Hooray, the book Arthur Champion and I have spent a while editing and compiling is released and selling well. I largely did the editing, proofreading and updating and Arthur, very kindly did the work of compiling and publishing.

But why edit and release such a book? Who was this woman? A small, slight figure who spoke with a quiet voice, Jember, although a niece of Haile Selassis and brought up in relative luxury, was determined to do something to raise the lot of thousands of slum dwellers in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.

David Dimbleby in a BBC documentary once referred to Jember as a ‘modern day Mother Teresa’. By contrast, Jember, a very humble, self-effacing character, often referred to herself as an ‘international beggar for the urban poor.’ But however, you want to describe her, this lady saved thousands out of poverty by building them concrete houses or condominiums instead of basic shelters, establishing some proper plumbed in sanitation, education for the children and employment for the poor, so that they could be largely self-governing.

So what is my connection to Jember? On arriving in Cheltenham around 25 years ago, my husband and I started attending a church called Glenfall Fellowship. The leader of that church, a Reverend Scotland’s wife, had attending a school in Wales with Jember. Jember considered Glenfall as her home church. We kept an account for her and various members of the church visited the projects from time to time, including myself and Arthur, and two very keen photographers in Ben and Steve. This is why we have so many great photographs of the work. Then annually, Jember would come to Cheltenham for a day’s conference to report on the ongoing work.

It has been a privilege knowing her – sadly she died in January 2021 – and being asked by her to collect together all her Bible thoughts and prayers. However, Arthur and I have done much more than collect together Jember’s thoughts and prayers on the various Bible verses. Her reflections are split up into various sections with the biography covering those years explaining the context of them. The full colour illustrations give the reader an idea of the projects she ran and the changes she made. But this isn’t my book or Arthur’s book at the end of the day, it is Jember’s and it has been my absolute privilege to tell her story and share her thoughts. I hope this book will bless many. I am only sorry that no publisher was prepared to tell such an amazing story.

It is available directly from me at my email address of journojohnson@aol.com. It is £10 to cover the printing costs but over and above that, Arthur and I hope that you will be able to give a little more and sponsor her work in one of two different ways – by contributing to the Birhan College bsdtcc@gmail.com (to train up more workers to continue this work); or to Tesfa www.tesfa-trust.org/contact(to sponsor children, AIDS orphans or the elderly).