Ethiopia Update
by Richard Goebel SOC Field Worker
Almost weekly, we are getting reports about the effects of the School of Christ and the pure teachings of the Word of God in Ethiopia. After almost two years of getting the first schools up and running, the the pastors and leaders have seen the great need of Ethiopians to reach Ethiopia. In the last four months we have run schools almost continually with hundreds of graduates.
Three schools have just completed their graduations (from the last week in July through first week in September). In the Eastern part of Ethiopia, we were scheduled to have a school with 15 full time pastors from the Afar region begin in September. They have now requested we run it for 25 instead. The local church where Pastor Akalewold, one of our SOC leaders is pastor, has also supplied some of the financial needs to make this school happen.
In the south, there is a church with almost two thousand ministers. After three of their pastors went through the school, they went home changed men, on fire for God. The leaders have now asked if we can run the school in the south to train as many of their leaders as possible. We have already run one school with these ministers with great response. We have now scheduled one school to run every other month beginning in October; and the place and time for each is already set for the next 6 schools. Brethren, can you imagine what impact 2,000 ministers trained and armed with the Life, Power and Teachings of Christ could have on the horn of Africa? Please pray for these students, that God would raise them up for his glory and that they would be sent into the fields that are white for harvest.
In the North, we have already seen a great hunger and a great move of the Spirit of God as we ran two schools in Gonder. The first school in this area, started with 64 students. By the last week we had 115 crammed into the room as people told others "come and see... never a man spake like this." The hunger of the people in this area was almost unbelievable. We are planning to run schools there again this fall and we are believing God to help us run the school there every other month. It is our desire to hit this area again and again until a true Holy Ghost Revival breaks forth.
In the east we are receiving great testimonies of God moving in towns and villages that have never heard the Gospel of Jesus Christ. One of our former students is training and sending missionaries into the North and East which is the most unreached parts of the country.
Here is a small portion of his last email received on Sept 6th, 2010:
...I sent eleven men to the East, I have told you amazing grace of God.
I received a visa for some of them who have a passport & they already preached in ______. They raise many solders of the Gospel and imparted the grace. They work in more than 15 cities, up to now 225 people born again. They planted a church in Addis. One of my men will remain there to establish the new church. Pastor ______ is leading the team. Most of (our men) are missionaries in the North of Ethiopia. This coming Friday, God willing, they will return to ______; I will give you all the testimonies of the work. They are very disciplined and dedicated.
We have great plans ahead. I have written five very powerful tracts and I am hoping to print them. What we are doing is all expanding His Kingdom!
I trust we can work together (with SOC), please help. The work I am doing, I assure you it is pure sacrificial work of the gospel. The Lord gave us dedicated leaders and I am training more. We use the School of Christ book and Spirit.
I Thank You very much
Yours in Love
As you can see, we are not only reaching Ethiopia, but our goal is to reach the entire Horn of Africa from Ethiopia. We have run one School for the Somali church. This was done in Addis Ababa,Ethiopia this past April. We are planning to run others, but we are already hearing of the Gospel being preached in this almost totally muslim country. Pray that the word of God would have free course in this nation.
We received the following from another Pastor on Aug 30th, 2010.
...Finally we are now at the end of the year and (in middle of September) we will start Ethiopian New Year. We have broad vision in our church in the New Year. There will be a very big (with more than million attendants) traditional ceremony by the Oromo tribe. They are going to proclaim the absence of Jesus Christ in our town because they believe that there is only one creator and that this ceremony (Irecha) is the channel to that creator. In response to that, we have planned to do evangelism and distributing tracts during the time. For that purpose we need around 40,000 tracts and we need your prayer for every provisions.
With great love,
God bless,
Brethren, we are hearing of the great work God is doing in Ethiopia and the call to go into Djibouti, Eritrea and other areas. We have men willing to go. We have a tool provided by our God in the School of Christ to train pastors and leaders. They will go if we will send them. The work can be done if we will see it through! Let us earnestly pray and give that, those that sit in darkness would see a great light. More than one hundred thousand souls die each week in these countries having never heard the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Let us labor while it is day for the night cometh. Let us be found faithful, for the King is coming.
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