Tuesday, February 1

The Evangelical churches in Ethiopia have an inspiring amount of collaboration between them. Much of this is coordinated and driven by Evangelical Churches Fellowship of Ethiopia (ECFE). This organization collectively represents 11.5 million believers across 20 denominations and 27 para-church organizations. Tuesday morning the team met with the General Secretary and two other top leaders of ECFE. They have commissions for many areas of need and help coordinate programs, training, and church activities for Youth ministry, HIV/AIDS, Evangelism, Prayer, Leadership development, Women, Media, and more. Several of our team have scheduled follow up meetings with ECFE program leaders in their focus areas.

We spent Tuesday afternoon with Sister (Dr.) Jember, a remarkable and visionary woman who since 1989 has run a holistic re-development ministry that has changed the lives of over 36,000 people. Sister Jember’s model of urban renewal has set an example for organization around the world – many of whom send teams to learn her methods.

Addis has a patchwork of horrible slums that are home to a large percentage of the city’s population. For each project Sister Jember and her team work with individual neighborhoods to determine their specific needs. Based on community needs she works with them to develop a vision and plan including things like schools, a center for the Elderly, a Library, sanitation, medical clinics, etc. The results are the most impressive urban renewal that any of our team had ever seen. As you walk through the redeveloped neighborhood you can see the dignity, pride, and hope in the eyes of the people who are eager to greet you. We were particularly touched by a group of ~20 elderly who had stayed late at their day center to meet us.