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Christ’s
followers
took his message to
Africa
very soon after he commanded them to go to the whole world,
and African believers played a strong role in early
Christian history. Then, for hundreds of years,
Africa
was known as “The Dark Continent.” No longer! The Church
in
Africa
is becoming a major mission force. The emergence of genuine
world Christianity on all continents, as historian Andrew
Walls says, is a return to “normal Christianity.”
We
thank God for the visionary mission work being done by the
African churches that partner with SIM. For example, the
Evangelical Missionary Society (EMS) in
Nigeria
has at least 1,400 missionaries, though they struggle with
funding and logistics. SIM staff are helping
EMS
leaders to strengthen those areas. EMS is part of the
Nigeria Evangelical Missions Association, which wants to
send 50,000 Nigerian missionaries northward to 45 countries
on the way to the
Middle East
. The sacrifices and fruit of
EMS
missionaries have been recounted in past issues of this
magazine. This time we focus on missionaries
from
Ethiopia
.
Down
to the
Omo
Valley
Ten
Me’en missionary families (53 people) were sent by their
churches to evangelize the Bodi people in the
Omo
Valley
in southern
Ethiopia
. They rode in the open back of a truck through 50 miles of
mud and rivers to an airfield. There they boarded a small
plane to fly 100 miles to Jinka (none had ever flown), then
travelled by truck for about 75 miles into the Omo Valley,
and finally walked three to four hours to their assigned
destinations. The trip was especially daunting for the
wives, who had never before ventured away from their homes.
They are adjusting well, but they are challenged by the long
distances to water, grinding mill, and clinic. The dry
season, with temperatures over 120 °F, was a shock to these
missionaries from the highlands.
At
first they shared the small grass-thatched huts that were
home to six evangelists’ families already living there.
One by one, as new locations opened, the Me’en families
built similar homes for themselves and are now developing
vegetable gardens. The Bodi accept the Me’en missionaries
readily, thanks to their shared language. The chief of one
of the Bodi clans has accepted Christ, along with many of
his family, and they are building a church. Young people are
responding with enthusiasm to the message about Jesus.
The
Me’en and Bodi share a common language, but their customs
and practices are very different. The Me’en are gentle
agrarian highlanders. The Bodi are aggressive, gun-toting,
cattle-herding lowlanders who tend to despise the
highlanders. The Gospel first came to the Me’en 15 years
ago, and today more than 12,000 Me’en worship in 60
churches. Thirty years ago, SIM worker Dick McLellan and
five evangelists made contact with the Bodi and preached the
Gospel through translators, not knowing their language. Only
a few believed, and then the communist government expelled
all missionaries. Ethiopian evangelists again began work
among the Bodi in 1992, but there is still no indigenous
Bodi church.
Accosted
by
Bark Fahnestock
Gebre
was one of the first Me’en to become a follower of Christ.
His Christian growth is seen in his love for his wife and
children, and also in his deep concern for people who
don’t know Jesus. Many of his extended family, in
rejecting Christ, also actively reject Gebre and seek to
harm him. There have been several attempts on his life.
Last
year, he was walking on a missionary journey far to the
south of his home. Late on the fourth day, three armed men
suddenly emerged from the tall grass and roughly confronted
him. “Are you a believer?” they demanded. “Yes,” he
replied, “What do you want with me?” To read the
outcome, search “Accosted” at sim.org.
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