Update from Ethiopia
Praise: My niece Christina and I arrived safely in Addis Ababa, with all our luggage, on August 26th. She is now with the Smith family, taking care of Josiah (6) and Caleb (4) while their dad teaches at our SIM school and their mom finishes up Amharic language school. The boys adore her, and she is a blessing to everyone who meets her. The Aari call their mother's sisters "mother". I tell everyone she is my child – my sister's daughter.
Disappointment: A letter from former Aari translator Fikadu tells me that he and Duba have not been included on the new Aari translation team, even though some church leaders had understood that they would be. Their local church district (one of the seven Aari-speaking districts) has appointed them as pastor-evangelists for the 20 churches in that district. Pray that they will be as faithful in this ministry as they were in the translation work. Since they will not receive a wage for this, ask God to provide for their material needs. Please also ask Him to encourage them with a strong sense of His presence.
Progress: Donna, Getu and I are working on Luke. We spent the first two days fixing punctuation and settling some questions about grammar. Today we did a thorough check of Luke 17 and the first half of chapter 18. Praise God for good progress, and pray for His continued enabling.
More Praise: On July 23rd, five of the Banna Christians began discussing how God had blessed their people, causing the church to grow and providing jobs for several of their number. They said, "How long are we going to depend on people from outside to share the Good News of Jesus Christ with our people? Let's ask all the Christians to come together and discuss how we can reach our own people for Christ." They called a meeting for the weekend of August 13th, and God poured out His Spirit: First those who gathered (more than 150 people) acknowledged their sin in not caring enough to share their faith with their own people. They asked God for forgiveness. Then they organized themselves into teams. Each team was assigned a village to visit at least once a month and share the Good News. They will spend Saturday in prayer for that village, and visit it on Sunday. An offering was taken totalling more than US $1000, along with 71 sheep/goats, 18 cows/bulls, 5 chickens, 34 articles of clothing, 2 watches, 1 gold ring, 3 gourds of honey, and 3 sacks of corn. Monthly gifts were pledged by 85 people totalling more than US $150 per month. I'm told that this is in addition to their regular tithe. When we consider that the per capita income in Ethiopia averages about $120 per year, and the Banna would get much less than that, this is remarkable. I have been assured that they will include our Bible-content primers in their outreach. This gives me great hope that our translation and literacy ministry among the Banna and Hamer people will be effective. Praise God with me for this great work of His Spirit, and please pray earnestly that He will encourage and enable all who have committed themselves to this work. Ask God to give us missionaries wisdom and humility to cooperate in this work rather than doing "our own thing".
Disappointment: A letter from former Aari translator Fikadu tells me that he and Duba have not been included on the new Aari translation team, even though some church leaders had understood that they would be. Their local church district (one of the seven Aari-speaking districts) has appointed them as pastor-evangelists for the 20 churches in that district. Pray that they will be as faithful in this ministry as they were in the translation work. Since they will not receive a wage for this, ask God to provide for their material needs. Please also ask Him to encourage them with a strong sense of His presence.
Progress: Donna, Getu and I are working on Luke. We spent the first two days fixing punctuation and settling some questions about grammar. Today we did a thorough check of Luke 17 and the first half of chapter 18. Praise God for good progress, and pray for His continued enabling.
More Praise: On July 23rd, five of the Banna Christians began discussing how God had blessed their people, causing the church to grow and providing jobs for several of their number. They said, "How long are we going to depend on people from outside to share the Good News of Jesus Christ with our people? Let's ask all the Christians to come together and discuss how we can reach our own people for Christ." They called a meeting for the weekend of August 13th, and God poured out His Spirit: First those who gathered (more than 150 people) acknowledged their sin in not caring enough to share their faith with their own people. They asked God for forgiveness. Then they organized themselves into teams. Each team was assigned a village to visit at least once a month and share the Good News. They will spend Saturday in prayer for that village, and visit it on Sunday. An offering was taken totalling more than US $1000, along with 71 sheep/goats, 18 cows/bulls, 5 chickens, 34 articles of clothing, 2 watches, 1 gold ring, 3 gourds of honey, and 3 sacks of corn. Monthly gifts were pledged by 85 people totalling more than US $150 per month. I'm told that this is in addition to their regular tithe. When we consider that the per capita income in Ethiopia averages about $120 per year, and the Banna would get much less than that, this is remarkable. I have been assured that they will include our Bible-content primers in their outreach. This gives me great hope that our translation and literacy ministry among the Banna and Hamer people will be effective. Praise God with me for this great work of His Spirit, and please pray earnestly that He will encourage and enable all who have committed themselves to this work. Ask God to give us missionaries wisdom and humility to cooperate in this work rather than doing "our own thing".
posted by Carolyn Ford at 11:00 PM
<< Latest News