Friday – last village day

Abbreviated for time….

Robbie gave devotion from Mark 6:30.  His key point was to focus on not just the feeding of 5000, but also Jesus interaction with his disciples and using the little we have.

We had another great day in the field.  There were 62 people who accepted Jesus today.  Today, over 90% of the people who heard the message believed.

After this, we went to visit with Cherry’s mininstry, which just opened in Bahir Dar.  We were fortunate to see the ten women who have joined the program, and to tour the new facility.  It is quite nice.

For evening devotion, Robbie led praise time, as he has done the entire time.  Great job.  He could be a worship leader (he is, for this who don’t know).  Tom gave the devotion on rain being good and sometimes withheld, depending on whether we have God’s favor or not.

Finally, we went to visit Mesfin’s pastor for an evening coffee ceremony.  And with that, we are ready for a flight back to Addis on Saturday morning, in preparation for our Saturday evening departure back to the States.

Thank you all for your prayers.  It has been an amazing, amazing time.  God is good

Thursday – a new area

We went to a new region today.  God added 75 new believers to His Kingdom during our visits.

Allison led devoted John 4 and the woman at the well.  And I must say, she did a spectacular job.  Her devo was very thorough.  It’s possible she spent more time on hers than any of the rest of us.

We had a mixed harvest today.  At least two teams had agricultural representatives shadow them for part of the time, which deterred us from asking for decisions and/or even presenting the E-cube.  Disciple makers did say they would return, however.  Other teams saw God save every person who heard the gospel today.  Overall, this is another village where people’s hearts are ready to receive Jesus.

For dinner, we ate at Mesfin’s house.  Tigist (his wife) prepared the food, as I understand.  I don’t know entirely what I had, but it was delicious.  We did fellowship there awhile, and then participated in the coffee ceremony.  This was a very special time.

Rick did evening devotion, on Hebrews 13 and submitting to authority.  It was an interesting choice, since neither of our leaders were there.  They had a separate meeting elsewhere during that time.  (Just so you know Tom and Erin, we prayed for you during this time, as well as others!)

Friday is our last village day.  We ask for prayer:  endurance and focus, as the last day can be difficult to keep concentration; physical strength, as some of us have been, or are getting, ill in various ways; and of course success in the field, whether that be planting, watering, or harvesting.

Wednesday – God for the win!

Wednesday – God for the win!

Wednesday continued the theme.  123 people made professions of faith in our visits today.  God continues to do more than we can expect.

Tom led us in a morning devotion featuring the Whisper of God.  This was quite stirring for some of us.  The idea is to have people whisper promises of God into your ear, modified explicitly with your name injected into the verse.

Again there were many, many encouraging stories from the village day:  from 20 conversions in a single E-cube presentation to an Orthodox deacon conversion to whole families receiving Christ, I believe every team had a fruitful day.  This village is a place where God is clearly at work.  Many of us reported multiple people following from one house to the next, after hearing the gospel and repenting.  Additionally, since we visited the same village as yesterday, some of us were blessed to see some of our new brothers and sisters from yesterday, and some of them also sat in presentations today.  This caused even more smiles than the norm.

On the Priceless cube front, one group reported that villagers said they heard stories of brokers coming to the village in the next few days, to make deals of some type or other.  They were very pleased to have the trafficking knowledge, so that they can determine whether these upcoming visitors are trustworthy or not.

Even though it is the rainy season here, we have been blessed with very good weather, with no rain nearly all of the time of the village visits.  A few drops on some of us Tuesday but that is it.

Pray for us Thursday, as we move on to a new village area.

The entire ET15Q team

Tuesday in the field – God at work again

Another great day – today we saw God bring 114 people into His kingdom!

Mae gave the morning devotion – which sadly I can’t remember (my deepest apologies to Mae, but I do remember thinking it quite good at the time).  This is one of the things that happen here – if you don’t write things down just when they happen, you lose some things.

Virtually every team had a very fruitful day.  It was an amazing, amazing day.  Truly God had prepared this village in advance of our coming.  It was like (taking candy from a baby doesn’t seem an appropriate analogy), well, it was like offering a dying person life-saving medicine.  Why wouldn’t they accept?

Dave gave the devotion (which I do remember, no surprise) from the book of Jonah, with the topic being even when we are running 180 degrees away from God, He is still using us for His purposes.

One highlight from the village visits was that Jon and Ashley witnessed the conversion of an Orthodox priest.  There were so many, if only there were time to recount them all.