Letter from Nathaniel Veltman in Ethiopia
July 7, 2009
Friends,
Just last week I had a simple yet powerful conversation with my friend Dawit who works as a shoe shiner on the corner at the end of my road. I meet Dawit regularly on my daily walk to language school; he has promised to help me learn and practice Amharic if I help him learn and practice English.
The teachers at the Joint Language School where I am studying Amharic. My teacher, Yissema, is second from the left in the front row.
As he accompanied me the short distance from his workstation to the school, he asked me, “When do you have exams?” Thinking of my recent exams in graduate school, I replied that I don’t have exams. He gave me a puzzled look, so I tried to explain. Then it dawned on me that I do indeed have exams. In fact, I have exams every day: each day, Yissema “quizzes” me on the previous day’s lesson prompting me to try to remember and use the new words I learned; and every day she has me practice reading and writing the new fidels (symbols in the Amharic alphabet) I learned the previous day. I quickly backtracked and explained to Dawit that I have exams every day, they’re just not in the formal manner I commonly think of exams, like those given in high school or college.
Shortly after talking with Dawit, I had another simple yet powerful conversation, this time with my language teacher Yissema. During class, one of my cochlear implant batteries suddenly died. I politely asked Yissema for a moment to change the battery, and when I had finished she asked me whether I could hear without them. After confirming that I cannot, I explained why, further elaborating that I don’t wear them at night. Yissema quickly asked “What would happen if someone broke into your house at night?” I responded that I would probably still have a good night’s sleep. After a brief laugh together, she said, “Then we must rely on God to protect you.”
Both of these conversations made me think more about my adjustment to Ethiopia and my calling to seek justice and love mercy as a PC(USA) mission co-worker and development consultant. Just like my daily examinations, each day is different, and I never score 100 percent. Some days I misunderstand cultural cues or fail to see the opportunities for mercy or justice. But as I earnestly try to learn Amharic and Ethiopian culture, I also earnestly try to practice justice and mercy. As I practice, I get better at participating in the local culture and seeing what God wants me to see: His glory in the midst of both joy and suffering and the abundant opportunities for sharing His love with others. Often I must pause and think about and see things differently in order to see what God wants me to see.
When Jesus says in the Gospels, “If anyone would come after me, he must first deny himself and take up his cross and follow me” (Matthew 16:24; Mark 8:34; Luke 9:23), I believe he was speaking somewhat to our cultural blindness, our tendency to allow our thinking to be limited by our cultural biases and experiences. We must first deny that which prevents us from seeing our surroundings in light of the local culture if we want to follow Christ and be effective instruments of justice and mercy in an unfamiliar context, whether it is in our home country or abroad. To do this requires great dependence on God for strength and courage; it also means we must rely on Him for forgiveness when we fail.
An Orthodox church in Addis Ababa. Pray that the many churches in Ethiopia can overcome differences and work together to bring much-needed assistance to the poor.
Hebrews 11 gives a stirring account of what faithfulness and trust in God can do. As the body of Christ, we too are promised great things. As James writes, “Blessed is the man who perseveres under trial, because when he has stood the test, he will receive the crown of life that God has promised to those who love him” (James 1:12). There will be times when, just like Abraham, we will not see the results of our faithfulness right away. But God is always faithful and just and will indeed reward us for our faithfulness.
Each day, we must remember that our faithfulness will be tested; every day is an examination of our commitment to faith and trust in God. And as we seek justice and love mercy, we must also remember to put our trust in God, depending on Him to guide and protect us. As we are faithful to God, so too is He faithful to us.
Nathan
