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Sometime in the night of May 8 this year, Pat Hornberger was awakened by a dream in which she saw an automobile accident. She was so concerned, she spent the rest of the night praying for 16 members of her church, Solana Beach (Calif.) Presbyterian, who were on a two-week trip to Ethiopia. Two other members of the same church also woke up that night and were moved to pray for the team.There had, indeed, been a car accident involving the Ethiopia missions team, one that injured three people. And this accident, it turned out, became a turning point for the trip, for Solana Beach's 55-year history, and, we trust, for a little-known people in East Africa, the Afar.Short-term missions had always been a part of this affluent United Presbyterian Church of 2,000 members in north San Diego County. Teams had traveled to a Presbyterian hospital north of Nairobi, Kenya, to rebuild its maternity ward. Other teams went to Malawi and Mexico, while young people traveled on longer mission opportunities. But this was not just another missions trip: it was a long-term, highly focused, investment in an overlooked people group.The trip to Ethiopia was the culmination of several years of prayer and planning by the staff of Solana Beach Presbyterian Church. Our missions pastor, Tom Therault, has been keenly interested in isolated peoples. As the newly installed senior pastor, and having served 20 years on the board of World Vision, I was convinced of the urgent need to meet both physical and spiritual needs of all the world's people, especially the poor.

The church's missions committee appointed a sub-committee to research and pray. They selected the Afar, whose 1.7 million members claim to be descendants of Noah's son Ham. Mostly nomads who care for cattle, camel, sheep, and other livestock, the Afar live in clans of 200 to 1,000 people on the parched deserts of Ethiopia, as well as in Eritrea, Somalia, and Djibouti.While a few Christians, including some from the indigenous Mekane Yesu Church, have worked among the Afar for decades, these Islamic people are largely overlooked by aid agencies. Further, temperatures of up to 125 degrees make the land unattractive to prospective government workers who provide health care and other services. Fewer than one in four Afaris has access to health care. In 1992 just 10 percent of Afari children were enrolled in primary school, and fewer than 3 percent of eligible students were in secondary school.My own relationship with Ethiopia dates back to my involvement in World Vision's relief work during the great famine of the mid-1980s. Because of cyclical droughts, a century of ecological degradation, and uneven distribution of wealth, Ethiopia's population of 60 million is subject to recurring famines. Poverty is a constant: Ethiopia's per-capita income is just $350 a year.But Ethiopia also is a land of great strengths: a proud, ancient people and strong religious traditions, both Christian and Muslim. World Vision's efforts to reverse environmental degradation in Ethiopia's Antsokia Valley proved that the land could be fertile, allowing farmers to produce food even when rains fail. In fact, the relative oasis of Antsokia attracted thousands of Afari nomads, and their livestock, in search of pasture and food in this year's drought.As we accumulated facts about these people, our thinking increasingly moved beyond the usual one-shot, short-term mission project. As a congregation, we wanted to make a significant investment in these people.This meant, first, partnering with local Ethiopian Christians. We have been working with the Evangelical Church of Mekane Yesu (House of Jesus). This church was founded by a freed Ethiopian slave and has worked with Presbyterian and Lutheran missionaries, as well as with World Vision.Second, this meant a major financial commitment over a period of years. Solana Beach has committed at least $650,000 during the next five years to meet some Afari needs: improved irrigation and livestock, an adequate supply of safe drinking water, medical care, and education.Third, it meant regular contact with the people to whom, and with whom, we are trying to minister.

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August 7 2000, Vol. 44, No. 9