NewsViews2nd



	2nd Quarter Issue April - June 2003

“But She Gave Out of Her Poverty…”

While EOM is in the process of acquiring an office building for its worldwide ministry operations, we came across a story that may encourage our friends and supporters to take part in our effort to invest in the Kingdom of God. There are many stories we read and hear that change our hearts in dramatic ways. A few of those kinds of stories need to be told more often because we see God being glorified in these stories and our hearts challenged to a higher level.

With this in mind, we found a true story of a little girl to share with you that will bless you and at the same time prompt you to examine your heart.
The portions of this story you read below is taken from December 1, 1912 sermon by Rev. Russell H. Conwell.

Little Hattie May Wiatt lived in a house near the church in which we then worshipped, at Berks and Mervine, which is now occupied by the Christian Church. It was a small church and was crowded, tickets of admission were obtained sometimes weeks in advance for every service. The Sunday school was as crowded as the rest of the congregation, and one day when I came down to the church, to attend Sabbath school, I found a number of children outside. They were greatly disturbed because they could not get in, on account of the crowd of children already in the Sunday school rooms of the church, and little Hattie May Wiatt, who lived near by, had brought her books and a contribution, and was standing by the gate, hesitating whether to go back home or wait and try to get in later.
I took her up in my arms, lifted her to my shoulder, and then as she held on to my head - an embrace I never can forget - I carried her through the crowd in the hall, into the Sunday school room, and seated her in a chair away back in a dark corner. The next morning as I came down to the church from my home I came by their house and she was going up the street to school. As we met, I said: "Hattie, we are going to have a larger Sunday school room soon", and she said: "I hope you will. It is so crowded that I am afraid to go there alone". "Well", I replied, "When we get the money with which to erect a school building we are going to construct one large enough to get all the little children in, and we are going to begin very soon to raise the money for it". It was only in my mind as a kind of imaginary vision, but I wished to make conversation with the child.
The next that I heard about it was that Hattie was very sick, and they asked me to come in and see the child, which I did, and prayed with her. I walked up the street, praying for the little girl's recovery, and yet all the time with the conviction that it was not to be.
Hattie May Wiatt died. She had gathered 57 cents - some have written 54 - which was left as her contribution towards securing another building for the children.
After the funeral the mother handed me the little bag with the gathered 57 cents. I took it to the church and stated that we had the first gift toward the new Sunday school building; that little Hattie May Wiatt, who had gone on into the Shining World, had left behind her this gift towards it. I then changed all the money into pennies and offered them for sale. I received about $250 for the 57 pennies; and 54 of those cents were returned to me by the people who bought them. I then had them put in a frame where they could be seen and exhibited them, and we received by a sale of the $250 changed into pennies money enough to buy the next house north of the church at Berks and Mervine. That house was bought by the Wiatt Mite Society, which was organized for the purpose of taking the 57 cents and enlarging on them sufficiently to buy the property for the Primary Department of the Sunday school.
Church members made large donations. Checks came from far and wide. Within five years the little girl's gift had increased to $250,000.00 (a huge sum for that time). Her unselfish love had paid large dividends.
What a story to learn from the basic principles of living for others: UNSELFISHNESS. May we all have the desire to think of others specially those who have not heard of their Savior Jesus Christ. Who knows how many of the children who at one time or another learned about the Lord at this expanded Sunday School impacted and eventually became great men and women of God.

Thank You Volunteers

We are thankful to the many volunteers who
invested hours of their time helping with various work in our office. Their willingness to help even with a short notice is greatly appreciated.

From duplicating cassette tapes to preparing mailing envelopes to labeling mails to copying Bible study materials, our volunteers tackle numerous responsibilities.

Parents like Sue Kallstrom instill missionary spirit in their children’s hearts. All glory to God.

REMINDER
The next Authentic Ethiopian Dinner Banquet is on Saturday, October 4, 2003 at Eastern Mennonite Missions Fellowship Hall where the banquet is regularly held. Please mark your calendar to once again be part of the blessings of God through your presence, sacrificial contributions and prayers.
We also ask for your help in sharing the news with your friends and church mission groups, encouraging them to take part in the fundraising event.

Please contact us if you need flyers and additional information about the banquet.


News Briefs
One of EOM’s biannual Banquets that was held on May 10th was the most attended and successful one. Thanks to all of you who came to the dinner and gave generously. We also want to thank our friends and partners near and far who wanted to take part in the fund raising effort and mailed their contributions. We raised a little over $10,000 at this banquet which will enable us to cover the air-time fee for five and a half months (166 programs). Praise the Lord!! With you, our friends and partners in the Lords work by our side, we press on to proclaim the gospel every day. Thank you again for making a difference. Click here for pictures MORE PICTURES! EOM’s office is moving to a new location in August 2003. EOM started in a tiny basement room and continued to operate in rented offices. Through the years, God has been faithfully providing us with just the right amount of office space for our work at a reasonable rent price. A number of months ago, we received a notice from our landlord stating that our lease won’t be renewed because he wants to sell the building. He offered to let us purchase it for $150,000 or move. The Executive Board of EOM discussed various options. It is beyond our means to purchase the property that actually needs fixing costing thousands of dollars. It is impossible to rent another office for the amount of rent we are paying at the current location. The Board prayerfully considered purchasing a property within our means. God honored the Board’s decision in a number of ways. He provided a building that has twice the office space and needs almost no fixing. The property has plenty of parking spaces for staff, volunteers and visitors. We offered the owners $80,000 and it was accepted. Within a short period of time we had $29,400 donated towards the purchase of this building. Many of you, our partners and friends, have already sent in your special gifts to help with the purchase of the office building. Thank you and God’s blessings to you all.	Graduation: Brother Melese graduated from Bethany Divinity College and Seminary of Alabama on June 5, 2003. He received a Ph.D. in Religion with emphasis on Christian Counseling. His dissertation titled, “Depression in the Diaspora: An Examination of the Prevalence, Causes, and Reaction to Depression Among the Dispersed Ethiopian Refugee Communities” focuses on Ethiopians living in four continents. It is his hope and desire that something helpful will come out from this research. Dr. Melese wants to express his deepest appreciation to all those who took part in the process of writing this dissertation. All the glory be to God. Congratulations Dr. Melese! We rejoice with you in you accomplishment. We thank God for equipping you further to serve Him even in a much more effective way. Daily Radio Broadcast now streaming over the Internet — Yenigat Kokeb Dimts (Voice of Morning Star), EOM’s daily ½ hour radio broadcast is now streaming on the World Wide Web. Bible Voice Broadcasting Network, a Christian broadcasting company that facilitates the transmission of our daily programs from Germany expanded its ministry to the internet making the short-wave programs available on the internet as well. It is a great opportunity to reach millions where the short-wave signal does not reach.

The Future Office of
Ethiopian Outreach Ministry

Friends and partners,

The above picture shows you the new EOM office building. Yes, it is the one sandwiched between the two large buildings. The building has double the office space that we have now and more off-street parking spaces for staff, volunteers and visitors.
After seeing the building the Executive Board of EOM approved the purchase of the real estate for $80,000 and made their bid. The offer was accepted and we are now in the process of raising the necessary funds. So far, we raised $35,000.
Please PRAY for us and with us that the Lord stirs the hearts of his children to consider giving to this eternal investment.
We say it is eternal investment because when you give to EOM, you are expanding the work of the Lord and fulfilling the Great Commission.
If you are one of the people we have not contacted to help us out with the purchase of this office building, we encourage you to consider giving to the Lord’s work through this project.If you are led to share this need with your church missions program leaders, please do so and our prayers will be with you. Let us know if you need further information regarding this need and where we currently are with the fundraising effort. To the friends and partners who already gave sacrificially, thank you again and God bless you all. Together, we will proclaim the good news of Jesus Christ and share the encouraging word of God to believers near and far.

Ministry Needs...

To the friends and partners who responded with their gifts to various needs listed in the past, thank you for your prayerful support and encouragement that has been shown through your gifts that supplied the needed equipment and tools to promote God’s work in a more effective way. Those of you who want to take part in meeting the needs listed below, you can send your special donation designated to the project of your choice.

Immediate Needs For other ministry areas:

Computer system upgrade - $220
(RAM upgrade for two computers and Hard-drive upgrade for one computer)

Cassette Duplication Machine Upgrade
TELEX XGEN Master and Copy
unit each $3073.47

(Our current cassette duplicating machine will be refurbished and shipped to our Ethiopia office where it will be used constantly.)

~~Computer system upgrade (Operating system and software for four computers) - $625~~ This Need is met through a friend of the ministry. We are grateful to our friend and partner for making a difference.

Digital Audio Editing Software - $625 (This is for the use of daily program production)

120 GB Hard Drive for audio files storage - $165

When you send your gifts to one or more of the projects listed on this page, please designate your gifts accordingly on the ‘Memo’ or ‘Used for’ line of your check or money order. We will make sure your gift is used specifically to the project you selected. Make your check or money orders payable to EOM. Thank You.

Special Thanks to Mr. Thomas Sechrist, a friend of EOM who recently donated a digital camera that was needed for documenting brother Melese’s yearly evangelistic trips overseas and North America’s ministry activities. Thank you Tom for making a difference.


	LETTERS Dear brother Melese Wogu, Peace be to you! ... It is now almost 15 years since I’ve come to know about you and your ministry. The first time in Nairobi then Italy. I just want to say thank you for the ‘pdf’ files on the book of Philippians Bible study that are made available on EOM’s website.. It's an excellent material and I found it to be very useful. I also like the format. I have read your balanced book on the gifts of the spirit. Thank you for not giving up on us. I mean we Ethiopians. I thank God about you. May God bless you Gashe Melese. Asfaw bekele (Pastor) B.C., Canada Dear producers of Voice of Morning Star radio, I am writing to let you know how I am blessed to find your radio transmission here in Finland. The depth of your teachings, the practical applications of the Bible in my daily life and the clarity of your production is excellent. I thank God for enabling		you to evangelize and teach the word of God so powerfully. May the Lord continue to bless you and give you the wisdom, knowledge and resources to impact more Ethiopians for Jesus. Solomon G.H. Finland Dear servants of the Lord at EOM: We greet you in the precious name of our Lord and Savior Jesus. The teachings you regularly send us reach our mail box on time. We have been blessed through the Bible studies and taped series messages and topical studies. Because of your teachings, we have acquired deeper understanding of the Bible. We are growing in our faith. If it was not for your teachings of the scriptures that anchored us firm in our faith, we would have been strayed by the many misleading and false Christian teachings. We want you to know that we are making duplicates of the cassette tapes you send us and give out to many people in our city. The recent four-series messages titled “The Obstacles to the Gospel” particularly are so powerful and we felt these messages need to be heard by many.		We are now getting prepared to make more duplicates of these tapes and minister to our fellow brothers and sisters. Keep up the good work and may the Lord’s grace be abundant to you. Debesai Z. Germany To my dear brother and servant of God, Melese, I thank God for the burden you have for Ethiopians in the Diaspora, reaching out to them with the teaching of the pure gospel. I thank God for your fruitful ministry among Ethiopians in the Arab countries. I thank God for the effectiveness of your work among those of us in North America. Be encouraged and press forward with what you do. It is evident that the Lord has put you where you are. It is my prayer that God opens more doors for you to reach the thousands of Ethiopians who still need to hear the gospel message and balanced and sound Biblical teachings. Please accept my small contribution to the ministry as an expressions of my appreciation. Fasil, USA