Living With a Widow

We, Rosemary and Joshua, are on missionary work in Ethiopia for six months from September 2012 to the end of March 2013, God willing. As you can imagine, leaving home, family, friends and everything else and going to a foreign country with a totally different people, language and food is not easy. But the pair of us enjoy it because the Ethiopians have a great interest in the Bible.

The deep-rooted Orthodox religion is dominant and very hard for an older person to change; but young people are prepared to listen. And slowly, very slowly, some middle-aged persons are listening to the truth and beginning to respond to it. In Ethiopia, we so far have 17 brothers but no sisters.

Preaching started before 1998. The unsuitable culture has impeded the spread of God's work here. Ethiopia has never been colonised directly and the development of their civilisation is below average. Their culture does not allow females into meetings where men are. So talking to females about the word of God has been on a low note and we do not have one sister up to the time of writing.

Since their God is different from ours in Kenya, we usually choose to rent a house in each place we visit, where we can cook our own food. Life is difficult since basic commodities are expensive; for example, the cheapest house to rent is Ksh.20,000 per month without furniture; cooking materials and sleeping items totalling Ksh.35,000 per month. The cheapest single meal is Ksh. 100 (1,000 Ksh = £8). By renting a house, we have our freedom, and Bible students come to share Bible teaching there.

In Nekemte, a small town in the west of Ethiopia, we were offered a little less payment but to share with a widow and her four children, two boys 16 and 9, and two girls, 20 and 12. We were to prepare our own food; the family would prepare their own "Injera", the staple food in Ethiopia, plus black coffee. The widow, Genet by name is 45, and had an old Amharic Bible which she used to read every day. We could hear her praying in her room always.

In the first week, we decided to do our readings in the common room. Genet moved close to us with her Bible in her hand and because she could not speak English and we could not speak her Afana Remo language, we were stuck. In the evening when her 16 year old son came back from school. He translated that she would like to learn the Bible with us. We said, "Fine". Time for the reading was set for after dinner when the son was there to translate. Each time we read the Bible together, Genet was very keen and came up with many questions about our faith. Then she told us that she had spent 20 years in her church. We said that everything has its own time and she was not late. Then she said she would like us to baptise her.

We told her of our procedure concerning baptism and lessons started straight away. We had to ask one of our brothers in Nekemte to come in the morning for teaching with translation. We were amazed at her faith and interest. She stopped attending her usual church and she came to the CBM ecclesia.

We pray for her and, God willing, we will visit her in February 2013. If we find her still strong in her commitment we shall be grateful. Now we are going round Ethiopia preaching, and we ask for the prayers of "Gospel News" readers.

Bro Joshua and Sis Rosemary Kisuya in Ethiopia

Sis Rosemary, Genet (widow) and her son, Shone, daughter Gadiso: in front, Genet's other son Mikeza.

CARELINKS

Christadelphian Ministries

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Here are just a few highlights from recent issues:

Sister Valya

VALYA was once a high school teacher of Maths and Physics. Her two children live in the USA... but she's living in a night shelter, carrying her few belongings in a bag, walking with great difficulty to our meetings in Riga, Latvia, every step she has to climb seeming a mountain, struggling with basic survival. But this lady has a lifetime of intelligent thought about God's word behind her, and having attended our meetings on and off for 2 years, all came together in her baptism into Jesus:

Bro Joshua & Sis Rosemary Kisuya (Ethiopia)