Report from BHW Ethiopia Partnership Facilitator Following Visit

I arrived in Ethiopia early on the morning of the 29th of March. It was Good Friday, but not in Ethiopia as they follow the Gregorian calendar and Easter is not until early May. Martin* and George* were waiting for me as I exited the airport, and we went to breakfast. We spent an hour talking about the project and how it is going. George is the leader of the CBC ministry, so it was important to spend some time with him. Martin used to be the leader, but he now focuses on the church planting department, not the overall development of the work.

Recent Events

Activities

The church planting work has grown, and it is this that we are indirectly supporting. Our role here is to assist the bi-vocational church planters establish in new locations. They started 10 new church groups in the last year and across all their churches baptized around 3,000 people. Martin has a very strong connection to this part of the country, and it is one of the two locations they are focusing on. 

From the funds we have sent they have developed plots of land by planting coffee and other crops. The first amount of funds was sent to an area slightly south east from Addis Ababa where four plots were developed. These plants have done well and have just produced their first crop of coffee beans. This area is hard to visit and even the local CBC people do not go there as it would cause issues as it is a Muslim area. 

The second amount was sent to an area south west of Addis Ababa. There they have one larger piece of land which has been planted out. It is still in the development stages. This is the place that coffee originally came from and the origin of the word coffee. 

The third amount was also sent to the same region as the first amount where four more pieces of land are being developed. 

The next amount will go to the second area area. 

There are 23 full-time people working in the first area and six in the second area. In each case the church owns the land so there can be no disputes over ownership and the purpose of any profit is to support the growth of the work in that area. Church elders are selected to oversee the development. 137 students are in their 4-year study programme. The students come for six weeks every dry season for four years and then graduate with a diploma. The majority of them go out into church planting locations, usually supported by the church that has selected them. The reason we are supporting work in these areas is that these are unreached areas and need more support. 28 people have just graduated and are moving out. 

The development of CBC churches continues to grow. 

Personal Stories

In the areas I visited I met some of the evangelists/church planters. 

Fred* is an evangelist. He has been in this area for 20 years. He has been married for seven years and has four children. He is a first-generation believer from a Coptic background. Most people in this area are Coptic. He spends his days visiting people, house to house. He visits believers and non-believers as well. He is always well received. The most effective means of evangelism is 1 to 1. The only public opportunity they get is at weddings and funerals but they have to be very sharp in their presentation, no more than 15 minutes, and they must say something significant. After every funeral and wedding he gets invitations to come and visit people in their homes. Funerals and weddings are huge, and hundreds attend each one.

Aaron* is a true evangelist and has led many people to Christ. He is a carpenter, mainly building houses, and witnesses as he moves around doing his work. He has five adult kids, I met some of them at church. The church is growing quickly, and he needs more people to come onto his team. His greatest love is to be out in the church planting situations. He is planting a new church about 40 minutes’ walk from where he is based amongst a group of unreached people in another village. One elder in the church comes from this village so they have some contacts there. There is another preaching point quite a distance away which takes a couple of hours by motorbike and several river crossings. 

Plans for the Future

These guys are full of plans! They have an office in Addis which has several offices for rent and from this they are able to cover around 25% of the CBC requirements. This has given them an idea that they want more of these, two more in Addis, one in Ambo and another in Awasa, but this is not something BHW would get involved with. 

They would love to establish a revolving loan fund and sometime soon a proposal will be given to us. Martin thinks there more than 30 people who would immediately benefit from this. 

They would like to do a fishpond in one of their areas which they are currently researching. 

They are also looking at establishing tutoring programmes in some of their churches. Again, we may get a request around this one. 

Current Issues and Challenges

They face a lot of opposition from the existing Coptic churches, especially the priests. This area is renowned for witch doctors, and they have become very powerful in the region. We passed one witch doctor’s campus beside the road which was huge. They are very aggressive and hate it when Christians come to preach the gospel.

Aaron says, “we are the winners. The gospel is the power of God to salvation, and they cannot stand against us.”

Prayer and Praise Points

1) The strategy seems to be producing results. People are becoming believers and leaving their old lives. People are being set free from demon possession and fruitless worship.

2) They have new people coming into the team, but not enough yet.

3) Praise God for the new churches and preaching points that are being developed. Pray that many in those areas would come to faith. 

Comments

These guys are doing a good job at church planting and have a sustainability mindset. They aren’t working with the poorest of the poor, but they are developing good people who don’t have much resource. 

I think we should continue to support their endeavours in church planting. They will generate several more opportunities in the future. 

*names changed