| SLIDE 1: |
Have you ever wondered what your life would be like if you were born in another country? These children live in a town called Masha in southern Ethiopia.
|
| SLIDE 2: |
Masha is very different from towns in England. There are no supermarkets or shops and not many cars. If you want to buy something, you have to go to the market and travel by donkey or even walk. Children there don't mind, though, as there is lots of space to run around and play.
|
| SLIDE 3: |
Even the church is very different. It is a very simple big room with no paintings or pictures on the walls, and just benches to sit on. There is not even any glass in the windows, let alone stained glass like in English churches.
|
| SLIDE 4: |
But this Ethiopian church has a wonderful choir that gets dressed up in colourful clothes and sings lots of songs. It's great to watch and sing along with them. In the Ethiopian church the children all get to sit up at the front by the choir and at the feet of the minister.
|
| SLIDE 5: |
Sometimes people go on a journey from Masha, in the south of Ethiopia, to towns in the north, to visit their family or to go to university. It is a very long journey which takes several days and because people don't have cars they have to travel by bus, which is often very crowded.
|
| SLIDE 6: |
On the road you can see lots of things which are different from a bus journey in Britain. There are many women who are carrying sticks for their fire at home, or to take to market, as there is no electricity or gas.
|
| SLIDE 7: |
Or they work in the fields. Imagine having to do this for long!
|
| SLIDE 8: |
You would also see lots of children, walking in groups with their friends and brothers and sisters. They travel to get water for their families as they don't have taps, and all the children must help their parents with housework. They are also travelling to school. Some children walk as far as ten miles to get there and ten miles to get back every day! The bus must also be very careful not to hit any goats or horses that are grazing on the road because they are not kept in fields.
|
| SLIDE 9: |
As you travel north you will hear the languages changing many times as there are many different tribes and groups who live along the route. The landscape will change from green with lots and lots of trees to just fields, and then to desert, and the houses will change in shape and materials.
|
| SLIDE 10: |
Often the bus stops at some of the larger towns on the road and the passengers can get off and have some coffee at a café. Coffee is supposed to have come originally from Ethiopia, or the region it is in, and there is a province near Masha called Kaffa, where coffee gets its name from. All Ethiopians drink coffee - even children - and they have it with sugar or salt.
|
| SLIDE 11: |
In the north of Ethiopia there is a different sort of church. This is called the Ethiopian Tewahedo Church; it is one of the oldest churches in the world. (There are some of these churches in the south, too, but most people in Masha go to the Protestant church.) The Ethiopian Orthodox church has a priest who dresses differently from the ordinary people and often carries a big golden decorated cross so people can see he is a priest. You can see a couple of these crosses in the picture. Often people who pass him in the street will kiss the cross to show respect and devotion to God. (In Masha, the Protestant minister wears a suit like all the other men, and only wears a simple little wooden cross around his neck.)
|
| SLIDE 12: |
The Ethiopian Orthodox churches are often painted in many bright colours with illustrations from Bible stories all over the walls and many colourful paintings. (Also in the building they have what they believe to be the Ark of the Covenant, which no-one is allowed to see apart from the priest once a year.)
|
| SLIDE 13: |
So, as you can see, life in Ethiopia is very different from life in Britain. But there are lots of differences within Ethiopia too! It's a huge country, with a long history, but which is also changing rapidly. Sometimes it seems as if the country might break apart - but one of the things that joins people together is their faith in Jesus. And this makes a link with people in Britain too. In the picture you can see an Ethiopian Bible. It looks very different from our Bibles in the UK - even the alphabet is different - but the words and message are the same:
|
| SLIDE 1: (rpt) |
Jesus unites different people into one family, however different they may be on the surface. As Saint Paul says, 'There is one body and one Spirit - just as you were called to one hope when you were called - one Lord, one faith, one baptism; one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all.' (Ephesians 4:4-6) |
