God's timing is perfect -Ethiopia story from Wednesday

Our team arrived in the village where we immediately walked up on a water well where the women and children of the village were gathering water for the day. We were able to share the gospel with the group of 20-30 girls. After we shared, 2 teenage Muslim girls began asking questions about why did God let Jesus die, and who killed Jesus. Although they weren’t ready to accept the gospel, it was encouraging to see how they all stayed for the entire story. 

 

Later on, we were trying to find a place to eat lunch. On our way, we saw this gigantic tree that was HUGE, nothing like the trees in Dallas. We decided to stop and take pictures by the tree. As we were taking pictures, a Muslim man named Adega walked up to us and started sharing the history of the tree along with his story. He shared with us that his son had gotten sick many years ago. They had taken him to a Christian church to be prayed over and he was healed. Tim asked him why he wouldn’t want to worship a God who is able to heal his son. He said he wants to believe but is afraid of his family and community. Tim asked if he could share the gospel with him and he agreed. After Tim finished, Adega told us he believed we were “messengers from God” to share with him. It is so amazing how God used his wonderful creation of an ancient tree to put us in the perfect place to engage with this man. If we hadn’t gone out of our way to stop and take pictures of the tree, we would have never had met Adega. We were then invited to his house where we got to rest and pray over Adega to be encouraged and that God would give him peace to be able to accept the gospel and live it out publicly. 

 

Please pray for Adega and his family that he would be courageous and step out in faith no matter what the cost. Pray that his son, who is a Christian can encourage him and water the seed that were planted. ~Lauren Bonner

 

The team is encouraged by all the seeds being planted after our 3rd day of ministry.  Tomorrow (Thursday) we will have a celebration service in the afternoon where we celebrate all that God has done this week.  We have a couple who have stomach issues but that is normal for this stage of the trip.  Please pray that God would strengthen them & that they would be able to go out for our final day of ministry.  

Please continue to pray for:

·      Open hearts to the gospel of Jesus Christ 

·      Strength for the new believers to stand up under persecution

·      Disciple-makers would shepherd & care for the new believers 

·      Good health for those not feeling 100%

·      Unity with our Ethiopian partners  


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Ethiopia here we come - August 2024 version

In a few short days (Friday, August 2nd) the 2nd Ethiopia 2024 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 will be the 2 nd  of 2 Ethiopia trips for the Watermark Young Adults partnering with E3 Partners this year.    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 thes...
Read more

Monday update- Excited to see God work

This has been an eventful trip with lots of challenges already.    Sorry I haven’t been able to update the blog but I’ve just now been able to connect to wifi.    Our team was supposed to fly out of Dallas on Friday morning but due the weather in Newark (our connecting point) our Friday flight was cancelled.    We were fortunately able to get booked on a flight to DC that would connect us to Addis Ababa for most of the group but we had to be at the airport @ 4:30AM on Saturday morning.    Our Saturday flight was uneventful but meant that we had a 10 hour layover in DC.    5 of our group had to fly through Houston & due to weather in DC they never made it & had to spend the night in the airport only to take a flight the next day from NYC.    3 days of airports, flights & layovers & most of the team is finally in Hosanna (our mission site) with the group of 5 expected to arrive late Monday night in Addis to join u...
Read more

Tuesday update- Our God is in the business of changing hearts

Praise God for His faithfulness! This morning as we gathered for breakfast, we prayed over our team, translators, disciple-makers, and the Ethiopian people that we would encounter. Specifically, we asked God to move in tangible ways that would make His presence clearly known to both us and them. Boy, did he ever deliver on that prayer! At multiple moments throughout the day, we found ourselves sharing the gospel with precious children and were shocked at their eagerness for what we had to share and at their hunger for the gospel. It was incredible to witness the Lord break down the communication barrier between the Americans and Ethiopians through His provision of our translators. Through the interactions today, many children as well as adults made the decision to put their faith in Christ & not made made rules & religion.    At one point this morning I had 12-15 men surrounding me & listening intently as I shared my story of life change & how God has changed m...
Read more