Dear Praying Friends,
On the heels of a wonderful trip to the Philippines, I spent three great weeks in Africa. There were 15 Deaf and 3 hearing saved on my trip. Others were challenged to be a witness to those God brings their way.
I am going to talk about each of the three countries that I visited in Africa in three successive letters. This letter starts in Ethiopia where I preached 4 times in a 3 day conference.
Prayer and Thanksgiving Conference
Eighteen deaf churches in Ethiopia gathered for three days of preaching and encouragement. This was the 28th year of the conference that the late Pastor Bizuayehu Assefa started. However, it was only the second meeting since Bro. Bizuayehu passed away just over a year ago. Of the 18 churches present, 16 were ones that Bro. Bizuayehu either started or trained the pastor who started the church.
Letter From Tsehai (Bizuayehu’s Widow)
Sister Tsehai sent a good letter summarizing the conference from their perspective. This is a letter being sent to the ministry’s current supporters. I wanted to send it to you as well. I appreciate you taking the time to read it. The picture to the right is me with Bro. Bizuayehu’s family.
Your Help Appreciated
Thank you for praying for my trip to Ethiopia. I encourage you to consider supporting the churches in Ethiopia. One of the churches in particular, the one that Bro. Bizuayehu was pastoring, is in need of continued support. In Addis Ababa, where the greatest concentration of Deaf in the country live, buying land is cost-prohibitive. Practically this means the church must rent a space for services. Currently their rent is a little over $300 a month. As with any place, that amount will continue to go up over time.
The church receives about $150 each month in support. This is about half of what they were getting when Bro. Bizuayehu died last year. The church is struggling to come up with the additional funds for rent and other expenses. I ask you to consider helping this ministry. As with any missionary endeavor, any money that comes in above their normal expenses will help them do that much more ministry in other places. I have a list of 18 names of men from the main church in Addis Ababa who are either ready to pastor a church or are in training to do so. What they lack is money to help them travel to towns and villages so they can get new works started in the country. Any money received above the expenses of the church can go towards a bus ticket to send a man to investigate the possibility of starting another deaf work and reaching their country for God. Your $20 a month can make a difference in reaching the Deaf in Ethiopia.
If you would like to support this ministry, send a check made out to BIO with Assefa in the memo line.
Thank you for your continued support!
A PDF version of this letter can be downloaded for printing.
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