Daniel Amare knew my wife before I ever met her. At that time, he was working as a sound engineer for massive crusades with the Joshua Campaign, led by Karl Hargestam and for World Impact Ministries with Peter Youngren. He also worked for several years showing “Heaven’s Gates, Hell’s Flames” to rural villages in Ethiopia. On today’s podcast he discusses evangelism in the nation of Ethiopia.
Connect with Daniel Amara on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/daniel.amare3
Transcript:
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (00:00):
Daniel Amare knew my wife before I ever met her. At that time, he was working as a sound engineer for massive crusades with the Joshua campaign led by Karl Hargestam and for World Impact Ministries with Peter Youngren. He also worked for several years showing “Heaven’s Gates, Hell’s flames” to rural villages in Ethiopia. On today’s podcast he discusses evangelism in the nation of Ethiopia.
Evangelism Podcast Host (00:41):
Welcome to the evangelism podcast with Dr. Daniel King, where Daniel interviews, full-time evangelists, pastors, missionaries, and normal everyday Christians to discover how they share their faith, their powerful testimonies and amazing stories that will inspire you to reach people with the good news. And now here’s your host, missionary and evangelist Daniel King.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (01:06):
Welcome To the evangelism podcast. I’m Daniel King, and I’m excited about telling people about Jesus today. I have a very special guest with me, Daniel Amare in Ethiopia. Thank you for being with me today.
Daniel Amare (01:19):
Thank you for inviting me for this program. I’m also very happy to be with you for this program.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (01:26):
Well, thank you. You have actually known my wife Jessica longer than I have known her. Tell me how did you meet my wife, Jessica.
Daniel Amare (01:37):
Okay. I think about maybe more than 15 years we met with her I think when we are going to perform World Impact ministry Crusade in Kenya especially the place, I don’t know, maybe Carrie or Kaga also with Joshua Campaign, but we stay with work closely for six months there and we evangelize there. There are so many friends still. I remember them. We were having a very, very special time at that time. We are evangelizing by all our power, you know, the passion that time what we have is amazing still, you know so I’m very, very happy being known with Jessica. Jessica was my best friend at that time and she is working closely with me whenever she go. I was there and wherever I go, she was with me.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (02:40):
I know Jessica loves you very much. Wow. And so at that time world impact ministries was the ministry led by pastor Peter Youngren, great Canadian evangelist. And Jessica was working with pastor Peter. She actually lived in Kenya as a, a missionary team leader for a year. And then she became a crusade director and helped to organize some of the world impact crusades. And so that’s where she met you. And at that time you were one of the, the sound engineers for the, the big crusade and, and you helped to, to set up the sound system and make sure all the sound was, was working. Right. tell me, what was some of the fruit that you saw the, were those big crusades?
Daniel Amare (03:34):
Yes, absolutely. You know first for the first program, we move Joshua campaign sound system and the track from Ethiopia down to Nairobi. Also we have, I think, more than six programs in Kenya and then after, and
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (03:57):
Joshua campaign is the ministry by Karl Hargestam. Yeah. He’s from the nation of Sweden and he started Joshua campaign and, and now the leader of Joshua campaign is per office. And, and we’re actually here this week in Ethiopia with Joshua campaign, many years later, they have been doing crusades across this whole part of Africa for, for 23 years now. But you were there in the very early days, the very beginning.
Daniel Amare (04:24):
Yes. I’m also the first man for Joshua campaign also. And also for pastor Peter. He, he came to Egypt and meet the Joshua campaign founder, Karl Hargestam. I was there and we were for every pro together with pastor Peter Youngren and Karl Hargestam. Then after some time pastor Peter sent his new sound system from Canada to Nairobi. I was there in Nairobi and I built another very new sound tower stage. And so many things after that with drive down to Tanzania even to Tanzi bar also, we have unforgetable mission time at that time. I think it is more than 70 years or something.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (05:17):
You have been involved in evangelism for many years now. After you worked with Joshua campaign, then you began to work with a, another ministry here in Ethiopia that was using the tool of heavens gates. Hell’s flames to evangelize. Tell me about that and what that evangelism was like.
Daniel Amare (05:37):
Okay. the ministry called reality outreach ministry and it Lee by pastor Chris. He lived in London and he is a, a African coordinator also, and we have one ministry here. We project “Heaven’s Gate and Hell’s Flame” every night to the invited church, the churches will invite us. We go there and we project that movie. It is very powerful movie video. And so many people are surrender their life for Jesus. I served with them for about six years in six years, for sure. I can say more than 10,000 people get saved through that ministry. I remember even with one night video program, about 600 people got saved in down south Ethiopia also in ADIs ADIs is a big city and we project no we did a live drama in one of the big churches with one day presentation, about 450 people got saved here in the middle of the town.
Daniel Amare (06:55):
So it was very, very powerful. I don’t know this time I didn’t hear that much because of the politics and the living things in our country. The ministry do not act that much like when I serve. So it was very, very powerful ministry and I did with them and with Joshua is already impact ministry. You know, from the day I got saved still, I am serving God on the mission field right now, you know sometimes when Corona COVID 19 become active things are going down. So that time living is very char. So I working part-time in the church and I try to manage my families. You know, I work on one Christian international hotel as a manager, but it takes me away from ministry that was not good for me because that is not in my heart. So
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (07:57):
You obviously have a great call from your God, from, from God on your life for evangelism and a, a passion and a, and a heart for that. And, and God has honored that over the years, and you’ve done so much evangelism here in Ethiopia and, and, and now you’re, you’re working with a church here. Tell me what is Evangel like at the, at the local level, working with the church
Daniel Amare (08:23):
Evangelism, you know every church has claim that they’re doing evangelism, but when you come to the tangible things most of them are not evangelism. They’re not working evangelism, they’re promoting them because when you are evangelism, people must be God serve and must be disciples of Jesus. Then they must be attached with the church and with the ministry for the, the rest of the lifetime. So at this time somebody can hear and he, he decided to accept Jesus. Then there is no people to follow him to make, to help him to grow in the house of God. So my church, we plant a new church, maybe it’s about four months old. This time we are struggling to erect, but we put a very clear strategy and goals for our ministry. And we decide to make every new believes who came to Jesus to disciple the, and to help them to grow fully in Jesus Christ. So that make made a change. You know, this time for this time Christianity and the church politics, we call Ethiopia, this is church politics because every ministers, every, every pastors are fighting for themselves as, not for mission, not for their call. So we need to make, to push these things toward the right direction which is stated in the Bible.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (10:09):
Let’s talk about the nation of Ethiopia for a moment. Ethiopia mentioned many times throughout scripture. Yeah. And God’s eye is upon this nation. It’s a very special nation. In fact, in the book of Psalms, it says that Ethiopia shall quickly stretch out her arms towards God. And, and we’ve seen that in our crusade, in, in ambo Ethiopia this week, thousands of people lifted up their hands it to say yes to, to Jesus. And over the years Christianity has, has grown greatly in Ethiopia. Really Christianity goes all the way back to acts chapter eight, the Ethiopian Munich, who was ministered to by the first evangelist, Philip, the evangelist. And so Ethiopia as a very rich heritage of serving Jesus. But during the, the era of communism the evangelical church at the end of that era, that they, they were very persecuted. They were tortured for their faith.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (11:14):
Many Christians were even killed. And at the end of that peer, the, the evangelical church was only about a 3% of a nation at that time. Maybe about 40 million people. Yeah, well, today the nation of Ethiopia has 112 million people. And the evangelical church has grown from 3% to now it’s over or 20%. And so this is one of the greatest revivals in church history. Not many people know about what God is doing here in Ethiopia, but just tell me, what is it like to be a part of that and to, and, and what do you think God’s plans are for the nation of Ethiopia?
Daniel Amare (11:54):
Great and very interested question that, you know everything is, as you say in the book of God, Ethiopia mentioned more than 40 times, you know, and the first country, which mentioned before Israel also is Ethiopia. So God has a pro is for Ethiopia, and he has a covenant with Ethiopia. So what, right now we can see in Ethiopia is that his king his covenant is fulfilled because you know, Ethiopia more than 10 years, I know but the previous government is the previous administrative systems in Ethiopia are very, very harsh. And for Christianity also, you know, everywhere Christians and churches are persecuted. You can’t have a right even to have a Bible in your hand, in some part of Ethiopia, more, maybe more than half part of Ethiopia in a, and in, in some big cities only you can worship open door.
Daniel Amare (12:59):
Maybe you can express your faith boldly for anybody, but when you go to the Northern part of Ethiopia, which is right now in problem in travel with the war with the previous ruling art so that people are claimed, they are the first believers of the world. Even they claim more than Israels before Israels, they are the first believes Christian people and the original genuine Christian believes that is Al sort of church. We call it and they, they do not teach them their believes the Bible. So their Christianity is mix it, highly mix it with heroes and cultures, you know, so that thing crippled the truth. Christianity grows in Ethiopia, but be after 10 years the churches got a big chance to declare themselves as a Christian community.
Daniel Amare (14:07):
And they start evangelizing all over the country. We are doing here and there, and so many big, big Cru with Joshua campaign, the first big Crusader in Ethiopia. And I want to thank them right now. And Peter and green also did a very, very big things. And also you, as a evangelist came to Ethiopia, even we go together to the Western part of Ethiopia, you remember to the south. And we did in many, many parts of Ethiopia, a big Evangel evangelized Crucet. And there are very, very fruitful. Maybe we don’t have tangible data in the churches, but I think they are, we Christians in Egypt right now, more than 20% of the population. The other thing, what I want to say before you can see churches, maybe within one or two kilometers or distance, but nowaday, maybe 500 meters, you can get two, three churches even around us.
Daniel Amare (15:19):
Right now, we have about six churches within radius of 500 meters. So that is also sign for our girls of Christianity. And many, many ministry is, are now active in Ethiopia. Also. I am also, you know I have a mission in Northern part of Ethiopia at BARDA. There is one tribe, which is negative white of people. They claim they are Muslims, but they are not Muslims because the Muslims society, even they do not give them a chance to be with them. They are almost the people who, which are hit by other community of the Northern part of Ethiopia. They eat hippos meat and they are not good in
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (16:12):
Eat hippo meat. Yes. Is that good? Have you had some?
Daniel Amare (16:16):
Not Good. So because of that, the other people reject them, you know, they’re living at out skirts of the bar city in numbers. There are about 10,000 last year I was there for one week to study about that society because we have a plan to evangelize them. So I have five people with me who are working for that mission, and we are working with Northern bar city Christian fellowship together. And we have going to train and the pastors in the city, how to reach this unreached people to evangelize. So the other many ministries are working here and there in Ethiopia. So right now the evangelize evangelizing work is in very good way. The only thing. Now we have, have a difficult about the war or the conflict in Northern part of Ethiopia. It tax lot of evangelism workers around there because we have a plan even to move to Tua. But right now it is impossible, impossible. We believe that God may give us a good time to reach them.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (17:34):
We are praying for the peace of Ethiopia,
Daniel Amare (17:37):
Praise God that we need the whole world need to pray because we are following the medias of the Western world. They transmit not good and genuine news because as you see now, Ethiopia is very peaceful country, but they still, every day they say Ethiopia is in danger is not good area to live even to visit. So it’s false. So fake news here and there, you know, co
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (18:09):
Well, we have felt completely safe the entire time that we have been here. And everyone that we have met here in Ethiopia has just been so welcoming and so gracious and kind to us. Let’s talk a little bit more about my wife, Jessica. Oh, okay. You knew her before. I met her. Yes. Tell me, what was she like back in the day? What was it that made it so special that to work with with my wife, Jessica
Daniel Amare (18:38):
Jessica is a wonderful woman. You know, she loves too much. Jesus.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (18:45):
That’s why I married her.
Daniel Amare (18:46):
Yes. I know. I know. Even, you know I know you before you, you, you, you meet her. I think, so you love Jesus. She love Jesus. And that is a great combination. So you know, she also has a different hurt for me. I know I very much, because I have so many pictures in my home which is together with her. You know, when we are going to sh shine place, she’s with me, I have a picture. I have a picture with her when we go to buy something in market cultural market in Tanzania, in Kenya, in so many different places to visit zoo visit some special places. You know, I know I have a good place in her, her heart, me too, you know why I’m running to visit and to see you because I thought I may meet her through you.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (19:52):
Well, Jessica sends her love. She is in Tulsa, Oklahoma now with our, our two children. But I know that she has great love for you and, and just really enjoyed working with the Lord hand in hand with you so many years ago brother Daniel, thank you so much for being on the evangelism podcast. Thank you for working for the Lord and your heart for evangelism. You are such a great blessing.
Daniel Amare (20:20):
Thank you. Thank you. And I want to say Jessica just take my greetings for your kids and Jessica too. I am very pleased for what she is still doing with Jesus. Thank you, Jessica. Be blessed.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (20:39):
Amen. Thanks so much for listening to the evangelism podcast. I am excited about telling people about Jesus and we could not preach the gospel without your help. Over our years of ministry, we found that we’re able to reach one person for Jesus, for every dollar that people give us. And so that means that if you would give us $1, we could start a party in head. In fact, I’m asking people to join our partnership program and give at least $1 every single month to help us to lead more people to Jesus. This is the greatest investment of your dollar that you can make. It’s the only investment that’s gonna matter 10,000 years from now. So if you would like to, to help us lead people to Jesus, please visit king ministries.com K I N G king ministries.com and help us lead people to Jesus today. God bless you
Evangelism Podcast Host (21:40):
For more information about how to share your faith or to financially support our worldwide evangelistic outreaches. Visit king ministries.com. Again, that’s king ministries.com.
