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1st Quarterly Report from Joseph Chu -- 30/March/04

     Entering into 2004 would mean that Joseph has been serving in Ethiopia for around 8 and a half years. Let me quote 2 verses from Psalms which could well sum up the vision and also the reason that today I am still here in Ethiopia. The two extraordinary verses are from Ps 126:5-6 "Let those who wept as they sowed their seed, gather the harvest with joy!   Those who wept as they went out carrying the seed will come back singing for joy, as they bring in the harvest."  Recently I have been keenly reminded that God is saying that one indispensable element in true fruitfulness is tears and weeping. Lots of sweats and a busy program will by no means guarantee a spiritual harvest. But tears in our labor will eventually usher in an everlasting harvest of joy!

     But how can we produce tears by ourselves?  Tears stand for the fullness of his Spirit and being moved by God's all compelling love. This in turn brings in a most essential cycle in our spiritual services.  In order to weep for souls we must be filled by the Holy Spirit. And before one can be truly filled he or she must be a holy vessel totally surrendering to our Lord.  Then the love of our Lord is always the highest motivation in our obeying him and keeping ourselves pure so to refrain from grieving his Holy Spirit. Thus completed a wonderful cycle of obeying Christ, to be followed by being filled by him, then tears, & eventually bringing in his harvest!

Sowing the seeds through our Heywot Injerra Bible Study      First let me present you an overall picture of this Bible study program. A few things have been upgraded. Now, instead of meeting in a small group, each student is usually on his own. It appears that this individual study can fit well into one's personal schedule and also in avoiding the opposition in group study particularly if held in an Orthodox household. Some students have left Addis Ababa for work elsewhere yet they brought their Bibles with them! One young Amhara fellow went up to Mekele, taking up a well-paid position as the chief mechanic with a foreign project. And I am looking forward to see him someday up in this capital of Tigray Province.

     Both the brochure and weekly Bible study form of Heywot Injerra have been renewed and upgraded. The brochure, besides the art work, also projects several most vital reasons from the Scriptures for a friend to participate in Heywot Injerra. The weekly form expands to the study of one chapter from Old Testament and another from New Testament per day. 4 forms will take care a whole month of daily study.  My heart was filled with praise as, each time, when a young adult was asking me earnestly to enter the Bread of Life Bible Study. When God has created a hunger for his word, he will also bring it into fruition one day, which is the salvation of souls! Continue praying for each participant (mostly young adults) of Heywot Injerra and asking our Lord to bring in even more students in 2004!

Sowing the seeds through our 2 Genesis Clubs     Our 2 Clubs have been going on steadily through the past months. A few did drop out and currently each Club has around 8 to 10 boys and girls - an ideal number for our yellow VW when adding a male and female leader. Club A kids do come from more educated family background and some have demonstrated an unruly spirit quite common in affluent Ethiopian homes. We took them to Ghion hotel once a month for swimming but not for Club B kids whose parents may hesitate to pay 14 Birrs for each ticket. In Club A, hiking, swimming, fishing in a close-by river, soccer, archery, horse-back riding... are their favorites. During the Bible time, I always asked them to take turns reading from a chapter in Genesis (note: Exodus will start when the new leaders come). While these juniors are very playful at this age, I often have to impose disciplines during the Bible and prayer time. Gradually they are learning to be respectful before God. There was much joy when hearing boys and girls reading verse after verse in Amharic and equally so, when they were praying. When a girl had been prevented from coming because of her dropping grade at school, I would ask a girl praying for the absentee. Or when the tragic train bombing took place in Spain, a boy boldly volunteered in asking God to comfort the victims' families.  Last Sat on the 27th, an Orthodox mother made this comment: "...Is my son behaving?... it will be good for them to have more Bible time and less playing time..."

      Club B has been seen with more respectfulness and order, with soccer match (with both boys and girls participating), tag game during hiking, archery and riding, badminton... being their delight. With a volunteer brother Gaetu helping but irregularly, sometimes I had to lead the Bible study on Exodus by myself. Each time when they gave the right answers, such as the blood of the Passover lamb standing for the blood of Christ, I praised God silently. Next Sunday afternoon, there will be 2 senior ETC (Evangelical Theological College) students, a brother and a sister, coming with us to help out in this Club as volunteers. Pray for brother Hennok and sister Yemisrach in this new venture of theirs.  Our camping ministry, even at this stage, has been reaching to the parents of both Clubs in a low-key yet solid manner. We presented video cassettes as New Year gifts, with films depicting God's creation along with some wholesome family movies. Kids were telling us how their parents were watching these cassettes. A 13 year-old boy, whose biology teacher was an Orthodox priest, told me that, after seeing the wonder of God's creation, he borrowed the cassette in order to make a copy of it!

Pray for his blessing upon the registration of ACM:      Our registration has been delayed for quite a while due to a near fatal accident of Mrs. Aida, the only sister on our Founding Committee of 7. With both her parents killed and herself critically injured and her young son Miky suffering shocks in the head, we have been praying for over 2 months now. How faithful is our God who has been answering prayers in restoring both mother and son. Milky has much of his memory back and, last Sunday on the 28th, was playing basket-ball with our Club B boys in the front yard of his home.  Mrs. Aida was able to sit up having a group photo with Genesis Club B happily.  Yet, last week, anther member of ACM, David Hicks, the Director of Bingham Academy, was evacuated to England for a potential heart problem. We will communicate with David by e-mails and we pray that his absence won't be a factor hindering the registration.

     The Proposal of ACM is its final stage with some new things grafted in, such as asking for a quota of 7 Work Permits for volunteers from abroad in future.  Another major thing is that Abyssinia Camping Ministry (ACM), in the future when the resources are available, we hope to set up Center in Addis Ababa with reading room, counseling service, and film hour etc. Our Committee people are so much in favor of the Center concept because it is a vital link to the Camp and a perfect complement to each other.  When our Committee has unanimously agreed on the final draft, it will be translated in Amharic and be presented into the Ministry of Justice. Pray that ACM will be submitted to the government in a honest, realistic, and cautious way. And by God's grace the authorities will grant ACM a speedy registration, possibly within 10 days according to the new law!    In closing, let me tell you my 2004 furlough plan: when the registration of ACM and the subsequent contracting of land is completed, Joseph plans to take 2 to 3 months visiting Hong Kong, Singapore, Australia, & New Zealand. After that back to Ethiopia for a while before heading back for Canada for the other half of furlough. Pray for his leading and timing and provision for the trip to the Pacific Rim countries in particular!