Watermark in Africa

Today was a day of seeing God provide in ways bigger than we could ask or imagine. After worshipping together with all of the Ethiopian & American team, our small team broke off and went to a village. The disciple makers immediately took us to a volleyball court that was empty. Walking to the court, we were praying that the Lord would provide people and that many would hear the Gospel preached. Our team started playing and in less than five minutes we had an overflowing court of people. One of the disciple makers took me aside to an Orthodox lady that was standing off to the side watching. She spoke English pretty well so we got to learn more about each other and then shortly went into my personal testimony followed by the Gospel. She asked a lot of good questions and together we looked at scripture. While we were talking, a large group formed and started following along. Looking back, I saw that the court had transitioned from volleyball to a place where around 200 people were hea...

Today was a day that truly displayed the power of prayer. We came across one man in the afternoon who was willing to listen to the story of the Gospel. We encouraged one of our local Ethiopian partners to share and give him a chance in using the evange-cube as we gave support. As the conversation carried on, our translators would explain the questions the man was asking so we could participate in the conversation. At one point we were told, “He believes the message to be true, but he has a block in his mind.” While I didn’t fully understand what this meant, I immediately began to pray to God. I knew that while I didn’t know what the ‘block’ in his mind was, I know God did. I asked God to remove the barrier that this man had in his mind and compel his heart to come to know Jesus as his savior. As the conversation was coming to a close, our translator asked us to pray as a group over the man. We all joined together to pray earnestly that this man would be able to have a personal relation...

Tuesday in Ethiopia was an AWESOME day!    Our 4 small teams went to our host church mission site this morning to meet our translators & disciple-makers.    We prayed for the harvest field & sang worship songs in Amharic (Ethiopian national language) before splitting up & going to our mission sites.    Today I had the opportunity to talk in depth with an Ethiopian Orthodox priest.    I started by sharing a little about America & transitioned that into my personal testimony.    I’ve found that authenticity in our testimony is attractive & I shared with the priest about my incorrect view of God when I was young & how that led to rebellion (alcohol, drugs & promiscuity) in my younger years.    After my testimony I shared the gospel message through the evange-cube which tells a picture story of the bible.    I asked some diagnostic questions after our talk & he still says Jesus is the “way”...

We woke up to a rainy morning in Addis Ababa and went out as 4 ministry teams into the mission field.    We went to an opening ceremony where we joined in with our Ethiopian partners in worshipping God together in both English and Amharic. We were then served by our Ethiopian sisters in a “buna” or coffee ceremony. This traditional Ethiopian ceremony was a time where bread was broken and coffee was served allowing for a time of fellowship and unification of the North Americans and Ethiopians as one team. Each ministry team then got into their van and each went to their specific site with their translators and disciple makers. We were met with hundreds of people - men, women and children who were hungry for the Gospel. We came in contact with a lot of Ethiopian Orthodox, some Muslims and some nominal Christians that we were able to pray for and encourage. We were welcomed into the homes of the local Ethiopians where we were served generously and we encouraged their servant hear...

It is currently Sunday afternoon in Addis as we are 8 hours ahead of Dalls time.  The June team arrived in Addis Ababa late last night.    We are feeling good & all the bags arrived.  Today was spent exchanging currency, getting water & having lunch.  We'll spend some time this afternoon & evening doing our final in-country training & getting to know better our Ethiopian partners.  Tomorrow (Monday) will start our ministry days.        Please pray for:     *  Rest  tonight as our body clock is really off from Dallas time  *  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, June 21st) the 1 st  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 1 st  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 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...