THE WORD...
May his name endure forever;
May his name increase as long as the sun shines;
And let men bless themselves by him;
Let all nations call him blessed.
Blessed be the LORD God, the God of Israel,
Who alone works wonders.
And blessed be His glorious name forever;
And may the whole earth be filled with His glory
Amen, and Amen. Psalm 72:17-19
A RESPONSE...
Hail to the Lord’s anointed, great David’s greater Son!
Hail in the time appointed, His reign on earth begun!
He comes to break oppression, to set the captive free;
To take away transgression and rule in equity.
He comes in succor speedy to those who suffer wrong;
To help the poor and needy, and bid the weak be strong;
To give them songs for sighing, their darkness turn to light,
Whose souls, condemned and dying, were precious in His sight.
By such shall He be fearèd while sun and moon endure;
Beloved, obeyed, reverèd; for He shall judge the poor
Through changing generations, with justice, mercy, truth,
While stars maintain their stations, or moons renew their youth.
He shall come down like showers upon the fruitful earth;
Love, joy, and hope, like flowers, spring in His path to birth.
Before Him, on the mountains, shall peace, the herald, go,
And righteousness, in fountains, from hill to valley flow.
Arabia’s desert ranger to Him shall bow the knee;
The Ethiopian stranger His glory come to see;
With offerings of devotion ships from the isles shall meet,
To pour the wealth of oceans in tribute at His feet.
Kings shall fall down before Him, and gold and incense bring;
All nations shall adore Him, His praise all people sing;
For He shall have dominion o’er river, sea and shore,
Far as the eagle’s pinion or dove’s light wing can soar.
For Him shall prayer unceasing and daily vows ascend;
His kingdom still increasing, a kingdom without end:
The mountain dews shall nourish a seed in weakness sown,
Whose fruit shall spread and flourish and shake like Lebanon.
O’er every foe victorious, He on His throne shall rest;
From age to age more glorious, all blessing and all blest.
The tide of time shall never His covenant remove;
His Name shall stand forever, His Name to us is Love.
J. Montgomery
Saturday, June 30
Concerning HIS Church
Friday, June 29
Prayer Update Added to Sidebar...
However, I will post them here as well each time they are updated for you RSS dependent folks.
* Saturday Night Bible Study - The Pursuit of Holiness, Jerry Bridges
* Training of the AK Church(es)
* Ben & Pipo - Wedding July 8
* Dina - Orthodox Neighbor, 17 year old girl
Addis Kidan and Us
As those of you who have followed our work here this time will recall, most of our effort has been with the Addis Kidan Church(es). We are so grateful to God for this opportunity and prayerful that we have/will use the occasion for an eternally valuable work. As a result of our prior dealings with the church, I requested to attend the monthly board meeting in May in order to make a proposal concerning a more intentional working affiliation.
In this proposal, I put forward our convictions, expectations, and purpose concerning ministry in and through the local church, (which is summarized in the previous post). Also included in the proposal were various specific areas that are lacking and must be a focus if the churches are to be pleasing to God. I discussed how me might go about bringing the needed reform in the existing churches and what must be changed foundationally in order to plant churches in the future that match the biblical description of Christ’s bride. We agreed that through teaching and preaching (the bible), along with patience (yet real expectation), and love (towards God and His people), God will honor His word and raise up churches that accurately portray Him to the world.
The board, which is made up of several leaders from the denomination, held further discussions following my proposal and I attended a follow up meeting the fourth Saturday in June. They were unanimous in their decision that we should/could have liberty within the church(es) to teach and preach and train the ministers along with the people. We have essentially been doing this already, but now we have the green light to continue and to be more deliberate in our efforts. We will spend the coming days attempting to detail, to some degree at least, how we might proceed in this endeavor.
PTI is well underway and will continue in late September or early October with round three of at least eight. But the training within the existing churches must be tantamount to the training of new ministers, therefore it is essential that we devise a method to get the ministers of the existing church(es) grounded in the bible, rooted in Christ, and embedded deep into a commitment to the Glory of God in His church(es).
Thursday, June 28
Our Work
Due to our strong conviction that the (local) church is the primary way of God displaying His glory and His grace to the nations, we expect and hope/pray that churches will be established and/or reformed in order that they will accurately reflect the character of God. Therefore, our primary purpose of service is to cultivate and encourage churches in these crucial (yet not exhaustive) areas:
1. Theology Proper
2. The Gospel
3. Salvation
4. Preaching
5. Prayer
6. Evangelism
7. Church Issues (membership, government, discipline)
8. Discipleship
Based on these areas and where the church stands right now…
Change is necessary.
So, we have given ourselves to preaching, teaching, and training in the local churches. Our chief work is with the Addis Kidan (AK) denomination. They are about 65 churches and 12K members after 26 years of existence. There are many strong foundational points to begin with inside the AK church, and we hope to build on these areas.
Some of the ways we are working:
• Pastor’s Training Institute (PTI)
o 2 year training program covering systematic & biblical theology along with all relevant culturally issues and practical instruction
o Currently 75 ministers enrolled from local churches throughout the country
o Upon completion and clear biblical qualifications the men will be sent to ‘un-reached’ villages/areas to begin a new gospel work with hopes that God will plant a church there
• Antsokia (Antioch)
o Ongoing training and guidance to existing churches with a focus on the leadership of the church (i.e. elders and evangelists)
o Seminars ranging from one day to one week dealing with pertinent issues in the life of the church and it’s members
5 Comments and a Few Emails Too!
Well, if we beg for feedback then we get a bit, huh?
It appears that the way we will proceed from here is to go ahead with the 'Prayer Update', but in a different fashion that previously planned. There is evidently a consensus on placing the 'update' within the main posting section, primarily because many of you, like me, are using Google Reader (GR) to track your daily web sites and blogs.
So, because you have commented concerning this and many of you have asked for it in one way or another...
Watch close (those of you without GR) in the coming days for our first Prayer Post, and an update on some pertinent ministry issues!
Thanks again. And do pray, please.
Wednesday, June 27
Feedback requested
We are considering adding an item to the sidebar that will link you all directly to a daily/weekly list of things we are praying for and items that we are requesting prayer for. In addition to this, we could list pertinent needs for those of you who ask frequently and then you would always know.
So, what do you think? You can comment here or just email me.
Please do let us hear from you! There are about 200 of you reading this, so 2 or 3 comments will just not be sufficient. Tell us the pros, the cons, or other ideas that you have.
Notice the "Prayer Update" link on the top right. It will let you know how it will work.
Thanks so much.
Saturday, June 23
A Much 'kneeded' Update
Well I have done an absolute horrific job of keeping you all informed about life here in Ethiopia. But nonetheless I will offer an update for you all who are aware that one year ago I underwent ACL reconstruction. It is a real blessing to be able to say that I feel as if I am extremely close to the 100% point in my right knee. I am running 4km, riding 15km on a bike, & climbing 160 flights of stairs, and doing each of these twice week. We are praising God still one year after His provision for the surgery and the success He has granted in it.
Tuesday, June 12
Monday, June 11
Gotcha!
Three years ago this morning we met Ellie for the first time. She is a blessing, and we praise God for giving her to us.
Friday, May 25
Tuesday, May 8
Friday, May 4
Maps of the situation...
...Have been added to the side bar.
It is amazing really the see how the country is split down the middle between the Orthodox and the Muslims.
Notice how few evangelicals are represented, and pray that God would glorify Himself in the salvation of both the Orthodox and the Muslims.
Saturday, April 28
Tuesday, April 24
What is happening at Holle Sire
Holle Sire is located in the Western part of Ethiopia 130 miles from Addis Ababa, the capital. The regional government considers it as the remotest part of the region. All the community in the area are farmers.
In the area there is one wizard. He is worshiped by most of the people. He almost rules the area. He has 12 wives and one of them is his own sister. He has more than one hundred children. Currently such witch doctor activity is viewed as an Oromo traditional religion and is authorized by the Oromia regional government, by calling it waqa feta. It is considered as one of the religions like Christianity and Islam.
The wizard, by having political support, economical power and religious followers in the area, has become like a king of the area. Two months ago I was there to visit churches. We have six churches in that area. One of them was facing persecution at that time. They received land from the local government and started building a church. While they were in the middle of building, the government officials came to them and commanded them to stop work. They even ordered them to dismantle what they had already built. When they asked why, the officials told them that it is the territory of the wizard. Fortunately I was able to speak to the district officials in the village. They had a big meeting with the village leaders. I had a good discussion with them. After that they allowed them to continue building the church and stopped the wizard from bothering Christians in the area. But actually he continued his bad activity against church plantings.
Three years ago God opened the door wide to planting churches in the middle of this situation and to winning people for Christ. God has used people of the area for the evangelization of the community. One person came to Addis Ababa to seek a better life. He was hired as a guard in one of our local churches, Mekanisa Addis Kidan Baptist Church. Our Lord Jesus Christ touched his life and he became converted. God also burdened him to evangelize his community. He decided to spend his off times from his work with his village people. While doing that on several trips the community observed his life change and he got their attention. He preached the gospel and won energetic passionate leaders of the community. Currently there are six churches around the area with a total membership of 700 baptized, 1500 children, as well as many non-baptized people.
Abebe Lechisa, the chair person of the village, was one of the first converted people. He has taken the lead in the evangelization of the area. He is not only the leader of the community, but he is also a man who is in a good economic situation. He has a grain grinding mill which works by diesel. Since the day of his conversion he has given all his life for Christ. The church started gathering in his house. Whenever guests went to that community he is the one who hosts the guests in a good way. He travels in the neighborhood and tells the gospel to his people, encourages new believers, and protects the churches from any attack. In my observation he is a key person for that area work.
Satan is working currently to paralyze the work of Holle Sire. As a strategy he targets brother Abebe to discourage him. Ten days ago they had a spiritual conference and a wedding in a neighboring church of Holle Sire. All believers of the six local churches gathered in that church. They invited all the non-believing community and all attended the program. Not only the believers, but also all the non-believing community members were so excited about the conference. All the community came, even the main people of the wizard. Abebe was the leader of all this activity. On the last day, last Thursday, they all went to their houses. Abebe arrived at 9:00 pm. He was tired so he was quickly in a deep sleep.
Abebe heard loud shouts around 3:00 am. Since he was tired he felt as if he was in a dream. The shouting increased. He heard a big knock on his door. He woke up and jumped up from his bed. His father called him and informed him that something was burning around their grinding mill. When they arrived there, they found all the community trying to stop the fire. Everything was almost burned up by the fire by that time. They tried with all their effort to stop it but they couldn’t do it since there is no source of water in the village. The fire burned the grinding mill and the property. They lost everything in a few hours. The machine, the house and other properties are worth about 65,000 Ethiopian Birr which is $7,500. They are farmers so it is a huge amount of money for them.
I was there yesterday to visit and encourage them and all the believers in the area. Both Abebe and his father said, “It is not the property we feel sad about but why the people do this while we are doing good for them.”
All the community gathered together and discussed it. All of them were weeping and were saying, “It is not only Abebe and his father’s property. It is ours. People who did this are our enemies.”
We encouraged them with the word of God to be strong in the Lord while they are in such a hard situation. We also encouraged them that God could return what they lost in his own ways. Their plan now is to reinstall another machine if God provides a way and continue their commitment for the Lord. Abebe suspects the wizard did it by hiring another person.
I asked them to make a brief survey about the price to reinstall the machine. The total price needed is 30,000 Ethiopian Birr which is $3500.
Encouraging Abebe is encouraging Holle Sire area work, hastening the evangelization of that area, and delivering all that area from the bondage of the devil. Pray for him, tell other people about him, and do whatever God shows you to encourage him.
Ermias Zenebe
General Secretary, Ethiopian Addis Kidan Baptist Church.
