Mohammed Seid Ali was born into a Muslim family and he was sent for Islamic training to Oman. Today he shares the amazing story of how God saved him. Now, he is a church planter. On today’s episode, we discuss his role in the church planting strategy of the Joshua Campaign. Their goal is to do frontier evangelism in the hardest to reach village areas of Ethiopia.
Connect with Joshua Campaign on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/joshucampaignethiopia/
Transcript:
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (00:00):
Mohammed Seid Ali was born into a Muslim family and he was sent for Islamic training Toman today. He shares the amazing story of how God saved him. Now. He is a Christian Church planner. On today’s episode, we discuss his role in the church planting STR of the Joshua campaign. Their goal is to do frontier evangelism in the hardest to reach village areas 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 (01:05):
Welcome to the evangelism podcast. I’m Daniel King, and I’m excited about telling people about Jesus. Today. I am in the nation of Ethiopia in the city of ambo and I have brother Mohamed with me. He is a church planter working with Joshua campaign brother Mohamed. Thank you so much for being with me today.
Mohammed Seid Ali (01:28):
Thank you. Thank you. Thank you so much. Thank you.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (01:33):
So Joshua campaign is led by Per Akvist. He is from the nation of Sweden, but he’s married to an Ethiopia and it was originally founded by Karl Hargestam, who is another missionary from Sweden and they have done massive gospel crusades all over the nation of Ethiopia, but a very important part of following up on new believers is planting churches because in many places there are not churches. And so brother Mohamed is leading the church planting effort. Can you tell me a little bit about the strategy that Joshua campaign is using to plant churches here in the nation of Ethiopia?
Mohammed Seid Ali (02:23):
Thank you so much for asking me this. As, as you know, that, as you said, that Joshua campaign church planting department, as one of the department in Joshua campaign we have strategy and roadmap to reach the unre people nowaday. We are planting a church in third part of Ethiopia. It’s a region that’s totally UN rich area. The nation that’s Muslims nation. So Joshua campaign together, working partner with God love covenant church together. And
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (03:06):
So God’s love covenant church is a denomination. It’s a group of churches about how many churches are, are in God’s love covenant church
Mohammed Seid Ali (03:15):
Nowadays about 70 churches,
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (03:19):
70 churches working, and you’re actively working to plant more. Yeah.
Mohammed Seid Ali (03:23):
So now just we are focusing in Eastern part of Ethiopia, just we are planning to plant 120 churches Eastern, just, we are focusing like 30 churches in five years. Next year, maybe we’ll, we’ll have 120 churches.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (03:44):
Wow. That’s wonderful vision. And so talk to me about how you are planting churches. I know that recently Joshua campaign has purchased some motorcycles. Originally. They wanted to purchase one motorcycle for a church planter and miraculously God provided enough funds to be able to purchase four motorcycles. So what are you doing with those motorcycles?
Mohammed Seid Ali (04:08):
Yeah just we are, we are doing with those motorcycles. We are going to visit the unreached area that not go or reach the car, the vehicles, you know, that’s why we use those bikes to go there and to visit and to serve the people group, especially in a remote area. So those full motor bikes still, they are not enough just we need more motor bike and car because as you know, that CHOP’s very wide country. So especially in Eastern part of Ethiopia, we need more motorbikes and car.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (04:53):
So you’re using the motorbikes to go into remote regions where a car cannot go. Yeah. Where there’s no other way to get there and you’re going, I’m sure it’s very bumpy. You’re going very far. Yeah. And there are no churches in these areas. Yeah,
Mohammed Seid Ali (05:13):
No churches no can car cannot reach the place. So we use those motorbike like valley. Sometimes it can be valley. It can be like, you know, mountains like that. So we use those bikes to resource people group.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (05:31):
So how many motor bikes in vehicles do you think are needed for the, the church planters in your vision? What would you like to see?
Mohammed Seid Ali (05:40):
Okay, now we like you, like, as you, as you know that we are, we have only four motorbike for the next five, six years. Maybe we need around 50 motorbike,
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (05:54):
50 motorbikes. Yeah. And, and do you have church planters that are ready to take the motorbikes out and plant churches?
Mohammed Seid Ali (06:01):
Yeah, we already, we are now we have some around maybe 60 or 70 people that ready to train, guess we are, we gonna train them? We just focusing on them to send them out for the mission. So we need those motorbike for those guys for those missionaries.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (06:23):
And so these are truly unreached areas that they’re going to, how are you training these church planters? I, I know Joshua campaign has a Bible school. And then do you give them specialized training to know how to plant a church in an unreached area?
Mohammed Seid Ali (06:40):
Yes. Yes, we have. We, we just have training center and also we have Bible institution also. We are just building and focusing on that. Just, we also have like based in, adema called the city Adama. Yes. We have training centers there. So we gather them and we train them how to reach a people group, how to, you know, reach the unrich area. Then we will train them how to preach the gospel one to one and how to train and give follow up for the disciples for those who served. That’s our strategy. Sorry.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (07:27):
I know that Joshua campaign has a beautiful piece of land right next to a lake. And the goal is to turn that land into a training training center for church planters and for missionaries, for people who are going out to the nation of Ethiopia. Right now they are putting together a plan to build dormitories and meeting rooms there. And it actually has a hanger for a helicopter. The goal is to have a helicopter there, to even get to the places where the motorcycles I cannot go. And so you’re truly on the front edge of evangelism. This is true frontier evangelism that you are doing now. Your name is Mohamed. What’s your full name?
Mohammed Seid Ali (08:13):
Okay. My name is Mohammed Seid Ali,
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (08:18):
It’s. Now when people hear Mohammed, they immediately, they don’t think of Christian Church planter. They think of someone who is Muslim. Yeah. And, and, and so were you born in a Muslim background?
Mohammed Seid Ali (08:31):
Yeah, my, my family, they’re from Muslim background, my mother, my father they’re Muslim background. I also grew up from a Muslim in background and I started grow and I grew up with my family. Then suddenly I went to Yemen and I start, I had started growing school there in Yemen. So one day, you know, I met a guy and he told me that my friend do you know Moham? There is Christians missionary here. They are working here. So they are preaching gospel here. So I was very jealous. How can be like that? I don’t believe I’m shock. And so I told my IAM, the leader of the mosque and he also, he became more nervous and how it could be like this. Then he told me to go and check and survey if they, so when I go there, the place where the Christians living the place, they were missionary, they were missionary, but they are giving like volunteers, they have a hospital and they give free volunteers service for the people.
Mohammed Seid Ali (09:45):
So, but underground, they preach gospel. That was their mission. So I, then I went there and I met the guy. So the guy I asked him, who are you? Yeah. He also told me that, who are you? Then? I told him that my, my name is Mohamed, but I heard that there is some Christians working here. So he said, he asking me that, do you want any help that, yes, I’m Christian. Do you want any help? I say, I, when I saw him, he’s just young. He looks very good, handsome. So I don’t believe you are a Christian. I felt that Christians are like, you know, demon or something like that. You know, finally he touched my shoulder and something is shocked. My body, maybe demon or some spirit. So I felt deliverers, you know? So he took me somewhere and we said together, invite me coffee, some other things.
Mohammed Seid Ali (10:43):
And he said to tell me about Jesus. So he’s the best missionary he’s trained missionary. He told me about Quran. He took some verse from Quran. He build that word according to the grand. So it was excited. He, he told me that he taught me, oh, I create heaven and earth. You believe that? Yeah. I believe that that’s also written on the ground and create element Ave. How in Adam? Yeah. Yeah. I believe that. Yeah. And finally, he, he, he mentioned a lot of Bibles qu and Bibles, you know, together. Then finally he took something from the Bible about Abraham and his son. God told him to kill his son. So do you know that? Yeah, but he’s not his it’s, like I said, that it’s a smell. Okay, come on. No problem. He said, he told me that. Okay. But you know why, what the purpose that God, you know, told Braham to kill his son.
Mohammed Seid Ali (11:47):
I don’t know that. Then he revealed that the main, the court things, you know, so he said, God also loves us. You know? So he, he send his son, Jesus Christ and he die for us, you know, finally. Oh, that’s why he, God, he send Jesus to die for us. Whoa is excited. Oh, that’s why I regard saying ISA. He told me a lot of things. Also, he, he mentioned from the Quran also about Mary, about mayor Maria, you know? So, so he told me about him also. And also, you know, God, he, the world by his, the world by his word, do you believe that? I say, yeah. Also in the ground, that reason Jesus, he, the word of God Killah, he said, yeah. So God, he create a world by his word. That was, is, that was Jesus. Oh, that’s another revelation I get.
Mohammed Seid Ali (12:53):
Okay. Finally, he took me a lot of things. Then I went to the mosque, but I can to tell that what I, what I heard, what I finally, I decide to fly away from that mosque. Then I went somewhere. Then I got house rent. Then I, I got one, God, he provide another woman that she’s a Christian. Then she’s sure my neighbor one night, you know, I was sleeping. That was the amazing thing. God changed my life. I was sleeping in my room. I felt, I saw the, the dream. You know, that dream was, you know, I was sleeping. Then I, I was going to fish a fish. Then I went to the lake. Then I tried to cut a fish, but it’s not a fish. It’s the Lake’s totally dark. Then I saw a man, a white guy. He’s very nice gentle guy. I say how, how it could be like that. This is, this is, you know, dark leg. It’s not, it’s not, it looks not looks good. So why it happened like that? Then I took that person to somewhere. Then I back again, I got a lot of people there from that dark leg. Then I wake up
Mohammed Seid Ali (14:22):
The next day that woman, the Christian woman she’s fixing coffee. And she invited me to drink there. Some Christians fellowship, they have there. So there was talking about their dreams immediately. The dream that I saw yesterday night, it came in my mind and oh please, can you hear me? I got some dream in my it’s yesterday. Oh, everybody’s quiet because I’m a Muslim. Then they start to hear were my dream. I start to talk to them. Then the woman, she said, hallelujah, that I heard that voice. The first time hallelujah said, she start to pro in my life. Mohammed, I’m telling you now from this day, I’m telling you you’ll be the disciple of Jesus Christ. I’m telling you, like she took some Bible verse, you know about Peter. And he was like fisherman. He told, you know, he start to fish. He went to fish.
Mohammed Seid Ali (15:22):
But God told him that yo, you will be a fisherman. A man. You will then, oh, is there in the Bible? Yes. She took the Bible and she, she, she showed me that. Then I say the dream that I saw and it’s completely the same. Then I say, what can I do? She told me, okay, now you have to bow down. Then stretch your hand and say like this pray. Okay. I saw her and she told me everything. She told me then, okay. I will come back waiting me. Then I went to my room. I bow down there and I stretched my hand. I start to pray. Thank you, Jesus. Now I believe you. Yes, you are. Lord. You are my savior from this. I decide to receive, you take all my life. Then I decided, I don’t know the same nights. I got peace in my life.
Mohammed Seid Ali (16:22):
Then I went back to Ethiopia immediately. So I had a lot of suffering. Of course, after I decided and received, Jesus just rejected me from the fellowship and the Muslim fellowship. They rejected me from the community. And finally they deport me to Ethiopia and I made some friends here and they took, they took me to the church and I, they baptized me. Finally. I made per west, I, her to drive by. And he, he came to my by judge. And he told me about Jesus. Yeah, I’m believer. I said, but he start to, he invite me to in his house. Then he invite me, my wife and me together and his house lunch. Then he start to pro my, you have a calling in your life just, oh, it was, it changed my life. You know? Then I decide. Then he said, now you, you have to work with me. You have to, what, what can I, what, what can I work with you? He, he told me that, okay, now you’ll be my interpreter, my translator. I don’t speak English. I said, okay, no problem. I give you dictionary and Bible that encouraged me. Then I start work with him. And finally just, I became,
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (17:48):
Oh wow. And now God has made you a church planter. Yeah. And because you come from a Muslim background, yeah. You have a great heart for reaching Muslims here in Ethiopia. Are, are there many Muslims in these community where you are planting the churches?
Mohammed Seid Ali (18:04):
Yeah. A lot of, a lot of, a lot of people’s there are Muslim in, in the community. Just, we are now focusing on because we now train a lot of from like, as I told you that we have so churches in west Western part of Ethiopia. So we took some leaders from there and will train them and we will send, send them the Muslim community because the Muslims they need practical and life and love, you know? So just, I, my, my vision and my strategy is to teach them how to reach the Muslims. You know, just, you have, God has a strategy for the Muslim different strategy for the Muslims to reach, you know, so that’s my goal to train and send my, a lot of missionary in the Muslim area.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (18:55):
Wow. That’s amazing. Well, if you have a heart to help reach unreached areas in Ethiopia, frontier evangelism, if you have a heart for planting churches among Muslim areas in Ethiopia, then I want to encourage you to start to support Joshua campaign on my webpage. I’m going to post a link to where you can get in touch with pair office and with Joshua campaign Ethiopia, and you can help to support the ministry. We need help by buying motorcycles for church planters. We need somebody to give us a car yeah. To help with the church planters. Yeah. We need help to build dormitories for the Bible school and for the, the church planting Institute that is being planted. And, and so if, if you feel like God is speaking to you and you want to help to reach people who need Jesus in the most remote areas, the very front lines of gospel evangelism that I encourage you to support Joshua campaign and be a part of this amazing miracle of what God is doing here in Ethiopia, brother, Mohamed. It is so wonderful to hear your story. You have such a beautiful testimony of what God has done and, and you are now very well educated. You’ve done your, your master’s degree in Christian leadership, and now you’re working on your, your PhD. And so God is using you in such tremendous ways. And, and God has more for you. I believe that you will see many churches planted and you will see a great harvest of souls here in Ethiopia in Jesus name. Thank you. Thank you for being on the evangelism podcast.
Mohammed Seid Ali (20:40):
Thank you. Thank you. Thank you so much that inviting me in this Evangeline Broca B thank you that also to support and stand with, with us, with this ministry, as you say that we need car, we need also you now to reach the Muslims like 500, 600 kilometer from Ababa. So we need Madras. We need a lot of dormitory, a lot of things, you know, to go to reach those area. Thank you so much. Thank you.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (21:13):
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 heaven. 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 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 (22:14):
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.
