Ethiopia Trip Update #7
It has been a few days since an update. Thursday was a good day in class, finishing up discussing preaching Christ from the Psalms and Wisdom literature. Before moving on to Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, and Song of Solomon, I had some good quotes from the book “War Psalms of the Prince of Peace” on the imprecatory Psalms to clarify our discussion the previous day. A big theme in Proverbs and Ecclesiastes is that there isn’t much gospel in them. I emphasized that any time we see the law in Proverbs, we will see our inability. When we see the hopelessness in Ecclesiastes, we are reminded of our need for God to have meaning. This is how we preach Christ. We must remind people of the gospel when we are reminded of the law!
At the end of the day, Pastor Bahru gave me a ride back to the hotel. While we navigated the streets, he got a phone call, and so I took the lack of conversation with my new Ethiopian friend to record what the city looks like for you. You truly get a feel of a city when you see its commerce. In the video below, you can see assorted shops. Some are very nice and modern, and others are more run down. Many are in between.
After supper, we made our way to Friendship Park. We went to the park to watch a 15-minute fountain light show. When we arrived, traffic was backed up, but we had little trouble finding a parking spot once we passed the security check. The most fascinating part of the experience was not the fountain. The park is beautiful, and people often have wedding pictures taken there. I counted at least a dozen young women in bridal gowns. They were there to have pictures taken with the dancing fountain light show in the background.
As we were leaving, we planned to stop for supper for Pastor Bahru’s family and Samuel and his daughter at a restaurant in the park. While we were at the park, I became very tired and felt very weak. In addition, I also had the chills. They decided to eat close to where we are staying so that I could go back and go to bed. On the drive, I struggled to stay awake.
When I got back to my room, I immediately went to sleep. During the night, I discovered that I had a fever and aches. My sleep was interrupted numerous times, and it was clear that I had a stomach bug of some kind. I tried to go and finish the last morning of class, but before I was picked up, I realized I was too sick to teach.
Thankfully, we were having a short day because of traffic issues created by the celebration of Epiphany that is happening this weekend. I forwarded the discussion questions for the day, and Samuel helped me out by filling in the rest of the time. I spent the rest of the day in my room, not moving much at all and sleeping more than I had in decades!
I started feeling better by the end of the day, but a good night’s sleep was the best medicine. Saturday morning I felt at about 80% and even better after breakfast. Thankfully, our schedule has us resting today, so I feel that I can preach tomorrow and be ready for the next phase of the adventure on Monday.
