Posts by Renita

Addis Ababa is a beautiful city of close to four million people, sitting at about 8000 feet above sea level. It is a city of beautiful people, lovely views, great food, and cultural richness. Ethiopian people seem to love Ethiopia (maybe that sounds obvious but there are many people who don’t like their own country). We have heard a number of Ethiopians tell us that if they were given a chance to live anywhere in the world, they...

On Saturday morning, I worked with my students on their income and expenditure analysis and the budget that they formed for their family (we work on both personal as well as organizational/church budgeting). One pastor showed me his budget, which wasn’t balancing, and we looked for options of where he could reduce expenses to help his budget balance.  I noticed he had about $33 in his food budget for the month and asked him how...

“I had to come to Africa to hear an American woman speak about ‘Work as Worship’!” This was a quote from an El Salvadorian woman who joined the ICM-USA team to do some work in Kitale, Kenya.  She has lived in the US for twenty years and joined our workshop for the Anglican Church of Kenya (ACK) on Friday morning.  She was amazed by this message which had eluded her in the church.  It’s amazing to see how...

“Church begins on Monday…Sunday is garage time.” This is a quote from a Kenyan Marketplace Minister.  This is one of many analogies that we hear about the need to change how we define the Church. She went on to describe that Sunday is the day for the vehicle (ourselves) to be refueled, have oil changes, or minor repairs.  But being the light of Christ begins when we leave the building and become the Church scattered,...

On Saturday, I leave for a longer trip (six weeks) to East Africa, starting in Tanzania, then to Kenya, then to Ethiopia.  It feels like I just got home…in part because in some ways I did just get home, but also there was a good amount of travel while I was home these past three weeks. As the schedule for DML continues to intensify and the requests from churches and schools grows, it can feel overwhelming at times to try to...