A Country On Fire: Inside Ethiopia's Revival
00:00 – Welcome to God’s Church On the Move
01:03 – Massive turning to God from the Orthodox Church
02:05 – Persecution under Communism prepared the Evangelical Church
03:15 – Muslims are turning to the Gospel
05:20 – 15,000 trained evangelist-pastors sent out
07:55 – Bus tickets, sandwiches, and host families
09:30 – Winning 25 people per day per team
11:10 – This is an organized Gospel army
14:15 – The Jesus Revolution in Ethiopia
JOY: Welcome to God’s Church On the Move, the podcast that takes you to the spiritual hotspots where God is actively at work and doing incredible things. With me in the studio are Ron and Charis Pearce. Welcome, guys.
RON & CHARIS: Hi, Joy.
JOY: Hi, so tell us about Ethiopia. I know that in the past, we’ve talked about the evangelism that’s happening.
RON: Well, in Ethiopia as a whole, for those people that haven’t heard the story, there’s a massive turning to God there from two fronts. One would be in the Orthodox — or the Coptic, as some people say, but it’s really Orthodox — the Orthodox Church, which is the predominant religion of the area. It’s Christian, Orthodox. And this, I would say, probably would be about 60 to 65 million people that adhere to that. This was started by the Ethiopian eunuch situation in the Book of Acts, and the Ethiopian eunuch took the Gospel down, a church grew up. It was wandering in the wilderness, shall we say, for many years, but then there’s been, in the last 15 years, huge revival. And it’s pure revival. It’s almost like Martin Luther and the Reformation movement. This would be sort of like that Reformation, this massive turning, coming back to God, leaving dead orthodoxy behind and coming alive in Christ. And so, that’s what’s going on right now.
JOY: Now, Ethiopia was a little bit different than several other countries in Africa, because Ethiopia was under Communism for many, many years, correct?
RON: Exactly. And in that period of time — it was like a decade or a little more — the Evangelical churches were persecuted massively. They suffered, really suffered under Communism. But it was showing people how awful it was under that sort of rule, and it gave people a reason to listen to the Gospel. What happened was that the depth of the Ethiopian Evangelical believers under Communism became so strong that it was the launching pad for the revival that you see there now. And especially in another religious group, and that would be the Muslims. This is a traditional religion, and they are discovering the Truth of the Gospel now in large numbers. So those are the two groups. You’ve got the Orthodox and you’ve got the Muslims.
JOY: Percentage-wise?
RON: Orthodox is probably about 65 million. The Muslims would probably be around 40 million. The country is growing fast. Maybe about 138 million people total, but that might be a little high. It multiplies quickly.
JOY: Right. So what’s happening then?
RON: Okay, so what happens is this: in the springtime, in March and April, they send out the evangelical, shall we say, believing believers. These are believers who’ve come out of the traditional religions, accepted Christ, been trained, and they’re Bible-strong. They’ve left everything of the old behind. They know how to relate the Word of God to their people from their cultural background. They go out by the thousands. People say that’s impossible, but they don’t see it because it’s in the countryside, and they keep low profiles due to the religious factor, politics, and revolutionaries. This time, they sent out 15,000 trained evangelist pastors to share the Word — not just in Ethiopia, but into Sudan, Eritrea, Djibouti, Kenya, Mozambique, and some Middle Eastern countries.
JOY: So, when you say they go out, they’re hopping on buses, going to the countryside?
RON: They get on a bus, and we raise funds for them to go out. About 10,000 we helped, and 5,000 went on their own. We talk about giving them a bus ticket and a sandwich. The bus ticket averages about $20-$30 for 90 days of mission. The sandwich is their food until they win a family to the Lord, and that host family will care for them. They branch out from there.
JOY: That’s quite an assumption!
RON: It’s the culture. Same thing in China. Over here, we’d need a year’s support. Over there, they just go and trust God.
RON: This past year, they would be winning about 25 people to the Lord a day — two family units — multiply that by 90 days and 15,000 evangelists. Retention rate is about 80 – 90%. Next year they follow up on those who didn’t fully understand.
JOY: Sounds very organized!
RON: This is an army. The plan reminds me of the French resistance in WWII. It’s organized, strategic, so if someone gets caught they don’t betray the others. And the person God used to develop the plan — Saul to Paul experience, a gifted strategist.
CHARIS: And he’s so humble. God gave him the plan. It’s clean, pure, non-watered-down Gospel that fits their context.
RON: A Western mind could not come up with it.
RON: One of the Western missionaries involved said this is a Jesus Revolution within Ethiopia. Everyone talks about Jesus. It’s spreading beyond the border.
CHARIS: And they’re so hungry for the Word! We just placed 290,000 copies of the Bible there. Printed at $2.67 each — full Bibles, 1,416 pages. With all the extra costs, about $3.40 to $3.50 dock to hand.
RON: One Bible is shared by 25 people because of the hunger.
CHARIS: And the urgency — they don’t care how far they go or the danger. It’s changed their lives so much.
RON: God opens their minds through dreams, visions, the supernatural. And with all that — planning, Scripture, determination — you get one of the most beautiful situations in the world.
JOY: Absolutely incredible. Thanks, guys.
JOY: Did you know that on our website, ronpearce.org, we have podcasts, teachings, devotionals, situation reports, and so much more? For more information, please visit ronpearce.org.
