Ethiopia Report #4

11-26-08

What a day we had for our first full day in Burji.  The medical Clinic in Galana is going great.  This is the clinic that Ca-Vel Church and 3 other Roxboro churches are partnering with to provide medical care with the goal of winning souls for Christ.  They have seen nearly 1000 patients in the past 3 months.  In the past 6 weeks, since the Chaplain Solomon has been on board, they have shared the gospel with 53 adults.  Of those 53, 15 have received Christ!!  Solomon is getting contact info from the patients and then when they are feeling better he visits them in their homes.  God is blessing the work of the clinic!!

I got the chance to spend a few minutes with Worku, my translator.  He is my age and the pastor of the Soyama Town church.  This is the main town in the Burji District.  The church has about 300 adults and 500 children each week.  I asked him what was his biggest challenge as a pastor.  He said, “people who don’t obey the Bible, people who say I don’t visit them enough, and people who won’t get involved in serving the Lord through the church.”  I thought He had been reading my mail!!  We stopped by a village, Nedeli #2 to drop off a couple of men.  We were greeted so warmly by the people around the church.  One little boy, bent down and kissed my shoes.  That was a humbling sight!  This particular church has 175 people waiting for Bibles.  Each new member is enrolled in the Bible memory program.  This is a program where a person can earn a Bible by memorizing 9 passages of Scripture.  They total about 93 verses!  Dr. and Mrs. Black have distributed over 3500 Bibles in the Burji area alone.  Ca-Vel church receives a special offering once a quarter to help purchase the Bibles.  We have been doing this for over 2 years.

When we returned to the Soyama Church, the Lord laid on my heart to talk with Worku and pray with him.  It seemed he needed encouragement.  Little did I know that when we returned, the elders in his church were waiting for him so that they could have a meeting.  It lasted 2 hours.  I don’t know what it was about, but he seeemed tired when it was through.  He and I shared together some Scripture and I gave him some words of encouragement.  We prayed together.  God really blessed that time.  I am glad I listened to the Lord and found Worku to pray with him.