Ahmed
"Before I learned new church planting principles from the Horn of Africa Mission, I struggled for years to plant just one church. I was so caught up in the traditional mind-set of church planting that my efforts were neither culturally relevant nor practical for our communities. I live in a community of farmers, where oxen and cows still pull wooden ploughs and we thresh the grain by trampling it underfoot. Our community is now being transformed as family after family is coming to Christ. In the past three years, 70 new churches have been planted. One of the secrets of our incredible growth," explains Ahmed, our church planting coordinator for the region, "is that we now target the entire family for evangelism and discipleship instead of just an individual person. It is these discipled families who are starting churches in their own communities. As more and more churches reach out to new communities and plant other churches, it is our goal to see thousands of churches within the next few years in this predominantly Muslim community."
Mulugeta
Following training in the capital city, Mulugeta, a coordinator/trainer, gathered 48 key people from different villages where he had been working so that he could pass the church planting training he had just received on to them. Some were government workers, merchants, village elders and one was a chairman of the local administrative district. He challenged them that God had called them to use the opportunities that He would place before them to reach the community by planting churches. They learned about finding the person of peace in a community— the insider whom God has prepared to open the community to the Gospel, about creative access to the community, and other key church planting principles. Because it was known to be a region that was very resistant to the gospel, Mulugeta was shocked when he received a phone call from the chairman of the local district who had taken the training. "I have shared the gospel as you taught us," he said, "and my entire village has come to Christ. Will you come and baptize them?" Understanding the principles of church multiplication and raising up leaders from the harvest Mulugeta wisely replied, "No, this is your community and you should baptize them." Another church was born as 105 people were baptized, forming a new community of believers in Jesus!
Essam
Like many young men in rural Muslim communities, Essam was married when he was 17 years old. Still attending high school, he was also being trained to succeed his father as the Muslim spiritual leader of the community, all the while working his own farm as a means of support. "But one night," says Essam, "God gave me a dream in which the Koran hovered over a field of grain that was full of weeds while the Bible was over a field of pure grain. I didn't want to accept the meaning that the Bible contained only the truth." In the next few weeks he read the Bible voraciously, over and over, and committed his life to Christ. Carefully he began to share his new-found truth, first leading his wife to Christ, then his cousin, then several others in the community. Soon thirty had become followers of Jesus and were meeting together to study the Bible, to support each other, to worship God in a new way, and to talk and pray about how to reach their community and beyond. Within six months a new church had emerged in the midst of this hostile community.
Angered by his son's rejection of Islam, Essam's father took away the land he had given to Essam to farm. Life became difficult for this new, small group of persecuted believers, but they persevered. As they learned the principles of church planting from the local Horn of Africa coordinator, they became passionate about sharing the gospel to a neighboring community. Although resistant at first, it was the Muslim sheikh in this community who was the first to accept the gospel. Within a few months, a second generation church had emerged. Soon after, another community heard the gospel and another church was planted. Today, God has provided a way for Essam to continue planting crops to feed his family while he plants churches throughout the region.
Due to the sensitive nature of work Horn of Africa Mission does in some regions of the world, names and photos have been changed to protect leaders and the people they disciple