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.