Celebrating Relationship

A Letter from Sharon Kandel, mission co-worker serving in the Horn of Africa

Fall 2024

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Dear friends,

In November of this year, I will be joining many from the U.S. in Ethiopia to celebrate the relationship of Presbyterians in the U.S. with those in Ethiopia. The relationship started in 1919 when Dr. Lambie arrived in the Western Wollega region, in a town called Dembi Dollo.

Over the years there have been many missionaries to Ethiopia, working on construction, theological training, medical, education, farming, wells and other things.

The Bethel (Presbyterian) Synod Coordinating Office compound in Addis Ababa circa 1973

There was the intention, even from those first missionaries, to bring the Gospel, train people and then to leave the church in the hands of the Ethiopians. While it did not happen quite the way those first missionaries envisioned, it has been a relationship that has endured and grown. There are areas where the work was left in the hands of the local people and those schools and seminaries are still ongoing and even growing. The work of spreading the news of Jesus Christ has multiplied the church far beyond what those early people imagined.

The celebration in November is four-fold. It will be 105 years since Dr. Lambie first arrived in Ethiopia and 100 years since the Bethel Mekane Yesus Girls School in Addis Ababa was founded. This girls’ school is considered one of the best in Addis Ababa and has a waiting list of students hoping to attend. We will also be celebrating 85 years since the first pastor was ordained and 50 years since the Bethel Synods (Presbyterians) joined the Ethiopia Evangelical Church Mekane Yesus.

While I do not have a lot of pictures to show, I do have two of the Bethel Synod Coordinating Office (BSCO) in Addis Ababa. This was originally the American Mission compound and was turned over to the Bethel Synod in 1977. In the old picture, you will see construction starting on the new building for the girls’ school and in the second picture you will see the newer guest house right in front of the girls’ school.

There are so many things to be thankful for and to celebrate but also an opportunity to look back and see what was done well, what needs to change and create a new vision for the future, together.

I am so blessed to be able to go to Ethiopia twice a year and have conversations about relationship, agreeing to disagree, talking about the future, politics in both countries, sharing prayer concerns and celebrating successes. That is what relationship and friendship is all about.

Sharing our lives with one another, being open to learn from each other and willing to challenge each other. Yes, it can get messy with different cultural expectations, but it is in figuring all of that out that we learn that we are really the same and want the same things in life.

The Bethel (Presbyterian) Synod Coordinating Office compound today.

While I am excited to go for this celebration, I am also well aware that right next door in Sudan there is a war going on. Sudan has a longer relationship with the Presbyterians in the U.S. and yet there is no celebration happening. Instead, there is famine and death, fear and sickness. We live in a very broken world where people are willing to kill for power. I will be Ethiopia, at the girls’ school celebrating while in Sudan the churches are being destroyed, people are displaced and so much history is being destroyed. I am humbled by the communications that I receive from Sudan, by people keeping Nile Theological College going even while living in a place far from the college, people protecting the orphaned as best they can, Christian leaders trying to influence the leaders of the country. While there is not much to celebrate in Sudan, we can celebrate that God is still active in Sudan and we can pray for the people of Sudan.

These two countries, right beside each other, one at war and one working towards a better peace within. How can we, Christians around the world, be a witness to God’s love for all and how can we feed the hungry, clothe the naked and give water to the thirsty? Sometimes it just seems so overwhelming and then I remember that Ethiopia was not always at peace, that the church really struggled through some very hard years but now we are celebrating what came out of that hard time. Are things perfect? No. But things are changing, and I see God at work in so many places and people.

If you have ever wanted to visit Ethiopia, let me suggest you come for the celebration in November and then stay and visit some of our partners. You will not be disappointed.

Please keep Sudan, Ethiopia and South Sudan in your prayers just as you keep the U.S. in your prayers. Also, please know that our friends and partners in each of these countries are praying for the U.S. and for the Church in the U.S.

Thank you for your prayers for me as I travel back and forth to the Horn of Africa, sharing about the U.S. and then trying my best to share with you all what is happening there. I also thank you for your financial support that lets me do the work God has called me to do.

Sharon