Woman Power

“If I had to choose, I would take a woman any day over a man as a church-planter.”

I was somewhat startled to hear Pastor Shimeles, Director of Horn of Africa mission, make a statement like that. In an African culture where wives are normally extremely submissive to their husbands not to mention the strong male-dominated Islamic culture, I was surprised that women would even be seen as acceptable in the context of church planting. Nevertheless, Shimeles, was unequivocal in his praise for the women who are having tremendous success in starting up small, house-churches all across Ethiopia.

Tigest and Tsedash

On this day, I had a chance to meet a couple of them and also witness first hand some of the fruit of their labor. Pulling off the main asphalt road at the town of Alem T’ena, our 4 x 4 Toyota HiLux headed east across a very dry  countryside dotted with small, round farmer’s huts. We had loaded up the rear seat with three more passengers including two who were leading church planters now mentoring dozens of other women. Tsedash is the national women’s coordinator for HOA and Tigest is so far, her most productive mentoree. Together they gave our driver explicit directions how to navigate the difficult, barren terrain.

Every few minutes we encountered large flocks of cows and goats being driven to market interspersed with heavily laden donkeys carrying charcoal and fire wood for sale. “Normally, we travel this road in the back of a donkey cart,” they explained. “It usually takes us two to three hours instead of 45 minutes with a car.”

When we arrived at the church, the “congregation” of 25 were out in force singing choruses of worship and welcome. That was followed by multiple testimonies from mostly women telling how miraculous healings and deliverance from demonic spirits were part of the inspiration for forming this home house-church. These simple, yet passionate and authentic expressions of faith were decidedly impressive and touching. When they asked me to share some sort of devotional thought, I obliged, but would rather have listened to more of their stories.

Here's the house-church planted by these two women and a
shot of a challenging bridge-crossing along the way.

One the way back, Tsedash told me there are now more than fifty-five women in the HOA who have been trained as church planters, only ten of whom receive any sort of remuneration for their effort as coordinators. Together, they have planted over 500 churches in just the past three years. Forty-three of them have been just since January! Those churches include more than 4000 baptized believers. When I asked why women seem to be so successful in this endeavor, Tsedash explained that it is a direct result of hearing about a Gospel message that gives women dignity and respect for their giftedness. “Their normal life is so difficult and meaningless, any hope of change is attractive to them. It doesn't take long for our workers to find a woman of peace in their villages—someone already open to spiritual things and asking questions to know more. These first contact ladies then invite family and friends to join them for a Discovery Bible Study and before you know it, three to five families will be meeting together.”

 What a privilege it has been to experience all this first hand and to see such a living example of how the Gospel message brings transformation and hope – especially to the lives of women here in Ethiopia.