Ministry Update from Ethiopia

By John Benton Lane
As I think about this past year, I am amazed at God's grace that has been given to us through you. I know that many of the things that have happened to us and to those that we have come in contact with would have been impossible without your prayers. We thank you, in Christ, for your continued love, prayers, and support.
As our term in Ethiopia is coming to an end, we have been faced with a decision of what would please God for us to do next. We have prayed, meditated and sought counsel on this issue, and we believe that God would be pleased for us to return to the U.S. in December and to pursue theological training.
My burden has always been for the church in America. But God has been gracious to me by bringing me here to continue to conform me to the image of Christ. I have learned and experienced things here that would have been impossible in America. I would not trade this past year for anything.
It has been very hard at times as God has been breaking us of our idols, but the end result has been knowing Christ in a far deeper way than we would have if we had stayed in the comfort of home.
Megan and I look forward to fellowship with you more than you can understand. We have truly experienced the need of fellowship among the body of Christ as we have been away from you. And to be back at our home church at Woodland to fellowship and work will be a blessing.
It is hard to leave the Ethiopian saints that have ministered to us so much by the testimony of their own lives. I have been blessed beyond measure by many brothers and sisters here as I have seen them live in the reality of the person of Christ. I have been with them and witnessed their passion as well as their suffering and have met Christ through so many of them. For as long as God gives me life, I will be thankful for the time that I have had to live among them.