Good Morning Brothers and Sisters from Addis Ababa,
I wanted to write to you and give you an update as my time here is coming to a close and I am preparing to return to the U.S. in a little over a week. The Ethiopian Bible translation efforts are temporarily halted because my translator is in the countryside attending to her other job……social work. 3 books in out of the proposed 8 for this first leg of the project leaves me feeling confident that we will eventually have a healthy resource for teaching and sharing between Hebrew Roots churches in the west and Eastern/Asian Orthodox churches in East Africa and beyond. My translator, Kalkidan is a devout Orthodox Woman who is both a social worker and English translator by trade and was raised Ethiopian Orthodox. A progressive woman who stands social justice and gender equality within Ethiopian society, I am honored and inspired to be working with her.
We meant on my last adoption story I covered here and became instant allies in the fight for the rights and treatment of children, orphans, woman and the poor, bound by the attitude that social justice and fighting for the rights of less fortunate and justice for the poor and disadvantaged IS a MAJOR part of THE WAY of Yeshua we are to be committed to in our lives.
In my opinion social justice is not a once a week thing we do when the mood hits us, rather social justice is a part of the walk and one of the ways we express obedience to Christ that is in fact an all consuming act. It in essence becomes our way of life as we are being conformed to the image of Yesuha.
In my years past in the Armstrongite movement I heard every excuse possible as to why we never did acts of social justice as a church. “We are the future Kings and Priests in training….the future Generals that need consistent training to be prepared to lead”…..Etc, etc….. The result of this ill-informed thinking has lead to groups of people who keep the sabbath and high sabbaths and other physical aspects of the law almost perfectly, but who would neglect the areas that were to be and are to be the true paths to growth, service and overcoming. I often heard people say “let the world feed its own poor”, or other obscenely offensive comments. The end results are just what Christ told us NOT be… “Scribes and Pharisees”…. and worse. We have blown many, many chances to witness for Christ as true lights, with the witness of our lives, devoted to serving God by committing to acts of selfless service and social justice. Visiting your church brother in the hospital is nice, but visiting those you don’t know is even more powerful a witness and expression of the way of the God we are to be imitating and thus becoming.
A lot of us talk about time and inconvenience in doing such things because of our hectic personal lives. But I am deeply humbled by the words of Titus when reading from the Greek in the Scripture Direct translation of the new Testament.
Jude 1:1 “Jude, (a) slave of Jesus Christ and a brother of James To those loved by God (the) father
And to those kept by Jesus Christ
To (those) called
may mercy to you and peace and love be increased”
I know automatically most of us have a problem with the word “slave”, but I implore you to do your own study of slavery and indentured servitude of the time, understand the context here and know that it in NO WAY has any comparison to the images and existence of slavery as we have come to know. The point here is that Yeshua is our master to whom we owe EVERYTHING and out of his unfathomable love, grace and mercy has called us and is preparing us for something I don’t think any of us can comprehend.
Through true faith he empowers us to do things we see as impossible in regards to the things we are called to do. By this we should also be humbly reminded that all of these things we use as reasons not to serve are but excuses most times, and should not become the obstacles that prevent us on the path towards reflecting and being the embodiment of Christ.
I am sharing my thoughts and my own mediations with you as I am in a place where poverty, prostitution, human suffering and hardship are everywhere. I am working on some ideas to help in these areas that may see me realize a complete career change and direction as a servant of God. If it is God’s will then it will happen the way he wants it. Either way, the service of God is paramount in my life and I wanted to ask you to consider your own walks and your own lives as you examine yourselves and ask yourselves how can I serve God and worship him in spirit and truth as I strive to become more like my father.
Please have a great Sabbath and great rest of the week. God be with you all and thank you for your time.
Sincerely,
Your brother in Christ.
Sent from my iPad