Ethiopia Updates – April 2024

“Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God”
(Philippians 4:6)

Dear friends and family of Unite 4 Africa, I humbly invite you to join us in boldly praying this year for God’s Kingdom to come through Christlike, servant-hearted leaders.

1. Equipping “Least Accessed Leaders”

By “least accessed,” we mean those with least access to Christian leadership trainings, coaching, mentorship and resources. Barriers can include geography, language, poverty or even culture. While we may live in a place with an abundance of Christian leadership materials, many leaders have never even heard the term “servant leadership.”

Until leaders like Dr. Okongo and his leadership team are shown that leading like Jesus is possible, they often follow “big boss” cultural models. But when leaders put their own interests first – whether in a church, hospital, business or nonprofit – their mission struggles and everyone around them suffers. However, when leaders are offered training, mentoring and encouragement to lead with servant hearts, there’s no limit to what they can do.

Often, least accessed places are also those with the least access to the gospel, making U4A work especially strategic. Not only does serving Christian leaders in these areas equip them to share the gospel, but it ensures that young churches are led with integrity and effectiveness.

By the end of the year 2022 Dr. Okongo was prayerfully led by the Holy spirit to go to the town called Wolayita Sodo, the southern region of Ethiopia and did a very successful mission outreach there together with his team. One of the packages of our mission outreach was training, coaching and mentoring leaders. Even after the mission outreach ended, Dr. Okongo has understood the needs of equipping leaders and went back by carrying all those “Least Accessed Leaders” in the region within his heart and the Holy Spirit continues speaking to him to do a follow up work. And now we are seeing the fruits what Dr. Okongo and his team have planted a couple of years ago.

Church Leaders Training by Dr. Okongo in Wolayita Sodo two years ago.

Pastor George Goa, the Chairman of the Regional Evangelical Churches Fellowship has received the training from Dr. Okongo and Rev. Samson Weldemariam and has called many other leaders from the surrounding towns and villages and trained more than 100 leaders so far.

Pastor George Goa trains the leaders in Wolayita Sodo

What a blessing to see the growth of our movement and keep touching many more leaders in various towns and villages. And all of this is because of your partnership. You enable us to come alongside leaders in some of the most isolated – yet most strategic – places in Africa and beyond, equipping these men and women to become servant-hearted agents of change. Thank you for believing in us and investing in the lives of many leaders across Africa and beyond through our ministry Unite 4 Africa.

2. Our “Dignity Pads for School Girls “Project is Transforming Many Lives

Tsion Shambel is a 10th grade student. She is 17 years old and lives with her grandmother in Wonji-Showa town. In our recent visit to Wonji-Showa; she gave us her powerful testimony of how this project has transformed her life. According to her testimony; since she lives in a deep poverty; she couldn’t afford and did not have access to take care of herself during the week of the time.

She added that she even did use unclean ordinary pieces of cloth or rags to keep herself clean, which is not safe and good for her health. She also said that she used to stay at home for days and even a week and missed many classes and exams. This affected her study significantly. She couldn’t continue sharing her story because she was so emotional and tears covered her face and she said ‘it was tough … it was tough’.

Dignity pad distribution

This is what lives of many young girls look like in many places in Ethiopia and Africa. But, thanks to God, this project has been changing the lives of many school girls in Ethiopia and Africa. Like Tsion many girls are doing great in their schooling now with a strong confidence and boldness with no shame. Some mini-studies show that girls have become more competent with boys in their results according to their report card. This was totally unthinkable before this project started in our schools.

Thank you so much for your prayers, encouragement and generosity. May God bless you all abundantly.

3. Praise and Prayer items

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

• Praise God for all our leaders for the opportunity they have received for the leadership training, coaching and mentoring.
• Praise God for the impact that is being exhibited in the lives many young school girls through our dignity pad project.
• Pray for our leadership development program so that it would continue impacting many more leaders.
• Pray for our dignity pad project that God would continue use it to transform many lives.