we sit in a little room wrapped in blue tarps, filled with smoke. a woman walks out with her coffee pot & fills our espresso glasses to the brim with the richest coffee i have ever had. as we sip our ethiopian coffee, we all lean in to listen to the honey man tell his tale:
to start, his dad & mom had him & an older brother. his older brother went to school two hours away each day, but the honey man stayed home to help on the farm. each day he woke up & begged his dad to allow him to go to school. it wasn’t until a new school opened up 45 minutes away that his dad allowed him to go, with the stipulation that it was only to grade 4 so that he could learn to sign his name.
once grade 4 came & went, his father graciously allowed him to continue going to school. however, now it was two hours away & he would be required to pay for the majority of it on his own. BUT that didn’t stop the honey man.
as he went away to school each day, he met many new friends, one of whom shared Jesus with him. he began to pray, seek Jesus, & even started going to church with this friend. initially he was spooked because people spoke in tongues, but then he read in Acts that when the Holy Spirit came upon the disciples, they spoke in tongues. so, he prayed for that ability & the Lord granted him his prayer. walking 4 hours each day to & from school now seemed like nothing. he would speak in tongues & pray the entire time. he never felt tired or weak & was blessed to walk in the presence of the Lord.
one day on his walk home from school, he heard the buzzing of bees. he quickly looked for the swarm but couldn’t see them anywhere. after minutes of confusion, he asked God, “what is this noise? why am i hearing the buzzing of bees?” he heard God say he needed to build a hive at home. that night he made a homemade beehive & the next morning he awoke to the sound of buzzing. he immediately ran outside & saw that his hive was filled to the brim with a colony of honeybees. within three months, there was enough honey to be collected & sold (a normal timeline would have needed at least a year). & thus began the honey man’s business (& his name). he sold honey, chickens & eggs to fund his schooling & help continue his education.
each year that he approached an increase in tuition or the requirement of a national exam to continue, he felt the Lord urging him forward. “continue! keep going!” after many years of hard work & countless amounts of honey & eggs being sold, the honey man made it to university. he felt the Lord tell him to study social work, since a social worker had helped him get this far. after taking the national exam, he ranked the universities he wished to attend & then ranked the majors he wished to study. at this point, it was up to the computer to look at his score & rankings & pick a school & major. God did his magic & the honey man was one of 90 students all across ethiopia chosen to begin studying in the social work program.
after one semester, his honey & eggs were not enough to fund him. he travelled back to his village for holiday. there he met ralph & glenda, the founders of HOPEthiopia. she felt the Lord tell her to sponsor the honey man & so he went back to school with just enough money to finish his degree. when he graduated in june 2016, he got a job in november at HOPEthiopia as a social worker for the children.
but that’s not the end of the honey man’s story. he felt God tell him he was going to use him to bring others to know the true God. what began as one young boy in a village hearing the buzzing of bees has now led to his brother & his family being saved, the building of a church on his inherited land & now between 5-10 other families in a predominantly muslim/eastern orthodox community coming to the protestant faith.
God promised his people that he would give them a land flowing with milk & honey. now the honey man is looking after widows & orphans by advocating for those his community has left behind. he is still providing the community with eggs & honey AND he has turned his land into a place where those around him can get to know the truth & become fully alive in Jesus. his original hive is still active 13 years later & his father still sells the honey. join me & the honey man in prayer for each batch sold, that the heavenly honey can be a medium that the Holy Spirit can use to bring the rest of his community to know the one true God!
