A Letter from Nathaniel Veltman in Ethiopia
May 2010
The past few months have been challenging while I continue to wait for my work permit. My position is now being changed to Diakonia Ministry among the five Bethel Synods. The job description is currently being written, but it is intended to include work as a development consultant for the development offices of the Bethel Synods and teaching development and theology at the Bible Schools of the Bethel Synods.
Teaching about Relief, Rehabilitation and Development to seminary students at Mekane Yesus Seminary, April 29, 2010.
It has been a challenge to remain patient as the partner church works through this process. Waiting for over a year for a work permit in order to begin my work in Metu is not what I had in mind when I first came to Ethiopia. But God had in mind something different (Isaiah 55:8). And faithfully following his call is never easy, always requiring suffering and perseverance along the way.
I recently read Romans 5:3-5: “We also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope. And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us.”
I admit that I have not always rejoiced in my suffering; I sometimes fail to see beyond my suffering to the hope that God wants to reveal through my perseverance. The apostle Paul gives us a significant yet important challenge in this passage. Thinking back over the past few months, I see how suffering and perseverance produces hope, a hope that is both for me personally and for the Church here in Ethiopia.
I rejoice in the suffering and perseverance that has produced hope through reconciliation within the Ethiopian Evangelical Church Mekane Yesus (EECMY). Fourteen years ago, part of the EECMY body split to form the Addis Ababa and Surrounding Evangelical Church Mekane Yesus (AASECMY) due to misunderstandings regarding the language use in congregations of EECMY. In January 2009, the process of reconciliation began as leaders of AASECMY and EECMY asked for and granted each other forgiveness. And on January 17, 2010, the process of reconciliation and reunification was completed. This story of reconciliation over 14 years demonstrates the hope and love God has for his Church. No matter what our differences are, God can reconcile and reunite us.
Seminary students at Mekane Yesus Seminary.
I rejoice also in the suffering and perseverance of those training to become shepherds of his flock. On February 21, 2010, I witnessed the ordination of 41 new pastors in Metu. I have only been to a few ordination services in the United States; never have I been to such a service where more than one pastor was ordained. I was humbled to witness these 41 pastors commit their lives to service to God through the church here in Ethiopia. I saw God working in the church and witnessed the great hope that God has for his people, both the lost and the found.
These stories demonstrate how God works through suffering and perseverance, sometimes slowly and sometimes uickly. Over 14 years God brought His people back together within EECMY; and in one day in Metu God blessed his people with 41 new shepherds. I am reminded of how God worked slowly with Israel through 40 years in the desert and through centuries of exile and oppression, finally fulfilling his promise of a savior through Jesus Christ. And in three days, through Christ’s death and resurrection, God opened the door to salvation for all humanity.
I like to say that God is working even while I am sleeping. Indeed, when I wake up in the morning I often read or hear new stories of God’s work in Peru, Honduras, the United Kingdom, the United States, Canada, Ghana, Malawi, Laos, and Indonesia. All of these stories reveal to me how God is working around the world through suffering and perseverance to produce hope.
God works through us in many different ways. As the apostle Paul says, “It was he who gave some to be apostles, some to be prophets, some to be evangelists, and some to be pastors and teachers, to prepare God’s people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ” (Ephesians 4:11-13). And God also works through the brokenness of the world. In John 9, after Jesus heals the man born blind, he says, “Neither this man nor his parents sinned, but this happened so that the work of God might be displayed in his life” (John 9:3). Even while we wait God is working, and we can participate in this work by rejoicing with all creation in his abundant hope and love.
While I wait, I persevere and look forward to the hope that God will reveal to me through new friends and community in Metu. And I pray that you too will persevere, that your eyes and ears may see and hear the hope and love God has for you and for his Church throughout the world. And when we struggled to see the hope of God, let us look to the heavens and the skies, for “the heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands” (Psalm 19:1).
The 2010 Mission Yearbook for Prayer & Study, p. 50
