I Hate MONEY

For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. 1 Timothy6:10a

As of late I have been reading Ecclesiastes for my daily devotions and just thinking a lot about what makes our world tick. Who I really am and what the world then believes I should or need to have. The present state of the United States has really made me think about and evaluate these things.

Then I observed that most people are motivated to success because they envy their neighbors. But this, too, is meaningless—like chasing the wind. Ecclesiastes 4:4

Enjoy what you have rather than desiring what you don’t have. Just dreaming about nice things is meaningless—like chasing the wind. Ecclesiastes 6:9

I read these verses and it really made me sad. In a time when the economy is struggling and people are loosing their houses and times are tough we have car companies offering to pay my car payments if I loose my job? Is this supposed to be a security blanket? I guess I don’t fully understand as then in the end I would be out a car as I traded the one I had in or sold it. It is just another way they are trying to tempt me to buy a new car. So there I sit all because I thought I needed or wanted to “Keep up with the Joneses” carless. Sad but true our culture has a phrase for keeping up with others. Here is what wikipedia.org says about this phrase “"Keeping up with the Joneses" is a catchphrase in many parts of the English-speaking world referring to the comparison to one's neighbor as a benchmark for social caste or the accumulation of material goods. To fail to "keep up with the Joneses" is perceived as demonstrating socio-economic or cultural inferiority.” Inferiority? Really I mean will it ever end in our society?

I sat this morning and talked with a good friend and we talked briefly about this. How we would want something to remain cool or try to hold onto that. It is amazing to see the shift in our minds “I am not cool anymore” but that really doesn’t matter does it? In the sense of the kingdom of God cool means something totally different and it is that realization that means the world to me that I can sit with good friends and discuss how image, what we have and how we are perceived by what we have isn’t really what matters but instead serving Him in the ways of our lives is what is truly important to us. Because after all isn't that so much better than a "chasing after the wind"? I mean in the end atleast we know we will meet Him and not be endlessly chasing after something that we will never find or see?

Those who love money will never have enough. How meaningless to think that wealth brings true happiness! The more you have, the more people come to help you spend it. So what good is wealth—except perhaps to watch it slip through your fingers!
Ecclesiastes 5:10-11

This verse kind of makes me laugh as I think about the wedding planning going on in my life right now and talk to vendors and friends about the situation. I look at how many people want a take of the money we will spend on our special day. It is just crazy to think what people will charged for. Things that ring through my head are the charges for banquet rooms (at restaurants or places that serve food) for a reception I mean honestly? I quoted one guy on saying “We don’t charge a room rental fee because we don’t charge you for a seat in our restaurant do we?” How true is this? It really made me appreciate the approach of this place when it came down to it. Another thought is some places charge as much as $2.75 a piece of cake to cut and serve it. I mean really? It almost seems that society has come to the point that we want to take advantage of other peoples happiness if we can because when people are happy they will spend and do whatever they want to have things special or their way.

So I guess I never actually thought I would catch myself saying this, but one day while walking around my house this actually verbally came out of my mouth. “I hate MONEY” Now granted I was home alone and just doing a lot of thinking about life and society. Does that mean I am really living out what the bible says about money? Doubt it as I still think about a new car or a big screen TV or even a new camera lens but I guess I really don’t know. All I do know is I am working on it as it stirs within me……..

Brief Report on Borana

This is a brief report from the Borana Region in Ethiopia. It was written by Dr. Samuel Kebreab an amazing man of the Lord with a passion to serve our Lord.

Introduction
The Borana evangelistic outreach has started on September 1998 by receiving 20 school children in the Didhara hostel. The ministry that has started with 20 children and one student’s hostel has now grown into a ministry that administers five students’ hostels accommodating 110 students. The Lord has blessed the ministry that now through the ongoing evangelistic and discipling ministry to the hostel students, their friends and parents for the last ten years, five hundred believers have come to know the Lord and had been discipled. These believers, led by the Borana students, meet in about twenty villages for worship and instruction from God’s Word. The other new thing that has happened in these last six months is that we have ordained and mobilized our first Boranan church planter. Berhane Wongel believing that the Borana are best reached by their own people was trying to raise up Borana ministers who could establish and lead Borana churches. This came into effect through deploying a young dedicated young man who had been discipled by our church planters and who had undergone a Bible School training. The other event which is going to take place after a month is the second and last phase of training of the 22 hostel students who are attending our Borana Bible Training Center , which runs during rainy season when school is closed. These third batch of students together with the first two batches make the number of those who undertook training for serving and leading the church to be 56. We are now realizing the importance of this training as we see that many of the trainees have become instrumental in the planting of many churches. A remarkable thing that has began to happen in these last 2 years is that from among the hostel students nine have joined colleges and universities studying such fields as law, engineering and education. We praise the Lord for this outcome as we see Him blessing our students with knowledge and wisdom and success in their schooling. Let alone joining universities, for many students it is a miracle to be finishing high school. For Jatene who has joined the Kotebe University in Addis it was becoming a history maker; for he was the first person ever to attend college from his district which has thirty large villages.

One of the hostel students, Jarso who is currently attending university
With this brief introduction, we continue the report on the activities that has taken place in each hostel center in the last six months is highlighted.
Didhara
At Didhara, on May 2, 2009 we celebrated a baptismal ceremony for fifty new believers. The thing that was exciting about the event was many of the believers came to the Lord through the witness of their children, the hostel students.

Hostel students Doyo and Konso baptizing new believers
For instance, the mother of Jatene, who is now attending college in Addis Ababa , came to the Lord when one of her daughters was delivered from a demonic bondage through the prayers of the students. Tura and Jarso were instrumental in bringing their close relatives to the Lord. These believers were baptized by the students who brought them to the Lord.

Tura’s and Jatene’s mother, newly baptized
The other important thing that is happening in the hostel of Didhara is that we were able to put a fence for the 90,000 square meters of land that has been granted to us by the local government with the intention to develop it so as to make the hostel work self-sustainable. We have now begun cattle fattening schemes and growing grains. To these new schemes will be added bee keeping and poultry farming.

Cattle fattening scheme
Dubluck and Higo
In Dubluck-Higo area are found three of our hostels: two for boys and one for girls. In this area we have more than ten village congregations that meet together. In a town by the name of Weib, which is twenty kilometers away from Higo, our evangelists were instrumental in bringing fifteen people to the Lord. This is a small but important for the Borana and the majority of people that live in this town are followers of Islam religion. Our evangelists are following the believers and we are in the process of discipling one of them believers so that he may lead the church that we have began to establish in this area.
Yabello
The Yabello hostel is now accommodating fifty boy students, attending high school, while seven girls are living in a rented house. The students meet daily for prayer and to study the Word of God. They also hold Sunday morning worship in the hostel in a more relevant way with organs and synthesizers to attract the town people and youngsters (just like Eagle Brook relevance seems to be important for them!). Many people from the town have come to Christ through their witnessing. They are planning to build a church building in a piece of land which a brother gave them as a gift. We are realizing the need of building another hostel for girls in Yabello as we expect the number to increase to be 12 in the coming school year as those in Dubluck pass to join high school grades.
Items of praises
1. Praise the Lord for the bountiful harvest as we see a steady growth in the spiritual life of the Borana believers and a steady and bountiful growth in the number that are coming to know Christ.
2. Praise the Lord for our students who have grown to become dedicated ministers, church planters and excellent Christian leaders for their people. And praise the Lord also for allowing them to grow strong in body and wise in spirit and for the grace of God to be among them (Luke 2:40).
3. Praise the Lord for giving us our national missionaries and their families who have dedicated their lives to coach and mentor the Borana hostel students. Despite many discouraging illnesses and other forms of obstacles the Lord help them to endure and prevail.
4. Praise the Lord for partners such as Eagle Brook Church who came alongside us since the beginning of the Borana evangelistic outreach ten years ago. In addition to their ever-growing involvement by coming to the field to minister alongside us, and their support in prayer and generous giving, we cannot forget that it is through their ministry in Didhara that a spiritual breakthrough happened in 2001, in which we saw the coming to Christ of more than 290 students from a student body of close to 300. The Lord is pleased to bless this partnership that our church has with EBC and to use it for the expansion of his kingdom.
Items of prayer
1. Pray that the Lord will help us to build girls’ hostel in Didhara which we feel is urgently needed.
2. Pray that the Lord will help us with funding. Because of the increase of food prices we were not able to use the hostel to fully accommodate to its maximum capacity of 170 students.
3. Pray that the Lord may help us to be self-sustainable so that the projects that we are have started would yield good outcomes.
In conclusion we would like to extend our appreciation for EBC leadership and Ethiopian missions committee for their unfailing support and love.
May God bless you
Pastor Fekadu Tadesse and Dr. Samuel Kebreab