Saved

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It's funny how things happen sometimes. Yesterday I logged on here to catch up on some travel blogs from my recent trips. Are there more important things I can be doing? Yeah, probably. But the travel blog was one of my favorite adventures and I love writing. There's no shame in doing something that gives you joy and causes no one any harm. While exploring the back-end features of travelblog.org (unfamiliar to me now after more than a decade away), I stumbled across the inbox of Private Messages. Convinced that I had never seen these messages before (about 40 of them), I spent several hours yesterday writing replies. Yeah, that was a pretty goofy thing to do. I wasn't able to get through them all in the day, and so I logged in again this morning to continue my replies. That's when I discovered that I'd actually received ALL of these messages before in my email, and replied to most of them.

It sounds like a total boner. I wrote a good dozen emails yesterday to people that I'd already emailed years ago. Waste of time for sure. But, this is the funny part. I actually wrote something worth writing. There was one message that was strange enough to me at the time that I did not reply to it, but in coming across it yesterday and believing it never before seen, I wrote a very long and thoughtful reply. This is the message and reply that I will duplicate for you here.

Saved (May, 2007)

I was writting to ask you is you have been saved i was worried that you were to loose in your letter and i want to make sure that you wouldnt compromise your bodies as a way to pay for the trip-in all your travels have you had the chance to acept Jesus into your life and make Him your love and your way? there is One CREATOR and many false gods the same one that said he made the heavens and the earth made the saying that -- this is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased-- he told us that Jesus is his and he rasied him from the dead so theat we know that we have a sacrafice for our sins and that we can be saved from hell that would be after this for those who didnt trust in him as if by adams sin we were all headed there anyway but because of Jesus we have a way as long as we beleve in him to go to heaven i hope your travels havent got you to relaxed on false gods as traveling can do because i have hitchiked a little in the us on and off the last 3 years now im trying to plane a trip to africa on a kayake from the east coast to rasie money for a mission group i want to start to fund a 25 to 300 ft boat with a green house and cabims to house and teach missionaries and use it as a way to help inner city kids and those that are seeking abortion a way to keep their childern and get parents kids from the burbs and anyone that wants to help out and travel the countries feeding the word and helping others i dont have any cash other then 40 maybe 43 dollars or id help you keep in touch if you want and i pray you marriage happens and you both get to know the Lord regardless of back grounds He loves us all and all he ask is we beleve in his Son and follow his condmanments and love..if i dont see you before ill see you in heaven--Love you--Love him

- Daniel



Daniel,

I thank you for this message. I am receiving it now 15 years after you sent it, on the day that I discovered my Travel Blog inbox full of private messages that I'd never seen.

Yes, I have been saved. I was baptized in Addis Ababa during the Feast of the Resurrection in April, 2019 on the western calendar. I would like to tell you the story of how this came to be.

At the time when I was writing these blogs, I was definitely a fan of Jesus Christ, but I was not a Christian and I had never been baptized. I had studied the Bible many times in my life, but was not convinced of many of the arguments made therein and was definitely not convinced by the claims of ANY of the churches I had encountered up to then. I was more of a Universalist, with many influences ranging from Baha'i to Buddha. I was someone who said things like, "I like Jesus, but I'm not a fan of his followers." I had begun to identify internally as a Rastafarian, but with very little knowledge of what that meant aside from a few snippets of Reggae songs I'd memorized, some ideas I picked up from the streets, and a Bob Marley interview I'd read online.

Before leaving on my trip, I'd taken a Buddhist-inspired path of non-attachment, selling off or giving away pretty much everything I had and leaving behind numerous projects, commitments and responsibilities. Before meeting Chelly, I had the opportunity to visit Buddhist temples all around Southeast Asia--reasoning with monks in Thailand, Laos, and Cambodia. I even stayed 5 days in the monastery at Wat Damnak. I was curious about Buddhism, but I knew I wasn't really a Buddhist. The personal vow I'd taken on January 1st, 2006 to grow my hair and follow Rastafari was more important to me.

While we were living in Sriracha, I told Chelly I was a Rasta and she taught me a lot of things about Africa. She shared her Study Bible, which she kept under her pillow, and I began to look more closely at the holy book. I learned the structure of the Bible, the various periods of history that it covers, and the general narrative of events. I learned about the cycles of prophecy and fulfillment that it told of, and learned that the ministry of Christ in the Gospels was followed by clarifications and expansions given by his closest followers. I also discovered the book of Revelations and its prophecies of our times. I had as well been reading books of popular science (such as "Blink" and "A Short History of Nearly Everything") that gave me a deeper appreciation of the essential interconnectedness of all created things.

While traveling across India, I explored the ideas of the Vedic religions. I was instructed that there are no such things as "Hindus", only varied and diverse religious sects who hold the same Vedic texts as their common root. While learning more about Yoga and Vedas, the sacramental use of Ganja, the pilgrimages in India and importance of holy sites, the holy men and women in Indian culture, I was also reading the Bible. I began to develop this notion of Christ the God-Man as some kind of scientifically tuned-in Guru.

In Hyderabad, at the Charminar, I was given a translation of the Quran into English that I began to study. Having read the Autobiography of Malcolm X in 6th grade, I always considered myself to be influenced by Islam in some way, but I'd never before encountered the Muslim holy text. I was surprised to find that the main characters of the Quran were the same Old Testament patriarchs and prophets from the Bible, with a heavy emphasis on King Solomon and the Queen of Sheba, as well as Mary and Jesus. I was less surprised by the emphasis on the oneness of God and the oneness of humanity--as these were the ideas that had originally influenced me through Baha'i and Malcolm X.

When Chelly brought me to Kenya, a whole new set of African perspectives was introduced. I learned about African traditional religions, the stories and drum beats of the ancestors, and the sacrifices made at the Baobab trees. I worshipped in several joyous African churches, from vaulted Catholic cathedrals to protestant tin shacks. I visited many mosques. At the Kenyan "Hindu" temples, I looked upon paintings that told the stories of Indian mythology and painted their visions of reincarnation and the afterlife.

Two of Chelly's brothers and many of their friends were Rastas. We bonded around a love of good, roots Reggae music, and some essential spiritual and political ideas. This is when I first began to learn about Rastafari, about Haile Selassie I of Ethiopia and the ancient Ethiopian Orthodox Church, about the movements that emerged in Jamaica, and about the Kenyan independence struggle of the Mau Maus. When I met a Rasta on the street, they would inevitably greet me, "Jambo Rasta!" My secret, internal identity was now on the outside and no longer a secret. It was incredibly validating.

After our engagement party, the next stop was Greece. On the plane ride--through Egypt--I read about Egypt's Coptic Christians and their historic descent from the original, undivided Christian Church. Then, in Greece, I discovered the Greek Orthodox Church. The Orthodox Christianity of my forefathers was an important character in the family history that I uncovered. I also visited several Greek churches, many built in caves or hidden in holes under the earth. I began to understand Christ and His Church in their historical and geographic context.

My 6-month trip around the world was an extremely spiritually enlightening experience. Scientific revelations, such as the Big Bang Theory, Atomic Theory, and the like, gave me an awe for creation and our Creator, that was now bolstered by a lived understanding of the commonalities of humanity. People were essentially the same everywhere and the commandment to Love Thy Neighbor met with favorable results in every culture and continent. There was a commonality of wisdom in all religious scriptures, and a commonality of practices throughout the religious groups--such as fasting, meditation, prayer, and charity. All people had essentially the same desires, to be free, prosperous, and at peace.

From then, I became obsessed with religion. At some point, I had the vain idea that I could invent the perfect religion to unite all mankind. At the same time, I became obsessed with Rastafari, feeling that this culture--not a religion--held the keys to the future unity of the human race. This is the point where I basically stopped blogging. There were other things on my mind that I wasn't ready to share with the world.

Chelly had asked me to join her religion--the Catholic church--before we were married. I began to inquire more deeply into their doctrines and history. I was also very curious about the Greek Orthodox church that my Grandfather had been born into--and what were the differences there? In Seattle again, I attended numerous churches, mosques, synagogues, and temples. I read many things and reasoned with various priests, ministers, imams, and the like. I began to congregate with some Rastafari musicians around a Sunday music jam at an Ethiopian cafe. Inspired by the 12 Tribes of Israel movement in Rastafari, I began to read the Bible from cover to cover, one chapter a day.

When I first attended the Ethiopian Orthodox Church in 2007, I felt that I had entered the Paradise itself. I arrived that morning at 5am and didn't leave until after 5pm. The otherworldly chanting of the congregation told the entire story of creation from Genesis to Revelation, while the clergy performed the entirety of the liturgical services I'd seen in both the Orthodox Jewish temple, and the Catholic, Eastern Orthodox, Anglican, and Lutheran churches (complete with the holy water in tiny cups that I'd seen the Mormons distribute). There were resonances with the Indians in the style and vivid color of the art that decorated the sanctuary, while there were also similarities to the Muslims in the full prostrations and covering of the women's hair with white shawls.

Returning to Kenya, I continued to learn about Rastafari. At this time, from about June to November 2007, I spent a fair amount of time with my brother-in-law, Kwida, exploring the areas north of Mombasa. He knew many very ancient Rastas who had been part of the Mau-Mau rebellion in Kenya in the 1950s and 60s and had never trimmed their dreadlocks. Sometimes we would walk as much as 12 miles in a day to meet them and to learn from them. I also spent a lot of time on my own, visiting diverse Rasta communities in different neighborhoods and reasoning with the brethren and the sistren. The focus was always on Haile Selassie I, the Ethiopian Orthodox Christian monarch, leader of the African Liberation movement and Father of Africa. Opinions about God and Jesus and the Bible varied--from some Rastas who were full testament Christian believers to others who burned the Bible and believed in no God at all. Freedom of conscience was evidently the first principle and this suited me well.

I returned to the USA and Chelly and I were married by a family friend with an online minister's certification. We took Christian vows, with the traditional readings from the epistles of Paul, a dedication from the Coast Salish peoples indigenous to my homeland, and Bob Marley music to walk us out. The religion question had in no way been settled for me, but I was fully committed to Rastafari and enjoying my freedom to explore various scriptures and traditions as I made up my own mind about higher matters.

I spent the next couple years becoming more and more deeply involved with the Rastafari community. I attended Nyahbinghi Ises at all the important Rastafari holidays and spent most of my free time with the Rastas in Seattle. On Sundays, I would alternate between the Ethiopian Orthodox or various Eastern Orthodox Churches, while also practicing Yoga, attending the Mosque with my Muslim friends whenever I was invited, performing Salat at times, or praying the Jewish Shema, and otherwise confusing myself with a mish-mash of religious practices.

I sought baptism from the Greek Orthodox Church, but they refused me on account of my confused Universalist practices and my continued attendance at the Ethiopian Church. I also sought baptism at the Ethiopian Church, but was refused on the account of being Greek and occasionally attending church with the Greeks. The Ethiopian congregation I was attending also happened to be going through a period of internal strife at the time. There were frequent arguments and altercations during services--I didn't understand why--and one individual began to single me out for my dreadlocks and images of Haile Selassie I. He didn't like Rastas and made it his mission to make me feel uncomfortable and unwelcome.

There were many difficult times that followed. My mother began a battle with cancer. The market crash and recession that began in 2008 led to financial struggles. In a moment of depression and defeat, I cut my first set of dreadlocks off. While we were again living in Kenya in 2009-2010, my father-in-law suffered a stroke. He was in critical care when I planned a trip to Ethiopia to be baptized, but while I was at the airport I received a call that he had passed on. Returning from Kenya destitute, skinny, and traumatized, I had a major seizure and lost a tooth. I was diagnosed with epilepsy and lost my driving privileges for a time. I had difficulty finding work, and then my wife became pregnant.

There were bright moments to come as well, as my son Javan was born, we found a wonderful home to live in, enjoyed our fitness community at CrossFit Seattle, attended some great live Reggae shows, and had a lot of parties with our massive and diverse community of friends from all walks of life. I grew a new mane of long, dreadlocked hair. I opened an office and worked as a producer on TV commercials, directed a handful of music videos, and made my first documentary film. I don't want to emphasize the bad, but there were some very hard times along the way and I couldn't get through them all on my own.

Throughout these challenges, I turned to the words of Haile Selassie I, a staunch Orthodox Christian, who time and again confessed his faith in Christ and gave spiritual advice rooted in the teachings of the Bible. His words encouraged me to return always to the scriptures, where I found timeless wisdom and hope for the future. I began to let go of my vain and audacious ideas about starting a new religion and was content to deepen my involvement with the Rastafari movement and the Orthodox Church. Two of my Rasta bredren, whom I had introduced to the Orthodox Church, had found a new Ethiopian congregation where they appreciated Rasta and we were welcomed. My family and I began to attend with them from time to time.

Then we moved to Thailand. There were various reasons for that--difficulties we were having in Seattle that I won't go into now, and dreams we had for a life of traveling and working abroad. But, to get the job in Thailand I had to cut my dreadlocks off (again). Then we were isolated and quite alone in a foreign country. There were no Orthodox churches for me to attend here and no Rastafari gatherings to join in. For direction, I turned daily to the words of Haile Selassie I, and found my solace in the Bible.

We lived in Thailand for only 1 year before returning to my home town, but things tayed this way for many years. I kept my hair short. I gave up on figuring out religions or starting new ones. I deepened my practice of Rastafari as a baldhead Rasta, remembering the words of one of my Jamaican elders that, "the Rastaman lives in every line and every word of the Bible." I didn't go to any church and I rarely saw my Rasta bredren in the city at this time, but I became more and more firm in my study of Haile Selassie I and the holy scriptures. I found that Christ taught the true doctrine, one that was both simple, clear, and universal, and also a rooted and correct interpretation of the older tradition.

I became convinced that there was no way for me--a created being--to invent the perfect religion to unite mankind, but that God himself had already invented it in His incarnation as Christ, and that He'd left clear signs to lead me to Him. I saw in the Ethiopian Church the unbroken line from Adam to Noah, and Abraham to Moses, David and Solomon to Iesus Kristos (Jesus Christ), and to 225 Solomonic Kings of Ethiopia culminating in Haile Selassie I. It was the same family, the same tradition, and it was the root of all peoples and all religions. Haile Selassie I, the Emperor who I admired for his progressive stance on Human Rights and World Peace; whose vision had led to victory in World War II, the liberation of Africa, Asia, the Caribbean, and South America; who had been the world's preeminent statesmen and spoken powerful words of warning to both the League of Nations and the United Nations that turned out to be both prophetic and true; whose faith in times of trial inspired me; this man stood upon the solid foundation of the Christian Church.

Whenever we would travel to Kenya to visit family, I would consider going to Ethiopia to be baptized, but each time something came up that blocked my way. Then in 2018, while visiting Kenya for a month, I found myself with a rare week of nothing on the calendar. Someone in town reminded me that this weekend was the Ethiopian Easter (Fasika or Tinsae, as they call it). I decided that this would be the perfect time for baptism. I bought a ticket on Ethiopian Airlines and flew off to Addis Ababa for the holiday.

I entered the city in the midst of Holy Week. The palm leaves were spread everywhere for the procession of the Lord. Even on the sidewalks and in the stores and restaurants, the palms were spread. I embarked upon a city bus and found it decorated with Christian Icons and there too were the palm leaves, spread across the floor of the aisle of the bus. Seated in the back was a brown-robed Ethiopian priest with his staff and signature flat-topped cap. I sat down beside him and began to explain my entire story.

I told him how I'd sequestered myself in a tent at 6 years old with a stack of religious and mythological books, and emerged convinced in the God of Moses, the Commandments of Christ, and the universality of moral truths. I told him how I had first discovered Rastafari in Bob Marley's album Rastaman Vibration and how the song "War" had become my anthem as a youth. I told him about hitting rock bottom on December 31st 2005 and deciding to grow my dreadlocks and live a Rasta trod beginning January 1st, 2006. I told him about meeting my wife in Thailand, traveling across Asia, and winding up in Kenya. I told him about what the Rastas had taught me and about encountering the Orthodox Church for the first time. I told him about reading the entire Bible a chapter a day. I told him how I'd tried to be baptized in both Seattle and Ethiopia several times before, but it had never come about. I told him how I'd been run out of one Ethiopian Church and then found another that was more welcoming. I told him I understood the doctrines and the Creed. I told him all this and I asked him if I could be baptized in the way that Philip had baptized the Ethiopian eunuch (Acts chapter 8), by going to the side of the road and finding some water. He turned to me at that point and said, "No speak." He didn't know English.

Luckily for me, there were two Deacons seated behind us who did speak English and they'd heard me tell him my whole story. They took me to lunch, plied me with many questions, sent a messenger to inquire of the Bishop, toured me around the Holy Trinity Cathedral and the grounds of Holy Trinity University, and eventually decided that yes--they would baptize me--and that one of them (Deacon Simeneh) would be my Godfather.

I returned that night at 10pm for the celebration of the Resurrection. As hundreds of white-robed worshippers carrying candles marched along the hillsides to join the chanting congregations, I removed my shoes and entered the basement of Ethiopia's national cathedral. I was the last of 7 "newborns" to die and be reborn in the waters of baptism that night. I cried just as intensely as those infants had when the passages on baptism were read aloud and the priest poured the blessed, freezing water over my body three times. I was anointed with holy oils and given a new name. I was taken upstairs and given Holy Communion from the hand of the Patriarch of Ethiopia, with the bright lights of TV cameras in my face.

From that time, I have been a Christian. I now attend Church regularly on Sundays, even while I am traveling. I try my best to live a Christian life by reforming my conduct, praying, fasting, and doing charity. I make an effort to forgive others, to thank the Almighty at all times for His Providence, and to give an eloquent explanation of my values and conclusions to anyone who asks--rather than behaving as a religious bigot. I am far from a typical Christian, but in the example of Ras Tafari (Haile Selassie I), I hope to be a good one.

I hope your dreams of a trip to Africa worked out for you and I wish you luck with your missionary work. I hope you don't behave as one of those pirate missionaries I've met in both America and Africa, but cling to the ways that the Lord teaches: to do unto others as you would have them do unto you. May the Grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you. Amen.



Nic Nakis

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