Prison Minstry
In a time when the Christian message is not well recieved in Ethopia, Tilahun Amanu 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 life time 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 share 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 dilapataed 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.
Above, John Mustian points to the location of the planned Chapel to be built. Hand of God Ministries must raise $25,000.00 to build the chapel.
Mathew 25:36 "I was in prison and you visited me."
In the United States we are blessed to have several prison ministies such as FGBMFI, Kairos, and Good News Jail and Prison Ministry. Gondor Ethopia has only the Hand of God Ministries going into that prison twice a week. Please help us raise the money necessary to build a chapel that honors our Lord and Savior and shares his message with the "least of these".
