The country of Ethiopia is mentioned 20 times in the Bible with the first being in Genesis 2:13. “And the name of the second river is Gihon: the same is it that compasseth the whole land of Ethiopia.”
In the days of Queen Esther, Ahasuerus, the king of Persia reigned from India to Ethiopia – 127 provinces (Esther 1:1)
The final mention is). “a man of Ethiopia, an eunuch of great authority under Candace queen of the Ethiopians, who had the charge of all her treasure, and had come to Jerusalem for to worship,” to whom Philip, the evangelist preached to. (Acts 8:27). The gospel reached the country over2000 years ago.
Today the country of Ethiopia (located in Eastern Africa) has a population of over 90 million people.
I thank the Lord for opening up the way for me to travel to this country with my aunt, Leila McTavish for 10 days in the end of January.
Our church in Ethiopia is fairly new. The believers received the Reformation message in 2006 and currently there are approximately 2000 members. “Ethiopia shall soon stretch out her hands unto God.” Psalm 68:31. Yes, The Ethiopians are reaching out for God.
Sister Leila and I were met in the airport by Brothers Libamu (Union President) and Lombamo (Union Treasurer) early Friday morning of January 24th. From the airport we took a bus with them to the town of Hossana, to participate in the conference over the weekend. The trip was approximately 230 km and took about 4 hours by small bus – 16 seat van with 22 people inside. If we had taken a large bus the trip would have taken 5 hours.
When conferences are conducted, they are often combined with Evangelistic meetings in the evenings and many people from the surrounding villages come and attend. The African people are open to hear the gospel message and many visitors do come and attend.
Brother Libamu is very active, continually travelling to the churches and Fields to holding evangelistic meetings, and even going to new areas. Recently he went to the west and set up a tent and held some meetings and approximately 5000 people came. Bible studies from interested souls were generated and one of the Bible workers remained in the area to manage the interest.
It was a blessed conference the first weekend, and it was a privilege to worship with believers from another part of the world, who believe exactly as we do. This is the work of the Holy Spirit in God’s church.
On Sunday sister Leila wanted to visit one of the local churches that she had overseen the building of. The brethren told us we had to walk there as there was no vehicle traffic and it was only a 40 minute walk (several kilometres). The path was rugged, up and down several ravines and after an hour and a half, we arrived at our destination. The believers were happy to see us. After an afternoon of fellowship, we took a short cut home – one hour the opposite direction and then took a bus back to the main part of town. The believers are very hospitable and genuinely make efforts to communicate, unfortunately I don’t speak their language.
This is the life of the missionaries in this country. There are approximately 30 Bible workers in the country. They spend much time walking to remote areas and many hours taking buses. The buses take a long time due to the quality of the roads and the number of people getting on and off in random places. The buses also have no schedule and will leave when every seat is full, so sometimes you are forced to wait for more passengers to show up.
During the following week we visited several churches within the Field and, as always, the members were happy for the visit and we were able to share some experiences.
The following weekend we travelled 1.5 hours by bus (40 km) to the small mountain village of Ansho. In this mountain village we have a larger church and a regional conference was held. This village is the Field headquarters for the area. Many members came from the neighbouring village to attend the conference. They had to walk 4 hours carrying all their necessities for the weekend as there is no public transport to their village.
The weekend was rich with messages, music and experiences from the local people. You can truly see the love of the Lord shining in their hearts. On Thursday evening, the first night of the conference, as is the custom, an evangelistic meeting was presented and many local villagers were in attendance. According to Brother Libamu 75% of the audience were non-members from the village. Praise the Lord. Brother LIbamu presented an interesting message by power point about the prophecies in Daniel and Revelation.
Friday morning, after presenting a message on simple natural remedies, some of the local members came to sister Leila and I asking for more specific advice as to how they can implement some of the natural remedies mentioned, for their specific ailments. We were able to point them to the healing qualities of garlic, lemon juice and clay. They are thirsting for more knowledge in this regard and we are working to find someone local who can help them with specific herbal remedies that are available in their country to treat some of their local ailments. God’s remedies can provide more effective and long lasting healing.
The Sabbath services saw the church full to capacity with the overflow standing outside. Thankfully the PA system was working well. In the evening for the final evangelistic meeting there was an issue with the electricity. Electricity can have temporary outages in rural areas. It is not uncommon. Brother LIbamu was not deterred and presented his final meeting under candle light without the use of his power point. The church was in complete darkness, but it was still full to capacity as you could hear the “Amen’s “ in the audience.
In the rural areas of Ethiopia the people in general are not rich in the material wealth of this world, but we saw happy people, smiling children – who are content with what they have. They are hard working and have found ways to provide for themselves from what God has provided in the natural world. Their food is simple but healthy.
After the second conference we spent a few days in the capital city of Addis Ababa. The Union Headquarters in a rented facility, with sleeping quarters for Brother Lombamo and his wife. The union offices are also in the building as well as a small chapel. There is another small building on the premises where Brother Libamu and his family lived at one point in time, but the owner of the property has decided he wants to have his daughter to live in that building and Brother Libamu needed to find a place to live elsewhere. Please pray for them regarding this in Ethiopia as it would be better if they had their own facility for the headquarters. Pray that they can find something suitable.
While food and transport is very inexpensive in Ethiopia, in the capital city, housing and real estate is not as inexpensive, so they need our prayers to find a suitable building for the headquarters.
In the middle of the week we travelled to Nairobi Kenya, where I spent 4 days at the headquarters before retuning home. At the headquarters, the mission school is also sharing the building (BAMI), Berea Adventist Missionary Institution. At the school we have 16 dedicated young people who are preparing themselves for the service of the Lord. They came from various countries in eastern Africa and from as far away as Madagascar. These young people are dedicated to their studies, busy around the mission house, and very active in the local church. They need our prayers as their course of study will end in November and then they will go and serve the Lord in the mission field.
Again the believers were very friendly and hospitable.
The African nations are open to the gospel, with many hundreds and thousands coming to hear the word of God. Let us pray for and assist our members and the missionary efforts in these countries in whatever way the Lord opens up for us. Amen
Wendy Eaton