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Names and specific places have been abbreviated or changed.
I visited for several days to get more of a handle on this partnership which began about the same time as the onset of Covid, so it has been impossible to visit. BHW has funded this partnership for two years and is committed initially to five years' support. In the first year the funds were put into the Bale area and the second year into the Kaffa area. I only visited the Bale area because of time restraints and it is the most developed.
The two areas that we have funded so far are both very difficult areas for ministry. On this visit I went to the south to meet with two of the local team in the Bale area.
Bale area was completely dominated by another religion until these people began moving in a few years ago with the intention of establishing Christian groups. We could not go into the community; it would not have been safe for me and would have compromised them. So far, they have established 14 groups in the area, some of them over 100 people. They are widely scattered, and the leader has a very difficult task getting around them all. Getting to one group requires a 12 hour walk, about 50 kms. While I was there, they purchased a new motorcycle for him to make the task more achievable.
The centre town for this work is N. To get there from Shashamene, the largest town in the area, they have to travel a couple of hours on a bus on reasonable roads to D, then 98 kms on gravel roads to N. They then have to walk to their farms, some up to 12 hours. They can catch a ride on a motorbike, but it is hours still and quite dangerous.
It is not a place in which outsiders are welcome. The leaders rarely go, and they could not hold seminars or training there. In fact, they would not even try to do that in D. One church has been burned down three times and two churches are closed at the moment because if they gather people come and assault them. In one town they purchased land for a building. Immediately a mosque was built next door and they intentionally encroached on their land. When they protested to the local government they were beaten by the “friendly, peace-loving neighbours” and they have had to move.
Two of the church planters came to Hawassa to meet us and tell their story. First, a little about them:
O – he is the leader of the area and oversees the 14 churches already established. He used to live 8 hours walk from N but now is a mere 2 hours walk away. He has 8 children and 4 grandchildren. One daughter lives in Addis but the rest are with him. He is pretty much full-time moving around the churches. They are very spread out and travel takes a lot of time. There are three churches in the K area which is 180 kms by road, car and motorbike. He gathers the leaders in one place when he goes there and stays two or three days. As well as him visiting, he co-ordinates some of the other full-time workers to move around the churches too.
K – lives on a farm about 2 hours motorbike ride from N so he goes there very rarely. He has two young children, one 4 years old and the other 5 months. He has been in the area for 11 years and was recruited to go there by O before O went there himself.
The funds we invested in the first year of the partnership were used to establish five coffee plantations. Each church was able to purchase a small block of land and plant them out. In Ethiopia you cannot sell or buy undeveloped land, it has to have something on it, and most in this area have a few coffee plants on them. They got the land and then used our funding to plant out the rest of the land and bring it into production. The five plots range from about .75 of a hectare to around 1.5 hectares. The plants are growing well and flourishing and this year the “first-fruits” were harvested. Only small quantities as it will take 4–5 years to come into full production. They are very excited about this as it will be a huge help.
Initially the land and developments were to be owned by the full-time worker. However, this was deemed to not be the best way to do it so the land and developments are owned by each local church, and they have MOU with CBC Ethiopia that the funds must be used for the support of their full-time worker.
They sell the cherries to a government registered coffee trader who is licenced to process the cherries. The reason for this is to protect the “Ethiopian coffee brand.”
They are pretty encouraged by what is happening in their area. It is hard work, and it is a real sacrifice for the families to live there but they are blessed. In the last year seven families of another faith have converted in one church. One person in another area recently converted and has had to go into hiding. Another person had to leave the district and has been re-settled about 50 kms away. In one church 14 people have recently become Christians so the work is growing rapidly. One leader of another faith converted, and he had to be completely taken out of the area. There is one church near to the N centre that is entirely made up of MBBs.
They must be very careful about how they witness otherwise they would be attacked. There is freedom to meet in most of the churches, largely because they have a good testimony. The community leaders are noticing change in the community because of their presence. They say that the Christians are clean (unlike the nomadic herders that pass through), they are hard-working, honest and they are settling down. In one way the community likes them, but they are criticised because they don’t respect "the prophet". One local government official asked them to bring others into the community to help it develop. They model a very positive lifestyle despite the problems and pressures.
Following up and discipling those who change faith is a major issue. They come early in the morning or at night to be taught in small groups in houses. It is not strange for people to be in each other’s houses. They disciple them separately to the church gatherings.
I was interested to know how they go about building relationships in a community like this. They invite people into their homes. This is a normal thing to do in the community and there is little resistance to an invitation.
They also invite them to sit at a small coffee place (they are everywhere) and talk. People are not shy about talking about faith. This is often a spontaneous thing; they meet them in the street or at the market.
They invite them to weddings. A Christian wedding is a very powerful testimony and gives the opportunity to say some things that you couldn’t say in a private conversation. The same applies at Christian funerals. After events like this people will often come and ask questions in private, early morning or late at night.
The process of conversion takes many meetings and sometimes a period of years. Most do not come to church gatherings for a long time.
Their wives play very important roles in evangelism, develop close relationships with the women of the community and spend more time with women than men spend with men.
a) The community likes them, but it is very difficult and risky to follow up with people who change faiths.
b) The two churches that are closed are a real problem and they are working out how to reopen them and praying for the freedom for that to happen
c) They need more full-time workers to move into the area or for more to be raised up from within their churches in that area
1) For more fruit in that area
2) That there would be many new churches planted in that area
3) That they would get a motorbike (it arrived the next day!)
4) That the believers would live holy lives and their lifestyle would be attractive to their neighbours
Kaffa Area is the area that Martin’s mother comes from and where CBC Ethiopia is now focussing. They have shifted several younger farmers into this area for the purpose of church planting. In the past three years they have established seven churches. One is in the main town of Jimma, another in the town they are using as a centre, Bonga, and five others in rural areas. The church in Bonga has grown by 65 people in the past year. Recently, in the rural area they baptised 30 people.
This area is fully controlled by witchdoctors, they are more influential than the government. If you do not go through the right process, you will meet with serious opposition. The largest church is around 160 people, and the others are small but growing. They have been out there three times recently to encourage the workers and do training. This is a traditionally difficult area for churches, and many have failed and left.
They have not yet used the funds designated for this area and are still working on the best way to support the workers there. It is not a coffee area, so they are looking at goats and sheep as the support basis.
This area has come into the picture as a businessman has recently gone out that way but has felt that he needs to be focussed on church planting, not just business. It is an area near to the Djibouti and Somali border and not an agricultural area. It is more likely to be a business opportunity as a support base. They are excited about this as it is not traditionally an area the churches have flourished. They have two small churches in this area.
a) We should continue with the initial programme we established with three more payments to go until January 2025 for the purpose of setting up the church planters in Bale and Kaffa.
b) We may receive a proposal to assist with the establishment of a business in the Harer area, we will wait and see.
c) In the Bale area there may be the opportunity to do some one-off donations to schools to help the community and build bridges. This would be school materials, maybe a computer or two.
d) As the work grows there may be opportunity to assist with the rehabilitation of people becoming believers out of another faith. Other denominations have this, but they don’t, and it would be a great help.