Meskel, or ‘cross” is the name of a holiday that the Ethiopian Orthodox Church celebrates. The full name of the festival is “The Finding of the True Cross.” According to their tradition, God spoke in a dream to a woman named Helena, who was the mother of Constantine, the first Christian Emperor of Rome. In the dream, God instructed Helena to light a fir tree on fire. The smoke from the burning tree miraculously led Helena and her friends to a certain place on the ground. When people dug into the ground at that place, they found the true cross on which Jesus died.
Continue reading “Finding the True Cross”We Have a Better Story
Here is a story I hope you will enjoy: These men are all pastors in our sister church in Uganda, Obadiah Lutheran Synod.
At the request of OLS, I led them in learning from September 2–13. We met in the Bugiri District of southeastern Uganda, just north of the Equator.
Continue reading “We Have a Better Story”We are Different
“We Are Different.” It was a saying often repeated during our time together. For two weeks, Gambela Evangelical Lutheran Church leaders studied God’s Word with Missionaries Dan Kroll and Joel Hoff. Time spent in Scripture helped the leaders become more confident in their beliefs. It also helped them better understand what made their church different from all the others in Gambela, Ethiopia.
Continue reading “We are Different”