John Haspels, temporarily in the United States from Ethiopia, was the principal speaker at the morning service Sunday, September 1, 2001, at the First Presbyterian Church. He described some of his experiences there and the reasons for his activities. Afterwards he had lunch with a group of interested parishioners and in the evening he talked further to a group of interested church members.

Haspels is no stranger to Ethiopia. He was brought there when he was six months old by his parents who were missionaries to an isolated group of people. Many of his experiences since then have been of the type associated with the old time missionary venturing to bring light to darkest Africa. He told of the trip he and his wife made to his current location in southwest Ethiopia by car, dugout canoe, and tractor to a location where their home for the first six months was a tent. He tells of one church service where a dead rat and a snake dropped out of the thatched roof to the floor behind him. Another time he was threatened by a man with a loaded AK47. He described the increditable bravery of a new convert who cut down a tree known locally as a witch tree. The family and neighbors of the convert gathered around to watch the horrible death that they expected to be visited upon him. When it did not happen, the status of the local Christians was greatly enhanced.

But John Haspels is no old-fashioned missionary. He works on a contract from the Ethiopian government with the Suri, a semi-nomadic group of people, 30,000 strong, living in southwest Ethiopia. He is charged with improving the infrastructure of the region, constructing roads, bridges, utilities, and schools. But he is more concerned with other aspects of their lives. He works in close consultation with a national church organization and with the Presbyterian Frontier Missions organization.

One of the problems that he constantly wrestles with is the question of how to keep his culture from intruding on the basic Christian gospel, which he is trying to convey. Any missionary today faces questions like, "Do you eat and dress like the people you are trying to reach? Do you preach to them or just live quietly among them while watching for opportunities to talk to them about Christ? Do you introduce them to watches, radios, money, and other modern devices, or do you withhold such things because of the possibility of throwing their way of life into a tailspin?"

These are hard questions, which do not have easy answers. Among the Suri there is a growing Christian Community and different people have different expectations of that community on issues as small as the type of clothing to be worn. Haspels serves as a mediating influence between the local culture and the expectations of a wider world.

Haspels stated that the biggest change agent introduced into Suri culture recently was not Christianity, but the AK47. That gun is now owned by most of the men in the group. One result has been the weakening of the traditional way of dealing with grievances and an increase in revenge killings. Electricity from portable generators and satellite dishes for the reception of TV are slowly entering the region where the Suri live. Haspels is apprehensive about the effect that American TV programs will have on the life and attitudes of the Suri. It is clear that the culture of the Suri will change even more. The Christian gospel offers a way for that change to go.

Fascinating information about the Suri people can be found in an article in the February 1991 issue of the National Geographic magazine. Information about Presbyterian Frontier Missions is available on the internet at http://www.pff.org.

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Last update 2002-07-29 09:46:28