Volume 9 Issue 3 101 N. Zeysing · P O Box 228 · Alma, MO 64001 · 660.674.2222 · www.houseoffriends.

org

God's heart for Ethiopia and its

impact on us as a house of friends
took John Gross, Gizaw Derseh,
and Kenton Higgins to Cedar
Rapids, Iowa to meet with members
of the Cedar Rapids House Church
Network.
Long in the making, this trip was
designed to build vision for House
of Friends’ initial outreach to Ethiopia this summer. Several Members
of the house church in Cedar Rapids will be joining John Gross and
Gizaw Derseh to explore a partnership to build orphanages in Ethiopia.
This short trip focused our hearts on the mission ahead of us.
The whole house church gathered Saturday, February 28th to hear
from Gizaw Derseh, an Ethiopian pastor who has moved to America.
Gizaw serves as the Executive Director of Ethiopian Evangelical
Christian Association, a network of Ethiopian churches from across the
United States. Travis had asked Gizaw to speak on what the church in
America could learn from the church in Ethiopia. Gizaw shared about
the revival that had broken out in Ethiopia during (continued page 2)
Native American Outreach directors, Dale and Jeanie
Ritter, are gearing up for a mission trip to Pine Ridge
Indian Reservation to take furniture, appliances, household goods, and
spring clothing for the Lakota Sioux. Donations will be received for
this trip up to April 15. The trip will be made sometime after the 15th.
Alma Jones, missionary, has been a great
blessing to Abba House. She has been taking
the children to doctor appointments and check-
ing on their needs, making sure they are well
Alma Jones, House of cared for. She reports they are doing well and
Friends missionary, sitting that the home has need of the following items:
on Abba House porch with
the children during one of Blankets Mattress pads for bed wetters
her weekly visits. Sheets School uniforms
Travis Kolder,
House of Friends
board member,
grew up in a small
town in North East-
ern Iowa. He was
saved at the age of
15 from a life of New Age involvement
and witchcraft when his mother was
dramatically healed from a form of life
threatening cancer. Since that time he
has given his life to sharing the Gospel,
planting house churches, and advancing
the Kingdom through strategic prayer
and intercession.
Travis' first trip to Africa was with
House of Friends founder and board chair-
man, John Gross, in 2007. That trip and
subsequent experiences opened his eyes to
both the needs of the nations and the great
opportunity to learn from the believers
there. “The church in the West has a
tremendous opportunity to not only serve
the church all over the world, but we have
a chance to see what God is doing in these
lands that He is not doing in America. I
love to serve, but I go frequently to have
my own Western ideas stretched and
changed,” said Travis.
Travis and his wife Christy live in
Cedar Rapids, Iowa where they serve as
church planters with the Cedar Rapids
House Church Network. Their vision is to
raise up Christ-centered spiritual families
that prepare the Earth for the end of the
age. They meet with other young families
throughout the week for encouragement,
prayer, and mission-focused planning for
the city of Cedar Rapids.
Travis is a Consumer Loan Officer at
Collins Community Credit Union in
Cedar Rapids. He has worked there for
almost 5 years. He and his wife Christy
have two children, Ariel and Joel.

ETHIOPIA (continued) Communist occupa-
tion of that country. He said during that
time there were no longer Lutherans or
Baptists, but that all the denominations
faded and that prayer and fasting became
the norm for the believers of Ethiopia.
Gizaw was careful to state that persecution
is not necessary for revival to come, but that
believers need to make hard choices when
they have freedoms such as we do because
the freedoms can distract us from being
disciples of the Lord. Gizaw spoke at length
about the need to give ourselves to prayer
and gather together as believers frequently
to pray and fast. According to Gizaw, this
was a powerful component of the revival in
Ethiopia. It became clear from Gizaw's
testimony that we have a lot of room to
grow in becoming disciples of Christ.
John Gross shared with those going on
the summer trip to Ethiopia—Sean, Kevin,
and Travis of the house church—that the
focus of the trip is a chance to build serious
relationships with the people of Ethiopia in
order to help bring the gifts of Ethiopia back
to Jerusalem (Isaiah 18:7).
Gizaw shared first hand information
about the region. Time was then spent in
team building and vision casting for the trip
occurring this summer.
The team from Kansas City left the
house church stirred and encouraged both to
be a part of what God is doing around the
world and to fulfill their calling where they
are planted.
P O Box 228 · Alma, MO 64001
Stacie Shaw (left) and her friend,
AmyRose (middle), at a young age,
have been called to Uganda to bring
hope to the orphans. They say, “We
enjoy getting ourselves dirty by play-
ing with orphans and teaching them
about the hope of Christ.”
Their trip to Uganda is to begin
working with the Uganda government
to establish an orphanage with the
long-term goal to start adoptions into
the U.S. They are “friends” of House
of Friends and are spending time with
Abba House children and helping out.
Our partnership with them will expand
as they take on handling adoptions
from Uganda.
Stacie and AmyRose took on a two
-day project that turned into two
weeks. The project was painting of the
inside of Abba House. It took sanding
walls by hand, putting on undercoat
and then the color. With kids in and
out and newspaper to protect the floor
being moved around, it became
necessary to also paint the floor.
Through their labor of love, once drab
limestone became a joyful atmosphere
that brought on the smiles.
These young women also helped
measure everyone’s feet for new school shoes which are being
purchased with donations from Kansas City Christian Fellowship
and sponsors.