Selam had come from Addis Ababa three years ago. Her English was now fluent for work at the hospital lab, but her soul still spoke Amharic. When she prayed, the words came in the ancient Ge'ez cadence of her childhood. When she dreamed, she was still walking the dusty paths of her grandmother’s village.
Selam sat on the edge of her narrow bed in her Washington, D.C., apartment, the thin January light struggling through the frost-covered window. In her hands, she held two Bibles. One was a large, worn leather volume in Amharic, its pages soft as old cloth. The other was a crisp, new English Bible, a gift from her coworker, Sarah. bible study in amharic
For the next hour, Selam didn't just translate. She unlocked . She showed them how the Amharic word for "grace" ( tselot ) also means "the shadow of a rock in a thirsty land." She explained that the Lord's Prayer in Amharic begins with "Our Father who is in the heavens" using a plural form that suggests a vast, communal, starry home. She read the Beatitudes, and the group heard for the first time that "blessed are the poor in spirit" in Amharic carries a sense of being "empty-handed"—not lacking belief, but having let go of everything to receive God. Selam had come from Addis Ababa three years ago
Selam wanted to say, But will they understand the poetry of the Psalms in Amharic? Will they know that when we say ‘God is my shepherd,’ the word in my language also means ‘the one who guides me through the high passes’? When she dreamed, she was still walking the
