Ethiopia Connections With Endless Opportunities
How fascinating to watch the way the Lord moves people and circumstances, and then He connects them across the world to accomplish His disciple-making purposes. This happened recently with Reach Out--in Ethiopia.
Moving...Colorado to Addis Ababa to Nairobi and Back

 In July, Kim Bearden flew from Colorado to Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. At the invitation of Dr. Frew , the President of Evangelical Theological Seminary, he spent a week with 30 Masters’ level youth leaders training them in Jesus-Focused Youth Ministry .
That same week, Zeman Endale , our Ethiopia Country Leader flew to Nairobi, Kenya to spend a week with our Reach Out team as we equipped him, along with 13 Country Leaders/25 Regional Leaders, and filmed Jesus-Focused Youth Ministry Online. The Lord prepared Zeman to coach Kim’s 30 seminary students back in Addis Ababa.

These connections created ideal circumstances for the endless opportunities our ministry has in Ethiopia.
Teaching What Jesus Taught
Kim described his week with his 30 students at Evangelical Theological Seminary this way:

“'If you have not changed lives, you have not changed anything!' With that statement I challenged my 30 students as we began. Then I showed them how to take a Jesus-focused approach to Youth Ministry… by engaging with Jesus relationally, and then by modeling that same relationship with their leaders and teenagers."
For several years, I have been asking the Lord for something that would make a difference in youth ministry cross our Country. When I was taught the principles of Jesus-Focus Youth Ministry, I heard a strategy that made sense. We have had many classes in youth ministry as part of our education, but I needed a challenge to personal intimacy with Jesus that would then lead to a personal ministry of discipleship. By the end of the week under the teaching of Dr. Bearden, I knew God had called me to be a disciple, and then make disciples for the rest of my life. Endegena Getachew
Kim explained the heart of his teaching…

"A critical component in the Jesus-Focused Youth Ministry strategy: train/disciple adult leaders to passionately follow Jesus, and then guide them to do the same with a few teenagers who then reach their friends. It's pretty simple really...just doing what Jesus did to multiply disciples."
Multiplying Leaders Across Ethiopia Through Kim and Zeman
To take this “moving and connecting of people” one more step…this week Kim flies back to Addis Ababa to personally introduce his 30 students to Zeman in 1-2-1 meetings with them.

As Kim described it: “Anyone can teach a class, but the real outcome of that class is best realized when we sit with one student over of cup of coffee, and hear specifically what that student understands, and puts into practice outside the classroom. In my 1-2-1 meetings, Zeman and I will encourage each student to move forward with Intentional Disciple-Making, knowing that lives change only when Jesus is the focus."

From there, Zeman will take the leadership reins from Kim, and will coach these students to multiply JFYM in all of the places they live across Ethiopia! This is leadership development and intentional disciple-making at its best!
Jesus Focus Youth Ministry taught me that I need to give my whole life to the Lord, and be well trained if I am to make a long term impact with leaders and with students. I was challenged to make disciples, and for the rest of my life, that will be my primary ministry. The most important statement I heard was “If I want to make disciples, I first need to be a disciple. Tewodros Abera
These connections would not have happened without your connection with us.
Your giving and praying form vital links that God uses to create miraculous movements!
Jesus is Lord,