Thursdays update

Psalm 1 "Blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked or stand in the way of sinners or sit in the seat of mockers. But his delight is in the law of the Lord, and in his law he meditates day & night. He is like a tree planted by rivers of water, which yields its fruit in season and whose leaf does not wither, whatever he does prospers." The picture below is of a tree that used to be worshiped but will now be a place where people gather to worship the Living God.

Today our team visited the village of Kachiwa, which means “river”. It was our first day at this location, so like every day we faced the unknown as to who we would meet and what their reaction would be to us and our message. At the last village we had started out “guns blazing”, introducing ourselves and then jumping right into our stories and the Gospel message. Immediately, an official began to question us and asked for the papers authorizing our visit (which we were able to produce)!
This time around, we had discussed taking a slightly different road, perhaps introducing ourselves and then starting to play with the children and share our stories on a more individual level, saving the large-scale Gospel presentation for later in the day after we had established some rapport. After we stepped out of the van, our translator Demeka spoke with the gathered crowd for a few moments. Then he turned to me and said, “These people worship Satan. Get your EvangeCube and share the Gospel. Go!” So much for easing into things!
We were able to share the Gospel with these people and with many others throughout the day. After that initial Gospel presentation, most of my morning was spent playing with the kids, kicking a soccer ball, blowing bubbles, flying a kite, and dodging the ever-present cow patties. It really was a team effort, as the three others on my immediate team played with the kids and also were able to walk around the village and share the Gospel with many people in their homes.
One of the most amazing stories from today involved the village chairman, an elderly man named Abera Gezaw. He had become a Christian over 20 years ago, and as a result the largely Orthodox and Muslim village had effectively refused to interact with him in any capacity. He had been praying for more than 20 years for God to send people to witness to his village! What an incredible privilege to be a part of God’s answer to his prayers! With every person who accepted Christ, Abera’s smile grew larger.
As Abera showed us around his property, I noticed a particularly large and spectacular tree. He told us of how he and others used to worship the tree. “But not anymore,” he said, “because of Jesus.” Praise God for delivering people from bondage and the worship of false idols!
Abera’s neighbor was one of the people who accepted Christ today. After this, we saw him and Abera talking. They decided to donate some adjacent land to build a church! Not only did the population of believers increase exponentially today, but they will have a physical house of worship. God is good, and He is building his church!
Tomorrow is Friday, and we’ll have only the morning left to minister before piling back into the vans to Addis. Please pray that God uses this last time in a mighty way. Today we learned that as a result of our ministry over 2,800 people have heard the Gospel, and 97 put their trust in Christ. Amen! Pray that God would call more people to himself – to Him be the glory! Thank you so much for your prayers and support – we couldn’t do it without you. We can’t wait to share these stories in person and testify to God’s faithfulness and power. Story written by Luke Friesen (with a special shout-out to MH).