Every day I am processing this recent desire to expand my vision beyond Ethiopia. It really helps to know that statistics of the unreached or people who have never heard the gospel are not the complete authority on where God calls us but the Holy Spirit is the one who sends.

Speaking of unreached: What about Europe? Christian nation does not mean the people have a relationship with Christ. In my opinion there is no such thing as a nominal Christian.

nominal ['nɒmýnəl]
adjective
1 in name only; theoretical
example: the nominal leader

2 minimal in comparison with real worth or what is expected; token
example: a nominal fee

Most people view a map of Africa with post colonial eyes and see it as group of nation states with national and political boundaries but never think about the reality of ethnic and linguistic differences.

Check out the real picture of Africa
ethneafr.gif.bmp

In the past few weeks I have been developing a burden and a heart for muslim people like this man from Ethiopia. It is an overwhelming to think about the millions who do not know Christ in Islamic Africa.

The Lord is taking me through a serious process not only regarding my character but he is also opening my eyes to things I could never do on my own. Just a couple of years ago this same part of the world was highlighted to me and because of my own human understanding I buried it.
It's a stretch and the issue is not settled but I know seeing God shine his light on Islamic Africa is drawing me.

Check out these Live World Statistics

I don't know if they are true but if they are it encourages me even more to spread the gospel.

This article makes me want to scrutinize all of my coffee purchases. It is about an ethiopian farmer's choice to stop growing coffee in order to grow khat a drug which leads to hallucinations, emaciations, and impotence but the profits are five time higher than that of coffee. Read about it here Growing khat instead of coffee

Looks like our Pastor and his wife have found an outlet for their aggression

Missing injera once again. Here is a picture of me and Assefa at Messob restaurant a couple of weeks ago. I think I may have a chance to have some more
in a couple of weeks. My real food has been the vision that God has given me for Ethiopia and I am just becoming energized as I plan the details for next summer's trip.

"My food," said Jesus, "is to do the will of him who sent me and to finish his work. John 4:34

The issue with AIDS or any other problem confronting us is that most of the time we take a reactive stance and not a proactive stance.
We wait until it is infecting us or the person next to us to do something about it. It's kind of like this photograph of a mural painted in Chad. A guy and a girl are being protected by a condom from the ugly AIDS monster. AIDS is not being spread by an ugly AIDS monster; it is being spread by us the ugly human monsters.

Today is World Aids Day. The creepy thing about this day is that this subject seems to escape most of our everyday conversations and thoughts unless we are affected by it in some way.