Ethiopia Update – March 2024

Another Great Mass Baptism Event & The Impact of The Gospel

A 75-year-old man, Taddese Metaferia, is one of the new converts who got baptized in our mass -baptism event together with other group of more than 700 people. He was a Chief community leader and hard-core persecutor in the village called Boffa and its surrounding area. By mobilizing the communities in the region, he was known by beating many of our leaders repeatedly and violently hurt and injured our leaders and church planters. He also put many of them in jail; abused and traumatized them several times. He had been doing this for more than 25 years.

But, recently by the miraculous intervention of the Lord in his life; he came to know the Lord, repented and accepted Jesus Christ as His Lord and personal Savior and got baptized. Pastor Taddesse, our regional leader, was so excited and he couldn’t believe the conversation of this old man. Mostly because he was one of the victims in his early years of ministry in that region. We, together with Pastor Taddesse and other leaders, thanked God and praised the Lord for the salvation of this old man and celebrated his baptism with great joy.

Pastor Taddesse with former Persecutor

No words can express how much we thank God for His Grace and Salvation. We were witnesses to see more than 700 people from teenagers to elderly get baptized in Bishoftu/ Deberezeit/ town in the lake called Kuriftu.

Few pictures of baptisms

We have helped them to rent many buses to transport them from their respective areas to the lake. We have also given out Bibles to feed their spiritual lives and bread and a bottle of water for their body.

Donation of Bibles & sharing meals

Visiting our Village Churches in Southern Region

Pastor Moses is one of our leaders in the Southern region together with Pastor Chachi, our regional coordinator and serving as a pastor in our local Church called Boditi town. The impact of our outreach with Dr. Okongo last year in that region has brought a huge inspiration to Pst. Moses.

By the guidance of the Holy Spirit, Pst. Moses together with his local church team went out and plant two more churches in the surrounding villages of his town. I visited one of the churches in the community called Hangaza Offa. I encouraged them and prayed for them. I have seen the new structure of their local church with the capacity of 200 hundred people.

We thank God for the church planting and disciple-making movement that is taking place in this region.

Visiting our Village Church in Wolayita- Boditi area

Praise and Prayer items

The followings are praise and prayer request items to pray about with us:

• Praise God for all the people who just got baptized.
• Praise God for the Church Planting and Disciple – Making movements that are taking place in the country that draw many people to Jesus.
• Pray for all those new believers who recently got baptized that God would help them to grow spiritually and follow Jesus daily with obedience.
• Pray for our Kingdom workers that God would give them wisdom and strength to make many more disciples in their regions.

Samson Weldemariam /Pst/

Africa & Ethiopia director of U4A