Tuesday, January 16, 2007

Mission Trip Report of 5 Addis Kidan leaders

Dates December 19-25, 2006

We left Addis Ababa early Tuesday morning and arrived at Durame around 5:00 pm. Two of the team members were left at Durame to encourage the work we started last year. The other three team members went on to Welayita Sodo. We have land and a building for the church in that town. We assigned an evangelist to evangelize the community. But the work is big and we always face a struggle. The evangelist had problems and we talked and prayed with him about them.

Wednesday we started the engine at 5:30 am and arrived at Durame around 7:00 am. We met with the two team members, had breakfast together and went to Mudula. At Mudula all the zonal leaders and four local church leaders were waiting for us. As soon as we arrived, we started training. We taught them about servant leadership, leaders and prayer, leaders and reading, the cost of leadership, the importance of leaders as examples in giving, and the responsibilities of leaders. In addition to this we had discussions on different issues such as the proper use of spiritual gifts. After completing the training, Ermias, Alem, and Elias went to Orcha which is about 25 miles west of Mudula. It is a place where lions have eaten many people. We showed the Jesus film to about 1500 people. We spent the night in the church building and they fed us.

Thursday we came back to the Zeldema zone. Zonal leaders and leaders from 10 local churches were waiting for us. We gave them the same training. They chose Gomisa to show the Jesus film. All the area is countryside. Gomisa is a 45 minute walk from Zeldema and the topography of the area is ups and downs. They carried all the important equipment for the Jesus film on their shoulders. The generator weighs about 100 lbs. We showed the film to about 500 people.

On Friday all of the team members went to where they were assigned. Ermias and Alem went to the Tunto zone. At Tunto the zonal leaders and the leaders from six local churches were waiting for us. Ermias visited one of the local churches which had a problem with one of the zonal leaders. Then Ermias went to Hadiya to continue the same work in the Otoro zone and the Gimbichu zone. Alem was to teach two local churches on Sunday in Kembata. For that reason Alem stayed at Tunto and trained the leaders on that day while Ermias went to Hadiya.

The Kembata team could not work on Saturday because of the big market at Hadero. Everyone in the Kembata area went to that market. But the Hadiya team worked all that day. They went to the local churches they had been assigned and taught the members about giving based on 1 Cor. 8:9 and other relevant Bible passages. Ermias started for Otoro to do leadership training and show the Jesus film. On the way the vehicle faced a problem. The gear shift worked but the car did not move according to the gear position. He tried many solutions but none worked. Finally he decided to continue on foot to show the Jesus film to the community. He hired one person to guard the vehicle for the night and all the equipment was carried by the passengers on their shoulders. We walked about 1 1/2 hours to get to Otoro. We have one local church there. That day was market day. We set our screen up in the middle of the market place during the day. It became an advertisement. Approximately 5,000 people saw the Jesus film. The Jesus film was new in all the places we showed it. Altogether 7000 people saw the film.

Sunday was the last day of the mission trip. All of the team members at Hadiya and Kembata went to the local churches they had been assigned and taught the members about giving. Ermias was focused on the vehicle maintenance. The final solution was to load the vehicle on an Isuzu truck and take it to Nyala Motors, the dealer in Addis. We walked about 40 miles to get the truck.

Challenges
Because of the vehicle problem Ermias could not do the leaders training at Otoro and Gimbichu zones in Hadiya.
Alem was sick at Hadero. Because of that he could not teach at the two local churches where he was supposed to teach.