December 17, 2004
In early November, Art Hitt and I joined John Ed Clark, Behailu Abebe, and others in Ethiopia for two of the most memorable weeks of our lives.
On Saturday, the day after we arrived, approximately twenty WEI students met us at the church building in Addis Ababa and spent most of the afternoon studying the Bible with us. Art scheduled personal studies with them—studies that would last two weeks while John Ed and I were out traveling around the country preaching and teaching.
Churches of Christ are flourishing in Ethiopia. Even though communism has dominated the nation until recently, there are congregations in Ethiopia with a combined membership of 70,000 Christians. New congregations are springing up everywhere.
More than 37,000 people in 301 cities, towns, and villages are studying the Bible through WBS and WEI. We are receiving more student applications from Ethiopia than from any other country in the world.
On November 11, we celebrated the grand opening of a new WEI Computer Learning Center in Awasa. It was a momentous occasion. Television cameras were there, and the ceremony was telecast throughout the nation the next day.
A high ranking government official spoke first. Then, Behailu, John Ed, and I took our turns. Before I got up to speak, Behailu said, “Remember: sixty-four million people will be watching you.”
One of the highlights of the trip was preaching to 500 people at Jajura on Tuesday morning November 18. Some of the people had come by horseback, and some had ridden mules. Most, however, had come by foot. Some had arisen during the night and had walked for six hours to get there.
We returned to Addis Ababa on Wednesday, November 19, just in time to see Art Hitt baptize Firehiwot into Christ.
On Thursday, two more of Art’s WEI students were buried with Christ in baptism. What a way to end our missionary journey!
