By Mara Klassen | Operations
This past May/June, the Mossy Foot Project has been blessed to be able to introduce our Ethiopian Country Representative and Executive Director to many supporters in the Southern California area. Pastor Yoseph Menna and his wife Ripka spent about a month in the states, visiting their two sons and speaking about the Mossy Foot Project initiatives to churches and informal groups.
Pastor Yoseph sees his Christian service following a pattern similar to the Apostle Paul, whose ministry encompassed three missionary journeys. Yoseph’s initial journey began with a local church in Gilo, where he learned the basics of teaching the Word and serving in the church. His second journey began with a new focus on mobilizing local resources to send and support missionaries and to plant new churches. This journey led him to work with E3 Partners, an organization that equips and sends teams to support local efforts.
His third journey began several years ago when Sharon Daly, the President of the Mossy Foot Project, invited him to join the Project in Soddo as the National Representative. Leading the Mossy Foot Project as part of a missionary journey is allowing Pastor Yoseph to use his skills and experience mobilizing Ethiopian churches using a strategy he calls “the two hands of the gospel,” one extended with physical service and the other with the love of Christ.
Because of the way the Ethiopian government regulates the activity of NGOs, “spiritual” work must be separated from the clinic work. The Mossy Foot Project serves anyone in need that comes to a clinic. However, afterwards, the church can come alongside patients by visiting them in their homes, encouraging them, praying for them, and sharing the Gospel. This strategy will allow the Mossy Foot Project to expand into previously unserved areas.
Mossy Foot Project workers teamed up with local church members on a recent trip to a remote area in Ethiopia.
Pastor Yoseph used this strategy on a recent trip into a new area, bringing a diverse team with him to minister to physical needs and share the Gospel.
The leadership team of the Mossy Foot Project is excited about this new strategy with Ethiopian churches taking more responsibility for addressing local problems. This strategy is exciting evidence of the growth in spiritual maturity of the local body as they are stirred up to fill “the good works that God has foreordained for them to walk in” Eph 2:10.
By Sharon Daily | President
By Clyde Xi | Director-At-Large
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