Message from the Executive Director

by Richard Haney

Last year, I visited our ministry partners and projects in Southwest Ethiopia. I traveled with my colleague Bob Von Schimmelmann, and we were guided by retired missionary John Haspels, who spent a number of years working in the region. I remember driving slowly through the town of Mizan early one morning en route to the village of Tulegit. Along the dusty roads, I stayed alert to spy a hawk, rabbit or other wildlife.

Tulegit is home to the Suri––a semi-nomadic people group which has begun to embrace the Gospel in recent years. During our visit there, I met Ulrike and Endashaw who headed up the Suri Literacy Project, an initiative using the partially translated Suri Bible to help children learn to read and write in their own language. Ulrike, a teacher from Germany, led the project for several years. She had to return to Germany last summer, but Endashaw, an Ethiopian teacher from Mizan, was willing to lead the project going forward. Frontier Fellowship joined the work by contributing toward his salary and funding a new assistant.

We were shocked and grieved to learn last November that Endashaw had been ambushed and killed. And recently, another teacher in the village of Tulegit also was murdered, apparently in a case of mistaken identity.

Sadly, these weren’t isolated events. The Suri practice retributive justice or vengeance. It’s a tragic custom that creates an endless cycle of violence and claims the lives of innocent victims.

Years ago, John Haspels and his wife Gwen were ambushed and shot while driving. Though they escaped with their lives, they carry the scars and injuries to this day. Yet after months of surgeries and recovery in the US, they returned to Ethiopia and publicly forgave their assailant. This profound act rippled throughout Suri communities. People responded to the message of Jesus and asked to be baptized. Churches began to grow.

Yet the recent murders remind us that cultural transformation takes time and endures setbacks. We pray for more forgiveness and an end to violence. We believe that Jesus, who laid down His life for His friends (John 15:13) and gives us peace with one another, will bring reconciliation to this region where enmity now reigns among the Suri and neighboring groups like the Dizi, Bench and Toposa. We’re confident in the power of the Holy Spirit to redeem communities and belief systems. May the ongoing translation of God’s Word become food and drink for needy souls.

For all of us are hungry for Good News and thirsty for peace.