Trouble in Gumuz Land

Ever since Tadesse (KHC church leader) was in Bible School he had a vision and burden to reach out to the fierce war-like tribe of the Gumuz. After hearing many missionary stories of martyrdom in Bible School, he said we will go and die among the Gumuz. His words nearly came true as recently our project team leader and the agriculturalist were running for their lives with a Gumuz man and his gun coming after them bent on killing them.
To make a long story short this may have been a key event in opening up in roads into the Gumuz. It forced community leaders, KHC leaders and local government officials to get involved to prevent the killings. Reconciliation and a peace pact was formed by all concerned and the project members now have unprecedented cooperation, peace and security in their work amongst the Gumuz.
There are now quite a number of new believers among the Gumuz and two churches have been started among the target villages. The Gumuz are also enthusiastically welcoming the inputs of the team in the area of agro-forestry as it will make a huge difference to their health, income security and the environment.
Several of the Devxchange volunteers have been working with former commercial sex workers in helping them to get some vocational training in hair dressing and get out of the commercial sex business. They were involved with the Mulu Wengel church in setting up a shelter for the girls and see them go through training. The girls have all come to faith in Christ and are now active in the church. The church is helping them to start businesses on their own.
The KHC church also put 20 girls through vocational training for hair dressing and is helping them get jobs and businesses set up including Mekedes- the first girl we helped last year and started the ball rolling. She now has her own business and is doing well, thanks to some Australian donors who provided the loan for starting the business.
For the past two years Sue has been running a Bible study with our guards, house help and a shoe shine boy. All of them come from a strong Orthodox background except one, Demelesh. This year all of them have come to faith and are now starting their own ministries in their local communities. Sue and Alex, a volunteer from Australia, bought or donated many books to them and they set up libraries in their communities. They are calling them "Spiritual Libraries". They have become real lights in their communities. They also started helping some of the poorest in the area. They told the people if at some point they were able to pay back the loan it could help others like them. To their surprise all the loans were paid back. They then started helping others and it has now grown into a substantial micro-loan assistance program. They say people are jumping up and down in the community with joy.
As you know by now, this is our last term in Ethiopia as a family. Sue and the girls have already returned to Canada to close a house deal in the Barrie area. I will be continuing part time with Devxchange to help with administration as well as provide support for the projects we have started in Ethiopia.