One thing leads to another – in this case, an online Bible school has led to new contacts in Gambella, Ethiopia.

WELS’ Multi-Language Productions offers an online Bible school called TELL.  A large majority of the school’s students are located in Africa. However, people all around the world find TELL very encouraging and use it as their primary source of spiritual growth.  One of our participants is moving into a new and fairly untested level that requires him to confess doctrine agreement with the WELS.

Meet the Students

Opiew Adiew Okugn is from Gambella, Ethiopia. He has been faithful in the TELL program for roughly two years.  He is ready for a TELL Counsellor to work with him at the Multiplication Level of the TELL program. This is challenging Opiew to make use of the knowledge he learned from the TELL program.  The first step, again, is for him to make a statement of agreement with WELS teachings.

When I met with Opiew at Addis Ababa I was reminded about how “one thing leads to another.” Opiew came with three of his brothers from the Gambella Lutheran Church to discuss some essential points of doctrine.  Alfred comes with a degree in teaching. He had been in another church until he saw the false teaching there.  Both Ochalla Omod and Otong Omod have training in another Lutheran Seminary. They also found false teaching and a lot of church politics that they wanted to get away from.  These four men actually started their own congregation in 2015, and have been looking for an international Lutheran group to join for several years.

Looking to the Next Thing

We studied together for four days.  We built good relationships in our study of the truth of Scripture. Those studies were enough to move Opiew into the Multiplication Level.  I was happy to get to know all four of these men personally and especially to hear their doctrinal stand on some important issues.  We will have a good group to study with for the coming years to confirm and build up their ministry.  We might even have the opportunity to bring them close to our brothers and sisters in the Lutheran Church of Ethiopia.  Sometimes things get tangled, but God uses those entanglements to lead from one thing to another. 

Dan Kroll lives in Malawi and is the One Africa Team Liaison to West Africa

Please pray for those working in fields that are ripe for harvest. Share their story, engage with future news, and receive updates. Learn more about our mission fields in Africa and how the Holy Spirit is working faith in people’s hearts at https://wels.net/serving-others/missions/africa

Today’s post is written by Karen Kroll, a missionary wife who enjoys the smell of good coffee. She recently taught English to students enrolled in a school in Dukem, Ethiopia. The Lutheran Church of Ethiopia oversees the operation of this school and has plans to open others.   

I’ve never met a coffee I didn’t like. But until recently, I had never met a coffee like Ethiopian coffee. It takes coffee to another level.  I was blessed with the opportunity to accompany my husband, Dan to Ethiopia as he met with a group of believers interested in pursuing fellowship with WELS.  As the men met, I spent the week teaching English to children Grades K-5 at Maor Lutheran School in Dukem. This is a ministry of our sister synod, the Lutheran Church of Ethiopia. 

Pleasing Smells

While in Ethiopia, I learned there is no such thing as grabbing a “quick cup of coffee”.   It really is a process – not an event. And every morning before I began my day of teaching, I would watch the process.  Lighting the charcoal, roasting the beans, (which would then be brought to our table so we could fully enjoy the experience), and then grinding them.  As the coffee simmers, they light incense which fills the air with a lovely aroma.  And then, finally, they bring you the coffee.  The flavor of the coffee mixed with the pleasing smell of the incense left me with a smile of contentment on my face.   Enjoying those pleasant smells reminded me of the evening vesper liturgy in Christian Worship where Psalm 141 is put to music, “Let my prayer rise before you like incense, the lifting up of my hands as the evening sacrifice.”

In my mind, it conjures up an image of long ago: a priest in the middle of the desert, offering a sacrifice in the Tabernacle.  I realize that the image is overly romanticized in my mind. The reality is that these sacrifices produced anything but a pleasing aroma.  The slaughter of the animals and the blood mixed with the heat from the desert is not a pleasing smell at all! But to God, it was a whole different matter.  The smell drifted to the heavens and our God smiled because it was the smell of his people worshipping him. 

Sacrifices to God

I can relate to the slaughtered animal.  It should be me!  I know the depth of my sin and like the animal…it stinks!  But I know the blood that was shed on Calvary took my sin away and by the power of the Spirit, even my acts of worship smell pleasing to the Lord. Yours do too!

My trip to Ethiopia wasn’t about coffee, it was about serving God’s people. I’m not sure how helpful I was in teaching English to the children in Dukem, but I do know I was able to show them the love that God shows me…a pleasing smell to the Lord.

A few rooms down from where I was teaching sat six men, intently studying the scriptures with the desire to share the intimacy of Church Fellowship…a pleasing smell to the Lord.

Pleasing smells drift to the Lord wherever God’s people are found.

Every nose that a parent wipes or every meal they cook…a pleasing smell to the Lord.

Patiently caring for an elderly parent…. a pleasing smell to the Lord.

A repentant heart…a pleasing smell to the Lord.

My husband and I returned home with incense and a burner.  We really love the smell of the traditional incense but it’s also a reminder of how we as God’s people are living sacrifices…a pleasing smell to the Lord.

Karen Kroll lives in Malawi with her husband Missionary Dan Kroll.

Please pray for those working in fields that are ripe for harvest. Share their story, engage with future news, and receive updates. Learn more about our mission fields in Africa and how the Holy Spirit is working faith in people’s hearts at https://wels.net/serving-others/missions/africa

How did you become a Christian?  When did it happen?  Were there other people who helped you to know Christ? 

A few weeks ago, I had the privilege to visit Ethiopia.  The main reason for my visit was to teach a course on St. Paul’s Letters to Timothy and Titus.  The course was intended primarily for young men who are preparing to be pastors in the Lutheran Church of Ethiopia (LCE).  There were seven students in the class. 

When I arrived, I asked each student to share his story.  How did you become a Christian?  When did it happen?  Were there other people who helped you to know Christ? All of them had interesting stories.  One student is the son of the LCE’s one and only pastor.  He didn’t ask to be born into that family, but he was.  And that is how he became a Christian.  Another student was a Sudanese man who came to Ethiopia as a refugee.  His mother and father were not Christian, but he learned about Jesus from his uncle, a man who is now a pastor in the WELS.  That’s how he became a Christian. 

I shared my story, too.  A father who was my seminary professor, who taught me so many ‘big religious words’ and deep truths about the scriptures that I can’t possibly remember all of them.  A mother who led me in my bedtime prayers, prayers that were so foundational to my spiritual development that I can’t possibly forget even one of them.  And that’s how I became a Christian.

All of us told very different stories, but one thing was the same in every one of them.  We were all so grateful to God for the people who helped us to know Christ.

St. Timothy had a story, too.  His father was a Greek who almost certainly did not believe in Jesus.  But Timothy’s mother was a dedicated Christian, and his grandmother was, too.  That’s how Timothy became a Christian.  Paul wrote in his Second Letter to Timothy, “I am reminded of your sincere faith, which first lived in your grandmother Lois and in your mother Eunice and, I am persuaded, now lives in you also.  For this reason, I remind you to fan into flame the gift of God, which is in you” (2 Timothy 1:5,6).

How can we thank God for those who shared the word of God with us?  And how can we honor those who have led us to faith in Christ?  St. Paul tells us how.  ”Continue in what you have learned and have become convinced of because you know those from whom you learned it” (2 Timothy 3:14).

For about two weeks, the students and I studied the word of God in the Letters to Timothy and Titus.  We grew in our understanding of the gospel.  We honed our abilities to share God’s word with others and lead people to Christ.  That’s the best way to thank God for his blessings. 

When people tell their stories and thank God for those who helped them to know Christ, how many people will thank God for you?

Mark Panning lives in Malawi and is the One Africa Team Field Liaison to the Lutheran Church of Ethiopia

Please pray for those working in fields that are ripe for harvest. Share their story, engage with future news and receive updates. Learn more about our mission fields in Africa and how the Holy Spirit is working faith in people’s hearts at https://wels.net/serving-others/missions/africa