Ethiopia Update – February 2020

1. Christmas celebration with Orphans and Vulnerable Children.

Christmas is many things for many people. Many of us view this time of year as a time of Joy and peace. However, for the past many years; our orphans & vulnerable children did not experience the joy & the peace of the season. Because; they were neglected and abandoned and they did not have anyone who showed them love and care for them.

But, we thank God for the opportunity that He has given us to serve these little children among us. “Christmas gift & Celebration” (CGC) program is one of our programs that we help our orphans & vulnerable children in our communities. We have started this program six years ago with the aim of brining all our orphans & vulnerable children together with other children in the community to make them fill belongingness. Every year in Christmas season; we organize an event of celebration, fun time, prayer and singing. We also provide them various kinds of gifts, meals, soft drinks and candies. The children really love it and longing the event every year with great enthusiasm.

We did the same thing in this past Christmas holy day in our school Wonjishowa. My wife Addiskidan organized and conducted this event together with our local leaders. The joy, the smile and the laughter shown on the faces of those children was amazing and impressive. As I said many times most of the children in our villages have never received any gift in their lives. So, when they received gift they got shocked and became nervous. And they praised God and realized that God has given them the greatest gift ever His Son Jesus Christ to save us. I take this opportunity to thank all our partners who supported us in this program. May God bless you abundantly.

Christmas celebration event in Wonjishowa

2. Encouragement & Equipping seminar with our leaders and missionaries.

Due to the current security situation of Ethiopia; most of our leaders and missionaries who are serving in different regions and towns of the country are passing through challenges and various kinds of persecutions. Therefore, we felt that it is very important to organize an encouragement & prayer meeting with them to be able to encourage them and pray for them and for the peace of the country as well.

Though, with the support of Unite 4 Africa we organized the meeting for our leaders and more than twenty key leaders from various regions gathered together for two days and had great time. We encouraged them by the word of God, pray for them and advised them to be careful and neutral as much as they can in the current political tension of the country. We also encourage them to teach their congregations particularly the young generation not to be involved in any kinds of violence and ethnic conflict; instead to exhibit the basic Christian values in their lives and treat every human being in love and respect and see them as the image bearer of God. I would like to thank our office in US for their intervention, for their prayer and support.

Encouragement and Prayer meeting with our leaders in Welenchity Town.

3. The upcoming Mass Baptism event in March /2020

Just as we did in the previous years we are having a mass baptism event by next month of March /2020. We have prepared close to 1,500 new converts in this year again to be able to get them baptized. We have completed all the works of preparation & logistics to make the upcoming event successful and a blessing for everyone who will attend on this wonderful event.

We are also expecting a team coming from US and praying for them that may God would enable them to be the eye witnesses for what He is doing in our midst. We believe that God is going to bless us and give us great time.

Mass baptism event from our last year archive.

4. Prayer Requests

This year is a special year for us and we believe that God is going to lift our ministry up to another level in every aspect. Thank you for all your efforts to stand alongside with us in order to fulfill our mission.

Here under are some lists of our prayer requests: –

• Pray for the current situation of Ethiopia for may peace prevails in the country.
• Pray for this year mass baptism event. We have prepared more than 1,500 new converts who are ready to be baptize in the coming month of March. So, pray that may God would enable us to transport those new believers from their villages to the river. There is a huge need of support to transport them to the area.
• Pray for the protection of our leaders specially those who are serving in unsecured areas of the country.
• Pray for our projects such as “goat project” and “Leaders’ Empowerment Training” programs that may God provide us the necessary budget so that we are able to conduct more trainings in various parts of the country.

Samson Weldemariam/Pst/
Vice – president of U4A and Ethiopia Director