Reaching the next generation in Ethiopia
CMS Co-Mission Partners (CoMPs) Anwar Berhe, serving with his wife Tsigereda Atankir in Ethiopia, speak of the ‘what’ and ‘why’ of children’s ministry in a challenging context.
“…we seek to teach the children how to share the good news of the gospel with their friends and family members.”
Our church here in Addis Ababa (The Alemgena Bethel Kale Heywet Church) has been involved in children’s ministry since it began in 2011. At the moment, over 450 children attend our Sunday school classes. Tsigereda and I (Anwar) have been part of this church for five years. I am the board chairman for the whole church, and Tsigereda serves as the chair of the children’s ministry leadership team. The children’s ministry focuses on discipling children, and helping them share their faith with unbelieving family and friends in their schools and neighbourhoods.
The lessons on Sunday include Bible stories, the teachings of Jesus, and ministry skill development. The teaching materials were written by locals or, in some cases, translated from English to Amharic (the official language spoken in Ethiopia).
In all lessons, we try to address three main areas:
First, we want to provide children with basic biblical teaching to grow their understanding of the Word of God, their faith, and their passion for the Lord.
Second, we want to help children develop their Christian ethical and moral living, their relationships, and their faithful obedience to our Lord.
Third, we seek to gradually develop our children in personal ministry—such as serving in drama, singing worship songs, and in many other ways: even perhaps ultimately in teaching and preaching, leading worship programs, and community service.
We hope and pray that we can help the children in our care to show the love of Christ to others. We might, for example, raise support from within the Christian community, and use that support as the basis for helping needy people. Along with this, we seek to teach the children how to share the good news of the gospel with their friends and family members.
A challenging spiritual and material context
We believe our Bible-based children’s ministry is vital in helping prepare the next generation to serve Christ and proclaim the gospel. In our Ethiopian context, children are exposed to different religious beliefs and ideologies. We want them to be trained in God’s Word from an early age, so that as they mix with friends and neighbours from many different religious groups (such as Islam) they might attract them to Jesus, and not be drawn away from gospel truth.
The danger of children getting involved in substance addiction and similar social problems is another difficulty that parents and the church face in our context. The children’s ministry is vital in guiding children away from these dangers, and teaching them instead to trust in Christ.
Although this ministry is growing and bearing much fruit, we face many other physical and material challenges. Currently, our lessons take place in hot and suffocating classrooms; often there are as many as 80 children in a small room made of corrugated iron sheets. Sometimes, we struggle financially to print sufficient teaching materials for all our classes. We would greatly appreciate your prayers for these matters.
Praise God for gospel growth
Yet in all of this, we are greatly aware of God’s kindness and provision for us and for his children here in Addis Ababa. Every day, children are coming to know God and his grace through Jesus Christ, and they are learning to show and share that grace in their lives.
PRAY
Pray with Anwar and Tsigereda: that God will provide for a children’s ministry building project that is currently taking place, and that this facility will aid the quality of their education and gospel learning.
