Today, I have the privilege of traveling to Ethiopia with several Mars Hill executive and lead pastors. We will be doing several things while we’re over there, including participating in a pastors’ conference and visiting with the church planters with whom we have the privilege to partner. A few of us will also disperse and preach at a couple different churches on Sunday morning. However, the main purpose for this particular trip is to train our local pastors in leading short-term missions trips in the future! We are hoping to send several short-term mission teams from our churches to Ethiopia.
Pastor Sutton prays for Birhanu, a church planter in the Bench Maji region of western Ethiopia, that his efforts to spread the gospel of Jesus Christ would be received and that many would receive salvation.
I would like to ask you to pray for a few things regarding our trip:
- Pray for easy and safe travel. It’s a long trip. Really long.
- Pray for the effective preaching of God’s Word while we are there, at individual churches and at the pastors’ conference.
- Pray that our hearts would be prepared to experience all that Jesus has for us.
- Pray that we would be able to minister to the Ethiopian church planters’ hearts and encourage them in the Lord.
- Pray that the Holy Spirit would teach us.
- Pray that we might discern how we can care for the mothers and babies in Ethiopia. There are massive child mortality rates in Ethiopia and we are seeking to do more through our supported church planters there.
Ephesians 6:18 says, “praying at all times in the Spirit, with all prayer and supplication. To that end keep alert with perseverance, making supplication for all the saints.” Thank you for joining us and supporting us through prayer—we know that it’s so vital.
Be on the lookout for updates, pictures, blogs, and videos on marshill.com while we are gone and shortly after we come home. You won’t want to miss seeing what Jesus did through your prayers!
Pastor Sutton handing out Bibles translated into Amharic to pastors in Ethiopia. Most of the pastors there trade books of the Bible because they have never owned a full Bible to preach, teach, and study from.
Pastor Sutton sharing his heart for the children of Ethiopia. When Pastor Sutton adopted his son Joseph from Ethiopia, God used that earthly adoption as an example of how all children in Ethiopia are his sons and daughters. He also gave Pastor Sutton a passion for serving Ethiopia.
