Our first Sunday in church, the children and I walked 5 minutes to the Gesses church and Rolf went with John Coleman (missionary who used to live in Gesses) to another Gumuz church that took an hour by car and footpath. These are the two existing Gumuz churches. The second Sunday, we all attended the Gesses church together.
This bench holds several of the evangelists who have begun taking turns preaching, leading singing and teaching Sunday school. This is a very new role for them as until March, the Ethiopian highland evangelists led the service. The Ethiopian evangelists have all left for different reasons but Gumuz believers are now ready to be trained in evangelism and discipleship.
Barry & Nicole & Simon walking to church. The whole area that we live slopes upwards towards the school and church and then to the main road that leads to Addis.
This picture is taken facing the opposite direction and Rolf and the kids are walking up the slope towards the church. The large tent in the picture is where different building materials were stored in the past - cement, sand, wood, etc. I haven't actually looked inside but I think it is fairly empty.
A bell (big piece of metal strung up in a tree that is hit with another piece of metal) is rung at 8am Sunday morning . The ringing can be heard quite a distance and lets the surrounding villages know that church will soon begin. It is rung again 20 minutes later and that is when we leave our house. Of course we must stop to pet our station's donkey.
"Sunday shoes" during rainy season. They will be replaced by flip flops and sandals in another month or two.
It rained the night before so the ground was wet and slippery and one has to watch out for animal dung as well. Goats, donkeys and cows are plentiful around Gesses.
The blue building is the church. It was actually constructed as a multi-purpose building for Gumuz mother tongue teacher training and then for Gr.1-4 classes. Our hope is to see Gumuz meet together in village churches. Presently Gumuz believers come from the surrounding villages to meet here.
Most Sundays about 25 Gumuz men, 25 children and 1 or 2 women meet together.
Everyone sits in a large circle and the drummer sits in the middle (he is not present in this picture).
The children leave for Sunday school during the teaching time. Joel was the only one who sat through Sunday school with the Gumuz children. (I think the kids heard a full length sermon in Gumuz and sang a few songs). The incentive at the end was that Joel got a bag of biscuits like the other Gumuz children.
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