I had the privilege of spending most of my June in the East African country of Ethiopia. I taught for three weeks at the Evangelical Theological College in Addis Ababa. I had twenty-seven of what seemed to me to be the finest students in all of East Africa. They ranged in ages from early twenties to forty-nine. Most all of them were completely immersed in ministry and several had already planted several churches. They were bright and engaging and very helpful to teach me the culture of Ethiopia as well as warmly to embrace a "frengie" (read 'white dude') teacher.

Ethiopians by nature are warm and personal and polite. They very much appreciate relationships. They have each other. While the West is given to a "I think, therefore I am" individual mentality, those African brothers and sisters are reared in a setting where "We are, therefore I am" is the way to look at life...as well as the way to each injera (communal). That made for a quick development of chemistry as we were in it together...for three weeks that I will never forget.

Having been back now over a month, I am still savoring the experience and celebrating what God is doing in that great continent. Phil Jenkins (Penn State) has suggested that the epicenter of influence and leadership is shifting in global Christianity. It is shifting from the West and the Northern Hemisphere and shifting South. Simultaneously it is moving East and centering in Africa. Yes, Africa is emerging as the center of God's great global Christian movement. Ethiopia is poised to lead in this new nexus of influence.

Around fifteen million of the seventy five to eighty million people in Ethiopia would own an evangelical faith. That would include garden-variety evangelicals, along with Pentecostals and Assembly of God brothers and sisters and a retinue of Scandinavian Lutherans who are warm in their embrace of the necessity of a personal commitment to Jesus Christ our Lord. I was there just after the twenty fifth graduation at the Evangelical Theological College. The Ethiopian Graduate School of Theology is just down the road. These fully accredited institutions are well groomed and pulsating with vitality and thoughtful training for ministry in Ethiopia. The leadership development infrastructure is in place and I sensed the Ethiopian church is poised to lead. The church there is now sending missionaries out throughout Africa and other Middle Eastern and Asian countries. They are supporting these folks with monthly support, but need a little help from the West to put together the outfit and passage. SIM, whose ministry there has shaped the movement of God within Ethiopia in extraordinary ways, would love to hear from us as they build a network to be alongside the outfit and passage needs of these Ethiopian globetrotters leaving with the gospel and its attendant hope for Adam's children.

The church is vibrant and healthy. They are joyfully serious about this moment in Ethiopian culture and how to exalt Jesus in meeting needs and calling people to Him. They are engaged in feeding the poor, educating the young, HIV ministry and education, community development and jobs creation, along with evangelizing those yet to follow Jesus and training them for gospel ministry. One marquee example was a church in one of the poorest sections of Addis (in a city where all are poor by Western standards...and still paying our gas price per gallon). Since the liberation from the tyranny of communism in 1991, this church has planted eighteen churches in the city area. They are paying for staffs for all of these churches through the offerings received...from these Macedonian like saints who are giving out of their poverty. Jesus is most important to them. The church reminded me of a pack of Issachar brothers (I Chronicles 12:32). Remember it is said of them that they understood their times and knew what to do...that is the Ethiopian church. What a privilege to be next to twenty seven of their emerging leaders and teach them and build into their lives.

All of us who follow Jesus have a story. But some stories are full of more incredible providence. Two in the class had been victims of their mother's ingestion of abortion inducing drugs during gestation...and they lived to tell about it, notwithstanding their mother's fears that they would be deformed. They were perfect. One brother was imprisoned for three months for his faith, another for eight years. They were sharp and eager and so appreciative of the chance to learn and equip themselves for what God has next. I taught the assigned topic of Advanced Evangelism. God visited our class and in engaging conversations we had, as an extention of the class over two weekends, five Ethiopians came to embrace Jesus Christ. The gospel is the power of God unto salvation. They had such joy in rehearsing the stories as they returned to report to the class. Their reports were always followed by class eruptions of clapping.

Their names were different, but what we share in Christ brought us all together for a memorable twenty four days that I will take to my grave. The class ended in a circle of prayer with one dear brother crying out for the Lord's blessing on us. Priceless, something Visa cards and material culture cannot touch. May their tribe increase...and may God bless the church in Ethiopia, poised as they are to lead the new center of global Christianity through this new millennium.