Caring for the mothers
Young Mothers Programs
Young mothers had been approaching the Hand of God Ministries Family center wanting to give their children over to the ministry because they could not afford to feed themselves and their children. Since, Hand of God ministries is not an orphanage and not set up to care for children in this way, the board of Hand of God Ministries decided to do something to help these mothers raise their children. We started with the 10 mothers in the picture. They brought their children in the morning and we kept them through the day, feeding them, teaching them and caring for them. The mothers would come to pick them up after working all day and we would feed them. The word spread quickly and other raped mothers began bringing their children. Soon the program grew out of control, so the program was changed to a Micro-financing program called TESFA SELF HELP GROUPS, which now reaches out and ministers to over 400 single mothers.
Providing Care for WOrking mothers
Meals & Daycare
The young mothers needed a place to take their children so they could go out and find work. They also could not afford to feed their children, so we created the day school and feeding program. The mothers brought their children to the feeding center early in the morning and left them there until about 4:30 in the evening. We fed the children breakfast, lunch and taught them things you would see in any pre-school program. When the mothers come to get their children in the evening we fed them and the children a good, healthy meal. We taught the mothers about business, finances, health care, child health care and classes on spiritual and emotional health. As more and more mothers brought their children, the program grew out of control so we changed the program to a Micro-financing type program called Tesfa Lewogen with means Faith and Hope.
Helping Mothers Become Entrepreneurs
Tesfla Self Help
Hand of God Ministries/Tesfa Self Help Groups brings groups of 8-10 single mothers and widows together every week. When they meet, each woman in the group puts whatever she can afford into a group savings account. Sometimes it is 1 or 2 Birr and other times it may be 10 Birr or more. Birr is the Ethiopian currency. As the women save together, the group savings account builds up enough money so one of the women in the group may start her own business. The group looks at the proposal and approves the loan for the one woman to begin her business. She then pays back what has been loaned, as she can, and another mother asks for a loan from the group account… and the cycle continues until each woman is in her own business. We started the original group of 10 young mothers and it was all just giving them help, now as they save into the group account and want to start a business, we make that a reality for them. As of the first of 2024 there are over 400 single mothers and widows participating.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=opvSqxjROrshttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kzWP7fUh4hM
BRINGING PRISONERS TO CHRIST
Prison Ministry
Several years ago because of the amazing story presented here, Hand of God was given permission to build a chapel inside the walls of the new prison outside Gondar Ethiopia. We waited years for the new prison to be built. Finally after its completion we staked the ground and was ready to start the s project, unfortunate, civil unrest and several wars started in Ethiopia and so many people were being put in the prison, we were no longer allowed to go into the prison and for several years now that has been put on hold. We had started ministering in the woman’s part of the prison and had built playground equipment for the children living with their mothers there. As of the middle of 2024 we have been given permission to send a chaplain in and start building relationships with the prisoners and staff. We hope to do that soon. The amazing story of how God opened the door for us to serve him there follows.
Tilahun was determined to bring the word of God to imprisoned men in Gondor. Tilahun Amanu is the director of Hand of God Ministries and in 2007 he told John Mustian about the opportunity of a lifetime to minister the love of Jesus to the 1500-2000 prisoners at the regional prison. For several years, Tilahun approached the government and prison officials about serving a Christmas dinner and sharing the Christmas story with the inmates.
The officials told him to go away and preaching the Christian message was not and would never be allowed in the prison. There was a teacher who was working in the prison and she was secretly leading men to Christ. The officials saw that each prisoner that had converted to Christianity, after their release, did not reenter the prison system. This impressed the officials so much that the prison officials allowed Tilahun to bring a Christmas program/dinner to the prisoners. However, instead of a Christmas dinner the prison officials suggested Hand of God Ministries put fans in the compact living quarters of the prisoners. This was to help make their living area more tolerable. On Christmas Day over 150 men gave their hearts to Jesus. This opened the doors for evangelizing and teaching God’s Word to the prisoners. In the last 5 years, a team goes into the prison twice a week for church services and Bible studies.
Hand of God Ministry was able to make such an impact because when John returned from Ethiopia he spoke of the need within the prison with members of the Full Gospel Business Men’s Fellowship International. The Full Gospel Business Men’s Fellowship International quickly met the need and provided the money necessary to bring Christmas to the inmates.
The prison was deteriorated and badly needed replacing. Local officials began plans to replace the dilapidated buildings of the prison. To the left is a picture of the current prison’s front gate. It’s hard to imagine that the gate actually keeps anyone in.
The act of giving Christmas dinner opened so many doors in Gondar. It has given the Christian community in this part of Ethiopia an opportunity they hadn’t had before. When prison officials decided to build a new prison, they approached Hand of God Ministries
Recently, the government and the prison officials told Tilahun they are building a new prison outside Gondar and Hand of God Ministries could have space inside the walls of their new prison to build a chapel.
Matthew 4:19 And He said to them, “Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men”. What a better way to live the word of God than to bring it to those who have not heard it before.
Prison Chapel Project
This is the place we had been given permission to build, however because of the wars over the last several years we have not been able to go back into the prison. We were having ministry in the woman’s part of the prison and had built playground equipment for the children that live with their mothers there, but have not been able to do that for the last 3 years. When I was there last year they gave us permission to hire a chaplain to go in and minister and begin to build relationships. Hopefully we will do that soon.
Helping Men Become Better Husbands and Fathers
Men’s Conference
We had translated the movie “COURAGEOUS” into Amharic and were doing men’s and women’s conferences until COVID stopped gatherings….. We hope to begin them again soon.
Teaching Young Men and Women about sexual purity
Purity Conference
This is a wonderful project we had started some time ago and hope to restart the conferences to the great young people in Ethiopia.