April to June 2022 Family and Ministry Update

Dear friends and co-workers, we greet you in the precious name of our Savior and Lord Jesus Christ, who called us to serve him in this generation. It is our prayer that the Lord keeps you safe and under His mercy. The last three months for our family were unique, which we are enjoying with God’s blessings and mercy. These are the highlights:We have celebrated God’s faithfulness in our marriage for the last ten years!Ebenezer, our second child, performed well in kindergarten and was promoted to grade one.Lydia, our daughter, was promoted to grade 4 with a high score. She stood out as a star student of the academic year of the school.Bethany, our third daughter, is growing healthy. Ministry Update Besides the challenges we faced, such as civil war, drought, and the global pandemic COVID-19, the Lord was with us in every aspect, and we were able to thrive in many areas. Here are some highlights of the ministry’s achievements under my leadership within the last three months of April-June 2022. Over 23,752 people were trained for leadership, evangelism, discipleship, church planting, bible study, children’s ministry, etc. Over 632,072 people heard the gospel message through one-on-one, films, and mass evangelism. 26,319 people made a decision to follow Christ. 10,443 new believers joined a discipleship group. 287 churches were planted with a membership of 15,906 new believers. 5169 believers are engaged in weekly bible study within 438 groups.Glory be to the Lord! Changed Life Story! 30 people turned to God just in A Moment In the Oromia Region, East Shewa Zone, in a city called Boset, there is an adult man named Debela Bedaso. He is married and has ten children. He earns his livelihood by farming. Mr. Debela is well known for agitating the community to follow and worship the ancestral gods. He tries to convince the community in a way that unless they worship this ancestral god, blessing and fertility will never come to their farm and family. Their shrine is under a big oak tree. In their worship process, they slaughter many oxen and drink a lot of alcohol. Mr. Debela was a drunkard who led his family to bankruptcy. He is personally against Christianity.Tola Biru is our missionary/church planter who is actively engaged in evangelizing the community. Many times, he tried to tell Mr. Debela about Christ. But Mr. Debela is not convinced, and the persecuted Christian who is living in the community is Despite that, Mr. Tola tries hard to become more intimate with him and his family. The turning point came in the month of January 2022, when Mr. Debela turned back from a nearby city after selling teff (a well-known national cereal) with his donkey at night. He drank a lot, and he found himself in a ditch and lost his donkey to a hyena. Fortunately enough, his neighbors found him and took him to his home. Hearing this, the church planter, Tola, went home to visit him. In their dialogue, Mr. Debela said, “For the last fifty years I have worshiped the ancestral god, but this god is not able to save me; rather he gave me to death.” Thus, if your God (Tola’s God) can save me from this problem, I will worship him. Hearing this, Tola sent him to repentance prayer, where Mr. Debela finally accepted Jesus Christ as his personal savior. While they were praying, an evil spirit shouted and came out of Mr. Debela. That was the first night his children saw him get asleep without drinking. Before, they knew that their father was unable to sleep unless he drank. This is just a miracle to his children, even to his neighbors.   This incident led his whole family and some of the neighbors to believe in Jesus Christ, and they are thirty in number. All are baptized after basic Christian A church is surviving in daily Persecution In Oromia Region, East Shewa Zone, Lomme Woreda, in a village called Qolo Kebele, there is a church planters’ coach named Mathewos Dawit. He is coaching ten church planters. Even though the community is highly dominated by traditional religion, Matthewos and his disciples managed to evangelize many and plant a church in a very short period of time. Matthewos and his team recently planted eight new churches, with an average of fifteen new members. One of these churches was planted with three new believers through the work of the Holy Spirit and the evangelistic tenor of the family many have been won for Christ where there are fifty-seven members who are now gathering for worship, prayer, and bible study. This small community of churches survived a frequent stone attack daily, where few were personally persecuted and marginalized by the community. For many years, the community has been dominated by witchdoctors and those who have lived their practice of giving tights. One of the young men who is currently attending training at Multiplying Church Communities was the one who was sent to kill the disciples who are serving the community. When he tried to do that, he was not successful in touching them, not even killing them. But, with the miraculous work of God, he received Jesus Christ as his personal savior. Seeing the work of God in his life, his mother and his wife received Jesus Christ. He is the young man dressed in a white shirt in the picture.  God is always at Work! The gospel of Jesus Christ has no borders. It has the power to penetrate every ethnicity, every religion, and every community. Ismael is the son of Abraham. Jesus was born, died, and raised from the dead for his descendants too. In the Amhara region, in the South Gonder zone, in a special place named Alem Ber, there was a Muslim convert who lived there. She is (the woman at the back of the picture) the only person who received Jesus Christ and worshiped him together with her six children. Tezera Gelaye is the disciple (the man who is baptizing, in the picture) who was nurturing the family with the Word of God. Two of her brothers also received Christ with her. She lived away from her family, so her father came to visit her (the one with the white cape in the picture). He came while Tezera was teaching the family the Word of God, and they worshiped together. He sat silently and listened to Tezera with calm until he was finally touched by the Holy Spirit and received Jesus Christ. His family also received Jesus Christ and were baptized.The miracle continues. There was an old man named Adem Yibre (the man wrapped in white). Fortunately, he received Jesus Christ while death was knocking at his door. He became ill and died while praising Jesus.What a blessing. Our God is always at work, and the gospel is borderless. Prayer and Praise Praise the Lord for the people who made decision to follow Christ and those who mobilized for the kingdom expansion.  Prayer: Pray may the Lord give me Wisdom and Knowledge while I am giving leadership for a Global Church Movement national wide. Housing Project: One bank obtained a 50% interest rate discount from the actual interest rate on mortgage loans for Great Commission Ministry Ethiopia staff for a limited time. This gave the staff a great opportunity to buy a house, as they were suffering severely as a result of the inflated rental prices. Since last year, we have been praying to relocate our family to Addis Ababa, the location where we found a school facility for our child born with Down syndrome. If the house rent and the bank loan back payment are almost similar, we intend to purchase the house. To secure the bank loan, I would have to put down 20% of the down payment. This time, I’m asking you to join my family in prayer and supporting financially