Ethiopian Mission Trip #3 Jan-Feb 2004 (Testimony before leaving at NeulSaRang Church)
As I stand before you today I feel a lot like Jacob must have felt in Genesis 32:10.
He said to God at that time, "I am not worthy of the least of all the mercies, and of all the truth which you have shown your servant."
He said, "I had only my staff when I crossed this Jordan (River), but now I have become two groups."
In the same way, God has so richly blessed me since I decided to follow Him.
Spiritually, not only did I not have a staff, but I was blind, full of disease, wicked and headed for destruction.
With the death and resurrection of my Saviour, Jesus Christ and faith in His name, I have been freed from a slave of sin to become a son of God.
Think about that. I have been SAVED! Does this thought excite you?!
I pray that you will NEVER forget the deep significance of that fact!
But God does not save us to keep this good news for ourselves. We must proclaim it to everyone we know.
I really can't believe that I am going to northern Ethiopia for the 3rd time. The thought is overwhelming when I consider it.
I would like to tell you a little about the place where God is leading me this time.
I will be teaching at Axum, a city which is a 6 hour drive NW of Mekelle.
While Mekelle is the provincial capital of the province of Tigrai, Axum is the spiritual capital of the entire nation.
Most tourist brochures, like this one here, proudly declare Axum to be "the last resting place of the Ark of the Covenant."
Of course, the Ark of the Covenant refers to the portable box like container whcih held the 10 commandments.
The Ark itself is not as important as what it represented, or I should say, who it represented - Jesus Christ.
There are also long, massive carved stones there that they are proud of and many legends surround them.
The fact is they are very pagan in nature (the stones) and there is strong evidence to show that ancient civilizations there used them to worship false gods, mainly the moon.
As you can imagine, this makes the city and surrounding area extremely spiritually dark and people are turning away from the Living Lord to worship false images.
Our prime mission in going there is to teach the bible to a group of 30 college students in the belief that God will use these students to make great changes in their land.
Most of these people have never heard the truth for themselves and the Ethiopian Orthodox Church has corrupted the basic message of the free gift of salvation through faith in Jesus and His work on the cross.
We visited Axum during my last mission trip and it is not as friendly and open as Mekelle.
Because Axum is the spiritual heartland of Ethiopia, there are so many beggars and poor people there looking for handouts from tourists and church goers.
Please pray that God will move us with compassion to be true ambassadors of Christ.
Most people in such environments harden their hearts in order to protect themselves from the pain of others as it is impossible to help everyone.
Pray that we will be led by the Spirit, just as Jesus was while on earth, to know whom to help and get close to and to know when we must depart from the crowd to pray, rest and recuperate.
Pray that the Holy Spirit wil prepare the hearts and minds of all those we will encounter, both in and out of the classroom.
The Bible declares that, "The hills shall be brought low, the valleys shall be filled in, the crooked paths shall be made straight in preparation of the Lord!"
We are planning on sending large numbers of volunteers once again this summer to Mekelle, Axum and possibly a third city if there are enough workers in the harvest.
It is truly amazing how many students wish to sign up for these classes and how quickly God is expanding this ministry in such a short time.
Please pray that more volunteers will come forward and that this mission trip will be a huge success, thereby allowing an even larger group invited to return this July and August.
Pray that I will get a chance to visit Mekelle after my 2nd week of classes (on Feb. 7th and 8th) and to express my genuine love and concern for all those God allowed me to meet there and to open any other doors in bringing the gospel there.
My main purpose is to express love to my Ethiopian family there and my new Chistian brothers, Tatek and Kibrom, who may have many questions in trying to follow the Lord since only 6 months ago.
Pray that God will raise these men up as strong leaders to bring many to salvation.
There are so many others things to talk about and to request but due to the lack of time I should end here.
But once again, I can't thank you enough for having the desire and the patience to hear about all that God is doing in that distant land.
Through your support, you are, in fact, partners with me, our team and indeed with God Almighty in bringing the good news to the poor and lost.
God answers prayer and your prayers are like strategic weapons which cause the enemy great fear.
That is why the enemy tries as hard as he can to whisper lies to Christians that their prayers are unneeded and unnecessary.
They fear and tremble because there is absolutely no defense against the faithful prayers of the righteous.
I will also be lifting all you up in prayer while there.
Specifically, it is my prayer that Neulsarang Church will grow as a Bible believing, God-centred, mission-oriented church of courageous prayer warriors.
He said to God at that time, "I am not worthy of the least of all the mercies, and of all the truth which you have shown your servant."
He said, "I had only my staff when I crossed this Jordan (River), but now I have become two groups."
In the same way, God has so richly blessed me since I decided to follow Him.
Spiritually, not only did I not have a staff, but I was blind, full of disease, wicked and headed for destruction.
With the death and resurrection of my Saviour, Jesus Christ and faith in His name, I have been freed from a slave of sin to become a son of God.
Think about that. I have been SAVED! Does this thought excite you?!
I pray that you will NEVER forget the deep significance of that fact!
But God does not save us to keep this good news for ourselves. We must proclaim it to everyone we know.
I really can't believe that I am going to northern Ethiopia for the 3rd time. The thought is overwhelming when I consider it.
I would like to tell you a little about the place where God is leading me this time.
I will be teaching at Axum, a city which is a 6 hour drive NW of Mekelle.
While Mekelle is the provincial capital of the province of Tigrai, Axum is the spiritual capital of the entire nation.
Most tourist brochures, like this one here, proudly declare Axum to be "the last resting place of the Ark of the Covenant."
Of course, the Ark of the Covenant refers to the portable box like container whcih held the 10 commandments.
The Ark itself is not as important as what it represented, or I should say, who it represented - Jesus Christ.
There are also long, massive carved stones there that they are proud of and many legends surround them.
The fact is they are very pagan in nature (the stones) and there is strong evidence to show that ancient civilizations there used them to worship false gods, mainly the moon.
As you can imagine, this makes the city and surrounding area extremely spiritually dark and people are turning away from the Living Lord to worship false images.
Our prime mission in going there is to teach the bible to a group of 30 college students in the belief that God will use these students to make great changes in their land.
Most of these people have never heard the truth for themselves and the Ethiopian Orthodox Church has corrupted the basic message of the free gift of salvation through faith in Jesus and His work on the cross.
We visited Axum during my last mission trip and it is not as friendly and open as Mekelle.
Because Axum is the spiritual heartland of Ethiopia, there are so many beggars and poor people there looking for handouts from tourists and church goers.
Please pray that God will move us with compassion to be true ambassadors of Christ.
Most people in such environments harden their hearts in order to protect themselves from the pain of others as it is impossible to help everyone.
Pray that we will be led by the Spirit, just as Jesus was while on earth, to know whom to help and get close to and to know when we must depart from the crowd to pray, rest and recuperate.
Pray that the Holy Spirit wil prepare the hearts and minds of all those we will encounter, both in and out of the classroom.
The Bible declares that, "The hills shall be brought low, the valleys shall be filled in, the crooked paths shall be made straight in preparation of the Lord!"
We are planning on sending large numbers of volunteers once again this summer to Mekelle, Axum and possibly a third city if there are enough workers in the harvest.
It is truly amazing how many students wish to sign up for these classes and how quickly God is expanding this ministry in such a short time.
Please pray that more volunteers will come forward and that this mission trip will be a huge success, thereby allowing an even larger group invited to return this July and August.
Pray that I will get a chance to visit Mekelle after my 2nd week of classes (on Feb. 7th and 8th) and to express my genuine love and concern for all those God allowed me to meet there and to open any other doors in bringing the gospel there.
My main purpose is to express love to my Ethiopian family there and my new Chistian brothers, Tatek and Kibrom, who may have many questions in trying to follow the Lord since only 6 months ago.
Pray that God will raise these men up as strong leaders to bring many to salvation.
There are so many others things to talk about and to request but due to the lack of time I should end here.
But once again, I can't thank you enough for having the desire and the patience to hear about all that God is doing in that distant land.
Through your support, you are, in fact, partners with me, our team and indeed with God Almighty in bringing the good news to the poor and lost.
God answers prayer and your prayers are like strategic weapons which cause the enemy great fear.
That is why the enemy tries as hard as he can to whisper lies to Christians that their prayers are unneeded and unnecessary.
They fear and tremble because there is absolutely no defense against the faithful prayers of the righteous.
I will also be lifting all you up in prayer while there.
Specifically, it is my prayer that Neulsarang Church will grow as a Bible believing, God-centred, mission-oriented church of courageous prayer warriors.
posted by Andrew Brown at 4:54 AM
4 Comments:
Let me clearly tell you for the love of the Lord - you assume too much and follow your own inclinations and know nothing about the true essense of the Ethiopia Orthodox Tewahido Church, because if you did you would not be making these vain comments.
In addition you claim supersition to be something the Church practices, this is false. How about you?
Andrew Brown
Astrological Sign: Virgo
Zodiac Year: Rat
This is not superstition?
Again check yourself
Yes, the love of God so obviously flows from your words! ha!ha!
"the true essense of the Ethiopian Orthodox church" is exalting Mary above Christ which Mary would never agree to!!!! It is a backward religion of WORKS. Not only that, most churches still have only Bibles in Ge'ez, a language SO ancient that even the priests don't understand what they are reading. The people need THE WORD OF GOD but the Orthodox Church is afraid because anyone reading even a few pages would know how far "they MISS the mark".
My comments are NOT vain but come from a TRUE understanding of the GRACE of God APART FROM WORKS and a true understanding of the Satanic forces behind HALF-TRUTHS.
And for your information, blogger.com automatically puts "Astrological Sign" and "Zodiac Year" on everyone's profile. Believe me, I am not impressed with that at all and agree that such wickedness is just as superstitious as your beliefs.
I do and will continue to "check myself" according to THE HOLY BIBLE. It is time for you to do likewise.
Again, your words are full of vanity/arrogance. You say, "It is a backward religion..." The first thing you need to do is stop name calling and labeling. It is obvious you have choosen a path that you think is the teaching of Christ and have the right understanding of Christianity and that is your choice however, you still do not understand that you DO NOT UNDERSTAND our religion, so I would humbly suggest that you cease speaking on things you know LITTLE about.
The Ethiopia people have the oldest and earliest Christian heritage, this was God's Will.
The Bible says,
"And the angel being come in, said unto her: Hail, full of grace, the Lord is with thee: blessed art thou among omen."...again "Because he hath regarded the humility of his handmaid; for behold from henceforth all generations shall call me blessed." Do you call her blessed?
The angel of God (Gabriel) called
her blessed, so will we. And she herself, being fill with the TRUE SPIRIT OF GOD said 'all generations shall call me blessed.'
I will not even answer to your comment of exalting Mary above Christ, for its your assumption and again not being a member yourself cannot give accurate testimony towards that statement.
The Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahido Church does not worship Mary, we worship God alone. When we praise and glorify Mary we are praising and glorifing God, for she borne God the Son.
"Faith with our works is dead." Works are evidences of our Faith.
I dont know Geez, yet. I want to learn this ancient language that is studied in universities all over the world especially Germany.
The real battle is spiritual and any spirit that is against the Spirit of GOD will lose at the appropriate time.
There is no reason to advise you stop spreading more ignorance for you are already dead in real life giving spirit. You still have a chance to save your soul.
Please save your soul.
Dear anonymous,
If you do not like the label "backward religion" for the Ethiopian Orthodox Church and consider it "name calling" then forgive me. What I should have called it is a FALSE religion.
There is only 1 way to God and that is through His Son, Jesus Christ. (John 14:6)
You wrote "You still do not understand that you do not understand our religion." YOU do not understand that I do NOT WISH or NEED to know your religion. I will stick with the Bible and the teachings of Christ, thank you very much.
Yes, you are right that the Ethiopian people have "the oldest and earliest Christian heritage" (to look at it from a vain, nationalistic point of view...) but unfortunately, in Ethiopia's case that means you simply have a longer history of distorting God's word!!! You MUST know that God PROMISES "If my people called by my name humbly themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land." (2 Chronicles 7:14) Very interesting that this is NOT happening in Ethiopia. No doubt a lot has to do with their idol worship and exalting Mary to the status of God!!!
Of course Mary was blessed (and still is) and was "full of GRACE". (GRACE is undeserved, unmerited, unearned favor of God.) Mary was very humble and realized what an honor it was to bring forth the SAVIOR OF THE WORLD...but later she realized that SHE TOO needed a Savior. Please notice in Acts 1:14 that Mary is with many OTHER believers (in Jesus as Savior alone) praying WITH them!! (She is not being honored or glorified there so why do you choose to do what is against God's will and unbiblical?!)
The Ethiopian tendency to exalt Mary above Christ is not my assumption but based on first hand experience being in Ethiopia more than 4 months on 4 separate trips. The beggars tend to cry out "Sala Mariam" (in the name of MAry) FAR MORE than "Sala Jesus" or "Sala selestia" ("in the name of the Trinity"). They even have a feast day for when Mary supposedly rose up from earth instead of dying which is also unbiblical.
I could write MUCH, MUCH more but you show your complete lack of saving knowledge concerning God's grace when you tell me to "save my soul" and again "Please save your soul". I can no longer save MY OWN soul than you can and that,my friend, is the whole point of GRACE - What JEsus Christ has DONE for me not what I can DO to earn His favor. I pray that you might learn this AWESOME TRUTH before it is too late....
Many blessings as God hopefully leads you out of the bonds of religion and into a personal relationship with Christ Himself!
"Now this is eternal life; that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent." (John 17:3)
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