Ezra Rural Ministry's History
 Dereje Shiferaw, founder and director of Ezra Rural Ministry (ERM), was born in 1970 in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. He came to Christ through an underground youth group with the Ethiopian Orthodox Church, which is where he had his first encounter with the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. He was quickly drawn to the love that Jesus had for him as Dereje had a great need for love, and receiving Jesus was simple. After he received Jesus Christ into his heart, he felt a wonderful, parental type love from Him and also was given brothers and sisters in Christ.
After their conversion, Dereje, Yonas, Daniel, and other friends started a ministry in their community to evangelize and encourage the youth through underground Bible Studies and prayer groups. Because of a difference in understanding of the scriptures and persecution from the priests, they left the Orthodox Church and started a new church in partnership with Southern Baptist missionaries. The Southern Baptist Mission of Ethiopia provided these young men with training and evangelism experience. The Baptist Church opened an Amharic Certificate Bible Training School, which Dereje was instantly accepted into.
Right after he graduated from this training school he was accepted into the newly opened Evangelical Theological College (ETC). This was a major turning point for his life and ministry. He received his vision and burden for rural areas through the requirement of the college to preach in the rural areas during school vacation. That training changed him and gave him a very sharp and specific vision for his ministry. He felt called to the southern part of Ethiopia and shared this vision with many people, but they thought he was crazy for wanting to go to this remote and often difficult part of Ethiopia. In the meantime, he accepted an invitation to go on a short mission to the northern part of Ethiopia with a missionary from America. On the way home Dereje shared about his burden for the people of southern Ethiopia and the American was very touched. After returning to Addis Ababa, he contacted Dereje and said that he and a few other couples would help support him if he were to go to southern Ethiopia. Dereje went, staying in southern Ethiopia for three years planting ten churches and training and supporting thirty evangelists. After those three years, he went back to Addis Ababa where he became a pastor for two years. Finally God gave him the burden to train pastors, evangelists and church leaders instead of staying with the local church. He joined Levi Ministry for the sake of his vision and worked with them for a period of one year training the students in various subjects before God led him to a meeting with Pastor Paul Peck.
In March of 1999, Pastor Paul and Cyndi Peck of Prairie Bible Church (a rural congregation in Dillon, Montana) decided to adopt two Ethiopian girls. Paul traveled to Ethiopia to pick up his adopted daughters, but due to bureaucratic difficulties, he was forced to wait thirty days in Addis Ababa. While waiting, Paul made friends with Yonas, one of the workers in the orphanage. Over time, Paul became bored while waiting for authorization to come through and asked Yonas if there was a rural pastor like himself that he could meet. They made arrangements to go to Hosanna, a city SW of Addis Ababa, and met Dereje, a friend of Yonas’. They found Dereje very warm and friendly but preoccupied and stressed; as he had recently lost financial support for the work he was doing and didn’t know what to do. Paul was interested in hearing about the work Dereje was doing in Hosanna and was moved by Dereje’s dedication and success in bringing the salvation message to the people in the rural communities, sometimes under trying circumstances. Dereje often went without food and clean water and was at times desperately ill while continuing to minister. Paul was able to meet enough of Dereje’s financial needs to carry him through temporarily. After this visit, Paul returned to Addis Ababa and, since authorization was not obtained, on to the USA without his daughters (the girls were eventually released to the Pecks at a later date). When Paul returned home, he shared with his wife Cyndi the story of Dereje’s life and ministry and, after prayer, both decided God was leading them to begin supporting that work.
In time, the Pecks felt led to share the blessing they had received from helping Dereje, his wife Gete, and their two daughters, Meklit and Eden, in Hosanna. They began talking about it to friends and sharing it with their church. Many caught the vision to financially support, pray for, and encourage Dereje.
Soon, several families from Prairie Bible Church were supporting the work in Hosanna. With Dereje directing Ezra Rural Ministry in Ethiopia and Prairie Bible Church in Montana assuming the responsibility of finding supporters and providing oversight, the ministry grew.
Since opening the Ezra Rural Ministry Training Center in Hosanna, Dereje has now expanded the ministry to the towns of Butajira and Tiya. There are two diploma classes and two certificate classes in Hosanna; one diploma class and one certificate class in Butajira; and one certificate class in Tiya. Some of the students that have graduated from the diploma class are now teaching the certificate course back in their own villages. Combining the students from all of these classes there are currently around 210 students.
It is an amazing blessing to be a part of what God is doing in rural Ethiopia through this joint effort. The shared burden is to further develop the support base to enable Dereje to follow his vision for enlarged ministry and furthering the cause of Christ. |
