As we arrived in Bahir Dar and got settled into our hotel room for the night we received a phone call. We wondered who could be calling us and who knew we had arrived. Assuming it was a wrong number I picked up the phone anyway and the voice on the other end asked "do you remember me- Amsolu, my wife Geddam and I worked with you in the Sudan." I couldn't believe it. His wife had been the cook for our Relief team and we hadn't heard from them in 13 years. They had returned to Ethiopia and he was a key leader in the church in Bahir Dar that we are planning to work with, in fact they are responsible for the entire northwest area of Ethiopia. He was the one who had drawn up the recent proposals for SIM for work among the Youth, Street Kids and other needs. It was a great reunion and chance 
to sit down with him and discuss the needs in Bahir Dar and what can be done about them.He has not had an easy time of it, being asked to move 5 times in the past few years because of religious persecution. The army had to intervene one time to prevent a mob from decimating their newly established church. The government strongly supports freedom of religion and has recently given him some land of his own, so if he can scrape enough money together to put up a house, he should be free from further evictions.
We surveyed some of the social concerns in Bahir Dar with more than 6 thousand street children, some of them as young as three or four. Bahir Dar has the highest HIV rate in Ethiopia. We discovered several factors that are exasperating and perpetuating the situation.
Many young women end up on the street for a variety of reasons including they have lost one or both of their parents. The town is both a university town (10,000 students), a tourist town, and an army garrison town. Many young women turn to prostitution to provide an income for themselves and to try and provide for their siblings.The street children organize themselves in little bands, which become their family. To a certain extent they look out for each other but we are also told there is a lot of treachery. At least half the kids we met needed serious medical help. Many had open sores and wounds. The task is far too big for any kind of institutional approach.
One of the other key leaders in the small church we hope to work with in Bahir Dar is a key leader for the University Students. He is the only staff member for a totally indigenous university fellowship of Christians. There are many students meeting in small groups to study the Bible and grow in their faith.We see the University Students as the key for addressing the social and spiritual needs of the town. The street kids and the young women all look up to the University students. In fact many of the street kids are already following the university students around and follow them right to their small group Bible studies. If you could mobilize a force of students to address the social and spiritual needs of the town, they could have
a huge impact. Ebenezer is also responsible for the university fellowship in Gondar, a town 150Km to the north of Bahir Dar. He says there are many students meeting in small groups in that town.We are encouraged at the potential we see for God to do great things in the north of Ethiopia, but we also realize the challenges are enormous and many of the problems are rooted deep in the culture and values of the people.
Bahir Dar is located on Lake Tana, the largest lake in Ethiopia. They still use traditional papyrus boats to navigate and fish the lake. We had opportunity to take an excursion on the lake, visit one of the many island monasteries and sight some hippos.
Over the Christmas break (from me teaching and Sue in language school) we plan to return to Bahir Dar and continue our survey work as well as take an excursion farther north to Gondor and Axum.Sue is doing well in her Amharic course, but she is really putting a lot of work into it and is finding it quite challenging.
Sarah and Rachel seem to have totally adjusted to life at the school (Bingham) and really love it here. If we move to Bahir Dar next year they will find it a lot more difficult to adjust.
