wfn.org | TCN: Former Ethiopian Church Moderator visits PCT

["Lydia Ma" <enews@pctpress.org>]

>Taiwan Church News

>2981 Edition

>April 13~19, 2009

>Former Ethiopian Church Moderator visits PCT

>Reported and written by Lydia Ma

Former Moderator of Ethiopian Evangelical Church Makene Yesus (EECMY)  Rev. Iteffa Gobena is visiting the Presbyterian Church in Taiwan (PCT)  in April and has been invited to attend this year’s 54th General  Assembly Meeting.

Led by PCT Ecumenical Relations Secretary Stephen Hsu, Gobena visited  PCT headquarter office and PCT organizations. EECMY is seeking closer  partnership with the PCT as both churches help each other in ministry  and evangelism issues. PCT is EECMY’s first partner church in Asia.

During a tour at Taiwan Church Press on April 8th, Gobena, Hsu, Taiwan  Church Press President Chen Yu-sheng and Taiwan Church News General  Editor Fang Lan-ting shared about issues such as freedom of press,  development and use of mother tongues in churches, holistic ministry,  partnership goals, and writing and broadcast ministries in both  countries and made comparisons between Taiwan and Ethiopia.

According to Gobena, the greatest challenge facing Ethiopian churches is  that though young people are attracted by the gospel message and coming  to church in great numbers, churches do not have enough resources to  nurture new believers. Most church members are peasants from rural areas  or young people who have not begun working, and these people do not have  means to support their own churches. Therefore, church leaders are  encouraging small and regular donations.

With regards to freedom of the press in Ethiopia, Gobena said that  Ethiopians enjoy very limited freedom of press. He mentioned that  Christian churches in Ethiopia used to have their own radio broadcast  ministry and publishing house, but when the Communist government came to  power 30 years ago, all broadcast programs were restricted and all radio  and television stations were seized. To this day, private ownership of  media outlets is not allowed. Churches in Ethiopia hope to restart  Christian broadcast ministries by creating a base outside of the country  and broadcasting programs back to Ethiopia.

There are approximately 200,000 new Christian converts every year in  Ethiopia. The country’s population is mostly Muslim. Christian  churches worship in 53 different native languages and there are  currently 24 Bible translation projects in process. Presbyterian Church  in Taiwan missionary Rev. Fu-Lan Ritter Chen and her husband Stefan  Ritter are involved in Christian education and Bible translation  ministries in Ethiopia.