Ethiopia
Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia
_______________________________
Pray for Our Missionaries:
click each name for more information
Kevin and Erica Kipfer _______________________________
Other Information:
Capital
Addis Ababa 2,650,000.
Area 1,106,000 sq.km. Fertile mountain
plateau surrounded by the drought-prone lowlands and deserts of the Red
Sea coast, and borders on Eritrea, Somalia, Kenya and Sudan. Landlocked
since the secession of Eritrea. Semitic Origin
45%. Cushitic
42.2%. Omotic
11.3%. Nilo-Sudanic
1.2%. Literacy
36%. National working language
Amharic; 65% of population are able to speak it. Praise God for the thrilling growth of the Protestant
churches since 1936. Two great waves of violent persecution under the
Italians in 1936-41 and the Communists in 1974-1990 refined and purified
the church, but there were many martyrs. Vision, sacrificial evangelism
and courageous witness have characterized Christians of all
denominations. There have been great seasons of harvest with millions
coming to Christ, the greatest being since the failure and collapse of
Communism. Protestants were fewer than 200,000 – 0.8% of the population
– in 1960, but by 2000 this had become nearly 12 million and 19.7% of
the population. 1
Ethiopia's political leaders confront crises on
many fronts: a) Hostilities with Eritrea have
crippled efforts to revive and modernize the country. b) Ethnic fragmentation remains a
real possibility. The central government is predominantly Tigrayan in
composition and other larger ethnic groups – Amhara, Oromo, Somali and
Afar – are restive. c) Pray for wisdom, humility,
courage and a seeking after God among those in leadership and for peace
and the right climate to bring about change for the better. Repression,
famines, wars and deep poverty have traumatized many.
2 The Ethiopian
Orthodox Church is going through immense change. Centuries of isolation
from the rest of the Christian world as a Christian island in a sea of
Islam helped form its unique culture, theology and traditions. a) It has had to adjust to the
loss of political privilege under Communism, which has only been
partially restored since 1990. Syncretism and the occult are widespread
among the millions of nominal Orthodox. b) The rapid spread of the use of
Scriptures and growth of Protestant denominations has led to both
millions of defections and the emergence of strong evangelical and
charismatic networks in the Orthodox Church. Pray for a deep work of the Holy Spirit to bring this
ancient Church to its biblical heritage and to new life. 3
Massive growth in Protestant and Independent churches has created a
great expectation for further harvest. Pray for: a) Continued revival and growth
not to be quenched by carnality, division and power-seeking in
leadership. A characteristic of the recent move of the Spirit has been
widespread mobilization of ordinary believers and multiplication of cell
churches. b) Effective means for generating
income to support men and women in the service of the Lord, develop the
structures and facilities needed and fund social programmes essential in
the prevailing deep poverty. c) Preservation of the cooperation
and unity among leaders which was forged in suffering. Vigilance is
needed to heal past broken relationships and prevent future fleshly
discord. Pray especially for the Evangelical Churches Fellowship (ECFE)
which represents the majority of Christians in the country. d) The continued growth of
missions vision. A big commitment to missions by various evangelical
denominations was cut back in 1976 due to persecution. Out of this
suffering emerged a national vision and a united strategy for
evangelizing Ethiopia. The 20 year integrated strategy included prayer
and people-mobilization, survey training and sending out missionary
evangelists to every province and people with few Christians and then
to other lands. By 2000 much had been achieved. Pray for the successful
accomplishment of the complete vision by 2015. KHC is spearheading
outreach to India and Pakistan. (information from www.operationworld.org)
