"Small Groups" Impact Ethiopia

(pictured above, our team visits the home of a young HIV widow living on the mountain.)

On my recent trip to Ethiopia, our team got to partner with a church in the capital that is really getting things done. Not because they have these big outreach "programs" or church wide service "projects". They are reaching their city because the people, the everyday believers in their church body, are living out their faith to those in their city that are hurting, hungry, sick, unemployed, and homeless by building relationships and serving them with love.

Our team visited several different "small groups**" from this church, and each one had a different heart and different vision to serve a segment of the local population (usually unchurched people).

One "small group" we worked with told us how they heard about a group of people, infected with HIV/AIDS, that move to a mountain outside the city because of rumors there is healing water there. Many of those infected with the disease become outcasts in their families and villages, they lose their jobs along with their ability to provide for their own needs, so moving to the mountain seems like their only choice. When they move, they are not only hoping to be cured, they also just seek to disappear, believing what society tells them: they are unworthy of love, care, or help.

(pictured above, our team visited homes of several HIV/AIDS sufferers up on the mountain to hear their stories and pray with them.)

When the "small group" heard about these people, numbering around 4,000 at the time, they began to pray-- asking God how do you want us to help them? For a year all this "small group" did was pray, research the needs and situations of the people on the mountain, and BUILD RELATIONSHIPS with them. Every person in their group would go to the mountain top a few times and week and just meet the people, spend time in their homes, bring them a decent meal, listen to their stories, and love them. During that year, the "small group" even held a feast on the mountain top, where they cooked for several hundred people.

After a year of knowing and understanding those they sought to love, this "small group" banded together to try to create sustainable, tangible ways to impact and better these peoples' lives. First they started a small business in order to employ those adults battling the disease. Many of the people infected with HIV/AIDS are refused work or are too sick to keep regular jobs. So the "small group" started a jewelry making business to provide work for the HIV/AIDS friends they had made. They give each person two 3-hr shifts a week and pay them several times the average wage in the city. The "small group" taught them how to make the jewelry, they provide the supplies, and they sell the finished products at NGO bazaars, local churches and to international teams that come through the city. This is a job they can do while they are weak or strong.

(pictured above, our team visited some of the jewelry makers hard at work.)

As they started the business, they decided to rent a small house on the road to the mountain top to make it easier for the sick people to get to work. This home quickly became not only a place for their job, but also a safe place to come and hang out. Like a small community center.

Once they started this new jewelry making business, the "small group" noticed many of the people brought their kids with them to work. And the kids would just sit around. So they decided to start helping the kids too. Now, every Saturday, they hold a Kids Club where they teach music, art, sports, and English (using the Bible and Bible stories). Plus they feed the kids a healthy meal while they're there.

(pictured above, Shara & Melissa from our team taught a lesson from the Bible about Zacchaeus & Jesus to the Kids Club.)

(pictured above, Birukti & Melissa join the kids in a game of jump rope during the sports class.)

With the Kids Club underway, then the "small group" started noticing that the parents would come with the kids on Saturdays and just sit around. So they started teaching a class for the parents during the same time-- different topics each week like health classes, parenting skills, computer skills, English, and a ton of other stuff.

(pictured above, a nurse from our team taught the parents' class health tips for HIV/AIDS sufferers.)

While we were in Ethiopia, the "small group" was gearing up to implement their latest idea to serve the HIV/AIDS population on the mountain. They are starting a library where adults, kids, or families can come and check out books to practice reading and learning English.

All of this started from one "small group"-- literally a few dozen believers who knew each other from church. They are sacrificing their own money, they are spending their own time, they are using their own ideas, they are investing PERSONALLY in the lives of those they want to serve. They are not waiting for the Big Church to help, they are simply being intentional themselves. They are meeting the needs of this HIV/AIDS community together, as a band of believers who love the suffering people in their town.

It was really neat to witness and really inspiring when I think about the "small groups" in my own church. I hope we are as visionary, bold, willing, and intentional as the pockets of believers I met in Ethiopia!

** There are so many buzz words for what Stone calls "missional communities"-- like small groups, community groups, home care groups, cell groups, home groups, core groups, etc.-- but for this post, I'll just call em "small groups". What I mean by that is a group of 10-30 Christians from the church that meet together weekly, outside of a Sunday church service, to share prayer, encouragement, service, Bible, etc.