Pray for Saul

Staci and I are hosting two students for the next couple of weeks through the Pan-Africa Youth Leadership Program of Ball State University.  This year we have high school students from Kenya and Nigeria.  We did this last year and still keep in touch with the students that stayed with us.  It was a great experience for all of us.  It definitely helped make us aware of issues going on in their home countries and personalized stories when we heard or read them on the news.

Last year our friend Ruth stayed with us.  She lives in Nigeria and prior to her arrival we began studying more about this country.  Nigeria boasts Africa’s largest, fastest growing population and economy.  In the next 40 years, the population of Nigeria is projected to surpass that of the United States.  While Ruth was with us, 276 school girls were kidnapped in the Nigerian town of Chibok by the Islamic terrorist group Boko Haram.  Boko Haram has killed more than 5000 civilians over the past 6 years in their quest to create an Islamic state in Northeast Nigeria.  Our hearts were broken and our eyes were opened.

This week we picked up our host students Wednesday evening.  On Thursday morning we woke up and flipped on the news and found that the Somali Islamic terrorist group Al Shabab had killed 147 Christian students at Garissa University in Kenya.  Al Shabab operates in a country with no order and had vowed a “long, gruesome war” with Kenya.  Our student from Kenya quickly picked up his phone and called home.

This is the world we’re living in, friends, if we choose to look past the topic du jour that we’re served up via the local news or our friends on Facebook.

Each time I hear of a story on the news involving radical Islamic groups in Syria, Kenya, Somalia, etc.  I receive more and more confirmation that the Bible Training Center we’ve developed in Northern Ethiopia is more important than ever.  We have to develop leaders and plant churches in a part of the world that is clearly searching for a cause, a purpose and an identity.  We have an obligation to make sure they are at least exposed to the truth.

This is Holy Week and I’m going to ask that you pray that the news of Jesus Christ be spread to all parts of the world.  Better yet, get involved in a mission project and help spread the word yourself.  Jesus Christ died for the sins of man that we may know His love and have eternal life with Him in heaven.  While we’re here, we have been commissioned to spread the news of Jesus Christ to the ends of the earth.    And while you’re praying, consider praying that one of these terrorist groups – ISIS, Boko Haram, Al Shabaab, Al Qaeda – has a young man among them that is the next Saul.

Acts 9

For more information on the Bible Training Center in Northern Ethiopia visit www.harvestinethiopia.com  

Crunch Time

I always enjoy talking with people about the development of Bible Training Center that God put on my heart one year ago.  It's been a crazy year.  We started the school in May and have over 80 students enrolled and taking courses at the temporary location.  God has moved people to give to this effort and over $100,000 has been raised in the US to cover costs of the temporary site and put towards the purchase of the permanent location.

Students in the Temporary Bible Training Center in Mekelle

Along the way I have met so many incredible people that have a passion for the people of Ethiopia as well as a heart for spreading the news of Jesus Christ.  Just when I get discouraged and think, "How in the world are we going to come up with another $150,000 this year," God moves and puts someone in contact with me and reminds me that this is important work in building His kingdom.  Just over the past couple of weeks, I have talked with new contacts from Washington, Colorado, Illinois and Texas.  I have been introduced to new friends on Facebook that share God's heart for the plight of the evangelicals in Northern Ethiopia.  My marketing team at work made personal donations to the project as a Christmas gift to me.  We received a donation this week from a church in New York.  God continues to move.

So many people have provided encouragement and reminded me that an evangelical Bible Training Center in Northern Ethiopia is not just another school - it is a miracle.  Mekelle has been an Orthodox stronghold for thousands of years.  There has never been an evangelical Bible Training Center until this past year.  Mekelle had one mosque in 2009 and now there are 10.  Muslim influence from Sudan, Eritrea and Somalia continue to push into Ethiopia from all sides.  We have a unique opportunity to develop church leaders and a fire for Christ in a part of the world that desperately needs it.

I talked with Dr. John on the phone this week.  Dr. John has lived in Mekelle for the past 5 years and there is no one is more passionate about finishing what God started to see the permanent location through to completion this year.  We talked about the current financial picture - that we need $27,500 in the next month to meet the terms of the purchase agreement and move into our new home by the end of February.  This is an immediate need and we're very much on the clock to make this happen.

I am writing today to ask you to consider giving to this project.  If you don't have the means to give I'm asking that you help share our efforts with someone that might.  At a minimum, I'm asking for you to pray that God will move people to help this effort.  We need to find new circles of people and churches that can financially support this project in '15.  Pray that this message finds them.  I pray that it's you.

For more information on the project and how to donate find out more at www.harvestinethiopia.com