Ministry Update: Love Never Fails (Ethiopia)

An update from Dr. Frew Tegene, director of Love Never Fails , in Ethiopia:

The Lord has been a great help in everything, especially with our work in Cherkos. Over the summer, seven women who work as prostitutes have started coming to church. We have provided seed money for three of them to start their own small businesses, and all of them are being discipled by our church pastors.

About 20 years back, when I started telling these women about Jesus, even before I established our project, I used to bring the prostitutes to church and teach them the Bible. At that time, the church pastors never supported me. The church elders ordered me never to bring prostitutes and HIV patients to church. One elder especially told me, “Don’t bring prostitutes and HIV patients to my church.”

But now, the current elders and pastors are working hard to bring these women to Jesus. These days, the people in the church pray for me and do their best to support these ladies. The Lord is great. Each Sunday before preaching, the pastor would ask all of us (the congregation) to stand and pray for these women. I praise the Lord, who has changed so many things.

At the same time, there is so much spiritual warfare. Whenever I start contacting and telling more prostitutes about Jesus, I face many hurdles. My health goes bad; I get easily discouraged, feel weak, can’t sleep, and feel like an enormous weight has been placed on my chest. It is almost suffocating. I and even those who work closely with me feel the burden. And sometimes I get so frustrated that I almost stop going to these ladies and stop evangelizing. Then, all the heaviness seems to go away. I beg you, please pray for us.