Stories from our field
Traveling for a day to be baptized
What advice would you give to a man who has just come to faith and wants to be baptized? You look for a church nearby, and advise him to go there. But what if there’s no church nearby, at all?
Our Amharic team in Ethiopia found itself in exactly this situation. The team leader, Woudineh, explains: “Aron* completed our Bible Basics course where he learned a lot about Jesus. He developed a deep desire to be baptized. We decided to ask him for his phone number and call him. That’s how we found out that he lives in a remote rural area, about five hundred kilometers southwest of the capital Addis Ababa.” As it turned out, there is no church in the wider area, nor do any mentors from the team live nearby. So how, then, can a new believer be guided in his walk with Jesus?
“We discussed together what to advise him,” Woudineh says, “and what we came up with was that it would be best for him to go to a church that is about a day’s journey away. That was the closest possibility! This advice required a great deal of dedication from him, but Aron did just that! He traveled all day long to make his way to that particular church, was baptized and traveled back.”
“This is not the first time we’ve run into this kind of challenge,” sighs Woudineh. “The Amharic team faces a shortage of mentors who live close to people in remote corners, and the poor infrastructure in rural Ethiopia doesn’t help, either.”
But he is grateful: “We see God at work, especially in remote areas. He is drawing people to Himself with resources we wouldn’t have thought possible even a few years ago. Nowadays, anyone with a smartphone can find out about Jesus, regardless of where they are. Together, let’s continue to take the Gospel to every corner of the world, no matter how far or remote that corner is.”
Woudineh invites you to pray for Aron:
- Pray that Aron will find a church closer to him, or that he will receive strength to plant a new church.
- Pray for Aron’s safety and spiritual growth.
*Not his real name