SMB Training

The fast growing church throughout Ethiopia creates a huge need for training. The remote rural places are hard to get to and isolated. The new believers come from many language groups and many religious backgrounds. Without good discipleship they suffer.

A recent graduation of the training program we helped the church develop called SMB or Sene Melecote B’bete, Amharic for Bible Training in my home, illustrates the need, the opportunity and the joy of seeing the need being met.

Bellogiganfoy is a town in a remote area of western Ethiopia. It is about 450 Kms from the Capital city of Addis Ababa and 100 Kms off the road, over rough terrain. Recently 46 students from this place graduated from SMB. They are Elders, Evangelists, Pastors and Church planters and form the leadership for this whole region. They will in turn go and train many others in their own villages to continue to reach out planting more churches.

Two tribes inhabit this area, the Gumuz and Oromo. Many in the area have come to Christ through Church planting efforts. During the time of the communist government they were persecuted and imprisoned, but persevered. They had developed a saying, “Believe in Christ and you will have eternal life, but imprisonment from the Government!” That Government fell in 1991, the church is grown rapidly but training for leaders has been difficult.

This area has become even more strategic as the Government recently began to resettle thousands of people into this area from the Muslim dominated Eastern part of Ethiopia where droughts continually cause famines. These resettled people are all Muslims, and while in the unsettled condition are open to the Gospel. If reached effectively and trained some of their number will return as Evangelists and Church Planters to their home lands.

We are involved in a growing number of training programs at all levels. The need is huge, the areas are difficult to get to, but SMB was designed to be mobile, inexpensive and flexible. It is training tens of thousands directly and indirectly, and growing. The Director of SMB said “Lack of roads is not necessarily an insurmountable obstacle to reach the churches in the remote countryside. The books are traveling from one place to another carried on foot, horseback, by mules or by bicycles but they are getting there!”

We need to expand the program into more language groups and more areas. It is also instrumental into other countries surrounding us. The needs are great but the constant growing fruit is rewarding. Pray with us and please invest.