OKOK

This is Okok. His name, believe it or not means "little white bird" He is 6ft 7in tall and well you can see for yourself!

What a story this man had to tell.

He was in England studying for a degree in agriculture and rural affairs when he became a Christian. On return to Ethiopia he had a job working for the government and a call upon his heart to share the gospel. Following the impulse of the Holy Spirit, he began singing and preaching under a tree.

This was 15 years ago. There are now 30,000 members in his church in 98 congregations!!

His faithfulness had not been without cost. During this 15 years he has spent over 3 years in prison as a political prisoner. He decribed how he felt abandoned by God and couldn't at first understand why he was locked up, covered in lice and in such a terrible place. He felt like Naomi, who called herself Marah, meaning bitterness. But then God spoke to him and gave him the same promise that he gave to Paul in Acts 27 when he was a prisoner and shipwrecked. "God has graciously given you the lives of all who sail with you." God kept his promise and he saw many fellow prisoners come to faith, their lives saved to serve God. He believes that when many of these influential men leave prison they will have a great impact on his nation.

This was a big man, in more ways that one. It was an honour to meet him and I have never felt so humbled when at the conference the UK team were called to the front to be prayed for and Okok prayed an impassioned prayer for us. May God answer his prayers and may we be as faithful and obedient to God's call as he is.

God bless

Carol

Amanuel

Part of our time in Addis Ababa was to take part in a Pastors Conference. The pastor I am with in the photo is Amanuel and he gave me permission to share his story.

About ten years ago Amanuel was in a desperate state. He had an alcohol and a drug problem which had developed following tragedy in his family. His mother had become ill and this so upset his youngest brother, aged 11 that he shot and killed himself. His mother, broken hearted

did not live long afterwards. Hearing this another brother living in Russia, also committed suicide and then another brother did the same. Hoping to find some kind of escape from all that had happened Amanuel took his wife and young son and emigrated to Kenya (I think) This was disastrous and he found himself struggling to have enough to live on and they had to return to Ethiopia.
Amanuel believed in God, and started to cry out to him for help and having been brought up in the Orthordox tradition thought that fasting might move God into acting on his behalf and help him to care for his son. So he locked himself in his room every day and cried out to God. Nothing changed and he was nearly at the end of himself when his sister who had become a Christian invited him to a meeting at the Pentecostal Church. Whilst he was there, a visiting minisiter began giving words of prophecy for various people in the congregation. Amanuel got increasingly angry. He had been fasting for weeks, crying out to God and yet God had no word for him. And then suddenly he heard the minister say that there was someone in the church who had been locked in his room, crying out to God for his son. God had heard his cry. Amanuel was amazed and from that moment his life turned around. Today he is free from his addictions, healed of his pain, and a church leader. He travelled with us to some of the prisons and was an excellent translator for us and a gracious man of God. I also discovered that he had been reading Finney's revival lectures in the back of the van whilst we were travelling. I couldn't believe I had found a Finney fan!
He had also heard of the Salvation Army. Most Ethiopian Christians had never heard of us and were highly amused that I was a major. However I'm not sure he had quite got the historical context of the beginnings of the army as he asked me if William Booth was still alive!

If you read this Amanuel, God bless you and we are praying for you.

God bless

Carol

While women weep.................

In each of the prisons we visited in Ethiopia we were also allowed to visit the women prisoners and their children. It was these visits that had the most profound affect upon the team. Even now as I write my emotions rise when I think of their situation. It is true that some have plenty of space but on entering their huts we are silenced at the deprivation of their living conditions. There is a mud floor and only one out of the five or six women has a mattress to sleep on. They are totally dependent upon what family and friends will bring them from outside. None have mosquito nets and their few possessions are hung on hooks in plastic carrier bags on the walls. There is a single light bulb hanging from the corrugated roof that gives the only light in their windowless home. It is hot and dirty. Some of their children share this accommodation, others are being looked after by family or people in their village, others when they have reached the age of 12 will have been thrown out onto the streets to fend for themselves. We conferred together and decided that we had enough beurre between us to buy each woman a mattress. Prison fellowship would organise this for us.


We were able to talk to the women through our interpreters and discover their stories. One was a mother with a toddler, she was also pregnant. Her husband and two other children were in the prison next door. They are accused of perverting the course of justice because they turned their lights out when a local man, involved in a violent crime was on the run. They have no legal aid and no idea when their case will come to court. The women will have her baby in the hut, having had no pre-natal care. If she gets into difficulties the prison authorities will at least get her to a clinic in the town. If I never do anything else worthwhile in my officership I will never forget the privilege of praying with this women, the sense of the presence of God and the tears we all shared.


We heard story after story but perhaps Desinia's which means my sister represents them all. Her sentence is 22 years for killing her husband. 50% of the women in prison here are in for this crime. It should be remembered that most of them were put into arranged marriages at the age of about 12 and committed to a life of yearly child-bearing, fetching and carrying water, and scraping a living from the land, perhaps suffering terrible abuse and may have been infected with HIV by their husbands. Desinia's children are not with her. Her eldest is 14 and a domestic servant, another child is in the care of people from her village but is very unhappy and her youngest two children she believes are victims of human trafficking. She is in despair. Never have I prayed with such intensity that righteousness might flow like a river and justice like a never ending stream.

Evangeline Booths words seemed very poignant when I read them the next day.

I see forsaken children, I see the tears that fall

From womens eyes once merry now never laugh at all;

I see the see the sins and sorrows of those who sit in darkness

I see in lands far distant the hungry and oppressed

But behold! On a hill, Calvary!

The world for God, the world for God

I will give my heart!

I will do my part.

God bless

Carol

Prison Visitors

I travelled to Ethiopia with three others, all from Northallerton. Leading the trip was Rev. Kingsley Armstrong, who is the president of International Gospel Outreach. Kingsley travels all over the world as an evangelist and also supports people in mission in places such as Ghana, Uganda, Pakistan, the Ivory Coast and Guatamala. Becky is a fellow prison chaplain in Northallerton YOI and Ally, a staff nurse is a prison visitor.

During our week long stay we visited 5 prisons, where we preached, talked to prisoners, prayed with them and reviewed practical needs which can be met by our fund raising. We visited men and women. I loved it. God is at work in the prisons in Ethiopia. There is a hunger for the gospel and many are getting saved. A pattern emerged as we got to each prison. We would be met by the chaplain, who would take us to see the Commander of the prison. They were usually delighted to see us as Prison Fellowship have done so much to improve conditions. Then we would be taken to a pre- arranged service in the chapel where we would each introduce ourselves and share a word from the Bible, the ladies would sing and then Kingsley would preach.

Our interpreter was Israel, a lovely Christian who works for PF. He has a lovely wife called Blane and a son called, Hallelujah!

Please would you pray for the following. One evening I was praying about what I would share the next day in the prison and I felt strongly that I should speak about God hearing us and us hearing God and that there would be someone there who needed physical healing for their ears.
I was somewhat nervous the next day about sharing this as there were only 15 prisoners in the service due to the timing of our visit clashing with the distribution of free meat. If there were 100 or more in the service the chances of someone having a hearing problem were higher but in 15? Anyway I decided to risk sharing what I thought God was saying and immediately a prisoner put his hand up, came forward and I prayed for him. I have now idea if he was healed as we had to leave before I had a chance to speak to him.

On another occasion again as I was preparing what I would say I sensed God telling me there would be someone in the crowd who was fighting God. I spotted him during Kingsleys sermon. He didn't respond with the other 15 who got saved that day so I called him out afterwards and shared what I felt God was saying about him. He listened and let me pray for him but that is all. Please pray for this lad. I believe God has his hand on him to be a leader.

I was hoping to do a blog every day next week but I forgot I am away at SA Cell Church Conference from tomorrow so I'll have wait to share my Ethiopia stuff until I get back.

God bless

Carol

A world away

4 am and its -4 as I leave the quarters to begin my journey to Ethiopia. We arrive at about midnight their time and to summer.

But the weather and the time are insiginificant differences compared to the streets of Addis Ababa early the following morning, as we set out, for prayers at the Prison Fellowship offices. My eyes are on stalks as we pass through a modern city of new office blocks, horrendous traffic (mostly toyotas) and people rushing off to work and school. But at the same time there are small boys steering their goat herds along the pavement, donkeys pulling carts, beggars pleading at the window of the van when you pull up, women carry their babies on their backs, tin roofed shacks, and tiny shops selling anything and everything, shoe shine stalls and unmade side roads with children playing their games. It's a culture shock indeed.

And then suddenly we are ushered into the prayer meeting. They are singing in a middle eastern style and it sounds strange but immediately we are at home. Jesus is there. I have visited several countries now and it is always the same. I have a moment of complete wonder and joy at the universality of the gospel. I hear the same passion, see the same love and these are my brothers and sisters.

The staff at Prison Fellowship Ethiopia are wonderful and doing an absolutely amazing ministry but we do not have time to talk as very quickly it was time to set off for our first prison visit.

Wanderer returns

Landed in England this morning from an amazing trip to Ethiopia. There is just so much to blog about I don't know where to begin. I think I may blog on a different thing from the trip, each day for a week with pictures etc, starting tomorrow. Today my head is a whirl, I need some sleep and for my stomach to recover from Ethiopian food.

Just to say for those who don't know. We received marching orders whilst I was on my way out to Addis Abiba. We are following Andrew and Tracy Clark to Pill in the South West Division. We are delighted. It will be strange to go back to our home division and to leave Yorkshire after 23 years. However we believe that God is in this move and we are praying that God will do ever more than we can ask or think of in Pill.

God bless


Carol

Adventure Week

Whoever said that being a Christian was boring?
How can it be when God arranges so many adventures for us?

Some months ago I was invited to go to Ethiopia with some friends from the local Baptist church, a result of my involvement in prison ministry here in Northallerton. When I agreed it seemed a long way off but now the trip is two days away.

We are only going for a week but whilst we are there we will be visiting four prisons and taking part in a Pastors Conference. This all involves a lot of travelling on African roads! One of the prisons we visit is for women. My fellow prison chaplain, Becky, visited here last year and was so moved by the need that she produced a CD to raise funds to improve their conditions. At the end of November "our lads" and some of the staff in Northallerton Prison also raised over £400 towards the cause. The women live in a very confined space with little privacy, with toilet facilities in the mens wing. Most of them have very long sentences and have their children with them until they are 12 years old. Then they face the ordeal of not only being separated from them but knowing that they are going out to fend for themselves unless a sympathetic relative will care for them. We are going to see how the money raised has been used. There is an amazing openess to the gospel and lots of genuine conversions in the prisons there so you can guess I am just a bit excited.

We fly out at 5am. Our marching orders will arrive in the post at about 11am. Fortunately our DC has agreed that we can ring him at about 7am so Alan can ring me whilst I change planes at Amsterdam! We have no idea where we might be going. Like I said being a Christian is an adventure!

I just love it!

Anyway obviously it will be difficult to post for a week but I'll probably write screeds when I get back.

God bless

Carol