Timothy and Tammy Aho plant churches in inner-city communities near Birmingham, England. One way they serve is with a network of churches comprised mainly of asylum seekers from the country of Eritrea in Africa. They recently organized the young people they are discipling at one Eritrean church to lead an English language worship service, focused on the theme of thanksgiving. Here is an excerpt from Tim’s message at the service that may help you express your gratitude during the holiday season.

We live in a day, a season, when many people think they are owed something or deserve what they have. Or, there are those times when one doesn’t feel grateful and cannot find anything for which to be grateful. It’s an ungrateful season.

A little over four years ago we were stateside with Tammy’s dad in his last weeks of life as cancer took its toll on his body. While he was in hospice, my mum passed away unexpectedly with a heart attack. Ten days later, my father-in-law died. We were numb for the four weeks during that time, and another four weeks after we returned to England.

Early in those weeks a friend wrote to encourage us, and suggested we keep our eyes open for the “little blessings” along the way. I am so glad we listened to her, because we found multiple reasons to be grateful to God in a difficult set of circumstances.

Here’s my suggestions for being thankful in an ungrateful season:

• Be humble. Don’t use the language of gratitude as a means of bragging or manipulating God (see Luke 18.9-14).
• Be specific. Name the act, feeling, circumstance, or person for which you are grateful.
• Be personal. Go and express your offering of thanks in person or hand-write a card or letter.
• Be bold. Even if there is some tension or distance in a relationship, expressing gratitude to that person may lead to reconciliation.
• Be grateful together. Corporately expressing thankfulness together is powerful, encouraging, and transformative.

Dunns serve the exploited and dying in Addis Ababa

Amanda Dunn drove through the streets of Kore, Ethiopia, in the pouring rain. She was looking for her friend Hannah, who was out selling bread she had made as part of her job skills training program in the kitchen at Hareg House that morning. Amanda expected to see her huddled and miserable under cover, but there she was, boldly walking through the rain, determined to find buyers for her products.

Beza was living alone in abject poverty in the town dump in Kore. Dying from both cancer and AIDS, she was so lonely that she didn’t even mind when some young boys came by to taunt and torment her every day, because that was her only human interaction. Then the hospice team from Strong Hearts found her and were able to give her the compassion and medical care she desperately needed.

HOUSE CALL — The Strong Hearts hospice team enters the home of a patient in Kore, Ethiopia.

 

Shared passion

Missionaries Nick and Amanda Dunn’s shared passion to care for the poor, marginalized and exploited people of the world has put them on the front lines of service to the urban poor in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. They visited the CMF home office in Indianapolis recently, and shared some stories from their remarkable ministries.

Hospice care

Nick, a nurse, works with the hospice program run by CMF partner Strong Hearts, managing a team of three nurses and a Public Health Officer (nurse practitioner) to provide home care to the dying poor in a 20-miles radius of Kore, a sub-city of Addis Ababa. A chaplain/evangelist from Serving Hearts Ministries, a division of Strong Hearts, is also a part of the team.

HELP NEEDED — Mekdes, a patient in the hospice program, is suffering from a condition that is very shaming in her culture. She had eight children, but only two survived; she is cared for by her husband and daughter Silenat, who are suffering cultural persecution due to Mekdes’ illness.

 

“When the program first began we found our patients through word of mouth,” said Nick. “Now, after a couple years of educating the hospitals on how we can help, we receive referrals from three hospitals and three clinics, which is a huge victory for us. We carry a continuous caseload of about 25 patients.”

Rescuing women

Amanda developed an interest in human trafficking issues in college, which was intensified by an internship in Thailand. She began working with the Ethiopian agency Ellilta Women at Risk, which helps women rescued from trafficking, prostitution and poverty in Kore, giving them a year of training in life and job skills, plus daily Bible studies.

She raised funds over the past couple of years to open Hareg House, another Ellilta training facility in a different section of the city, and enrolled her first group of eight clients this year.

“This was our huge victory,” Amanda said. “We got the new house open and well-staffed and, after their training, were able to find jobs for some of these women, who previously had no hope for better lives.”

You can help!

There are only two hospice programs in the entire country of Ethiopia, and the Strong Hearts program managed by Nick Dunn is one of them! You can help to ease the suffering of the sick and dying poor of Ethiopia here.

AT HAREG HOUSE —Amanda Dunn, left, poses with some of the Hareg House staff.

Announcing our new Executive Director

We are so grateful for the leadership Doug Priest has brought to CMF as our Executive Director for more than two decades. During his leadership, countless souls have been impacted for Christ. Doug’s leadership has also helped CMF become a very highly-regarded missions organization with missiological credibility, integrity, and effectiveness.

In May 2015, Doug communicated his intention to retire on or before July 31, 2017. We are pleased to announce that Dr. Kip Lines will begin serving as the new Executive Director of CMF on June 1, 2017. He is a visionary leader who is grounded in missions experience and insight; a leader of people who values CMF’s global community of missionaries, donors, and friends; and an inspirational communicator who engages multigenerational and multinational communities.

Kip currently serves as Professor of Intercultural Studies at Hope International University in Fullerton, California, where he has taught since 2012. Before joining the faculty at Hope, his work included intercultural church planting leadership, pastoral ministry in North America, and nine years (1999-2008) as part of CMF’s ministry in Turkana, Kenya. He served as team leader for this work from 2003-2008. During his time in Kenya, Kip founded and served as the dean of the Turkana Bible Training Institute, where he not only developed a two-year curriculum and taught classes but also provided oversight of the entire program and eventually transitioned the Institute to Turkana leadership in 2008.

Kip holds a B.A. in Bible and Ministry from Milligan College, an M.A. in Religion with a major in Christian Doctrine from Emmanuel Christian Seminary, and a Ph.D. in Intercultural Studies with majors in Anthropology and World Religions from Asbury Theological Seminary. He and his wife Katy have two sons, Patrick (18) and Brian (14).

We look forward to working alongside Kip and seeing how he will use his gifts to lead CMF. We hope you will join us in welcoming him!

Sincerely,
Jim Donovan, Chair
CMF Board of Directors