Week One Over, Week Two Beginning

Week 1 is over and Team 1 is on a plane headed to London as I type this. They will arrive back in Dallas late Sunday night after a very long journey and many of them will return to jobs on Monday morning. Pray that God would give them strength and that they might be a good witness in returning to their jobs, working as faithfully there as they did this past week.

Team 2 arrived early this morning and is just now waking up. We’ll head to Kaldi’s (Ethiopia’s version of Starbucks only 10 times better and 10 times cheaper) for lunch and then make the 3 hour drive to Asela to get ready for next week’s ministry.

The report from last week was overwhelming. Our team of 18 was able to share the gospel with approximately 2800 people, many of whom had never heard the gospel. When we would ask people if they knew Jesus, the most common response was, “We know of Jesus, but we don’t know anything about him.” Stories that many of us have been reading and re-reading since our early childhood were brand new to them and the concept that the God of heaven would send his only Son to be a ransom for their sins was revolutionary. 97 people professed faith in Christ last week as a result of the Spirit of God moving through our team.

From here, the disciple-makers we worked with all week will begin following up with these new believers, beginning Bible studies and even planting churches in these villages. It is likely that 4 new churches were planted this past week as a result of our ministry. To God be the glory.

And tomorrow we get to start it all over again as team 2 will enter into 4 new villages in the Asela region. We will meet our translators and new disciple makers for this week tonight and then we will work full days Monday through Thursday, engaging with men, women and children with a goal to introduce them to the One who has changed our hearts. As you pray, consider the following things.

Pray for:

• Safety for Team 1 as they travel home and strength for them as they return to the workplace this week.

• The ongoing processing of team 1 as they return and continue to think through all that they saw and did this past week.

• Adjustment for Team 2. We did have one team member who is missing a bag, so pray that she gets that soon. Also pray for good health as our team adjusts to life here in Ethiopia.

• Open hearts for the people of Asela and boldness for the believers already living there.

• Courage for our teams and the Christians as we face persecution of various kinds.

• Strength for Tim, Lori and Wes as we enter our second week of ministry (praise God, He has definitely been good to us and we are all 3 excited about a new week with a new team).

Thanks for checking in and we hope to have more for you tomorrow.