Covenanter Witness Vol. 86 - Rparchives.org

Society, a small mission, is interesting in that it, like theLutheran Mission, seeks to work within the EthiopianOrthodox Church. Mr. Stokes teaches the Amharic Bibleand Homiletics to student priests in Addis Ababa, and Mr.Roger Cowley has been appointed to teach the Bible in anew theological college in Makale. There may be somedifficulties involved in this policy, but there is no doubtthat there is a real desire among many priests of theEthiopian Orthodox Church to study the Word of God.We must never forget that that Word is "quick andpowerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword ..."All societies stress the importance of languagestudy. B.C.M.S. insists on two years' language study beforemissionary work is commenced. During the first year themissionary is placed in an Amharic-speaking area withpossibly the help of an informant; in the second year hegoes around the country learning its culture as well ashaving continuing language practice. Judged by the resultswhich are achieved, this is a most successful method.AN OPEN DOORThe Red Sea Mission Team has been working for anumber of years among the nomad Danakil people. Oneof their missionaries, Miss Enid Parker, a gifted linguist,was of great help to Miss Norma Gill in her study of theDanakil language. This mission has been invited to sendmissionaries into the Yemen, where the Government,anxious to have Christian influences instead of Communistones, has offered schools and hospitals, if the Mission cansupply teachers, doctors and nurses, with unrestrictedopportunity to preach the Gospel.This and That. from page 3Then there was Aholiab. He seems to have beenDirector of his own department, that of soft furnishings.He is specially mentioned as a skilled weaver and embroiderer.Aholiab's name is also linked with that ofBezaleel as being "filled with wisdom" for the work entrustedto him. He was also similarly endued with theSpirit of God to teach others to be skilled weavers andembroiderers.Sometimes people draw a rather hard and fast linebetween what they call "work for God" — "spiritual work"— and the work of the housewife, of the homemaker, ofthe worker in the essential and practical side of daily life.I find no such distinction here! And I am quite surethatit is contrary both to the Word of God and the will ofGod. Those early workers were equipped by the Spirit ofGod for "all manner of work, any work." And so may youand I be, and should be. How greatly we need thepresence and the power ot the Holy Spirit of God in theordinary duties and the daily work of our homes.V. The Completed WorkThere came a day when this house for God, theTabernacle as it was called, was finished, furnished, andequipped for its high and sacred destiny.Then we read that Moses, the General Director,inspected and examined it all, and that he was completelyCHURCH BORN AT MIDNIGHTOne of the most amazing stories in modernmissionary history is set in the mountains of southwestEthiopia. S.I.M. missionaries had been working there fornearly ten years, and had fewer than 100 converts to showfor their work. Then came the Italian invasion, and itseemed that the flickering flame of the church mustinevitably be put out. But, on the contrary, revival brokeout in the tiny national church, and though the church wastested to the depths by ferocious persecution during thedays of the Italian occupation and after, the fire of revivalhas burned ever brighter. Where there were in 1938 fouror five small churches, in 1968 there were about 1500. Lastyear, in the province of Wallamo alone, there were 7000new members received into the church on profession oftheir faith. Part of the story has been thrillingly told byRaymond J. Davis in Fire on the Mountains, and a fullaccount is promised in a book being written by Dr. PeterCotterell, S.I.M., Director of leadership training. Nothingcan adequately explain the way in which a tiny spark wasfanned to a mighty conflagration, except that God's windblows where it chooses. But here is a wonderful exampleof a truly indigenous church, which has grown toremarkable strength by the working of God's mightypower. Can we not believe that what God has done insouthwest Ethiopia He can do elsewhere, includingMakale and Sheket? Must we not continue to pray that, bywhomsoever the seed is sown and watered, He will givethe increase, so that he who sows and he who reaps mayrejoice together?•••The Covenanter Witness of Scotland and Irelandsatisfied with all the work that this organized and competentworking party had accomplished.So God was pleased to dwell in His tabernacle andto manifest His Presence among His people by day and bynight.G. R. Harding Wood, used by permission of LutterwExerptsfrom THE BIBLE SPEAKS TO WOMEN by Mrs.Press, London, England•••COOL, COLORFUL COLORADOINVITES YOU TO THE ROCKIES!CO VENANT HEIGHTS FA MIL Y CONFERENCEJuly 12-18,1971Under the auspices of Midwest PresbyterySPEAKERSJim Pennington. Robert McFarlandJ. Paul McCracken and Mel VosFor registration write:Rev. E. Raymond Hemphill1505 Tenth Ave., Greeley, Colo. 80631JUNE 2, 1971 9