregarding the traffic around them.
When we finally navigated our way back, I enjoyed a sandwich for supper and spent time reflecting on the day and thinking about tomorrow. Session 3 will be “What Does Preaching Christ Look Like?”. Season 4 is “Proclaiming Christ from Genesis.”
