Fall 2011 Trip — 1st Ever CHE Celebration Day!

CHE Day of Celebration

(Thursday 11/3)

Buck Frymier - Director of Health Initiative for NCF

The day began with thunder and lightning around 4AM and the Muslim call to prayer around 5:30AM. It was a travel day—Soddo to Dilla—a trip of around 5-6 hours (lots of road construction from Soddo to Sheshamane) with a stop for lunch in Awassa.

We arrived around 2:30PM in Dilla and were greeted in the KHC Church compound by hundreds of clapping and smiling members of the church and participants in the CHE Day of Celebration.

The CHE Celebration Day was filled with prayer and singing, sharing with each other about their experiences, brief talks on the value and structure of CHE by Werku Golle, head of the KHC Dilla Awraja, and brief talks and words of welcome by National CHE Coordinator Melaku Affere, women’s ministry head Sharon Abebe, CHE master trainers responsible for CHE disability, Mulatu Lakew from the Life Wind Ethiopia Board, Tirus Karuga, Life Wind International Coordinator for all of East Africa (9 countries), Buck Frymier, Health Director for New Covenant Foundation, Mike Stemm president of New Covenant Foundation and Pastor Rick Knoll with Life Center Church in Spokane.

CHE volunteers numbered around 150 and were each given certificates of appreciation and t-shirts with the LWI/E Logo. The 13 master trainers from the 4 Awrajas were also recognized and presented with  special certificates of appreciation and nice polo shirts with the LWI/LWE CHE logos—with Tirus and Buck officiating. The certificates and shirts were all very much appreciated. The celebration ended with a wonderful group picture.

This was the first time in 6 years that the master trainers and CHE volunteers were so honored—so it was indeed a day of celebration.  

The celebration was followed by an intensive discussion of a 2-year extension agreement for the CHE program in Gedeo, attended by some of the NCF team, Tirus, Buck, Melaku, Ademe, Mulatu, and office manager Elsa—her first trip to the Gedeo region. The meeting went well and much was discussed—all focused on continuing for another 2 years with the 4 Awrajas. Agreements for approval were discussed and copies left for the Awraja leaders to study.

As is often the case in Dilla, the day ended with a wonderful dinner prepared by Hallelujah with the helping hands of husband Werku and others to prepare another wonderful meal—meatballs and gravy, mashed potatoes, boiled carrots, homemade bread and all topped off with Hallelujah’s special cake. It was a day to be remembered. 

Now This is Ethiopia! Trip Report from Dilla, Ethiopia

Church Planting - A professionally organized and geographically strategic ministry    

- Kevin Cole

It is clear that Ethiopia is a key player on the African Continent in many ways.  Geographically Ethiopia is a crossroads.  Politically it is the center of the African Union.  Militarily it is a major player in the region.  Religiously there are many forces at work pushing and pulling the people in different directions.  Muslim influence from the nearby Middle East at odds with the strong Christian influences.  The good news is the spreading of the gospel across the continent is being facilitated by a professional, organized, educated and committed church planting mission of the Ethiopian Kale Heywot Church.  One cannot help but be impressed at the level of commitment when a church in a third world country is supporting and sending out missionaries to the surrounding region.  These missionaries are called church planters.  They are well trained, married, committed men and women who suffer hardships and persecution and see miracles we in the western world have a hard time getting our arms around.  Besides the 60 or so church planters supported by the local church there are others being supported by people and churches from other countries such as the USA.  New Covenant foundation for instance has made a three-year commitment to support church planters.  More support is needed.  There are about 60 families who are trained and waiting for support so they can be sent.  Another 350 are currently going through training.  The cost to support a family runs around $150 per month.  The money is used for food, housing, medical support, and a small pension fund.  My hope and prayer is that Christians who read this will see the importance of this ministry for the spreading of the good news of Jesus Christ to a region of the world that desperately needs the hope that Jesus offers. 

February 25, 2011

-Carrie Cole

We went to the Kale Heywot church compound in Dilla and met Werku, a leader of the Christians in the area.  As we walked along the building, there was an awful smell that made some of us feel sick at the thought of going inside.  We were led to the front where seats were saved for us. There were probably a couple of thousand church leaders gathered for the conference and a large choir sat on the stage.  The pastor was talking to the people in Amharic about CHE and the importance of caring for the whole person.  The choir sang and the building was filled with the most amazing sounds of praise to God, then all the people sang as they poured to the front to place their offering on a table in the front of the church.  All thoughts of my personal discomforts faded as I was drawn into worship of our Savior with our Ethiopian brothers and sisters in Christ.  Werku introduced us and we each shared with the people, they love to hear about us and how we serve the same God they serve in our homes on the other side of the world.  Werku closed by singing Mike’s favorite Ethiopian praise song.  It was beautiful and I could have stayed and praised God with these people for hours.  As our traveling partner Zele said, “Now this is Ethiopia.”