Greetings Dear EYMM Families, we had a mission trip to Gondar, the northern part of Ethiopia Gondar. Thirteen hours of bus drive from ‘Addis’ the capital. There was a security issue in the place where we were going our team and 14 people of the YWAM Team who came here from South Africa, the school of fire and fragrance we prayed together and we decided to go there at any cost. We left Addis early in the morning at 5:00 am. The road to northern Ethiopia has spectacular landscapes, the endemic animal chilada baboon, one of the largest gorges in the world, the mountains, everything was so incredible. But, it is not only beauty there is the big bridge on the Nile gorge that separates the Oromia region and Amhara region. In the Northern part of Ethiopia, the evangelical communities are the minorities and which have been in persecution for several years. Before the Nile Gorge, you can see the banners and the advert of the evangelical churches without any restrictions but after the Nile Gorge, it’s rare to see that, because still these days the church is in persecution.
Gondar is located in the northwest part of Ethiopia, in the west it is closer to the border of Sudan, in the north Eritrea, and the east the Tigrai Region of Ethiopia. We went there to mobilize and encourage the evangelical church union. There were both the main pastors and youth leaders in our training. We had a tremendous time sharing with them about the Global missionary vision and how they should contribute to world missions. The evangelical churches union decided to start contributing and to come together for kingdom prayer. We’ve got an opportunity to pray and connect to the church in the 10/40 window and also connect with youth leaders there. By God’s grace, we assigned a Gondar coordinator who is going to work with us.
One quick story, there was a lady who was a follower of Christ, she have a coffee shop, some of the team members from the YWAM team went there to drink coffee. They found out that the lady gave up on her career, and she was about to close her business. And also she already put the price to sell off everything because of the spiritual warfare she was experiencing. The team leader asked her, “would you mind if we can pray for you”?, She said “yes”, while praying, God filled her with hope and she started to glorify God with them. After we came back to Addis she calls to Tami, (the person who arranged the Mobilization training in Gondar). And She said she is encouraged to continue working and even to open another branch in Gondar.
Gondar is a strategic place to reach Sudan. Because, most of the people have exposure to the culture and the Arabic language, some of them are also married to Sudanese, Eritrean, and Tigrian Peoples of Ethiopia. This gives access for them to learn the language and culture easily. The evangelical rate of Tigrai is 0.25. The very sad thing is that it was the first gate for Christianity coming to Ethiopia in 340 AD. We believe God will use Gondar to reach the Amhara peoples as well the peoples we mentioned. And God is also moving the Ethiopian Coptic Orthodox Church in reformation. God gave us a chance to meet peoples who are involved in the reformation among the Coptic orthodox.
The Current situation is terrifying, because of the recent political problem in Ethiopia, things changed into war. The people are suffering from this. This area has been a conflict zone for the past millennium. The majority are Coptic Ethiopian Orthodox, Muslims, Jewish people, and Animists.
How to pray for the church in Gondar
- Pray for BOLDNESS; consider the prayer of the early church in Acts 4:29. “Now, Lord, consider their threats and enable your servants to speak your word with great boldness!”
- Pray for UNITY; pray that the church in Gondar, the church in Ethiopia and the Christ’s body worldwide be united, so that they can thrive in accomplishing the task.
- Pray for REFORMATION; pray that the reformation in the Ethiopian Orthodox Church be more catalyzed and spread like a wildfire in Ethiopia.
- Pray for PEACE in Ethiopia; we are passing through tough time as a Nation, pray for security, economic stability, the Tribal conflicts be swiped away by love and reconciliation.
