Handful of Ethiopian Christians grow into denomination

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DESOTO—A missionary returned to Ethiopia after 20 years to find a growing Baptist population.

Lauralee Lindholm felt called to missions in the fifth grade when a missionary from Nigeria spoke at her church. She and her husband, Ray, later became missionaries to Africa—first in Nigeria and later in Ethiopia.

The Lindholms—now members of Windsor Park Baptist Church in DeSoto—served 18 years with the Southern Baptist Foreign Mission Board before returning to the States. Upon her retirement after 20 years as a teacher, she and her husband began making return trips to Ethiopia as Texas Partnerships envoys with the Baptist General Convention of Texas.

Members fill Gulele Church on Dedication Sunday. (PHOTOS/Courtesy of Heart for Ethiopia)

Texas Baptists help support BGCT Texas Partnerships through gifts to the Mary Hill Davis Offering for Texas Missions.

The Lindholms have worked in an area dominated by the Ethiopian Orthodox Church, but they found few people who were familiar with the Bible. Opportunities to witness were unique because few, if any, other missionaries had been allowed into an Orthodox area.

The Lindholms have returned to Ethiopia two or three times a year for the last six years. A great deal has changed since their first stay in the country.

“We left a handful of believers,” she said. “When we came back, there was a denomination of Baptists.”

In the last six years, the membership of the Ethiopian Addis Kidan Baptist Association has grown from 12,000 to 17,000, she said.


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Veteran missionaries Lauralee and Ray Lindholm have served the last six years as Texas Partnerships mission envoys to Ethiopia.

“They’re growing rapidly,” Lindholm said. “We’re helping them to become self-supporting and trained, so they can train their own leaders.”

Many of the children she ministered to 20 years ago left and went to universities. The people from this area have gone out and done a great deal with their lives, and she said their success came through their belief in God.

“When they become Christians, God turns the light on in their mind,” Lindholm said. “They just excel in their faith.”

Many Ethiopians still struggle with poverty, AIDS, short life expectancy and lack of development in their country, but Lindholm said these people give so much.

“They are gracious, hospitable, loving people,” Lindholm said. “They have almost nothing, but whatever they have, they will share.”

Encouragement is the Ethiopians’ greatest need, she said. A missionary’s presence shows these people that someone is praying for them around the world, she added.

“Just knowing they’re not by themselves in all of this,” Lindholm said. “There is encouragement.”

Lindholm not only gives her time and money to help the people in Ethiopia, she works to get other people involved. Lindholm and her husband started a nonprofit organization, Heart for Ethiopia.

This ministry helps raise funds for school supplies, tin roofs, child sponsorships, teachers and well digging. Lindholm also uses the proceeds from her book, Out of Darkness into Light, to help the churches of Ethiopia reach out to the people.

Lindholm and the other missionaries set a goal to have 10 preschools and help 1,250 students this year. The group is on track to surpass this goal by September.

A sports ministry evangelism team serves with Ethiopian children at a Mehal Meda church.

Heart of Ethiopia is working in 10 of the 87 churches in Addis Kidan Baptist Association, and Lindholm wants it to be in all of them in the future.

This ministry not only helps the people of Ethiopia, but also affects the volunteers and other missionaries.

“Everyone who goes out there gets hooked,” Lindholm said. “They want to go back and help however they can.”

She has seen the same effect in the lives of her family.

“They changed us completely,” Lindholm said about the Ethiopian people. “It has given us a passion for the Ethiopians. It is the focus of our lives.”

She acknowledges the work gets more difficult. “We’re getting older,” Lindholm said. “It’s a hard place to live.”

The electricity was off every-other day during the Lindholms’ recent visit to Ethiopia, which means no phone or water on those days.

The high altitude bothered her husband on their last trip, and he is unlikely to return. But she said she would go to Ethiopia as long as possible.

“It’s our dream to help people understand the need and how they can help,” Lindholm said.

 


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