Ethiopian Churches

I went to the Ethiopian church the other day at Lincoln Glen, that was fun and so cross cultural! Three hour service, but I followed most of it. Certainly no mistaking it for authentic Ethiopian style- all in Amharic and all.

Church in Ethiopia had a lot of similarities to an American church in form, but definitely its own style. Our little church in Awanno was pretty humble. There were usually birds that had gotten in to the church and were flying around in the rafters, with occasional feathers floating down next to the preacher, making it hard to concentrate, to say the least... Plus usually a few dogs at the doorway that would sometimes try to sneak into the room, and with about 25 people there, any little disturbance got everyone's attention pretty quick. The little kids would just sit there- what are we feeding our kids? I don't get it. Little three and four year olds would just sit there, I remember Sarah, Seraj's little girl, (here she is) in her pretty ruffly pink dress, just staring straigh ahead with her big pretty eyes. Cherunette, who was about three, would get up and walk out sometimes, looking so cute, with this really "important" look. Those kids are so cute. Every week I walked in and was encouraged by the church- it felt like a little light, a little bit of encouragement in a dark place. Life was so hard for those people, but we still gathered, and sang, and worshiped God- each in his own way.

If I ever got the feel of the Ethiopian church- the Kale Heywet denomination that existed all over Ethiopia and was a real local church, it was so cool. All kinds of churches- grass roots kinds of places all over, in the middle of nowhere. The Awanno church was just one place, but there were so many others.

I remember one church we visited when I was in the Borana area with Denise. We drove out to this community- it felt more like the Shire than anywhere I have ever been. The rest of Borana was dry, rocky, with big tall termite piles, very Africa feeling, especially for us driving around in our Land Cruiser and just generally feeling like storybook missionaries. But then we drove into a hillier area, through a little forest, and came to a cultivated area where people were farming- looked a lot more like Awanno than everything else we had seen. We probably stayed for less than 10 minutes, but the place we parked was sort of up on a hill, so you could see all the pieces of the society from where we stood- there is the school, there is the market area, there is the church. We were right next to one church so we walked over and looked in a window. Ahhh, the smell of Ethiopian grass-roots churches. What does a church smell like? I don't remember, but I know when I smelled it it was church smell, and it was sort of damp and musty. I guess because its not lived it, and it had a thick mud roof (with grass growing out of the mud!) that kept it cool. I wish I had a picture of the inside of the church even though it was ordinary. In that area they liked that kind of "grass roof"- thick mud with grass growing out, sort of like a chea pet roof. Here's a picture of that kind.