“Ealow, go left! Go right! Now straight ahead – you did it!” The young man, who has just finished school and wants to study civil engineering, is trying to walk a path blindfolded. Everyone shouts directions at him – the wrong way round. Only when someone says his name does Ealow know from the rules: this direction is right. Calmly he filters the right voice out of the noise and walks step by step towards the goal.
In the reflection afterwards, an 18-year-old participant summed up in one sentence what this game has to do with faith. Her sentence has stayed with us.
“Trusting the right voice leads to the goal. That is like listening to the wise voice of God.”
an 18-year-old participant, Ethiopia
The course in Addis Ababa was the first YI introductory training on African soil. Twelve young adults wanted to learn how to reach children in their communities. We stayed at Selam Children's Village – an organisation that cares for orphans and trains young professionals. Daniel's father had worked for this ministry for many years and asked us years ago whether we would run a Youngstars course there. We listened – and postponed it again and again. Was it wise to go now?
Monday morning, eight o'clock: the man in charge leads us into his office – and twelve motivated faces stare at us. We had actually arranged to talk about the course schedule; we had not expected all the participants to be there already. Our first cultural misunderstanding – thankfully solved quickly. The next day we started the course.
Even with experience in international trainings, we quickly noticed: it makes a difference whether you say something – or say it in a culturally appropriate way.
After days of teaching the basics and practising, we prepared the participants to create their own programme for the children on the compound. An outdoor field game was completely new to them. Ealow took up the challenge and invented his own game for the theme of the children's afternoon – the wise and the foolish builder. To match it, he carved and crafted little cardboard houses at home.
Making friends was easy: on the street you find a coffee place every 200 metres. When Daniel passed two participants early one morning, they immediately invited him to sit down – and pushed food straight into his mouth by hand.
We travelled home with much laughter, many pictures and an invitation to come back. And with open questions: how can something grow from this beginning? How can the work connect with a local church? What would be the next wise step? One thing we know: we must listen carefully to hear whether God has an assignment for us in Ethiopia. Will you pray with us?
