The Salley Family Mizan Teferi, Ethiopia 5/2/05 - 7/8/05

Thank you...for giving my family the privilege of living and working with OUR brothers and sisters of the Ethiopian church where, like the countryside, the Kingdom of God is blossoming!

In early May, Forrester and I traveled to Mizan Teferi, a farm town southwest of Addis Ababa.  Betty and Megan joined us in June.  We lived there for the 2 months as a family and as part of their community.  Here I am in the middle of a few of the 67 future pastors and evangelists that I worked with four days a week.  I was overwhelmed by their desire to learn and hear God's work.  In almost every church that we attended (most were mud floored and without power), the benches were packed with an overflow crowd leaning though the windows to participate in the service.

Betty spent time fitting and adjusting 30 pair of reading glasses which we had carried with us. Here she tests a young man to confirm that he is able to read his Bible.

Forrester began his experience helping the School Staff de-bug their computers and quickly was in demand as the "computer tutor".  Because the Ethiopian Internet is very faulty, this was a challenge.  Because the culture is still very patriarchal, the boys  and men would have every afternoon free to enjoy pickup games of soccer.  Here is a group that gathered one of the many days to play while the girls were at home and expected to be helping with the chores.

In the Gatcheb Public School, courses are taught in English by teachers who speak very poorly.  The students can barely speak English at all and Megan was to assist the teachers and be the conversationalist.  She made several friends that way, even though their entire conversations were "what is your name?, what is your age?".  Since the Ethiopian culture is very patriarchal, the boys had the afternoon free but the girls were expected to stay at home or be helping their mother with chores.  Megan had only to walk along by the houses and the girls would stream out to walk and talk with her.

On behalf of the The Salley Family, I would like to thank you for the financial support so that we could have the privilege of living and working with OUR brothers and sisters of the Ethiopian church.

Submitted by the Rev. John Salley, Contact

Center United Presbyterian Church

The Salleys are part of the Washington Presbytery.

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