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July 4, 2015 Dear friends,
On behalf of Gospel for Ethiopia I would like to thank you for your support! We appreciate your prayers and your financial giving. In partnership with you, we are well on our way to finishing our Third Millennium seminary resource project. We continue to translate and produce the video seminary training materials of Third Millennium Ministries (www.thirdmill.org) into Amharic, the predominant language in Ethiopia. We are nearing about 50% completion. We have completed the following modules: The Apostle's Creed We Believe in Jesus (Christology) The Gospels The Book of Acts Primeval History Father Abraham We are currently working on the following modules:
The Book of Hebrews
The Heart of Paul's Theology Paul's Prison Epistles We have developed a phone app that allows pastors and church leaders to view and study the lessons as well as take quizzes and track their progress. We are excited that this will allow widespread use of the material throughout Ethiopia, even in areas and situations where persecution is a real threat and public Christian training is dangerous. We continue to work with Great Commission Ethiopia Ministries. They are using our materials in their efforts to train church leadership and do church planting. Over the past year they have planted nearly 500 churches and been involved in the training of thousands of church leaders. Please join us in praying for the church planting movement in Ethiopia, for the continued development of resources for Ethiopian pastors and church leaders, and for the Gospel to go forth to the lost in Ethiopia and beyond. Would you also consider joining us as a financial partner? Your contribution will help train and equip thousands of pastors and church leaders in Ethiopia. Please go to the "get involved" button at the website to donate!
Blessings, The GFE Team *********************************************************************************October 7, 2014 Dear Friends, Gospel for Ethiopia would like to thank Clemson Presbyterian Church for hosting their second "yard sale" to support our effort to equip pastors, church planters, and church leaders in Ethiopia. The church fellowship hall was transformed into an enormous thrift store. It was a great blessing to see the body of Christ come together and support this event! Over $10,000 was raised in 2 days! This $10,000 was just what we needed to fund the next 2 modules of the Third Millennium curriculum. We presently have 4 out of 16 modules completed and 2 more well on the way to completion. Thanks not only to Clemson Presbyterian Church but all who have helped to make this possible. We are so thankful for God's blessing and provision for our ministry. If anyone is interested in hosting a similar "yard sale" at your church, please contact us through this website. We have people who can guide you through how to do this from start to finish. It is a great way to support Gospel for Ethiopia with no impact on your missions budget! Blessings, The GFE Team ******************************************************************************** September 1, 2014 Dear Friends, Pastor David Sinclair and I had the privilege to spend 10 days in Ethiopia in June. We are excited to report that there are many exciting things occurring there in regard to Gospel for Ethiopia. Our Third Millennium Ministries project is taking off! We are well into translating and producing the seminary-like materials on DVD. We are working on modules 5 and 6 out of 15. These materials will be used by Great Commission Ethiopia Ministries (GCEM) as pillars in their training of church planters, pastors, and church leaders. Their goal will be to train 80,000 by 2020! It will also be used as a pillar for training in their women's and students ministries. At this time we are beginning the process of equipping those who will be facilitating the teaching process. We also have many Ethiopian national denominational church leaders reviewing the Third Millennium materials. I believe that these materials will become a major tool for these denominations to train their pastors and elders. These leaders are keenly aware of the need for theological training to strengthen their churches and to prepare the Ethiopian church to reach the unreached, not just in Ethiopia but throughout Africa and the Middle East. We are also working on technological avenues to reach even the most rural pastors. We are working on a phone app that will allow viewing of the Third Millennium materials on a mobile phone (which most pastors have even if they live rurally). We are even looking at possible opportunities to put audio material on the radio! Pastor David and I had a very blessed time in June. We were able to participate in a conference for about 100 pastors which an Ethiopian pastor facilitated and led, teaching through our previously translated book by Bryan Chapell, Christ Centered Preaching. It was amazing to see how deeply affected the pastors were, as the ideas of Christ centered preaching, Christ centered churches, and Christ centered lives were explored. GCEM is in the process of training more teachers to facilitate teaching more of this type of conference. We continue to need your prayers lifting up this work! Please pray specifically...
How can you help? First pray! We would also ask you to give. Because of the urgency expressed by leaders in Ethiopia to finish the Third Millennium project, our budget timetable has been accelerated. In the next 2 years we must raise $200,000 for completion of the project. Will you join with us financially to help train and equip 80,000 pastors and church planters by 2020? In His grace, John Udall President, Gospel for Ethiopia *******************************************************************************April 1, 2014 Dear Friends,
Thank you so much for your past support of Gospel for Ethiopia! Through your generous donations we are well on our way in translating the Third Millennium Ministries seminary curriculum! We are nearing completion of modules 3 and 4 out of the 15 module curriculum. We are excited to see how God will use these materials to strengthen the Ethiopian church and equip the church to reach the unreached, and plant churches in previously unreached areas of Ethiopia. Pastor David Sinclair of Clemson Presbyterian Church and I will be traveling to Ethiopia in June. God has given us the opportunity meet with ministry workers and church leaders from all over Ethiopia. We will be discussing how to best implement and use the Third Millennium training materials. Please pray for us as we have these discussions and pray for these materials to have a meaningful and lasting impact in pastors lives! With the opportunities of this trip, we also have expenses. We will be helping to pay travel costs for those pastors and ministry workers attending the conferences, as well as for costs for the conference venues and food. The total conference costs will be about $5000. This comes on top of our continuing work on translation and pastors resource centers. Would you consider making a financial contribution to help us continue to train Ethiopian pastors and take the Gospel to the unreached in Ethiopia? Contributions can be made to Gospel for Ethiopia, 1125 Coneross Point Dr. Seneca, SC 29678. GFE is a 501c3 organization and all gifts are tax deductible. Thank you again for your partnership in the Gospel. In Him, John Udall President, Gospel for Ethiopia ********************************************************************************* December 12, 2013 Dear Friends, As we draw towards the end of 2013, we have GREAT NEWS to share about three GFE projects! Third Millennium Project We are excited to announce that the first two modules of the Third Millennium Ministries training materials in Amharic are now available online! This is a huge milestone for GFE in our desire to provide resources for pastors in Ethiopia. The translated third and fourth modules are nearing completion and will be available online soon as well. There are fifteen modules in total so we are well on our way! We are excited that pastors, church leaders and church members now have access to these materials in Ethiopia and around the world, through the Third Millennium Ministries website. We continue to work with local Ethiopian ministries and the Evangelical church in Ethiopia to develop a plan for them to use these materials in training that will help strengthen the Church and support the present church planting movement in Ethiopia. Christ Centered Preaching Project In 2010, GFE translated Bryan Chapell's Christ Centered Preaching. We are sponsoring conferences which lead Ethiopian pastors through this book. These conferences, which are taught by Pastor Eshete Belete, explore how expository preaching can make a difference in their churches and in the lives of their congregations. We are excited to be taking a team of pastors to Ethiopia in June 2014 to serve alongside Pastor Eshete at one of these conferences. Hawassa Pastors Resource Center We continue to support our resource center for pastors in Hawassa, Ethiopia. There have now been 5 groups of pastors who have received multi-week training in using the internet and finding pastoral resources online. Usage of the resource center has continued to increase along with the need for more computers. Having this center available is blessing the local pastors by facilitating their study, sermon preparation, and training of their church leaders. Blessings, The GFE Team Click here to learn how you can get involved! ******************************************************************************** June 14, 2013 Dear Friends, Our 80,000 pastors by 2020 project is in full swing! Translation of the first 2 of 15 modules is completed and modules 3 and 4 are being translated now. Work continues on dubbing the DVDs and finishing the first 2 modules. Translation and audio/visual teams are hard at work in Ethiopia! We look forward to the beginning of training by the end of the year. Pastor Eshete continues his conferences on Christ-Centered Preaching by Bryan Chapell, which was our first book translation. He holds conferences for up to 100 pastors in various regions of Ethiopia. He is very encouraged by how this book is transforming the ministry of pastors. He states, "As they learn the principles in the book, pastors fall on their knees repenting of how they have misused the Word and their preaching!" Our resource center in Hawassa, Ethiopia, continues to be a blessing to the pastors and evangelists there. There are now 7 available computers with heavy use of them all. We continue providing instruction on how to use internet resources for the English speaking pastors in Hawassa. GFE will be at the Presbyterian Church in America (PCA) General Assembly representing our ministry at an exhibition booth. We hope to continue spreading the word about how God is at work in Africa and Ethiopia in particular. Please drop by if you are at the General Assembly! Please also contact us if you have any similar opportunities in your area. Blessings, The GFE Team Click here to learn how you can get involved! ********************************************************************************* September 27, 2012 Dear Friends, When like-minded ministries get together, exciting things happen! Since our beginning in 2009, we started partnering with the effective and multifaceted Great Commission Ministries Ethiopia, whose goal is "helping to take the gospel of Jesus Christ to the people of Ethiopia." Now, a new partnership has begun! Starting this fall, we will be acting as the connection between Great Commission Ministries Ethiopia (GCME) and the ground-breaking Third Millennium Ministries. Third Mill's goal is to make seminary education available to everyone in the world in their "heart language...for free." They have put the English curriculum on DVD and on the internet to be used by anyone. The entire curriculum has already been translated into five other languages. Amharic will now be the sixth! Partnering with these two ministries will enable us to reach pastors of all education levels in all parts of Ethiopia. GCME plans to begin a mobile seminary using Third Mill's curriculum that travels all over Ethiopia to reach people where they are. The vision is to train 80,000 pastors and ministry workers by 2020! It's a big vision, but we have a big God! Will you join in prayer with us that the results of this three-way ministry partnership will be "infinitely more than all we could ask or imagine, according to his power" (Eph. 3:20)? To sign up for our prayer team, click here! To find out more about how you or your church can get involved, click here! Yours for Ethiopia, The GFE Team ********************************************************************************* January 10, 2012 We have two great reasons to praise the Lord! The past few months have been an exciting time for GFE. First, our Pastors' Resource Center opened in Hawassa, Ethiopia, and is now being used by area pastors. This center consists of a library and 4 computer stations with internet access. An employee is available to direct pastors to online resources which will enhance their sermon preparation and further education. A few weeks ago, Great Commission Ministries Ethiopia (GCME), the ministry hosts of the Resource Center, held a training session for the pastors on basic computer skills and how to access the internet. The leader of GCME said: "The pastors have been so grateful and thank for all your effort and contribution in to their life and ministry on the ground. The experience has been enjoyable for them and now they are regularly pursuing the basic internet accessing and computer trainings." Second, we have recently be informed that our first book translation, Christ-Centered Preaching by Bryan Chapell, has become a "best seller" in Ethiopia! In addition to pastors buying it, seminaries and other Christian ministries have also taken a great interest in it and have bought large quantities to use in their training of students. We are praising the Lord and arranging a reprint as soon as possible! Thank you for your partnership with GFE. Through your prayers and support, you have made these things possible. Join us in praising the Lord for what He has done, and lets pray that He would lead in the future as GFE moves forward in doing what we do: equipping Ethiopian pastors with Biblical training and resources. Yours for the Ethiopian Church, The GFE Team
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June 6, 2011 What an exciting privilege it was to spend the end of May with pastors and evangelists in Hawassa, Ethiopia! Our team of three pastors joined a stellar team of Ethiopian translators (including the translator of the recently finished Christ-Centered Preaching) to host a conference focusing on 2 Timothy and related topics. Our pastors focused on exegetical (whole book, verse by verse) preaching, discussing and modeling it throughout the week as they taught through 2 Timothy. The idea of gradually preaching all the way through a book of Scripture was exciting to those who attended. One pastor told us that he planned to start studying 1 Timothy exegetically with his family as soon as the conference was over! The idea of small groups was also introduced as a way to ease the burden of whole-flock discipleship off of the shoulders of pastors and evangelists and spread it out among the whole congregation. Small groups were not just theoretically discussed, but practically modeled - the pastors and evangelists themselves broke into small groups to discuss the conference teachings and to apply the ideas to their churches and ministry contexts. At the end of the conference, it was a thrill to shake hands with the pastors and evangelists one by one, and to hand each a copy of Christ-Centered Preaching (by Brian Chappell) in Amharic! The books were enthusiastically received, and we pray that the its message will be encouraging and helpful as these brothers and sisters teach Gods Word in Ethiopia and beyond. In addition to doing the conference, the GFE team brought 65 books to stock the library of the first ever GFE Resource Center located in the Great Commission Ethiopia Ministries compound. In addition to a library, the completed resource center will include computers which pastors and evangelists can use to access sermon preparation tools and online seminary classes to equip themselves further as leaders of Gods people. Lord-willing, the resource center will be operational in the near future. Our ministry partners in Ethiopia, as well as the pastors and evangelists themselves, say that being a pastor in Ethiopia is a very difficult job. Full-time ministry workers are expected to continually teach and pour out, but they seldom get time to learn or be filled. By the grace of God, we want to change that. Our goal while in Ethiopia was to build up the Body of Christ (particularly the pastors and evangelists) in Hawassa with our presence, our participation, and our prayers. As our mission statement says, "our goal is to equip and encourage Ethiopian pastors and evangelists with heart-language literature, ministry tools, and relevant conferences." Will you join with us? Explore our website to find out about the many exciting ways to get involved! Yours for the Ethiopian Church, The GFE Team *********************************************************** April 12, 2011 The past several months have been full of exciting developments for GFE... Starting today, about half of the GFE team is representing the ministry at the Gospel Coalition Conference at McCormick Place in Chicago. We thank the Lord for this opportunity to connect with people who come by the booth and to build partnerships for God's glory! As of this month, the translation of Christ-Centered Preaching from English into Amharic is in its final stages! The translator working on the book in Ethiopia is already using the principles he has learned to teach other pastors in his sphere of influence. He often tells us that his excitement builds with every page that he translates and he views the message of the book as "transformative." We plan to distribute the book to all the pastors and evangelists who attend the 2011 pastors conference, and the book will then be available to the public. We hope that this heart-language resource will have a widespread influence in encouraging and equipping many Christian leaders throughout the country. Speaking of the 2011 pastors conference, it is coming up soon! A team of American pastors will leave on May 14th and will hold several conferences in Hawassa, in continuation of the past two years of teaching. They will work in partnership with Pastor Getu Ayalew of Yih Hiwot Birhan Church (who is widely recognized as the "Billy Graham" of Ethiopia), who will be teaching at the conference as well. They will also be joined by a team of phenomenal translators including Getu Worku (a long-standing partner) and Eshete (the translator of Christ-Centered Preaching). The team of American pastors will be accompanied by a team of American doctors, nurses, and students, who will be participating in various ministries associated with Great Commission Ministries Ethiopia (our national partners who are the equivalent of Campus Crusade for Christ). It is our hope to build up the Body of Christ in Hawassa with our presence, our participation, and our prayers. As our mission statement says, "our goal is to equip and encourage Ethiopian pastors and evangelists with heart-language literature, ministry tools, and relevant conferences." Will you join with us? There are so many ways to become part of the Gospel for Ethiopia Team! We are in need of prayer. You can join GFE's efforts by lifting this partnership up to God! If you do one thing, do this. We are translating solid theological and pastoral books into Amharic, the language of Ethiopia. You could adopt a book project! We are traveling to Ethiopia to hold yearly conferences for pastors and evangelists. If you are a pastor, pray about how your church could get involved. You might even consider going with us! We are setting up a resource center where pastors and evangelists can study and prepare sermons. There will be computers with internet and a trained ministry worker on hand to direct people to relevant links and online resources to enhance their study and ministry. These online resources include online seminary classes which are completely free of charge, allowing these servants of God to pursue further education without leaving their hometown and ministry. You can make this possible through a donation of any size! We need Ambassadors to take the vision of GFE back to their local churches. We provide Ambassadors with informational materials and they simply spread the word! You could become a GFE Ambassador today! If you have any comments, questions, suggestions, or want to talk further, please contact us at info@gospelforethiopia.org. May God bless you, and thank you for partnering with us! Yours for the Ethiopian Church, The GFE Team
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