Ethiopia Addis Kidan
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2011 Annual Report of
Ethiopian Addis Kidan Baptist Church

Introduction:
The 2011 implementation period was relatively well prepared in advance by organizing planning staff meetings and other discussion with concerned bodies.  Lessons were also drawn from previous year’s experiences.  An attempt was made to incorporate  unplanned and emerging issues as well. The previous year’s AOP was based on 6 thematic areas: leadership development, church growth, capacity building in the spiritual department and five projects of the development part of the denomination. The report gives a brief and summarized exposition of each program and project achievements in the year 2011. The detailed reports of each of the projects have been sent to partners with appropriate pictures and other attachments.     

• Accomplished Activities under Spiritual wing in 2011

As in preceding years, the office has continued its effort to implement different activities which help the work of the Kingdom to meet prevalent challenges in the churches and to bring holistic development at the denomination level in general. By drawing lessons from the past experiences the focus of the office has gradually been shaped and has become more concerned with the specific activities of leadership development, church growth, capacity building and linking the development of holistic programs to church planting or church growth ministries.

• Leadership development

Last year the leadership development program of the convention office consisted of pastors’ education, trainings, fellowship and prayer, and awareness creation for leaders. Existing and candidate pastors, evangelists, young leaders who are responsible at different levels of the churches’ responsibilities, prayer leaders and elders of the churches were involved in this program. The purpose of the leadership program in general was to mitigate the limitation in the leaders’ roles and pastors’ ministries of the churches. At present we all came to the consensus that directly and indirectly the growth of any local church is associated with the gracefulness, level of commitment, passion and single mindedness of the pastor. A church that gives much emphasis on discipleship, evangelism and fellowship has the chance to grow. This result could be achieved when pastors and leaders are committed and wise enough to lead the people in such a godly direction.      

• Awareness raising programs for elders: In 2010 we planned to share vision in the thematic areas of the office’s activities with 50 to 70 church leaders and succeeded in reaching more than what had been planned. Awareness creation was conducted mainly during the general assembly of the denomination.  In the awareness creation program, besides prefacing the major activities of the office, the idea of church growth and working together for common need was promoted. A lot has been done to bring accord among the leaders of the churches so as to create a harmonious spirit. Moreover, a similar action was also taken where ever we traveled to visit, to give trainings, and to resolve friction.
• Pastors’ education project: The plan which we promised to start in the Guji zone was not achieved due to different shortcomings. We communicated this issue including the curriculum with International Miners Mission leaders. The response was welcoming. They agreed to increase the funds even though it is not just as we had requested. The program has now been postponed for this year.

 On the other hand, last year we were able to communicate with a lot of people (international and local) about the issue of establishing a training center for the denomination as a whole in order to be able to give appropriate church education for pastors. We will continue promoting the idea this year too. The issue of establishing a training and education center will be one of our major programs for the coming few years. Our intention is to establish a national school for all Addis Kidan churches. 

• Pastors’ short term trainings: Pastors’ short term trainings were executed in two ways. One is the program conducted directly by the office people at the office’s expense. This part was not implemented in 2011 as in previous years because we couldn’t secure the funds from the local churches for this purpose. The second one was conducted with partners mainly with Anthony Mathenias and his companions who are our friends too: the Zambian brothers. In 2011 alone more than 60 church ministers benefited from the training. One pastor from a local church got local and international training with the help of Tear Fund Ethiopia. However, this job should be done by ourselves since we are more familiar with the situation of the pastors and can make the trainings more contextual.  
• Fellowship and prayer programs (forums): We designed and executed this program aiming to motivate and encourage the pastors in their ministry. Serving the Christian community is a heavy job and has a lot of challenges especially in a country like Ethiopia. Thus we decided to have a time with the pastors and evangelists so that they could share their successes, limitations, sorrows and vision with each other and with us. Prayer for each other was also there. We believe that this helps them to be refreshed and gives insight for them in the  remaining time of their ministry. Our plan was to reach 70 pastors but we accomplished 72% of the plan ( 50 people).
• Young leaders’ trainings (trainings concerning child and youth ministry): 40 people were trained who are in charge of children and youth ministry and this was exactly what we had planned.  The training helped the young ministers and Sunday school teachers to be familiar with new child handling methods and better approaches in order to attract children to child education and churches and program attendance. 
• Prayer leaders’ training:  We gave much consideration to prayer. Almost all of the office people have come to believe that prayer is the best way to come out from current restraints of the denomination and the churches as well. The work of the church is not humanitarian activity alone. Passion, strength, wisdom and endurance are not the product of our efforts. For this we all need the work of the Holy Spirit. To this end we have decided to seek the face of the Lord through prayer; prayer of intercession for the churches and gentiles in general. We have been doing the following on this matter. 1. Formation of a prayer network among pastors which is observed at the last quarter of the night (pre-dawn) on a daily level. We have also scheduled every Saturday morning as a prayer time for the churches’ people for the above factors. For this reason we gave trainings and vision sharing programs to more than 40 prayer leaders of the south, west and Merhabete district churches. The trainees are supposed to coordinate the prayer work in their local churches.  
• University students’ forum: This year we held a university students forum which encompassed 27 students from among different universities of Ethiopia to discuss  the matter of their contribution in youth and child ministries in particular and supporting their churches as a whole. This enabled us to explore the university people as a big potential to strengthen youth and child ministries.  
• Staff trainings: This year we weren’t able to give trainings
• Church growth (planting): In our church planting program we are working in two directions. The first direction is envisioning, empowering and helping the local churches to equip them for the work of God’s Kingdom and to be awakened to the reason for their existence which is to evangelize their communities.  Evangelism is the number one agenda in the Kingdom of God. This is also the purpose of our living on the earth. We have the heavy burden of making our churches evangelistic churches in every aspect of their ministry and all of the church members as well. They need to be mission oriented and self propagating. Our visits, help, and trainings are to bring them to such a position. In this regard, many churches are active and are growing year after year. Some others are also trying their best to plant churches close to their vicinity. In 2011 the following churches worked to plant churches in their locality.
• Zemero church started in Kolako
• West Shoa churches started three new preaching points
• Wolayita Sodo church added three sites
• Mojo church helped a rural place
• Semen Gebeya again has two preaching points
• Mahalmeda church is starting at a place called Argo 20 KM away

The door open there for them to start church planting program after the power of God delivered a devil spirit possessed woman from her bondage. They have three households which are about 20 people.

• One preaching point in Hosanna is now commencing.

These achievements of the local churches are largely accomplished with little engagement of the office. The rest will be dealt with in connection with the office run projects.
The second church planting activity is carried out directly by the office’s involvement and in many cases such projects run in collaboration with local and international partners.  Here is the list and current circumstances of the projects.    

• Pastors’ support through “Mission One”:  Currently ten pastors are now working in different existing churches and are supported by this project. This help for pastors is mainly given for weak churches and most of them are found in and around Addis.
• Church planting project with Evangelical Churches of Ethiopia: With the  ECFE two pastors are supported ministering in Shola Gebeya and Rema. Rema was first planted by the Baptist missionaries in North Shoa (the former Merhabete Awraja). After many years of being closed we began again at the end of 2010. 
• Gospel Fellowship Project: This project was organized aiming to expand the Gospel by local resources that can be generated from our people. A lot of work has been done to create awareness and mobilize the people for this holy purpose. Though it is not growing as fast as we wish, we have gotten response from the churches’ people. Using the funds collected until this time we have been able to support one pastor who is working in Ajersa church. The church was in trouble and declining.
• IMM project: The International Miners Mission church planting project is an old and highly trusted project both by its impact on church planting activities and from the partners’ side. The support is growing from year to year. They send a visitor once a year. The project started 7 years ago and now 10 churches and preaching points are found in the Guji zone. This year alone four new preaching points have been started in the region. The possibility of its expansion is also promising. Using Guji churches it is possible to reach the Ethiopian Somali people from the south eastern side of Ethiopia.  
• Cities for Christ Project: This is a recent and emerging project which is being implemented in partnership with Hope of Eternity.  The project was commenced believing that working in the cities would be a more useful strategy than coming from rural areas to cities (that has been Addis Kidan’s tradition) for faster and better church growth. The project was started last year and now there are 7 new church plants in different parts of Ethiopia. Side by side with this project (the goal is to start in 25 cities of the country) one other church plant has been started in Wulkitte city with the help of Pastor Robert Jolly’s church from America.  It has the same goal as the 25 cities project. So far nearly 50 people from different backgrounds have been converted to Biblical Christian faith.
• Capacity building: In capacity building the convention office is bringing sustainability and organizational development in the areas of financial, physical and manpower wellbeing. This program is focused on building the capacity of the office by strengthening its financial, physical and personnel needs.  
• The strategic plan of the development wing has been completed and ratified.  The spiritual wing strategy is now under process and will be completed in the coming two months. This is to focus on the challenges of both wings and  remedy current constraints.
• The fund raising strategy will be finished in the coming two months.  The purpose of the fund raising strategy is to find ways of resource mobilization, especially from local sources.
• Preparation to develop an income generation plan was also made in 2011. Last year we developed and submitted a proposal to a local consortium to secure funds for both a fund raising strategic plan and a business plan, and we were successful before the end of 2011. It is a step forward for us to accomplish both of these activities and this in turn enables the organization to mobilize more resources from local and international sources. To be effective in this program we employed a fund raising officer for six months using the funds we secured for  capacity building.  Trainings for board members, staff people and volunteers will be executed soon.
• Development wing

The main activities in the development wing of the organization were child development (sponsorship), preschool, livelihood or Self help groups, basic health (in the form of Community Health Evangelism CHE) and rehabilitation projects. 

• Child development project: Child development is one of the oldest  sustainable projects in the churches’ development program history. The denomination was one of the first denominations which got child development projects since the establishment of Compassion Ethiopia. However, the projects of Addis Kidan remained limited (8 projects). Thanks to the Lord the denomination showed a big jump in Compassion projects by making a 50% increase in the number of projects in 2011. Currently the number of the projects has grown to 12 from 8. The sites where the new projects have been opened is also very important. Three of them have been opened in Fetera, Alem Ketema and Dera where anti evangelical resistance is prevalent. We were able to do that because of the Lord’s favor. The struggle was very strong. After a lot of ups and downs we finally accomplished the projects there. The other one was opened in Hosanna and it was without resistance from the government bodies unlike north Shoa. The administrative support from Compassion equally increased by almost 7 times from the previous status. However, this achievement would not have been possible without the kind and vigorous move of our brothers (concerned people) from Compassion Ethiopia. Because of the growth of the work, the boards of both wings decided to employ a development director and it was done before the end of the year. Now the development director is in charge of these activities.
• Preschool project: The role of the office in this regard is supporting the churches by providing the salary and trainings for teachers, supplies and equipment, and counseling. The number of kindergartens is 14, which is the same as it was before. The number of children who are attending is also similar to the previous year. More than 1500 kids are found in the schools now. Another important thing that we have done this year is providing special support for a few of the schools. The support includes buildings and playground equipment. We selected the four KGs at Zemero, Degolo, SholaGebeya and Mudula for this special support program. We chose these KGs by giving priority based on the following reasons.
• The capacity they have to administer the employees and the finances released to them
• The challenge they have been facing from the local government where they are situated. This one is the main reason. In the Amhara region, it is becoming impossible to teach children if our schools are below standard. However, the program will reach the other schools step by step in keeping with the priorities.  

Degolo church is now on the way to finish the building. Shola Gebeya also started their building and they are making good progress. Mudula and Zemero are looking for land from local officials. In Mudula the remaining thing is getting the site map. In the case of Zemero they have been told the site and given a promise. The people in Zemero are more helpful to them than the government representatives.  It is because they are happy with the education their children are learning.      

•     Livelihood project: We have strengthened the capacity of the existing Self Help Groups and established new groups in the same manner. The old SHG members are doing well in improving their earnings by engaging in small businesses using the loans they got from their groups. The number of the old groups reaches 21 and they have a total of 350 members. Up to the end of 2011 the members have saved 33,283 Birr. The newly organized groups are 5 with 60 members. 
• Basic health project: In some areas 40 young people have been organized under basic health groups to help their communities by providing basic health education and care for needy people. They have given education by moving from home to home, dug 20 latrine wells for weak and especially old people and participated in environment hygiene activities as well.  
•  Rehabilitation program: As it was publicized by different media of the world, East Africa experienced severe drought and its effects in 2011. Ethiopia was one of the victims of this phenomenon as usual. Because of the media coverage and call for help from the government,  Baptist World Aid was aware of the problem here.  We communicated with them about the challenges and the options as to what way or means we can help the people together. After continuous information exchange and understanding on the issue and the possibility to take action in support of highly affected Ethiopian people, they finally gave ten thousand USD in September. We plan to use it for rehabilitation or a restocking program. After subsequent discussion with the Ormiya regional government, we finally executed support for the Guji zone Adola Worda people. The support was targeted for highly affected people, especially female headed households because of the drought and other factors. We selected 150 people from among the poorest of the poor and gave them 300 goats to rehabilitate themselves and to enable them to become capable of running their own life affairs.  We chose to implement the program through Kibre Mengist church. 2010 was not a good year for them. They experienced hardship because of attacks from religious groups there. So we did this aiming to reverse the situation and the negative mark, and it has happened just as we had thought. We have gotten encouraging testimonies from the beneficiaries. Some people said, “Is the church that we were trying to destroy last year the church which works for our sake? We hate our ignorance.” The government officials were also very delighted and requested us to do other development programs if possible, like drilling a water well for the town. What is also fascinating is that Baptist World Aid seems to be interested in continuing such a program. They welcomed our report.  

• Communication and promotion work, and partnership

• Regular communication with existing partners

The office has a good partnership relation with local international organizations and individuals. Some of the present partners are Baptist General Convention of Texas, Heart for Ethiopia, Hope of Eternity, International Miners Mission, Global Care, Compassion Ethiopia, Christian Relief and Development Association, Anthony Mathenias, Mission one, Evangelical Churches of Ethiopia, East Africa and others. We have regular contacts through quarterly reports and personal contacts. In most cases we try to fulfill our partner’s interest and to please them as much as possible. We work to build our image in the sight of existing and potential partners. In this regard we believe that being accountable in our finance area is very significant. Our words should agree with what we do.

• Looking for new partners (Proposal writing and submission)

We tried to get new funds for different projects from internal and external sources in 2011. For this reason we prepared five proposals and submitted them to organizations. One was successful. We also communicated with three other organizations aiming to establish a relationship.

Financial plan and achievements in the last three years
There is also remarkable growth in our finances in the last three years.

Source of financing (In Birr)		2009	2010	2011
Internal sources	Contribution ( churches tithe, Gospel fellowship)	32,532.00	58,015.11	60,976.82
	From others and mission compound	303,995.00	420,153.39	624,209.99
	Local partners (ECFE, Mission one, East Africa, sport friends)	191,824.94	156,262.25	123,960.83
External sources	Foreign partners ( HFE, HE, BGCT, IMM and others)	576,013.81	965,000.33	1,660,720.16
Total	In Birr	1,104,365.75	1,599,431.08	2,471,867.80

Notice: 1. This doesn’t include the finance from Global care, BWA, CCRDA and Compassion Ethiopia.

1. The expenses are not indicated in this table. The funds here are simply the income summary which doesn’t show expenses of each category. This is only for your understanding.
2.  

Opportunities and challenges
The current challenges of the organization;
Internal challenges:

1. Lacking efficient personnel in the office and well equipped pastors in the churches
2. Financial constraints especially non-designated funds to implement programs planned by the office
3. The working place is not conducive for work. We are now in the iron sheet shelter
4. Decline of commitment of the ministers and church people in general for church affairs

External challenges:

1.  Strong resistance from religious groups in  north and east Ethiopia
2. Vicious Poverty

Opportunities

1. We have the base that helps us as a springboard to expand the Kingdom
2. The land we have for the building
3. Relationships that we have established with different partners
4. We have open door for church planting

 

 

 

 

 

Ethiopian Addis Kidan Baptist Church Copyright 2006