International Miners’ Mission
“Introducing Miners to the Master”
Celebrating the work and witness of IMM in mining communities around the world
There was a palpable feeling of great anticipation and excitement
among a small group of Trustees of the International Miners’ Mission
(IMM) and friends as we gathered at London Heathrow airport to
catch our flight with Ethiopian Airlines to Addis Ababa on Friday
evening 5th November 2014. We had heard over many months of the
Lord’s blessing among a group of churches in southern Ethiopia and
here we were about
to see for ourselves
the wonderful story
that had been
unfolding in a
faraway place that
most of us had
never previously
visited.
SHOWERS OF BLESSING IN Ethiopia
November 6th- 11th 2014
Testimony of God’s Grace
Michael Jarvis, IMM UK Trustee, shares his
experiences and insights
Shakiso
Some of the representatives of International Miners’ Mission from the five member Committees (UK,
Switzerland, USA, South Africa and Australia.
The flight was uneventful and we arrived in Addis in bright morning
sunlight. After disembarking, each of us being checked for any signs
of Ebola and, along with a plane load of Chinese workers, passing
through immigration, changing our pounds and dollars into Ethiopian
birr and recovering our luggage, we emerged from the terminal
building to walk a short distance to
the car park. There waiting to
welcome us was Beletew Kebede,
general secretary of the Ethiopian
Addis Kidan Baptist Church and
Matthias Feurer, a member of the
IMM Swiss Council working in
Ethiopia on Bible translation for
Wycliff Bible Translators and who
had worked hard to organise the
IMM International Conference and
visit on our behalf.
Warm greetings were exchanged and
we were then driven to our
accommodation in Addis, the Blue
Nile Consultant’s Guest House!
Several colleagues from other
countries had already arrived and the
remaining participants arrived during
the day. We rested awhile, visited a
local restaurant and then moved to a
nearby Addis Kidan church for mutual
introductions and a briefing about the
programme for the conference.
“Ethiopia is Africa’s oldest
independent country and its second
Beletew Kebede and his family
Addis Kidan church mission
largest in terms of population. Apart from a five-year occupation by
Mussolini’s Italy, it has never been colonised. It has a unique cultural
heritage including the Ethiopian Orthodox Church, one of the oldest
Christian churches, and a monarchy that ended only in the coup of
1974” (BBC News website). For many of us, Ethiopia is associated
with terrible periods of drought. In
1984-5 there was a dreadful famine
in the Ogaden region of eastern
Ethiopia and the pictures we saw on
our TV screens left an unforgettable
impression of disaster on a massive
scale. On another note, Ethiopia is
also the original home of the coffee
tree and we were treated to some
wonderful coffee whilst with our
friends but more of that later.
The programme for our short visit was a busy one! Following our
briefing on Thursday 6th November we rested ready for an early start
on Friday. Promptly (fairly!) at 0600 the following morning we
boarded a small bus and set out for Shakiso in southern Ethiopia, our
principal destination. It was a long
journey, some 225 miles, on some
very good roads and some very
rough ones. We paused for
breakfast at Molo and then for
lunch at Awasa. We eventually
reached Shakiso, a town of some
35,000 inhabitants, some 14 hours
later very tired but elated to have
arrived at our destination near
Kibre Mengist of which we had
heard so much.
Stuart Burns IMM USA studies a coffee tree.
Interest by the local communities wherever our bus stopped
We passed through some beautiful
countryside and had the chance to
see much that we might not have
otherwise done. Thus we saw many
fields of teff, the staple grain of
Ethiopia, being harvested largely
by hand with a sickle type of tool
and the threshing floors where the
teff was separated from the chaff
often by teams of bullocks walking round and round over the crop. We
also saw large numbers of storks over the lake at Awasa and bee-eaters
on the telegraph wires along the roads. As we approached the Shakiso
region we climbed out of the African rift valley and into a heavily
wooded upland region, certainly far from the desert we had associated
with Ethiopia before our visit.
The International Miners’ Mission
(IMM) has been supporting
evangelists in the Shakiso region
since 1999. IMM had learnt of the
existence of gold mining in the
region through John Massink who
was the pastor of the church IMM
Trustee Vicky Yorke was attending.
John had contacts with the Addis
Kidan church through his work for
TearFund. So in God’s wonderful
way of linking His servants with
the needs of His kingdom, Vicky
was encouraged by John to visit
Ethiopia and explore the possibility
of IMM helping in the evangelism
of artisanal gold miners in the
Shakiso region. The full
Storks in the tree tops at Awasa
Shakiso high street
John Massink makes friends on an earlier visit to the Shakiso church
circumstances of this wonderful story can be read on the IMM
website. The outcome is that following one man’s evangelistic efforts
in the town of Shakiso (his name was Neguse and he spent his first
two months in the town on his own in prayer before contacting
anyone!!) there are to-day after 15 years of working together six local
churches and nine preaching points (embryo churches) in the Shakiso
area, each with pastors and elders.
On Saturday 7th November, after
finding some breakfast in the town
(scrambled eggs with chopped
spring onion was the commonest
dish on offer although the more
hardy among us tried out the
spongy teff-based injera flatbread
eaten with meat and using fingers
only!) we moved to the Shakiso
Addis Kidan Baptist church.
The church building is situated on a plot some 2600sq m in size and
was built by the fellowship themselves. There are some 120 members
and they are led by Pastor Girma, himself a former gold digger who
has lived in the town for some 27 years. Their welcome was effusive
and genuine. Inside the church we were greeted by the fellowship
with kind words of appreciation and affection.
Gathered there were all the
pastors and elders from the
churches in the Shakiso district
and one-by-one they were
introduced to us and they talked to
us about their individual
fellowships. What an amazing
gathering it was and it somehow
summarised all that God has been
Matthias, Stuart and Mohau enjoy their injera
The pastors and elders from the Shakiso region churches
doing over the past decade, the blessings of
souls saved and lives lived for the Saviour.
Our hearts were truly overwhelmed by
what God has done and how His kingdom
has grown apace in this corner of Ethiopia.
Among all the workers there, one
individual has been especially used in the
Lord’s service. His name is Pastor
Jeremias and he is responsible under God
for establishing a number of churches
going to them and encouraging them all on
foot. He was described as a modern Paul!
There is also the self-supporting volunteer
co-ordinator Gobena who travels between
all the churches in the district helping with
their needs and concerns. IMM hopes to be
able to make his and others journeys easier
and faster by providing a motor cycle for
use by the these travelling ministers.
With the welcome and
introductions completed, gifts
we had brought were
distributed. IMM Committee
member Vicky Yorke had
thoughtfully organised the
purchase of footballs, one for
each fellowship. There was
great excitement as the balls
were handed to the pastors
and elders and it wasn’t long
afterwards that they were
being put to good use. In addition there were loom bands (coloured
bands) for the younger children. Ronna Dring demonstrated how the
bands could be made into colourful bracelets and necklaces and they
Pastor Jeremias
Pastor Girma and co-ordinator Gobena
Blowing up the footballs distributed to each of the pastors and elders
too were soon being enthusiastically connected together by many little
hands.
After lunch the visitors
and pastors boarded the
bus for a trip into the
surrounding countryside
in order to see the gold
digging and mining in
action. Although there
are commercial opencast
gold mines nearby,
most of the local people
are involved in looking
for gold in the gravels along the river valleys. It is a very wet,
dangerous and dirty activity with very little precious metal to show for
all the effort that goes into seeking it. The miners have to get
permission from the land owner before they can look for gold and the
same land owner requires the lion’s share of what is found. The
process of mining involves digging the gravel, removing the larger
stones and then using the panning method to find the few flakes of
gold that might be present. It is hard back-breaking work day-in and
day-out all day long.
A highlight of the visit to
the miners was a stop we
made in one of the
villages where panning for
gold was in progress.
Everybody got out of the
bus to have a good look at
the activities and before
long a crowd of about
100 had gathered to see
what these unexpected Mohau points people to follow Jesus while Beletew (in white shirt) translates
Men, women and children as young as six often work looking for gold
visitors were up to! For brother Mohau Mofokeng (IMM sponsored
pastor from South Africa) this was too great an opportunity to miss. So
with his Bible in his hand he called for attention and began to tell the
people why we were in their village just then. He said something like:
“You are all working hard here looking for gold but I have something
in my hand which is real gold, the Bible which tells us about Jesus, the
Son of God and the Saviour of the world”. As Mohau preached the
Word the people listened intently. When he asked after about twenty
minutes if anyone was interested in learning more about Jesus some 20
of those present raised their hands in response. It was an amazing sight
to see God at work whilst Mohau preached. We all looked on with
great joy and continued on our journey rejoicing at the unexpected
opportunity to share the gospel with a spontaneous audience of mainly
young miners.
The next day was Sunday 8th
November and the visitors
were split into three groups
so that we could share
worship and ministry with
three different local
churches. The first group
joined the local Shakiso
church, the second group
travelled to Kibre Mengist
church and the third group
went farthest to Sembaba. In
each church there was a
warm welcome and some
wonderful enthusiastic,
joyous, vigorous lively
worship. In Kibre Mengist,
Ian and Ronna Dring found
the path to the church rather
muddy after the recent rains
Temporary church building at Sembaba with Matthias Feurer in foreground
below Inside the church
but had the subsequent privilege of having their feet washed by the
elders. In Sembaba the church met in a temporary building made of a
rough timber coated inside and out with traditional baked red mud.
There were no windows and a candle was used to read the scriptures
by! This Church and the one in Kibre Mengist had floors of bare earth
and rough squares of cardboard was handed out for the people to kneel
on for prayer.
Our visit was now fast
drawing to a close and the last
event was a traditional coffee
farewell. We gathered again at
the Shakiso church and there
we found that coffee berries
from trees around the church
had been dried and were
roasting over a brazier.
Eventually the beans were
ground and we sat around in a circle drinking some wonderful coffee
all derived from the trees around us.
Meanwhile the young people
were making good use of the
footballs given to them on the
previous day. And the boys
and girls were also showing
off the bracelets they had
made with the coloured bands.
Sadly it was time to depart.
We had to make a very early
start the next morning for our
long journey back to Addis. So we committed each other to our Lord
and Saviour, said our good-byes and returned to our guest house for
one more night. We were up at crack of dawn on Monday 9th
Preparing the coffee
Excited children show off the bracelets made from the loom bands
November, had some breakfast in Kibre Mengist (scrambled egg and
onions again!) and then set off. We made one more short stop at one of
the preaching points along the road called Bocco and then drove to
Lake Awasa for lunch. We were taken to a lovely spot right on the lake
front. Later we continued to Addis arriving there quite late in the
evening.
Our last full day in
Addis Ababa, Tuesday
10th November, was
used to spend time
thinking about what we
had witnessed. Without
exception everybody
testified to the amazing
development of the
work in the Shakiso
region and we brought
our praise to God for so blessing the work there. We also heard about
the history and vision of the Ethiopian Addis Kidan Baptist church
from their General Secretary Beletew Kebede. He highlighted the
opportunities the church hoped to follow. In particular there is a
pressing need and desire to establish a Bible College to train and equip
their leaders and pastors and obtain transport in order to reach out to
other mining communities in other parts of Ethiopia.
Colleagues from IMM around the world updated us on what was
happening in their areas and we prayed together about our ministry
asking the Lord to continue to richly bless the evangelists and pastors
we support around the world. How we all long to see miners from all
corners of the world saved and brought into the kingdom of our Lord
and Saviour Jesus Christ!
The IMM UK group left Addis very early on Wednesday morning 11th
November so grateful to our God for giving us the opportunity to
The Pastors and Evangelists from the Shakiso area.
Pastor Mohau writes:
“Indeed we had an awesome
time in Ethiopia. It was an
experience to me. Seeing
totally different people who
also belong to the Lord that
I’m serving. I’m also grateful
that I could serve in the
conference. I saw that angry
man, but to me it was an indication we were on a divine mission. The
open air was not planned. To me it happened so fast. I saw people
hungry for the good news. So I shared about the rest that is found in
Jesus, who is the way, the truth and life. Initially about 60 people
raised their hand to accept Jesus. The people who came forward were
about 20 predominantly miners (men) and a few ladies. All those who
came forward were handed over to a local pastor to follow them up.
Whilst most of us were visiting Shakiso, David Shillitoe had remained
in Addis Ababa and was very busily engaged fulfilling several
appointments in local churches there. David writes
While staying in Addis
Ababa (which I learnt means
‘New flower’ in English –
what a lovely name for a
city!) my host was, Abraham
Equbay, who is a member of
the Ethiopian Addis Kidan
Baptist Church working at
Headquarters. Here he is
standing in front of the very Abraham stands in front of Addis Kidan Church
witness at first hand the astonishing development of His church around
Shakiso and encouraged that what has happened and continues to
happen there among the gold miners demonstrates that nothing is too
hard for the Lord anywhere and at any time. Hallelujah!
modest corrugated iron buildings, from which the whole church
group administration is run. He and I travelled around Addis in the
church transport – an elderly 4x4 truck with a very high mileage on
the clock. I was glad Abraham was driving as the traffic in Addis
Ababa was often quite hair-raising!
I cannot relate all my experiences, but one does stand out. I was
asked to speak at an Ethiopian Addis Kidan (= New Covenant)
church in a suburb of Ethiopia called Yerer. Abraham drove me for
well over half-an-hour to the church, picking up Joel on the way.
Joel was to act as my interpreter. Yerer church is only four years old
and as the picture below shows, it is simply built of corrugated iron
sheeting for the roof and walls supported by rough wooden posts.
Many of the churches in Ethiopia are like this.
Seated ready to preach, I
witnessed the members of
the church fellowship
e n t h u s i a s t i c a l l y
participating in the
worship of praise and
prayer - ‘Amen!’ ‘Praise
the Lord!’ ‘Hallelujah!’
The singing of the songs
was very loud lengthy and
hearty. They listened to
the message I brought with
careful attention and afterwards the pastor applied what I had said to
encourage the congregation. What a privilege to share ministry with
these joyful Christians, many of them relatively new in the faith of
Jesus Christ.
David Shillitoe waiting to preach at Yerer
Correspondence address:
David Shillitoe: 5 Old Rectory Court ~ 61 Wood Street ~ Barnet ~ Hertfordshire EN5 4BL
visit IMM’s website at www.minersmission.com
David’s email address: [email protected]
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Registered office: 5 Old Rectory Court ~ 61 Wood Street ~ Barnet ~ Hertfordshire EN5