Tuesday Update - Answered prayer & open hearts to the Gospel of Jesus Christ

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 different village in the afternoon & the reeptiveness was much different. Bri had a chance to share her testimony & the gospel with a group of 15 kids ages 5-12 years old.  The Ethiopian children are so warm & welcoming & when you give them some positive emotional love they welcome it wholeheartedly.  After sharing the gospel with the children Bri asked them to raise their hands if they believed the message was true.  After asking the question, all of the kids hands shot up.  There wasn’t the typical hesitation as kids would look at their friends asking, “do you believe?”.  This was so encouraging as the kids eagerly repeated the sinners prayer & said they wanted to follow Jesus.  Two older women were standing on the outside of the group & they said that they wanted to pray to receive Jesus.  It was so sweet to watch Bri hold hands with the old women as they prayed to receive Christ.  

I spoke with the women after the prayer & told them that there is no magic in speaking words.  That the decision they made was between them personally & God.  The women said with tears in their eyes that they understood & then gave their phone numbers to the disciplemakers.  The next step is the most important as the disciple-makers are committed to shepherding those new believers & gathering them together into a new church plant.  Praise God for his faithfulness & answering prayer & opening hearts.  

 

Please continue to pray for:

•      Ethiopian hearts would be receptive to the message of the Gospel


•      New believers would stand up strong under persecution 

•      Continued unity between the North Americans and Ethiopian partners

•      Continued good health for North Americans 

•      Safety & good health for North American family members at home