The love Ethiopians have for others challenged me when I visited this country -- one of the first to receive the Gospel. This hospitality is a part of their Christian heritage. In about 614 CE the earliest believers in the message of Mohammed were experiencing persecution in their home city of Mecca. Mohammed sent them to Ethiopia for refuge, where they were warmly received and protected. Perhaps as a result of this, the verse was written, “Thou wilt surely find the nearest of them in love to the believers are those that say ‘We are Christians.’” Surah 5:85 (Arberry, The Koran Interpreted)

The Ethiopian response to their Muslim guests sets an intriguing example. The earliest Christian writings about Islam treated the new religion as a Christian heresy, and shaped a continuing antagonistic approach by the vast majority of the Christian world. But the very first relationships were one of hospitality to a neighbor! It occurs to me that our Ethiopian sisters and brothers demonstrate a way to break down the dividing walls of hostility we find in so many places today. It is Christ only who can “break down the dividing walls of hostility." And the first step in breaking down these walls is an expression of Christ’s love.

I was personally overwhelmed by the warmth of the welcome given to me and the members of the global team by our new Ethiopian friends. Plus, we owe Ethiopia a tremendous debt. Ethiopia gave us coffee! Jeanine, my wife, gave me a greeting card last year that said, “If I could drink enough coffee, I could conquer the world.” I would modify that to: “If we could love enough, we could conquer the world.”

-- Walt White