Park's Prayer Letter (No. 6) |
Date: Nov. - Dec. 96
Greetings in the Love of Jesus Christ !
We hope you are all well.
Last September, we moved down to Jimma, taken 7hrs by car, from Addis Ababa. We were too excited to sleep on the night before moving. How long have we been waiting for the ministry in Ethiopia ! As God disciplined Moses to use him for His purpose, He, at last, allowed us to work at Jimma ! Praise the Lord, all His preparation for us !
We were welcomed by other 2 SIM families and KHC(Kale Heywat Church; Word of life) Ethiopian members at Jimma Station. Our house, unfinished repairing, waited for us. Still we are working fence, doors, garden and arranging the things. Owing to the government¡¯s long occupation in this house, it has been taken long time for repairing the house. It stands on the hillside at the edge of the city. It has such a fine view to look down the city ! Small mountains back of the house, high blue sky, cool and warm dry sunshine ! All different kinds of trees and birds we¡¯ve never seen before ! We praised the Lord our stay here at Jimma.
Very next to our house, there is a new two story building of the School. There are a school office, 2 class rooms and a library, however, only 1 class room is being used and others are still under construction. The library needs books, whatever in English or Amharic. Because here in Ethiopia books are very rare and precious, a few people have the Bible. How it could be to have other books ! If you have the books unnecessary, you can send them to the library at Jimma Bible School. If they are Bible Commentary, Concordance, Christian Books or English Bible, it would be good presents for the students. Next year KHC also plans to start English language program and English Bible School at Jimma. So children¡¯s books are very helpful to improve their English, too. Look around your book shelves !
Each of us were invited to teach one subject at Jimma Amharic Bible School. Jong Cook teaches John the Gospel and Grace teaches Holy Spirit. As you know, we just finished the Language and still need to improve our language ability. Nevertheless students want to learn from us. Teaching is learning ! They are all 25 students from the different local areas, where are the South Western part of Ethiopia. Jimma is the center of South Western zone. After two year course, they go back to their area and minister their local churches. In most of their areas prevails Muslim, Traditional Religion or Orthodox.
Yesterday we had fellowship program with students at our house. We had Injela for lunch together. Injela is their daily meal, big circle tray typed, thinly baked with sour flour. Putting some different kinds of food (called 'watt') on it, they eat using their fingers. How delicious it is ! We shared the message, sang songs and watched Jesus films. Some including the Ethiopian director of the School are the first to watch it. Even others have seen it before, they were really touched in their heart, crying and ...
Around our house, there are 3 colleges, Teacher¡¯s Training College, Technical Science College and
Agriculture College. Jong Cook goes out to make friends in front of the school gate. They often ask us to lead Bible Study Group. Because foreigners are not allowed to enter the campus with the purpose of witnessing specific religion, we are planning to make Bible Study Group at our house.
Jason and Anna settled at the Boarding in Addis Ababa. They had really hard time to adjust at boarding. At the moment home schooling is popular for the MK in the down country station, and so there are 7 children including Jason and Anna at boarding with dorm parents. They easily felt lonely. They stayed there for 2 wks for the first time but they came back to Jimma again with home sick. For their settlement at boarding, Grace spent several weeks with children at Addis Ababa. Through the problem of children¡¯s schooling, God really tested us as He asked Abraham to sacrifice His only son, Isaac. When children cried and clung to us, we became very shaky and weak in our calling from God. But God encouraged us to confront this matter through Joshua 1 : 9 and gave us peaceful mind that this is the God¡¯s best way towards our children.
What Jimma looks like?
Jimma is the one of the largest city with 180,000 of population. Its main product is Coffee and Banana. Muslims is 75 % of the population and Ethiopian Orthodox is the rest of it.
The Bible school and the KHC church at Jimma had been closed by Communism for 17 years, but the government returned totally ruined and destroyed buildings and estates to the KHC with the property of MAF (Mission Aviation Fellowship). The Bible school started again from October of 1995.
PRAISE
PRAYER
May the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with all, our brothers and sisters. Our Love and Prayers.
Jong-Kook, Grace, Jason & Anna Park
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