Serving Others

Stories. I love them, especially true ones.  In fact, most of the reading I do is non-fiction. I figure there are already so many great true stories, I don’t need to read made up ones.  On my recent trip to Ethiopia I felt like I could fill up a book with stories of what God was doing and did!  My mind is overflowing trying to keep the details of each story straight as so many of them run together. I think that is how He works sometimes—mysteriously interweaving His stories.
 
Some background: I have done a good deal of reading over the last year on missions in the Global South and the changing face of missions in the West particularly in the U.S.  The Church is exploding in Africa, Asia, and South America. Some of the countries in these continents are seeing tremendous conversion growth and are even starting to send missionaries all over the world.  The interesting thing is that believers from these countries have access that we in the West no longer have (anti-Americanism sentiment is a harsh reality for the Church). This directly impacts global outreach and missions for churches in the States like CAC. *If you’re interested in reading more about this issue I highly recommend Fritz Kling’s recent book, The Meeting of the Waters.
 
With this backdrop in mind, the story of my recent trip to Ethiopia actually started back in February. A leader, Aklilu, from our partner denomination in Ethiopia, Ethiopia Kale Heywet Church (EKHC), was in Charlotte doing research at SIM for his doctoral degree at Oxford, England.  He was a blessing to all who met him and I was personally blessed to spend time with him one on one.  At the same time he was here, it just so happened that our ServeGlobal partner from China, B, was in Charlotte for his own ministry meetings. Jimmy Kallam and I were meeting with B and he was sharing ministry updates on the House Church (HC) ministry in China.  As I was listening to him, I realized Aklilu was still in town and had the thought that it might be interesting if we could get these two leaders together since they are both partners in ministry with CAC. To be honest I had no idea how naïve my thinking was!
 
On Monday morning Aklilu was able to join a meeting we already had scheduled with B.  Everyone gave a short introduction and then B shared a little more about his ministry to the HC in China.  He said that he recently had a conference for HC pastors in Hong Kong and that two Ethiopian pastors had come to teach on Muslim outreach, which is a growing ministry focus for the HCs. Aklilu then asked B if he remembered the names of these Ethiopian pastors who had come to teach. When B shared the name of the pastors I truly felt the presence of the Holy Spirit fill the conference room where we were meeting.  Akililu not only knew these pastors’ names, but one of them was his roommate when he was at the Evangelical Theological College in Addis (ETC).  The room fell silent and we all recognized that God had a bigger purpose in this meeting of our CAC partners and we needed to respond accordingly.
 
Fast forward a couple months to May.  Bill Walthall (ServeGlobal China Country Director for CAC), Joe Harding (SIM Missionary to Ethiopia supported by CAC) and I traveled to China to spend time with B.  During this trip, we received updates on the Church in China and learned more about the passion the House Churches have to send missionaries out and to reach out to Muslims for Christ.
 
Fast forward a couple more months to September 22nd and I am flying home to Charlotte from Ethiopia.  We had just spent 9 days in meetings—not just ordinary meetings; no, these were meetings with our partners from China! That’s right, our China partners met us in Ethiopia to meet with our Ethiopian ministry partners!  As the president of EKHC shared, CAC is acting like the glue between these two Global South Leaders.
 
Now to the REST of my initial story.  Our group was in the Langano region where CAC has been involved in ministry for more than 4 years.  The area there is predominately Muslim. We met with the leader of another evangelical denomination called Gospel for the Nations which focuses on sharing the Gospel in these Muslim areas.  The Lord has greatly blessed their efforts.  We were there to visit a school that had been built recently with the help of CAC.  The school was part pre-school for the children of the community and part discipleship school for Muslims that had come to faith in Christ.  Ato Abera told us how close they were to opening the school as the teachers were all ready, but they had no desks or benches yet.  He wasn’t making an appeal for money but was simply answering the question that had been asked about when the school would open.
 
B, our partner from China quietly came over to Bill, Joe, and me, to discreetly tell us something that was on his heart.  He said that because of the financial support CAC had been giving their Bible schools in China for the last 3 years, the HC leaders with his encouragement, had set aside a gift fund of $800.00 to be able to support their own Global missions outreach when the need arose. B then asked Ato Abera in front of the larger group what he estimated the cost of the benches and desks to be for the Langano school.  Imagine our surprise when Ato responded that he thought it would be just shy of $800.00! Here in rural Ethiopia, we were privileged to see one way God’s purposes for CAC’s Global connections with our partners in both China and Ethiopia were being fulfilled. Praise God!
 
The face of outreach and missions IS changing and God has given us all, CAC, EKHC, and the HCs in China an opportunity to play a part.  It is a different kind of story to be sure and it will most likely get a little messy at times, but if God is moving as we have witnessed, we want to stay on board. There are many other chapters to be written and to be honest, I think this movement has barely begun!
 
God Bless
RJ