At a Community Health Evangelism (CHE) meeting on Friday evening here in Addis Ababa, I met with a small group of CHE leaders from around the country to briefly introduce them to the Million Village Challenge (MVC). The group of CHE leaders were joined by about 15 leaders from different ministries that came just to learn more about CHE.
A wave gathers in Ethiopia
The Million Village Challenge is a CHE Network initiative in partnership with a global body of evangelicals called Transform World 2020. The initiative is aimed at catalyzing transformational movements in a million poor villages. The goal is to bring villagers to Christ while lifting their communities out of cycles of poverty and disease.
I was not completely prepared for what would happen in our Friday meeting. God moved by his Spirit. Upon hearing the challenge, the entire group instantly and wholeheartedly embraced it and went to work figuring out what their contribution from Ethiopia would be. I watched in amazement. In a matter of hours, these leaders mapped out their existing work and identified strategic locations they wanted to begin work in each of Ethiopia’s 9 districts.
They set a goal of having transformational Gospel movements in 520 villages (52 clusters of 10) spread out throughout all of Ethiopia’s 9 districts. Individuals in the room wrote out their commitments on sticky notes and posted them on a hand drawn map in the middle of their circle on the floor. They then formed a national committee, and made plans to schedule the first phase of training for the leaders in the room that requested it.
Tomorrow I’m off to the Ivory Coast for another Million Village Challenge mobilization with several denominations. Pray with me that they will adopt another 520 villages!