April/May 2005

Dear Friends,

“Enkwan aderesatchew!” or something like that. “ Welcome!”

Gatcheb and the Charles Haspels Bible School

We finally made it back to Mizan Teferi/Gatcheb for a long-awaited visit, our first since returning to Ethiopia last year. We spent 10 days visiting the Charles Haspels Bible School and teaching a week-long seminar with the 67 students on evangelism and discipleship. We also each had the opportunity to preach at the two-day executive council meetings of the Southwest Bethel Synod. We joined in worship at Gatcheb congregation, visited with some friends up the road, greeted Synod workers, and in many ways felt it had not been five years since we had lived there. The Bible school has been well maintained and, while the Synod staff is half what it was when we left, there are many things that remain the same.

That part of Ethiopia is eagerly awaiting the rains, as the lake that serves the local power station is a mud puddle. We had electricity from 4:00 – 10:00 p.m. each day and heard that sometimes Mizan town itself was going without any at all. The last few days we were there, it rained in the night and so it seems the situation should be improving.

The Bible school is full to overflowing. It was built to accommodate 32 students with beds. Last year, because of the shortage of teachers, there was no class. So this year the parishes insisted on sending both first-year students (32) and second-year students (35). All in all, since the school opened with the certificate training in 2000, 80 students have completed the first year. Qes (Rev.) Yohannes Sherab, the director, has continued to implement with the parishes their significant contribution to the budget of the Bible school. Currently, parishes are to contribute 2250 birr (almost one half the total amount per year) for each student they send for training. Qes Yohannes has been determined from the beginning that the Bible school should be supported locally. The school is, however, looking for outside funding to help build a chapel/multipurpose room, and they have need of a larger covered dining area. The students now eat out in the open, but with the rains coming that will prove less than ideal. See below if you’d like to contribute.

Ethiopian Graduate School of Theology

This semester we have enjoyed teaching a new course, “Gospel and Culture,” with ten students. We introduced some concepts from anthropology as we looked at how we communicate the gospel in different cultures. This was all quite new to many of the students and proved a very valuable opportunity for them to look at and appreciate their own cultures in new ways, to consider how Western culture has influenced church and gospel in their own context, and to question what assumptions and perspectives they need to be aware of in themselves as they move into other cultural contexts in ministry, both in Ethiopia and outside.

EGST is currently in the accreditation process with ACTEA (the Accrediting Council for Theological Education in Africa). This means redeveloping the programs that EGST is offering and the writing of new curriculum. It is timely that we are working to bring into being a new missiology emphasis that will stand beside EGST’s offerings in biblical studies, church history, and systematic theology.

Prayer concerns

• We appreciate your prayers for EGST as we seek to fulfill the accreditation requirements but keep our educational offering contextual and appropriate for Ethiopia.
• Pray for EGST students, some of whom are having to make decisions about their study program as the program changes to accommodate accreditation requirements.
• Pray for Dr. Debela, the principal of EGST, and Dr. Steve Bryan, the academic dean, as they give leadership and vision to this developing graduate school (the only one currently operating in Ethiopia).
• Pray for us as we seek to help develop contextual and appropriate training for cross-cultural ministry and witness with the evangelical churches of Ethiopia.

Blessings,

Anne & John Wheeler-Waddell
Addis Ababa, Ethiopia

The 2005 Mission Yearbook for Prayer & Study, p. 330

Contributions to Charles Haspels Bible School may be sent to: Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) Individual Remittance Processing, PO Box 643700, Pittsburgh, PA 15264-3700. Write the title (Charles Haspels Bible School) and the ECO number on the subject line (ECO # 047902) of the check and put it on your cover letter, too. Send a copy of the cover letter to Area Office for East and Southern Africa at 100 Witherspoon St. Louisville, KY 40202-1396. Or click the button below.