Team Leader: Melisachew Mesfin
Location: Addis Ababa
Primary Activities: Evangelism, National Youth Discipleship Program
Contact Information:
PO Box 70271
Addis Ababa
Ethiopia
Email:
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Elfinesh Dabi's family arranged her marriage when she was only 16 years old. This young Ethiopian woman has known little but sorrow since then.
Her first child died in the womb. Then, when pregnant with her second baby, she fell down by the side of a road, injured, and could not get up. A kindly stranger took her to a hospital. But her baby died soon after delivery.
After she ended up divorced at a young age, she decided to commit suicide. Her brother came home one day to find her with a rope around her neck... and prevented her from taking her own life just in the nick of time. But Elfinesh was miserable. "I am sleepless, "she says. "I never sleep even for an hour in a night. I am so much troubled that life is meaningless to me. I am tired of living and weep every time."
But then she came to hear the Gospel during AE's evangelistic mission to Akaki-Kaliti, a suburb of the capital city of Addis Ababa. "When the preacher was praying," she says, "the evil spirit inside of me started to manifest and I was delivered! I accepted Jesus Christ as my personal savior. Since then, for the last four nights I have been sleeping more than 7 hours a night."
"This is a new experience in my life!" Elfinesh rejoices. "I am seeing a great change. Now I have peace of mind and I want to continue with it!"
Because of friends who pray and give generously to AE, desperate young women in Africa can find relief from their suffering and meaning in their lives through Christ. Your support makes all the difference!
Fekadu Tolu has been desperate to find answers. Growing up in Ethiopia, his parents took him to witch doctors and he worshiped ancestors as part of the traditional religions. But, he says, "I don't have a settled mind. I hear voices inside of me and I am guided by these voices as to where I should go and what I should be doing."
Then he heard about AE's evangelistic mission to Akaki-Kaliti, a suburb of Addis Ababa, the country's capital, when he was looking for a house to rent. "A woman invited me to come and see," he says. "I came in and heard the word of God. When the altar call was made, I willfully stood up from my seat to accept Jesus."
Looking back on the past, Fekadu says, "I have lived a miserable life. I even felt there was no purpose for living. But now I think I have made a right decision. I have made a new beginning in life and I want to follow this path."
Fekadu will be welcomed into a local church in Akaki-Kaliti, where he will connect with other believers and grow closer to Christ through the rest of his life. Only through your partnership is AE able to reach out to lost people like Fekadu. Thank you for your support!
Famine has been stalking Ethiopia in recent months. So there was great joy and thankfulness in the town of Debre Sina when the generosity of AE supporters provided basic food assistance to the poorest of the poor citizens who were facing serious deprivation and even starvation. They gratefully received 55 lbs of wheat grain, 1 gallon of edible oil and a blanket per family. 
One recipient was Lakech Lissane, a mother of three who had her first child at age 14, pictured at right with her daughter and AE's Ethiopia team leader, Melisachew Mesfin. While giving birth to her third child 16 years ago, she became seriously ill and was taken to a traditional doctor who was unable to help her. By then it was too late to treat her problem and the doctors amputated one leg.
Her husband and the father of the three children left her after the amputation. Now Lakech is living in a rented house with one daughter. The other two children are not living with her. She sent them to relatives because she was too poor to provide food for them. Lakech says, “I try to earn a living by crocheting. People who need some crochet buy the material and I do the crocheting. They pay me for my labor. That is all I do. From this income I am unable to support myself and my daughter. Today I am so happy to be remembered by God and get this provision of food and blanket. God is so good that He remembers even a person like me and gives me what I need most!"
The support of generous AE friends also provided exercise books, blankets and food to orphans and children who only had one parent. All were extremely excited and thankful.
