…Go into all the world and make disciples of all nations… Larry Hunter and I will be leaving this afternoon for Ethiopia. This is my 2nd missions trip in a month! We hadn’t planned it this way , but due to schedule conflicts in March and May, trips that were spread farther apart were pushed a bit closer together.
I took my first missions trip in June of 1993 and this is my 18th trip! After I came to pastor here, Houston Miles with Evangel Fellowship International asked me to go to Siberia with him. That was in March of 1996, and somehow that was the catalyst for our church to be thrust into missions work. Since 1997, we’ve taken trips annually to India, Guatemala, and Africa.
This trip to Africa is one of my favorites. The people are wonderful, the land beautiful, and the need is great. What an honor for the Lord to use us in another country. Meberatu Gemenchu is Ethiopian and I ordained him into ministry under Victory Fellowship in December of 2005. Since that time, he has started seven churches under our Victory Fellowship name.
During this trip, we’ll dedicate three church building we’ve built there in the last few months. We will also conduct a Beacon Institute of Ministry graduation with 18 students receiving one year certificates. This is a big deal for them, since there is so little opportunity for spiritual, ministry related education. This is our first graduation for our school in Ethiopia. I hope to provide you with some pictures of the students and the event.
We will also conduct a pastor’s conference in Dilla, which is in southern Ethiopia. We work with over 200 churches there. And we will minister in a number of our churches along the way.
Perhaps the highlight of the trip will be when we travel next week to the Omo Valley (The Omo river runs through western Ethiopia), in the southwestern part of Ethiopia, not too far from Sudan. This is some of the most pristine area of Africa, still largely untouched by modern life. We‘re hopefully going establish a church in an unreached area. As I understand, the people still dress in animal skins, or nothing! It’s very remote, and we’ll be traveling in a four wheel drive vehicle, crossing (hopefully) dry river beds and traveling on gravel roads. Please pray for our safety as we travel. It’s hard to describe the what the roads are like in undeveloped areas, so when we come to mind, thank you for praying!
I’ll try to blog as much as is possible while I’m gone. In the remote area, we’ll only have a satellite phone for communication with the outside world. I’ll make contact as soon as I can, and will hopefully upload some great pictures for you to enjoy.
I’ll touch base with you during the travel time from Raleigh to Addis!
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