On May 2, 2017 Brother Talemwa Busobozi travelled to the Wolega region of Western Ethiopia. This trip was inspired by Brother Abebe, one of the translators of the Message in Addis Ababa. Brother Abebe had been burdened for a while, wanting to take the Message to his family; his mother, father and sisters. Their plan was to stop first in a city called Nekemte to minister to Brother Abebe’s sister and a Pentecostal man Brother Busobozi had been in touch with for a little over a year.
When they left Addis Ababa, Brother Abebe claimed his family and spoke a word of Faith, “We are going to baptise my family.” He actually was so sure that he had requested Brother Bus bring the church baptismal clothes with them.
Below is a first-hand account of the trip.
Brother Abebe is the Brother that went to the same university as Brother Moges in the city of Nazareth. Myself, Brother Paul and Sister Yodit originally went to that city (Nazareth) by inspiration that the Lord had given me after I had seen myself, Paul and Yodit minister to university students at a coffee place near the university gate. This happened exactly and Brother Abebe has since believed and become a wonderful treasure to the Bride.
About one year ago Brother Abebe had returned the laptop he was using for translating and said he couldn’t translate the Message anymore because he had read where the Prophet called the Roman Catholic Church the Harlot and Protestants the prostitutes. This was hard for him to translate, but gone are those days. Praise the Lord! On this trip, I have watched Brother Abebe preach this same Message he once feared with passion! Talk about the transforming power of God!
Day 2:
Wubitu, a college student and younger sister to Brother Abebe came today to hear the Word of God. As most college students these days, she came dressed in a way you would expect but I loved the humility and fear of God in her. She speaks only Afaan Oromo and Brother Abebe translated for me as I spoke to her.
Mainly, I have watched and understood that the approach here that would spark off the heart of the people is different other than the one we have used in the North and other regions. This is usually determined by the predominating religious doctrines in a place. In this case, mostly the Lutherans, locally called the Mekane Yesus, are more numerous. That means they have mainly been exposed to the Justification of Luther and thus to make them see Christ today, you would have to go all the way into the Message.
With Sister Wubitu, we started with the foundation of our faith; what it is, and whether anyone can go in the Rapture if they build another foundation to spoil the foundation that was laid by Paul by believing and teaching false doctrines other than what Paul taught. Upon this basis, we spoke on many things including: Godhead, Baptism, women preachers, deacons, gifts etc. I also made mention that these foundational teachings have been restored to us now through the End Time Gospel Message. This sister was convicted and she started asking questions, but after all her questions were answered, she made her decision to be baptized. It was a heartfelt decision. She started crying while Brother Abebe and I prayed with her.
She rushed to her house, picked changing clothes and returned. Down we went to the baptismal place. Thank God this region is filled with lots of water.
Immediately after we came out of the water, we started praying and many of the people who were swimming around came to see what was happening. Little did we know God was preparing more souls to hear the Word. Before I could change, we started to preach to them right away. One turned out to be serious and he is organizing for us to minister in his house and has promised that he will call many of his friends. We intend to return to minister to them here in Nekemte after the trip further West.
The parents of Brother Abebe are waiting for us since today. We have to go there and then return to Nekemte after some days. This village is 3 to 4 hours away.
Day 3:
We left Nekemte today early in the morning at around 6am and by around mid-day, we arrived in Bube, a village deeper into the Western region of Wolega-Ethiopia.
There’s one major town after Nekemte called Gimbi. It is further West and this is where the asphalt stops. Then from Gimbi to Bube it is all gravel road going about 55kms to our destination. No decent lodge, no showers, no good food, no electricity, but the people are the happiest and most welcoming I’ve ever seen in Ethiopia. They surely are humble and genuine in their hearts and you could see they mean whatever they say and act from the heart. The vegetation looks like Beulah Land. Most people here are farmers of coffee etc.
On arriving at Mr Taera’s home (Brother Abebe’s father) we found them in the farm. We couldn’t get through to them so they didn’t know exactly when we would arrive. Nonetheless, they quickly left whatever they were doing and together (him and wife) they sat to listen to the Word. Soon enough, the room was all full with many neighbors who came to hear the Word. These people surely fulfill Amos 8:11…we sat and talked about Christ till late evening.
I began with my testimony of God’s leadership to meet their son Brother Abebe, my religious background, introduction to the Message of the Hour and by this time they were surely ready to hear more of what It is that I so cherished that I could forsake my religious privileges (being a son of a priest and living with the Bishop then etc).
I began with Romans 11 clearly showing the dispensation of the Jews and the Gentiles. How God is now accomplishing with the Gentiles and soon to rapture His Bride whose faith is upon the foundation of the Apostles (1 Cor 3:10-23) and that no other foundation could be laid. We spoke on the teachings of Paul as the Absolute for every gentile Christian believer (Gal 1:8-9.) It was on this basis that I mentioned many major teachings of Christianity and we agreed with them that anyone who would teach different from what Paul taught would be accursed. I asked them to tell me which of the teaching they wished we begin with to review – they all requested we review Baptism first.
Much can be said, but they listened and Mr. Taera (formerly Orthodox and now Lutheran) asked me that if they received this correct Bible teaching and got baptized, they know the new Full Gospel church in their village won’t take them in because they require an individual to take a one year Baptism class. He asked what they would do in this case. This sparked me to preach for about 30 more minutes about sacrifice, faith in God and His Word, the vanity of denominations and their traditions etc. Another question was later asked about the Name and by the time we finished expounding it for them, all were surely convinced. Altogether about 10 or so.
The 60 year or so old Mr. Taera confessed, “All my life I’ve never heard a minister expound the Word for us so clear like you have, not even 50% of what we have heard today. Please, we need to hear more.”
Meanwhile, Brother Abebe would sometimes take turns in expounding the Word for his own people. The Holy Ghost would grip him and all I would feel to do was to let him give it all out, I know he has surely now matured in the Word.
Tomorrow we are meeting all these again at Mr. Taera’s home. Pray for us. If one or more receive This, it means the whole village will be against them. We are believing for this entire village to accept the Word. Praise the Lord!
Day 4:
Greetings from Gimbi, a major town two hours from the rural village of Bube. We just had to drive back to Gimbi on the gravel road because by the time we were done with the work today, we couldn’t get any place to lodge at the only lodge in the rural area.
Thank God we have just arrived safely in Gimbi, now from here to Addis Ababa will all be asphalt and at least we can have a shower tonight as well as a good lodging as we are headed for the city of Nekemte tomorrow morning to meet some more people there who have been beckoning us to go to them.
God has done miracles today. Big miracles. I am tired and my eyes may not be able to patiently wait as my fingers type the long testimony. Thus I will opt for a shorter version of the testimony without much details.
By 6am we were ready to leave the lodge and find our way again into the village to meet the souls that were waiting for us since 8am at Mr. Taera’s rural home. Many of these people are farmers and we had agreed before they go to the farm we should meet them to share the Word. Alas! The enemy did not sleep also; we found a flat tire on our car. Events changed then, we couldn’t easily put on the spare tire we had, as I could only find a wrench that was not compatible. We have never needed it and thus never really bothered to have it handy, as the tires are all new. This was a mystery. We tried all around the village up to the neighboring village but all the mechanics and people couldn’t find a compatible wrench. We prayed about it but knew for sure God’s purpose has to prevail and cannot be defeated. We couldn’t leave the car behind without a solution because even if we were ready to walk 10 kms from the lodge to Mr Taera’s home, we needed it to return to Addis Ababa.
Until 12pm, we were just there stranded and it was then that I asked Brother Abebe to join me and while seated in the car, we prayed for it. Not long after, someone brought a hand pump and added pressure to try and check if there was any puncture but there was none. Strange as it seemed, we had to face the reality that we were parked for 6 hours all because of tire pressure. But how could we lose all the pressure overnight without a puncture with everything intact? I do believe that Jesus Christ came by and repaired the puncture. Remember no one could repair it in this place and in addition the only place that could supply pressure was off due to the power outage. But this man pumped in enough for us to be on the go. Again, Satan was defeated at his own ground through prayer.
On arriving at Mr. Taera’s home, the people had come in at 8am and waited for a while and left. Only Mr. Taera, his wife, other son and a few others were available to hear the Word. We shared much, but their major concern was about the “sanctions” as they so called it that their church would place on them like they placed on others. This includes, but not limited to; exclusion from communion, burial rights (mostly it’s only churches with burial grounds), social gatherings, excommunication from fellowship at times. As for the Word we had shared with them, they confessed that it is the Truth and as Abebe was informed by his brother, after we left yesterday, Mr. Taera had told them that, “We have surely been in a dead system all the while. Whether we like or not, there is no way of escape, this is the only Truth.”
Mr. Taera kept on saying he surely couldn’t fathom why their denomination never told them all these things they heard. You could surely see that the Word had struck the seed and was fulfilling the purpose for which It was sent.
After much preaching and exhortations by the Scriptures, Mr. Taera, his wife, and Abush their son decided to take the narrow way. For I told them they are not alone. The Bride of Christ is worldwide. They made a decision and by around 5pm, we started off for a journey to find water. We walked through about 6 hills and valleys – we were so weary and tired by the time we got there but nonetheless, the job was done. Here is the good testimony, God filled each of them with the Holy Ghost immediately. I almost couldn’t believe my eyes to see a 60 year old man and woman under such great emotion and mess. Indeed, like the Prophet said, the New Birth is a mess. You could surely tell they had met Christ on their soul. Praise the Lord!!
We walked back and by the time we arrived to the car it was about 8pm. The current burden is now to return and establish the church there. One would look at staying there for about 2-4 weeks. The work there is plenty, more people came as we bid farewell but we promised to meet them again when we return.
Our car is in perfect condition, we were able to get pressure stabilized. The tire is perfectly alright and thus God repaired the puncture that no spot of it was left; if He can do this, how much more will He repair, save, redeem, heal us that no spot or wrinkle will be left. I just feel His presence right now. God bless you.
Day 5 & 6:
I am sorry I was not able to send anymore updates on day 5 and 6 because I was busy and weary in the flesh. We arrived in Addis Ababa yesterday (Monday) after driving 8 hours.
I last updated you when we came back to a town called Gimbi, there we found good accommodation. We left the following morning (Saturday) and we were headed for Nekemte again. This is where we had appointments with the Brothers we met at the river during the baptism of Sister Wubitu.
While on the road from Gimbi to Nekemte, after reaching almost half way, I became extremely dizzy and couldn’t drive anymore. I decided to pull over at the earliest opportunity and normalized after a while. Brother Abebe and I decided to eat some mangos and then proceed with the journey. There were several people here, about 15, waiting for commuter taxis to their destinations and behold, some of them walked up to us and before long a conversation started.
Brother Abebe and I just got caught away in the Spirit and started preaching about Jesus Christ, His Word vs the denominational ideologies and traditions of churches. We spoke on Salvation and Water Baptism in the Name of the Lord Jesus, the need for restoration back to the Truth that we have so messed up today. Someone asked us which denomination we come from and when we said none but claimed to be Christians, another one said we may be “false prophets” the Bible spoke of. This sparked us off to talk about who are the false prophets and how they can be identified. I later publicly proclaimed with a loud voice that if anyone saw one bit of what we said to not be out of the Scripture they should point their finger at us. Of course no one did, and thus I said, “Anyone who will say otherwise than what we said is the false prophet.” Since this wasn’t planned, we didn’t have our Bibles handy and thus we just spoke under inspiration and this made us feel like standing on the same sacred grounds the apostles stood on.
We finally bid them farewell and requested if anyone had a question or wanted to hear more to take our numbers. We immediately went into the car and two adult men came one at a time and we gave them our contacts. These looked like ministers.
We therefore realized that God had brought the dizziness so we would stop at that exact spot to sow some seeds to these people. The Word is a seed and we believe once sowed on good ground, it will bring forth fruit in due season.
We arrived in Nekemte that afternoon of Saturday but the phone numbers of the people we were supposed to meet were out of service. It is normal due to network and lack of charge because they live in a village, a suburb of Nekemte town. Whilst we thought on the next plan of action, Brother Abebe received a call from one of his cousins, a Full Gospel minister from Bube (he attended most of our preaching sessions there but never decided), to tell us that he was going to Addis Ababa for training for a new job. When Abebe told me, I told him perhaps God is bringing him to follow us so that he can hear more of the Word.
Well, this Brother was supposed to just bypass us in Nekemte and go straightaway to Addis Ababa where we possibly could meet once we returned there ourselves. Meanwhile, we had another full day in Nekemte (Sunday) before we could drive to Addis.
On checking my bag I realized I couldn’t find my iPad and the only place that came to my mind as where we possibly could have left it was my hotel room in Gimbi. I was tired already and I couldn’t think of driving back 5 hours two ways to go back for it. This would waste all our time. We developed a plan. The lot fell on Brother Abebe’s cousin to go back and pick it up for us at our expense and that would depend on the fact whether he would be willing to lose one day of his training in Addis Ababa. Since Abebe is related to him, he offered to help but on the grounds we would pay a hotel room for him for a night in Nekemte and thereafter we come to Addis Ababa with him. This was the only option! We went for it.
He went back to Gimbi and returned to us in Nekemte on Sunday afternoon with the iPad. Before he arrived back in Nekemte, we met the sister we had baptized and encouraged her. We now fully introduced the End Time Message to her and what God is doing in this generation. We had to do this for her to be able to know that indeed this is not another denomination nor just another church but rather The Message of the Hour. We exhorted her to forsake all memberships in denominations and stand with the Word, but she could go and fellowship until God established a fellowship in this town. We bought her a Bible in Afaan Oromo and promised to send translations of Brother Branham’s message for her in her language. She was so happy. Remember, in Addis Ababa God began with a sister – so has He in Nekemte.
So, Abebe’s cousin returned and we had plenty of valuable time with him to share many things. All his questions were answered but he still couldn’t make a decision. Brother Abebe decided to ask the hotel to share a room with his cousin for the sake of finding more time with him in the Word (them alone in their language). Abebe is burning with the zeal and desire for all his people to receive the Message.
In the morning, Brother Abebe was a bit tired and sleepy (didn’t get enough sleep at night) and finally told me his cousin had decided to take the way with the Lord’s despised few. Praise the Lord. We shall baptize him here in Addis since he will be staying for a while.
Thanks for praying for us on this Western trip. Four souls baptized and one to be baptized soon! Hallelujah! At home in Addis Ababa, they are also under a revival. God is moving in Ethiopia.
Brother Talemwa Busobozi
Addis Ababa, Ethiopia
