Ethiopia Post #3

Friday Nights Service was powerful, even the Christian Orthodox thought so! The Christian Orthodox Church is very powerful and intolerant of Pentecostals in Ethiopia. They often attack churches and believers for their beliefs that go against Christian Orthodoxy. As I finished preaching Friday night and individuals came up front for the altar call we began to hear loud bangs on the roof. Mike and I didn't know what the noise was at first, but quickly learned that the Orthodox were throwing rocks at the church. The stones were hitting the tin roof of the church, but worship and altar time continued! It wasn't until one of the rocks came through a side window just above where many of the children were standing that the pastor lead the congregation in singing the Lords Prayer, as they prayed for those who were trying to disrupt and harm them. The above picture is of a rock I took from out front of the church that night...a great reminder that there are believers all around the world that contend and suffer for the gospel...we can remember and stand with them in prayer!

Ethiopia Post #2

Friday was a big day for us here in Ethiopia. We had a full day of teaching a preaching, thankfully God gave us strength. Our day kicked off early as we headed to the school at about 6:45am, to beat the tremendous amount of traffic. The Bible School is only a few mile away, but leaving later in the morning could mean major traffic, taking us a couple hours to get to the school.

We taught our Youth Seminar session two times on Friday. The first time we shared with about 20 freshman during their first class of the day at 8:30am. When we finished teaching that seminar, we headed directly to chapel! Mike preached a great message in chapel. After chapel we grabbed lunch at La Prima, an italian restaurant right across the street form the Bible school. (The italians once tried to settle here in Ethiopia, but were run out by Ethiopian, but they left their food!) The food here has been great, and so cheap. We can eat in a very nice restaurant for about $4 or $5.

The afternoon consisted of us teaching our final two session for the Youth Seminar. I had the chance to share on developing student leadership, specifically around a servant leadership model. My masters work at Regent came in real handy on that topic!

In the afternoon we headed to the church. Friday night is typically the biggest church service, they still meet on Sunday's too, but fewer people attend. God has given this church a huge piece of land right in the middle of a new government housing project that will house tens of thousands of people. Pastor Bole, the pastor of the church has vision for a 10,000 seat church, and they will begin work on that soon! The church is thriving. We had the opportunity to pray, worship, and share the Word with them. Worship was electric! (See video below). I had the chance to preach to a packed house, such a great an humbling experience. I told the church that when we get to heaven they will have a lot of work to do to teach those of us from America how to worship and dance - they applauded. It was a powerful and great night! Church ended just before 9pm, and we headed to get dinner, at a place called Carnivore, I couldn't think of a better name for a restaurant!

Amazing day! Hopefully the video and pictures will help you see what we experienced!


A bit of worship - the house was rocking!


A look at the crowd during altar time worship


The kids "getting down" during worship

Some Pictures...


Teaching in morning session


Mike preaching in chapel


Church where were we ministered Friday night. What does that sign say? Notice the white "tub" on the front porch...baptismal!


More of the land of the church. In the distance the soon opening ministry center. Where the truck is and where we are standing is site of future worship auditorium that will seat 10,000. Behind us is the tabernacle church building you see in the above picture.


When I got up to preach, I asked the congregation to stand so I could take a picture of them to share with you. I told them to smile big, I wanted to see their teeth!


Preaching


With Pastor Bole after service.

Ethiopia - Post #1

Wow! What a great time we have had in Ethiopia thus far. We arrived in Addis Ababa, the capital, on Tuesday evening around 10PM. (It is 7 hours ahead of Michigan here).

We kicked off our ministry here on Wednesday, in the morning we had the chance to meet many nationals ministering her, and the Ethiopian Superintendent (head honcho), Pastor Johnannis! What a great man of God and an anointed leader!

Wednesday afternoon we began our seminar on Youth Ministry to the students at Addis Ababa Bible College and pastors located in and around Addis Ababa. We have had a great turn out for the seminar – we had to move locations because the classroom we began in quickly ran out of space. Sweet!

Today (or yesterday rather, since it is after midnight here), I had the opportunity to speak in Chapel to the students from John 4 – talking about the need for us to continually draw the living water that springs forth-eternal life in us! Great to hear the Ethiopians worship, and respond to the message!

Our seminar on Youth Ministry continued this (Thursday) afternoon. We had two great sessions. Mike shared on “Building a Team in Youth Ministry” and I shared on “Student Outreach”. The sessions have been humbling as students are eager to learn and they diligently take notes. They seem to be benefiting from the material we are sharing with them, God gets the glory, not us!

Friday is a busy day! Ministry from early in the morning to late in the evening. We will be again speaking at Bible School, but also ministering in a local church. More to come...

A few photos...

Outside the Bible College


Mike outside Bible College



Eating traditional Ethiopian "Injera" & "Wat" (stew)




Mike Teaching Youth Seminar



Teaching Youth Seminar on "Outreach"

A picture form the balcony of our apartment


More teaching


Ethiopian Starbucks - so good!


Mike being studious!

Time to knock the rust off this thing...

Well, time to knock the rust off this blog! I haven't posted in quite some time, mostly due to my hectic grad school requirements. I was thinking though that I would use this blog to share and log my trip to Ethiopia.

Currently I'm in Amsterdam, Netherlands and we are headed to Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. I'm traveling with Mike Sabatino, youth pastor (Northpoint First Assembly - Holland, MI) and master of the prepared! There we will be working with missionaries Bob and Rhonda Thomas training pastors that attend ABC - Addis Ababa Bible College. We will be talking to pastors about the need for viable youth ministry in the Ethiopian Church (EC). The EC ministers to adults well, but tends to neglect a focus on the young adult generations. Along with teaching, we will be preaching in chapel and local church. Anticipating a busy week of ministry!!!

Tune in for more...