Watermark in Africa

 Sorry for the delayed post but I didn't have wifi at the hotel Saturday night.  The team arrived in Addis Ababa healthy & safe.  All the bags arrived & everyone is excited to start our ministry Monday morning.  We had an 8 hour van ride today to our ministry site in Hosanna & met our Ethiopian partners & had an awesome worship service this evening preparing our hearts for what God has in store.   Please pray for: •        Ethiopian hearts would be receptive to the message of the Gospel 
 •        Unity between the North Americans and Ethiopian partners •        Continued good health for North Americans  •        Safety & good health for North American family members at home

In a few short days (Friday, July 17th) the Ethiopia 2026 team will get on an airplane for the long flight to Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.  Our mission will be to share how Jesus Christ has changed our lives & how much he loves the people of Ethiopia.  This trip is a partnership between Watermark Community Church Young adults & E3 Partners ministry.  The “journey” to Ethiopia started long before getting on the plane as we had our 1 st  training meeting in early February of this year so we have been praying & planning for this trip for 6 months.   Our training and preparation for Ethiopia has consisted of support raising (learning how to share the financial need in healthy ways), immunizations (shots) party and cultural awareness training, practice sharing the gospel, roleplaying sharing our testimonies, and giving a biblical defense for the gospel for common Orthodox and Muslim arguments. As I think about these summer trips, I can’t hel...

What an awesome day of ministry.    Our small team drove outside of Hosanna & parked along the road & started conversations.    We had a lot of really good conversations early & several people say they believed the good news & accepted Christ.    I have been coming to Ethiopia since 2009 & I have never seen so much chat.    Chat is a plant that grows in Ethiopia & the locals chew it because it is a narcotic.    We had multiple people offer us chat (which we obviously refused).    We had a chance to go into one of the local houses & share our testimony of life change & the message of the gospel.    This local house is where locals go to buy chat & there were 5 or 6 men inside the house that were eating the chat & preparing it in bundles for sale.    They kept offering chat as I was sharing my testimony of my past drug & alcohol use.    One man said he beli...

Day 3 was full of joy, repentance, and acceptance of Jesus. The team was encouraged as we saw many Muslims accept the Gospel. Starting off the morning, our team shared the gospel and testimonies with a Muslim family. After a long beautiful conversation, they all decided to put their faith in Christ. PRAISE THE LORD! Another highlight of our day, we came across a compound with a Muslim family working in the yard. They welcomed us with a place to sit and open ears. They were intrigued & wanted to know why North Americans would come all the way to Ethiopia to talk with them    After hearing the Gospel, he boldly said he accepted this message and asked for prayers to confidently share with his daughters, sons, and wife.  To leave you with an encouraging story - we were wrapping up the end of the day, resting on a porch on the main road. A man suddenly approached us, looking physically disheveled and mentally broken - an obvious social outcast. We were hesitant to engage b...

Day 2 was hard but also encouraging as small team 2 kind of had a hard morning but awesome afternoon.    This morning we started out by driving outside of town into the countryside to a more rural village.    We got out of the van with our translators & disciple-makers & walked the dirt roads looking for a person of peace (described as a person who shows open-ness to us & our gospel message).    The receptiveness of the people was quite different from yesterday as the villagers were kind & smiled at us but when we started to engage them they were not very receptive.    It is clear that the Muslim leadership of the village told the people overnight that we were in the area & warned them not to talk with us.    It was a little disheartening but our spirits were not dampened as we see our responsibility as planting seeds of gospel truth & God’s responsibility to change people’s hearts.    We switched to a d...

Day 1 of ministry- Can you believe it? We are having a great time here in Ethiopia! We started our morning at a local church, where we were greeted by the community with praise, worship, coffee, tea, and bread. We then transitioned to meeting with our Ethiopian partners who are Ethiopian translators and disciple makers. One particular story stands out, which has energized our team to share the gospel even more over the next few days.    One team encountered encouragement, but with resistance, which showed the power of the gospel. Thirty minutes before the team were to go back to the hotel, they were sharing the gospel to local children when a couple Muslim men came to see why white people where in their remote village.    When they realized that we were sharing about faith in Jesus Christ they became aggressive and frustrated. We quickly got into the van to leave and they began hitting the van as we drove away. In the meantime, one curious man tagged along in the van...