Ethiopia Feb. 2023: Jesus Provides

Written By: Ethan Wong

I am amazed at how God provided what I needed on my first field day!

This morning Dave gave our devotional, and he shared how God sustains us, and that we don’t need to rely on our own strength. I really saw this play out in my day, as I went into the village unsure of whether I would remember what I learned in training days about what to say, how to show respect, how to share the messages with others, and a lot of little details. I had all these things I was trying to memorize, and I was worried that I would make a mistake, but as I got to the first home and just listened and talked with my team, my concern and fear went away.

I was on a team with Emily, with Hussen as our translator and Tilahun as our disciple maker and translator. This team was a last minute arrangement by Erin, as we had an obstacle today that meant we needed to reassign every team on the one hour bus ride to the village. In spite of this, God used it to put me with an amazing team! Every person on my team talked with me and helped me feel comfortable and encouraged in sharing the gospel and meeting Ethiopian people.

By the end of the day, our team had counted a total of 29 Ethiopians who accepted Christ! After talking with other team members, I realized that not every team had an immediately successful day that went how they expected. I was able to appreciate how God provided for my team throughout the day. At our evening meeting Nate shared a verse about how we don’t need to worry about whether God will take care of us. Everyone really related to the verse and I recalled how worried I initially was and how comfortable I was by the end of the day. Going into it I was starting to feel nervous about how the day would go, but God prepared the villagers’ hearts to welcome us and to hear us share the gospel with open minds, despite different challenges.

Please continue to pray for team health, that we would be excited and bold in sharing the gospel, and that we will be able to continue to love on the Ethiopian people in the villages.