Worship in the Sky

How much would you risk for a majestic worship experience? In northern Ethiopia, one pastor has been risking his life every day for more than 50 years to climb a sheer rock face barefoot in order to welcome his congregation in a rock-hewn 5th-century chapel sculpted out of the face of a cliff.

For visitors, the two-hour journey begins with a hike to the base of the cliff, followed by removing their shoes and ascending for nearly an hour up the steep, dusty sandstone to Aguna Yemata Guh, a chapel named for its founder, Father Yemata. For Priest Gebre Rufael Asresseha, the experience is both breathtakingly spiritual and a daily routine: "When [visitors] see it from afar, they get scared -- thinking they will fall. But then we encourage them. We tell them, 'Grab here; step on there,' and they feel encouraged. And they will climb it, and they won't turn back."

The tiny chapel boasts ceiling frescoes and an original 5th-century goatskin Bible, still in use during services. And just beyond the chapel door is a perilous but majestic cliff dropping more than 650 feet straight down to the valley below. (For a glimpse of this Tigray Region chapel, look here: Aguna Yemata Guh.)

As Jesus reminds his disciples in Luke 6, we are called to live this faith fully, giving everything that we are to the Lord and his plans for our lives: Give, and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over, will be poured into your lap. For with the measure you use, it will be measured to you. (Luke 6:38)

What will you give this week, risking your own discomfort? Are you willing to remove your comfortable shoes and scale a perilous upward path, confident in the faithfulness of the Lord?

Christ's peace to you,

Jennie