In May of 2012, Gospel for Ethiopia (GFE) was approached by Great Commission Ethiopia Ministries (GCEM) to come alongside them in partnering with a large number of Ethiopian churches in an exciting project to offer seminary training to 80,000 Ethiopian pastors , church leaders, and ministry workers by 2020. GCEM is an indigenous Ethiopian ministry associated with Cru. This project is being developed to address the limited opportunity for theological training within Ethiopian churches. Many pastors, church leaders, and ministry workers cannot leave their churches and families to attend seminary or Bible college. They also sometimes lack financial resources to further their theological education. GCEM and Ethiopian churches are stepping in to develop a network throughout the country to provide this education. Very few theological resources are available to these men and women in Amharic, their heart language. Even Ethiopian seminaries and Bible colleges teach in English due to these limitations. This language issue further limits the opportunities for theological training of the majority who are Amharic speakers. GFE has been asked to solve this problem by providing seminary curriculum for this project in Amharic. After research and prayer, GFE has decided to translate the Third Millennium Ministries (IIIM) seminary education DVDs into Amharic. IIIM seeks to provide heart language seminary education worldwide for no cost. This ministry, begun by Richard Pratt, brings high quality video production and sound theology into 15 education modules. Our new project involves translating the transcripts and graphics of the DVDs into Amharic and then dubbing this back onto the DVDs. This seminary education in Amharic will then be taken throughout all areas of Ethiopia, facilitated by seminary-trained members of ECFE. We pray that God uses this to strengthen the Ethiopian church and further the reaching of those that do not know Christ in Ethiopia. To help us to train these 80,000 pastors, church leaders, and ministry workers, click here to make a donation of any size.
|