Gondar Action Graduations, Movement in Metema and Church Planting!

“Therefore, my dear brothers and sisters, stand firm. Let nothing move you. Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain.” 1 Cor. 15:58

The last month, April, was a full of good works to the kingdom of God. In the first week of the month Misganaw and I gave Bahir Dar University—Focus action members the intermediate evangelism training and advanced discipleship training. We also gave different batches lessons on different topics   with visual aids like, short movies. Even though Peda and Poly campus action groups are done with series of trainings we offer, we continued motivating and equipping them. We had a time of speaking a words of motivation and encouragements to all Christian students’ of Bahir Dar university about friendship evangelism and discipleship on their general fellowship meeting, and Misganaw spoke.

Gondar Action Graduations!

 We have certified 21 students in recognition of their successful accomplishment of the training given by the great commission ministry Ethiopia student-led movement and their active participation in preaching the gospel to the students and people around the campus and also attending in different short term missionary programs from March, 2011 to April, 2012 while they were students at Gondar university—Maraki & Teddy campus (13 students) and Medical campus (8 students). The graduation ceremony held on the general fellowships meeting and many students were motivated to join action groups and motivated to do personal evangelism.

I preached on both action graduations and I awarded action group leaders & action group teachers; last year action graduates were those who were trainers for the current action graduates.

After action graduations, Sunday morning, I gave a training for all action group members (last year action graduates, this year action graduates and new action members) on ‘being a team player, faith and your circle of confidence’ and we had experience sharing time among action groups. Sunday afternoon I gathered this year action graduates and I revised all the trainings and I gave them TOT (training of training). Now they are ready to lead movement groups and to teach others what they have been learning the last 14 months.

Graduating class evangelism strategy

The other thing,  I gathered Christian graduating class students of all campuses in Gondar and shared them our strategy of reaching the university lectures and other works of the university through them. The strategy is that graduating class Christian students organize themselves according to their department and list two or three lectures / school works that they know very well. Then, they will prepare gifts like bible or inviting lunch…and appreciating the works/lectures for what they did to the students and finally share Christ with them.  We do have ‘how to’s and some specific points putting into consideration. Graduating class Students liked it and took the forms to work on it.

Trip to Metema!

             After Gondar action graduations, on Monday, I headed to Metema. I went there for dual purpose; to visit Melkamu and to see the area and plan to reach peoples around the border. When I arrived at Shedi, a town near Metema, the Ethiopian revenue and custom’s authority asked me to show ID or any letter which express whether I am a recognized gospel preacher unless they told me that they will be taking all my bible, tracts, books and cameras. Unfortunately, I had  only my passport with me and they said: aha you came to disturb the town in preaching the gospel, and you are going to Sudan after collecting some information…and the like. Finally I called Dires, the regional director, to send me letter and our work license but the fax didn’t work there. In the afternoon, I went to revenue and custom’s authority and told them that fax didn’t work; and they let me go for free.

Metema is found at the Northwest Ethiopia. It’s a border town between NW Ethiopia and Southeast   of North Sudan. Metema town and Gelabat town are separated by a bridge; both towns are a border town and Metema is Ethiopia’s town and Gelabat is North Sudan’s town. In Metema more than 35, 000 people lives and almost all of them are from different parts of Ethiopia; without exaggeration, you can find people from each regions of Ethiopia in Metema. The area is desert. It’s a crazy town; it’s known by commercial sex, alcoholism and bad drugs. The people who live there are not settled, they make money and leave the place and move to the other parts of Ethiopia. Most female try to enter to Sudan illegally through Metema and if it doesn’t work, they become commercial sex workers. In Metema, the prevalence rate of HIV AIDS is extremely high. I entered to Gelabat, Sudanese town, and saw everything. I understood that reaching these border towns is reaching the entire Ethiopian people. The people in both towns need Jesus to a serious degree.

Shedi—Metema Movement!

             I stayed with Melkamu for two days in Metema seeing how and what God is working in and through him. Melkamu is a 4th year student at Gondar University. He was an action group leader last year and he has taken all our trainings and graduated. Visit his last year on campus evangelism experience and summer work in following the link: http://kassish.com/2011/11/27/work-done-during-summer-2011/  and http://kassish.com/2011/08/09/northwest-ethiopia-student-led-movement-testimony/

This year he is taking 3 courses. He felt that God has plan for his life and he understood that he has free time to do evangelism and discipleship. On October, 2011 he headed to Shedi-Metema…a place where he has gone for break mission last year. His purpose to go to this place for the 2nd time was just to visit and encourage new believer who came to Christ last year. But he found no one followed up by the local church. So, he prayed to God and God gave him the vision to stay there for some months and help fulfill the great commission in this place. As I explained you above, Metema is a very hot place and no one wants to live here rather just make money and leave. Here many people are addicted in shisha, cigarette, drinking, chewing chat and alcohol.

Melkamu asked the church leaders to stay with them and create a movement of evangelism and discipleship. They asked him to bring letter from his church. He brought all the necessary information including his ministry involvement certificate given from great commission ministry Ethiopia and they accepted him as an evangelist in Metema and the nearby towns (Shedi, Kokit and Shinfa). Then, started to evangelism in these places and sometimes he come to Gondar University to take exams and submit assignments. He is doing both the works of God and education in parallel.

He makes his center at Shedi and started his movement in personal evangelism. In his personal evangelism he shared Christ with more than a thousand of people and won 42 souls in the last 7 months. Among these new believers 9 of them finished the follow-up courses and necessary biblical courses and got baptized; and 6 of them have done with the follow-up courses and ready for baptism. The rest 27 are still taking the follow-up course and I met about 10 of these new believers while I have been there with Melkamu. In addition to his personal evangelism he is helping the local church in establishing choirs, women’s ministry, prayer groups, evangelism team and visiting team. He also teaches the existing believer the word of God.

A Woman Came to Christ!

             A woman from Eretria lives in Metema. She has 3 children from different men and she is living with her children. She was addicted in Shisha and possessed by bad spirit. She was so aggressive and not sociable. She experienced adultery and known by her bad character. Her parents are a born again Christians but she was one of the persecutors while she was with her family in Eritrea. One day Melkamu went out for preaching the gospel door by door and she was one of the people he shared Christ with. After several times of discussion she decided to receive Christ as her personal savior; and God delivered her from all bad spirits and addictions. After she came to Christ her first born girl came to Chris. The rest two are kids and we hope that they will be for Christ. Now, she finished the follow-up courses and got baptize with the rest 8 new believers. Now, she is so sociable and her character changed.

Church planting and Kessie!

Melkamu went to Kumar to visit Mintesnot – the only born again Christ in this small village.  Melkamu started evangelizing people in Kumar. And, in his ministry 8 people came to Christ and he frequently travel to this village and followed up them. He brought these new Christian to Mintesnot, the existing Christian, and they started worshiping God together. Then, Melkamu and other pastors go and serve them and Mintesnot took the responsibility of pastor them. So, a new Christian fellowship established there.

Let us see how Kessie, the man in the above picture,  came to Christ:

This man is a Coptic Orthodox priest in Kumar near Metema. His name is Kessie. He is one of the 7 new believers from that village. Melkamu met the priest when he went to Kumar to visit Mintesnot. Melkamu shared Christ with this priest and ended up with setting an appointment and by the next day they discussed on many biblical issues. After the discussion the priest came to Christ and he is the first convert from Kumar. After he got baptized he is freely worshiping in Kumar local church. I encouraged Melkamu to select and invest on some Christians so that the movement of evangelism and discipleship created there will sustain and keep growing; he agreed and chose 20 Christians and he will be mentoring and coaching them so that God’s work will have more laborers. May God bless Melkamu and his work!I will be updating you action groups’ evangelism and follow up works of April month in my May, 2012 newsletter. God bless you.

Prayer request

1. Pray for the movement created in Metema and the nearby towns, pray for the new believers and the Christians there.

2.   We are planning to go to three sites for summer mission with Bahir Dar action groups, pray for it.

3. I am thinking to go to Metema with 10 students for summer mission on the upcoming summer…end of June. If will we go there we will be reaching all Ethiopians in one town and Sudanese too. We need prayer for this idea.

4. Tomorrow I will go to D/Markos University to train action groups and to teach on their general fellowship. Pray for students to be encouraged and motivated.

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Below are Some Picture from My April Ministry!

“Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. Anyone who believes in me will live, even though they die; and whoever lives by believing in me will never die. Do you believe this?”” John 11:25-26

Wishing you a very nice Easter holidays, let me share you what God has done  in our region on March.

Equipping Students:

We went to D/Tabor University to give a one day trainings for Christian students. It was our 3^rd time to go and invest on them. They are the 1^st batch / freshman for the university as it opened this year.This March was their school break but they spent the break at the university to be equipped in different training and teachings. And, we got an opportunity of teaching them on prayer, evangelism through discipleship, speaking the truth in love, movement building…! As it’s a new fellowship its great to build and equip students today to see a generation who will multiply themselves.

Leaders replacement time:

           Former student leaders replaced by the new leaders in Bahir Dar University in March. They had a prayer and training time at our regional office. Dires, our regional office coordinator, gave them a training on stewardship and he prayed for them.

Completing the continues training:

           In Bahir Dar university we have been giving the continues evangelism and discipleship training (basic evangelism training, intermediate evangelism training, advanced discipleship training, movement everywhere, and training of trainers) since September, 2010 for more than 112 action group members.

Only 44 action group members deserves to be graduated and receive ministry participation certificate because of their commitment for sharing Christ in and out of the campus, regularly attending the training classes, and quality Christian life. So, we gave them the final training in the last weekend of March. We revised the previous courses and completed desired trainings. If God allows, they will be graduating on May 4, 2012 at the general fellowship program of Bahir Dar evangelical Christian students.

Apologetic Training:

           For BDU Poly campus action groups, I gave a training about  Jehovah witnesses & their teachings, how to protect Christianity for the teachings of ‘Jehovah witnesses’, how to share Christ with Jehovah witnesses, and the theological behavior of cults for two series Wednesdays. We are equipping students in different ways so that they could be prepared … 1Peter 3:15 “…Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have…”

Gondar University Action Groups

In Gondar university we have two action groups; the medical school action group has 8 members and the Maraki action group has 13 member. They are taking the training by the last year action graduates and associate staff. They are committed in sharing the gospel and training. In this April we will go to Gondar to revise 4 training books and to give training of trainers to the graduating action groups and they will be graduated on April 27 and 28 at their general fellowships and we will get a chance to speak to the general fellowship. By this April we will start working with focus fellowships and we will give them some trainings.

Evangelism and follow-up

           In March, action group students of all our strategic university campuses had a time of sharing Christ both on campus and outside.

1. At university of Gondar Maraki and Teddy campuses action group members went out for sharing on two Sundays and they able to expose 84 peoples and 7 of them trusted their lives for Christ.  During one of the Sundays,  two of the action members were taken to jail because of their witnessing and they were released in the same day.

2. At gondar college of medicine and health science, action members shared Christ with non-believer and they  present the gospel to 108 peoples clearly and 10 of them received Christ as their savior and Lord.

3. At D/Markos university, focus action groups members had a mini mission to a nearby town called Gebre Guracha  and they reached out 6oo peoples and won 64 peoples for Christ. They introduced the new Christian to the local church and went back to campus.

4. At Bahir Dar university Peda campus action members shared Christ with 25 peoples and  won 4 of them and all of them started the follow-up.

5. At Bahir Dar university, poly action group members had a time to share Christ with non-believer and during their time of evangelism they able to won 4 peoples for Christ and all of them started taking the follow-up.

6. Totally, in March action group members exposed 817 peoples and won 89 peoples for Christ. most of the new believers are under taking follow-up by students, staff and local church pastors.

Prayer request

A. Pray for Ermias Tekle who has applied for great commission that God may give him courage and ministry partner team; we hope he will be working in gondar university campuses as he graduated from Gondar university and served God for about 7 months in Gondar.

B. Pray for Melkamu Ashebo, the pervious action group leader in Gondar, that God may initiate his hear to join great commission as a campus staff for he has the hear for God and passion for the lost.

C. Pray for the WSN summer project team, a group of 8 (students and staffs) will be coming to Bahir Dar by the upcoming May to evangelize our students and people in Bahir Dar from USA. Pray to God their He may do a great thing in and through their lives.

In our region most of the university students had a busy schedule on January because of the final exam; in addition to this, action group students were working on fundraising for the break missions.

  It’s on January that I went to the new university named D/Tabor for the 2^nd time and I had a great time of teaching Christian students on ‘Basic purpose in life’. In this new university there are about 35 Christian students. We are playing our parts to build them in Christ so that they will reach their campus and the nearby towns.

The last month, February, was a break time for most of the campuses in our region. Though, Christian students sacrificed their break time to give a golden opportunity of hearing the gospel to the community living in the nearby towns. In this break mission more than 120 students from Bahir Dar, Gondar and D/Markos universities were participated. We went to 10 different sites (Debark, Shahura, Delgi, Gondar, Motta, D/Tabor, Woreta, Adet, Burie, and G/Tsion) for 8 days. This mission was coordinated by EvaSUE and  GCM.

And, in God’s help, during this break mission we shared Christ with 2278 peoples and 285 of them came to Christ. 2 peoples came back to Christ through repentance. Different evangelistic tracts and many New Testament bibles distributed. Beside this, I had a wonderful time of knowing & advising each one of the students who went to break mission in my group; we also served the church and youths in all the mission sites.

I thank God for His mercy and goodness in our lives and for His grace in serving Him. Without the help of God nothing would be done! During last summer most of our action group members attended different evangelistic missions; and some of them took the initiative to mobilize others to take the gospel of the kingdom at their home town and beyond. Here are some of the testimonies.

Demeke Wondem

Demeke is a 3^rd year journalism student at Bahir Dar University. He is an action group leader at Peda campus. In his home town, Bichena, he helped the local churches by modeling youth Christians. There was a youth fellowship but had no clear purpose and goal. He brought them together and gave them evangelism training which we trained him here at Peda campus. After he gave them training he took them to a practicum and they shared Christ with nonbelievers and won 6 souls. Now the group is encouraged.  Students continued sharing Christ at home by training and motivating other Christian for witnessing.

Indiris Banata

Indiris is a 2^nd year water management student at Bahir Dar University. He is an action group member at poly campus. In his home town, Teltele-Borena, he organized 45 students(4 university students, 12 college students, and  29 high school students) gave them the basic evangelism training which he learned it here at poly campus. And after they finished the training in some weeks they went to a small town called kulcha, they shared Christ with 96 peoples and won 52 souls. Some of them restart their fellowship with God in repentance. He told me that he will continue intermediate evangelism training for this group for the coming summer and will expose more people that last summer. We can see that students are motivated and owned the great commission to take the good news to everybody around them.

Temesgen Daniel

Temesgen is a 5^th year textile engineering student at Bahir Dar University. He is an action group leader at poly campus. After the Hawassa life4all conference he and his friends established a group called ‘Farase Discipleship’ at their home town and this group was focused on counseling.  Last summer Temesgen and 2 of his friends mobilized 60 Christian students in their home town, Mudulla near to Durame, and they shared Christ with 1300 peoples at Mudulla and Adero; and won 240 of them for Christ. They followed-up 14 new believers by themselves and they gave the rest 226 to the local churches for follow-up. Students are influencing other Christian brothers and sisters in helping build spiritual movements everywhere.

Melkamu Ashebo

Melkamu is a 4^th year applied mathematics student at Gondar University. He is an action group leader at maraki campus. In his home town he established action groups with 15 members and he gave them Muslim evangelism training and discipleship training. After the training they went for a short term mission to Worabe and shared Christ with 70 peoples and won 16 and they gave these new believers to the local churches to follow-up them. He also gave leadership training to the church leaders and 2 peoples added to the leadership team after the training. Students are giving freely what they have received freely!

In our region all university campuses began the first academic semester at the end of September. Evangelical Christian students began their fellowship in this month and I had a time with all action groups. They shared their summer experiences one another and here was some of action members’ summer work and experiences; http://kassish.com/2011/11/27/work-done-during-summer-2011/

October 2011

The following points are some of the works we have done in October.

We set goals for the coming 5 years and prepared yearly action plan for all strategic campuses in our region. I have done this with action group leaders of all campuses by travelling there. Preparing plans with action leaders develops ownership.

And, we have attended the national SLM meeting which includes key student leaders in D/Zeit. In this meeting 3 action leaders and 2 staffs attended from our region and after the meeting we shared what we learnt at the meeting with the rest of the action leaders and members in all campuses.

We have selected10 action member students from each action groups and trained them about following-up new believers and they practiced the follow-up series and now they are following-up new Christians.

Northwest Ethiopia student-led movement testimony:

[PUT THE CURSOR ON THE PICTURES TO READ THE DESCRIPTION OF IT]

Northwest Ethiopia student-led movement testimony, from September 2010 to June 2011: We have a ministry presence at five university campuses namely Poly, Peda, Markos, Maraki, and GCMHSin three different towns namely Bahir Dar, gondar and Debre Markos.

Among our associate staffs:

          Paulos Samuel – Gondar:

Yohannes Mamo – Debremarkos

Outreach Report:

• Exposure: With God’s help we shared Christ with 5722 people at the campus compound (students evangelize at their dorm, among their classmates and anyone in the school compound), in the town where the above 5 campuses are found (every other week we have a time to go out and share Christ with anyone we meet on the road side), and in the nearby towns (we have short term missionary programs-break mission and summer mission).  

• Accepted Christ: 440 people accepted Jesus as their personal life savior and Lord; these converted people came to Christ through the outreaches we had in the school compound, in the town, and in the nearby towns.

• On campus Follow-ups: here from the above 440 new believers, some of them have been given to the nearby local churches to get follow up and further bible course; the other remaining new Christians who have been reached on campus started taking follow up course, and among them, 42  were actively participated and finished the given courses. I believe and pray that all the on campus converted brothers and sisters will take the full follow up courses in the coming academic year.

• Some of the action groups were raised all the needed financial and material resources by their own initiation and for some action groups we raised for their mission. Action group graduates have started giving the training for the new action group members and they are also leading the action teams very well. I am proud of them and praise Lord for their dedication and hard work. 

Action Group Graduation:

50 students have been certified after they successfully accomplished the trainings given by Student-Led Movement, Bahir Dar. Graduates are ready to train others & lead the movement in that region and beyond. We have additional 105 students undertaking the trainings & most of them will graduate on November, 2011. In September, 2011 we are working to have more than 300 new action members.

Gondar Action Graduates; May, 2011

Markos Action Graduates; June, 2011

About Melkamu: May, 2011:

He is Melkamu Ashebo. He grew up in Hosanna, South Ethiopia. He was born from Christian family. Now he is joining his 4^th year, he is studying applied mathematics at Gondar University. While he was a grade 12^th student, he started sharing Christ with nonbelievers. He joined action group on September 2010 and he is one of my action group student in Gondar University. He clearly understood his purpose in life and Since January 2011, he is leading the action group of Gondar University.

He is devoted in sharing Christ with non believers.  He does evangelism in a daily basis and he is an exemplary movement leader. He has 7 converted students on campus and 6 of them are from his dorm and one from his department. In this year he shared Christ with more than 2000 peoples at the campus and out of the campus and 35 of them came to Christ. They are doing evangelism with him and they are fruitful. Below are the converted Christians from his dorm and department. We are going to show you how they came to Christ and it will motivate each one of us to keep our ministry on campus and beyond.

1.     Mebratu:

Mebratu is the first converted Christian from Melkamu’s dorm. Mebratu was an Orthodox.  He was mentally ill, unable to sleep, sometimes stressed. He often went to tsebel [going to the orthodox priest to be healed]. He had Negative attitude towards born-again Christians.  He is from north Gondar, a place where fanatic orthodox followers live. He was leading others to the wrong way.

Melkamu was sharing Christ with Mebratu but Mebratu wasn’t willing to accept the truth. One day Mebratu said to Melkamu ‘if the God you worship Him able to heal me from my sickness I will come to Christ.” Melkamu took him to church & prayed for him and he healed, freed from any sickness. Then, he received Christ and now he is growing in Christ. Praise the Lord!

2.     Melak:

He is the second person to come to Christ from Melkamu’s dorm. He was an orthodox. Melkamu shared Christ with him but wasn’t willing to follow Christ.  After Mebratu [the 1^st converted] came to Christ he saw the changed life of Mebratu because they are sharing the same dorm.

So, Melkamu, Mebratu and this guy (Melak) went to a believer’s house and prayed. And Melak added to the kingdom of God.

3.     Mekash:

Mekash is the 3^rd person to be added to the kingdom of God from that dorm. He was also orthodox Christian. Melkamu shared Christ with him as well but he wasn’t willing to come to Christ.  In the dorm, Melkamu (the action leader) was cleaning the dorm, arranging stuffs in the dorm often.

Seeing Melkamu’s lifestyle Mekash decided to follow Christ.  Can you see how our lifestyle matters?

4.     Laka:

Laka is the 4^th converted student from the same dorm. Orthodox students have a meeting called ‘Blok tsiwa’ – which they invite a speaker from the priests to their dorm and they usually worship angels… One day Melkamu coordinated that for them. On their program at Melkamu’s dorm, he asked them ‘why are you doing this?’ They said ‘asks our priest.’ The guest speaker, priest, was preaching there. Melkamu asked the same question to the priest, and the priest said ‘you can ask me later.’  Then, the orthodox guy, Laka, understood that the priest had no answer. ‘We need the answer.’ said Laka; and the priest suggests another day to meet and discuss.  On the other day, the priest, Laka, and Melkamu met and discussed, and Laka came to Christ after the discussion.

5.     Mengstie:

Mekash is the 5^th person who came to Christ from Melkamu’s dorm.  Melkamu usually pray on his dormers’ bed and one day he prayed on Mengstie’s bed and Mengstie fall down from his bed. Then, he said ‘Melkamu…Melkamu’ and Melkamu said yes. Then, Mengstie said ‘why you persecuted me?’ ‘What?’ said Melkamu! Mengstie explained that ‘I saw you I my dream when you persecute me and I can’t sleep after such dreams’.

And he changed his dorm to be free from such dreams and Melkamu. Even though he changed dorm, he was experiencing the dreams and was unable to sleep.  Finally, he talked to Mebratu and Laka(the newly converted students from his previous dorm about Jesus), and the made the issue clear to him. After that, Mengstie went to the nearby chapel with Melkamu, Mebratu and Laka and received Christ as his personal savior and lord.

6.     Melese:

Meles is the 6^th student who came to Christ in Melkamu’s dorm. He has been exposed to the gospel but wasn’t interested.  One day he saw a dream that Melkamu was chasing him appeared like a dog.  So, he run to a dig hall and entered; there he saw many more little dogs.  He tried to escape but he couldn’t.  Finally, when he wakes up and asked Melkamu and his dorm mates for the meaning of his dream.

They told him that there is no such a bid hall in Orthodox Church and it must be the Christians church. So, you are already entered and stay there.   After that time, he asked what should to received Christ and the led him in prayer.  Can you see how Melkamu and new christens who came to Christ in his dorm cooperated to reach others?

7.     Goshe:

Goshe is the 7^th converted student; but he isn’t in Melkamu’s dorm but he is Melkamu’s classmate. He wasn’t willing to talk to Melkamu because their orthodox student leaders told them not to talk to Melkamu and to other Christians if possible.

Anyways, Mebratu, the 1^st converted student preached the gospel to him and he came to Christ. Can you see spiritual multiplication here?

The above Group picture: Melkamu-the action group leader with 6 of the converted students  in his dorm.

Helping build spiritual movements everywhere!

Well, the above testimony is one of the many changed life stories in our region. God is working a big thing in the northwest Ethiopia student-led movement.

Hello,

The national movement leaders’ training is going on in Nazareth, Ethiopia since the last Sunday. About 1000 students are attending and from my region, Northwestern Ethiopia, there are 144 students attending. The Student leaders came from 8 different universities in North Ethiopia. Tuesday in the afternoon we had a seminar and I was leading northern Ethiopia university student leaders in the seminar and we discussed on the following points:

• What did you learn about movement today?
• How did you do in you campus concerning movement for the last 1 year?
• What are the challenges and possible methods concerning movement on campus?

The students evaluated their last year movement on the four movement measurements:

• Connecting lost peoples to Christ
• Life-changing discipleship
• Multiplying leaders
• Generating self-sustaining local resources

It was a great time and student leaders shared experiences one from another. It will be helping for me to have a good movement in that region for the coming academic year.