Ethiopia Update-February 2019

1. A meaningful Christmas celebration with Orphans and vulnerable children

The Christmas celebration has become more meaningful and impactful for our Orphans and vulnerable children in Ethiopia. Almost all of the Orphans and vulnerable children did not have a chance to celebrate Christmas due to the fact that they did not have a father or a mother figure.

Since four years ago, our local churches and school communities have taken the initiative and started to help our orphans and vulnerable children to celebrate Christmas in meaningful way. Even, in the past Christmas our orphans and vulnerable children celebrated Christmas with a great joy & excitement. Taking Wonjishowa church and school as an example; more than 500 orphans, vulnerable children and other children from our church and communities celebrated Christmas in prayer, singing, eating together and having fun.

My wife Addiskidan organized and participated in this great event. Most of the Orphans and vulnerable children never received a gift from anyone in the past. But, on that day they have received various gifts and they were so happy and became nervous when they received their gifts from my wife. And it was a great lesson for them as we taught them that even God has a great gift, His Son Jesus Christ for them for their salvation.

We thank God for the opportunity that He has given us to help our kids to celebrate Christmas in a meaningful way. I also take this opportunity to thank all our local and international partners who have got involved in this project to make our children happy and impacted their lives with their generous gifts. May God bless you abundantly!

Christmas Celebration in our school Wonjishowa

2. Mass Baptism event in Boffa community

This the number of new converts are getting increased time to time in our region; we have come up with the new plan in this year which is baptizing them in three different spots in different time based on closest spot to their villages. These are Boffa area, Donni area and Welenchity.

So, we have baptized 450 new converts two weeks ago just from one area called Boffa. The celebration & the excitement was so amazing.

Another more than 1,000 new converts are ready to baptize in Donni & Welenchity spot in this month and next month consecutively. We thank God for His great salvation.

Mass Baptism in Boffa area

3. Peace and Reconciliation Conference in Wollega region

I was privileged to go to Wollega region to bring the message of peace and reconciliation. That region had some issue of conflict and our churches over there have had challenges in their ministries. But, by the grace of God we were able to pray for the people and the region and deliver the message of peace and reconciliation to the people.
And the people were challenged by the word of God and responded positively to become peace makers and agents of peace. The Holy spirit was moved powerfully and has touched the heart of the people and the spirit of forgiveness poured up the people and many have forgiven people who hurt them. Currently, the situation in the area has completely changed and peace has prevailed. I thank God for the great thing He has done in that region.

Peace & Reconciliation Conference in Wollega

4. Prayer Requests

Here under is some of our prayer requests that we would like to ask all our partners to pray for and thanks giving to God:

• Pray for the two upcoming mass baptism events in Donni & Welenchity area; may God would transform many of them for His glory. Pray also for the provision of transportation cost for those who can not afford to come to the river to baptize. Most of them walk an average of two hours to get the river from their respective villages.
• Pray for our new school project in Boffa village and may God would help us to build good class rooms for our students.
• Continue pray for our women may God would enable us to equip them in various training events.
• Pray for our new “Youth leadership Development program” that may God would enable and provide us all the necessary resources to train and equip many youths.
• Continue Pray for our Animal Project may God would touch many orphans so they have got a bright future through this small gift.
• We have started a new project for our local church – planters to provide them Bicycles and Motorbikes if possible, so that it will help them to easier their work as they travel many villages. So, continue praying for us may God would provide us the budget for this new project.

Samson Weldemariam/Pst/
Vice-President of U4A and Ethiopia Director