My Time in Ethiopia

Hey guys. As this newsletter is posted, I am now about to leave Ethiopia and am heading to Kenya my 5th country on the race. I want to share an update of my time in Ethiopia, which is the first of the 3 African countries I will be in before heading back to America. Ethiopia has been an amazing country, and the ministry and atmosphere of the area I have been staying in has been calmer than the first 3 Asia countries. Though slower and restful in some ways, it definitely has had its challenges and ups and downs as every country does. In this newsletter, I will plan to share about how Ethiopia was, how the ministry I was involved in was, some testimonies of my time here, and some praise reports/ prayer requests.

Starting with talking about Ethiopia, Ethiopia which I thought was going to be the hottest country on the race has actually been the coldest country so far mainly due to the high elevation area we are staying at and the fact that it is the rainy season here. Ethiopia has a mixture of Orthodox Christianity, Islam, and Protestantism. Every day we hear prayer call noises from the nearby Muslim mosque as well as hear voices from the Orthodox church. Africa is definitely more of a dangerous atmosphere than Asia as we were not allowed to leave the site without people accompanying us. The site we were staying at has security guards and there were police officers around the area. The city we were staying at was Harbu Chulule, which is about a 3 hour drive from Addis Ababa, the capital where we flew into/ are about to fly out of. As to creatures, we’ve been introduced to hyenas crying out in the distance at night, which is often accompanied by dogs barking. Also, I’ve been introduced to rats, which would come in my room at night. I definitely had some restless/ choppy night sleep staying on guard from the rat but fortunately was able to move rooms toward the end of my time. Other than that, as stated before we are in a rural area which is beautiful and has lots of greenery.

As to the ministry, we are at the ministry center of an organization called Hopethiopia. Hopethiopia is committed to the restoration of both the people and the land of Ethiopia. They house and provide for orphans/ kids in need at an area they call Children’s Village, which houses about 35 kids in separate nearby houses. In addition to this, they have started a kindergarten, plant crops and trees in the land, have water tanks to provide for themselves and at times for the community, and seem somewhat connected with the 4 Christian Protestant churches in Harbu Chulule. They do more than this, but this is the part I was shown/ apart of. After being exposed to the things of the ministry, we were told of things that we could do which was different than the other countries which told us what to do. The founders told us we could do what they suggested or pray and do what we thought the Spirit was leading us in. That said, we wanted to respect what was being asked of us and did what was being asked from us with some changes. We did daily devotionals to the older kids in the Children’s Village, led a VBS to the kids at Children’s Village, led a VBS to kids at the nearby churches, got to preach at the local churches, did worship and movie night to the kids at Children’s Village, and were able to plant trees on the site.

This was the second country I was asked to be the team leader and my team was the same in this country. The hard part for this country in being a leader was talking with the various leaders of Hopethiopia and figuring out how to start things and what it would look like. It took about a week and a half to start formal ministry, but that said this was really a blessing as it made opportunities to get to build relationships with lots of the kids at Hopethiopia, which helped when we were able to start doing the “formal” ministry to them.

As to testimonies, I was thankful for the opportunity to speak at one of the churches Full Gospel. After praying about what to share on, I shared on Surrender. About 250 people were in attendance and at the end I was able to share the gospel. The pastors were very welcoming and kind and allowed for other team members to also share some testimonies with the church. Our group was also able to preach at another church, which was a blessing.

As to devotionals in the morning, the boys on our team lead devotionals about the fruits of the Spirit, the armor of God, and various opportunities. Some topics I was able to speak on was love, joy, kindness, faithfulness, grace, and how to hear the voice of God.

As to VBS to the kids at Hopethiopia, we split the kids into 3 groups of about 10 kids each. I lead the older kids which were ages 15 – 18 with Brice from my team who unfortunately was sick and not able to be there for most of the time. For my age group, it really wasn’t a VBS even though we called it that but was a time of worship, prayer, Bible reading, and games. During my time with them, I was able to share on how to share your testimony, and I had each one of them who was willing to practice and share their testimony do so with the group. I was also able to teach them the 7 Hebrew praise words, shared with them various Bible verses which I had them write down, and read many different Bible passage with them. Some of the Bible study [passages we went through were in Matthew, Luke, John, Acts, Psalms, and Ephesians. One highlight from this was teaching them in Acts 9 of the Ethiopian eunuch.

Lastly at the VBS to the church kids, we were able to lead the VBS for 5 days and for the last day were able to focus on the gospel. During that last day, I was able to use the wordless bracelet (which is pretty much the same as the wordless book for those of you who know what that is) to preach the gospel and God willingly was able to lead many to Christ. About 60 kids between ages 4-10 years old were there for that. Much resistance for me happened the days prior to this such as me getting sick with a 102 F fever and having stomach problems, the rats coming in my room regularly during that time period, me having so many nightmares the night before this while waking up maybe 15 times that night with barely any sleep, and then it raining, which many staff thought would prevent the kids who walked to get there from come. Anyway, I share because I am encouraged and believe the resistance was due to a harvest of souls that happened that day.

That said thanks for all the prayers that continually come in from you all. I am happy to say that the head cold and cough I had from the Philippines finally has left after lasting about 2 months. Also, my back, which was hurting towards the end of the Philippines and the beginning of Ethiopia, has been so much better and has not been in pain but quickly recovered during the first week I was here in Ethiopia. With that said future prayer requests:

1. For God to grow the seeds sown at Hopethiopia and at the nearby churches.
2. For health and sleep for me and my team. Much of us have struggled in these areas.
3. For safe travels and good ministry as we head to Kenya this week.
4. For God to help me during the transition to Kenya as my team will be changing, my role will be changing, and my ministry will be changing.

Thanks guys and as always, look at my Facebook or Instagram account for photos of my time here. God bless!