Church planter returns home to preach
Sufian Getachew grew up in a Muslim family in Metu, Ethiopia, but now he’s a brand new Christian church planter, trained by CMF Ethiopia team members Craig Fowler, Mark Haley and Jake Moore, and has returned to his home town and started a church.
The testimony of friends, dreams and Bible study led Sufian to become a Christian as a young man, but he suffered a great deal of persecution in Metu, forcing him to leave his home and move to Nekempte.
“When I got off the bus, I had only 50 cents in my pocket, no friends and no family,” said Sufian. “I saw a church with a young adult service in progress and went in. The speaker was talking about God calling Abraham to leave his home and go to a new land. This was God speaking directly to me!”
 Sufian lived on the streets for months, but eventually found a job and place to live. He continued to go to church, and soon had another dream.
“In this vision, God told me I was supposed to become an evangelist, and to wait for a letter that would tell me where I was to serve,” said Sufian. “I spoke with the elders of my church and they agreed this vision was true.”
This past year, Sufian’s church received a letter from Craig Fowler asking if his CMF team could work with the church to send church planters to Metu.
“As soon as the elders saw the letter, they knew that this was God calling me to service,” said Sufian. “Can you imagine my surprise to hear that God was calling me back to Metu?
“This will be difficult,” he added. “The place from which I fled is the place to which God is sending me. I return home with a message from God. Maybe the people will accept me; maybe they won’t. My job is to go where He sends me.”
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