My Prophetic Trip to Ethiopia (Part XI)

“No Holes-Barred Praise”

We took an hour plane ride into Gondar from Addis. We woke up early and prepared ourselves for another revival conference! I had great expectations about the power of God released in a Third World Country where poverty abounds and hearts and spirits are thirsty!

The driver took us as far as he could up a hill until he reached an impassable ravine. We walked the rest of the way, maybe about 40 yards all uphill! I was already having church by the time I reached a flatland because I was praising the Lord all the way, believing I could make it up that hill in thin, dusty air. Rabbi Gedamu and a friend stopped and looked back at me. I motioned them to go on ahead. Though I was bringing up the rear, I did not want to be responsible for anyone else lagging behind and missing out on the worship experience that I knew was already going forth.

I could see the top of the church just around the bend. Pilgrims were descending a hill from the far right and some from the far left. And there I was, ascending — ever so slowly — to meet them at Marakie Full Gospel Believers Church that sat completely surrounded by the Gondar Mountains! Its cinder-block, corrugated-tin-roof-and-windowless frame stood majestically in all of its incompleteness. It was even more majestic to me because it would afford me a chair on which to sit. 🙂

As I approached I could hear music through speakers that sounded out their death knell. That did not impede, however, the atmosphere that was created by such pure worship. We were ushered to the front row and I immediately joined in the worship by college students from the University of Gondar just beyond the nearest hill. Their passionate, spiritual sounds coupled with their lost-in-Him expressions drew me in and I worshipped Yesus Kristos with them.

Then they called forth Caleb Ab, a worship leader that Rabbi Gedamu had brought from Addis. As I wathched them move back the chairs in which we sat, I knew I was about to climb the ladder of worship. When Caleb Ab started singing with a lively Calypso kind of beat, the whole assembly, well over 700 of them on the floor and balcony, erupted into a joyous, no-holes-barred praise. It was INFECTIOUS!

CHILDREN WORSHIPPED