Outreach Archives - Page 2 of 5 - WELS Friends of Africa

November 13, 2024November 11, 2024

Finding the True Cross

Meskel, or ‘cross” is the name of a holiday that the Ethiopian Orthodox Church celebrates. The full name of the festival is “The Finding of the True Cross.” According to their tradition, God spoke in a dream to a woman named Helena, who was the mother of Constantine, the first Christian Emperor of Rome. In the dream, God instructed Helena to light a fir tree on fire. The smoke from the burning tree miraculously led Helena and her friends to a certain place on the ground. When people dug into the ground at that place, they found the true cross on which Jesus died.

June 19, 2024June 18, 2024

We are Different

“We Are Different.” It was a saying often repeated during our time together. For two weeks, Gambela Evangelical Lutheran Church leaders studied God’s Word with Missionaries Dan Kroll and Joel Hoff. Time spent in Scripture helped the leaders become more confident in their beliefs. It also helped them better understand what made their church different from all the others in Gambela, Ethiopia.

May 22, 2024May 12, 2024

Unexpected Family

God builds a family in unexpected ways. That thought filled my mind eleven years ago as I first looked down at my son in my arms. I was standing in an orphanage just outside Kinshasa (the capital of the Democratic Republic of Congo, or the DRC). My son was nine months old, but it was the first time I’d held him. Through earthly loss and God’s unsearchable providence – with no small amount of paperwork and prayers along the way – he became my son, and I became his father. And the strangest thing was how it didn’t feel strange at all. Unexpected, sure. But without a doubt, we were family.