The Lord abundantly blessed the conference. Scott Gilchrist, senior pastor at Southwest Bible Church in Beaverton, Oregon taught through the entire epistle to the Romans. There were over 200 pastors and church leaders in attendance from 20 different denominations. There were numerous people giving testimony to the blessings they received from this week in Romans. One of the highlights came Wednesday afternoon as Scott ended the day with Romans chapter 8. After expounding the final two verses - For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor thing to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord (vss. 38-39) - the entire crown burst into praise of God. It was a spontaneous display of gratitude offered up to God. Even Scott and the translator joined in with the others and clapped in a thank-offering to God. That was a powerful moment and a great way to conclude the day's teaching on the great doctrine of justification by faith.
Yesterday the conference drew to a close with a very emotional ending. Scott concluded the conference by giving tribute to John Corey, the visionary of this project. John and his family's 35 years of missionary service in Africa began in Ethiopia 50 years ago. He came to dearly love the Ethiopians and one of his final wishes before dying of cancer two years ago was that Scott's preaching of Romans be translated into Amharic, the national language of Ethiopia. That was the impetus for this conference. The pastors and church leaders were moved to think that such effort would be taken to translate this teaching into their language. Some of the pastors in the cities speak English and can benefit from the mp3 player containing Scott's preaching through books of the Bible, but 85 percent of the people live in rural regions and are unable to listen to English. By translating the teachings of Romans into Amharic, the Romans Project will be able to effectively reach outside the cities.
God blessed the technical aspect of the conference by allowing us to successfully record all 18 sessions. We will soon have those recordings edited and made ready to add to the mp3 player and thus expand the effectiveness of the Romans Project throughout Ethiopia. In fact, we have contracted with an Ethiopian brother named Wakshuma (director of the Trans World Radio efforts in Ethiopia) to both edit the recording for Amharic speakers, and prepare those recordings for translation into other target languages in Ethiopia. The first of those being Oromo - Wakshuma's first language.
Ethiopia is the second largest nation in Africa with 94 million people, of which over 18 percent are evangelical Christians. The potential for taking the Romans Project to that group alone is great. Last night I spent time with a young man named Siltan who heads up a national movement among what he referred to as born again believers in the Coptic Orthodox church. This is a growing movement within the church that is 41 million members strong. He is eager to utilize the Romans Project in his ministry among such evangelical priest in this church.
Thank you for your prayers concerning this week-long conference. The Lord answered your prayers in many ways and richly blessed the conference.
Scott preaching and Girma translating
Justin, Matt, and Josh interviewing pastors
Wakshuma will edit the English and Amharic recordings and translate into Oromo
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