Sharing the Love of Christ: Inspiring

Before we went to Ethiopia, we got a chance to hear amazing stories about the student translators who would be joining us and serving during our summer project. We were looking forward to meeting them, but had no idea how much God would use these great teens and young adults in our lives.

It goes without saying that we literally could not have done ministry without the staff and student translators. We could hardly communicate, let alone figure out where to go or what would be a good way to share with people about the gospel. We had a fantastic group that helped us out, and even though it was during finals for most of the students, we had a faithful group that really loved the Lord and were eager to share about Christ!

One of the most significant things that we learned from our translator is that there is no fear in Christ, and no fear in sharing the Gospel. Most of the students that we were with were 15 or 16 years old. I just love the mentality, that these students have, which is every day might be your last, so why live for anything other than Christ? In fact, in a city that is 98% Orthodox, they really are almost the complete minority, and face persecution for their faith. For some, its minor, like being asked to leave a café. For others, they are physically removed, and sometimes physically hurt. Last school year, 2 high school students were actually put in jail for being Christians. And their response? Not fear, not fleeing, but to boldly proclaim Christ. In fact the ones in prison used their time to share the Gospel with over 1,000 people, and 31 came to know the Lord. For us, it was hard to be asked to leave cafes, or to be yelled at, but in some ways, it was easy to swallow, since we know that we won’t likely return. But for these students, they are facing this persecution in the very place that they call home. We are so grateful for them, and all they taught us!

Here is a picture of our whole group and the translators on the last ministry day. Some of the translators were not able to make it that day, and are not pictured.