Why Ethiopia
In sub-Saharan Africa, 1 out of every 8 children is an orphan. Of the 143 million orphans worldwide, more live in Ethiopia than any other country in the world. Just twice the size of Texas, it is home to five million orphaned children. While international adoption from Ethiopia has increased in recent years, at the current rate it would take 5 million families, $125 billion, and 2,500 years to solve the Ethiopian orphan crisis.
Even with 19% of the population being evangelical and 14 million members attending 30,000 local churches across the nation (a movement that is growing by 8.5% every year), there is no significant practice of local adoption in Ethiopia. The primary solution embraced thus far by the local church has been limited to child sponsorship. There is a lack of awareness concerning the orphan crisis, a lack of appropriate working strategies and systems to address it, a shifting of responsibilities to governmental programs and NGOs, limited resources, and a lack of faithful integration between the message of the gospel and its outworking through the local church and into the lives of orphaned and vulnerable children.
This is due in part to the lack of training available for the leaders of these churches. Fifty-two percent of church leaders have less than a year of training after graduating high school, 92% of which is not related to ministry or church leadership. There is only one graduate-level seminary in Ethiopia, and only 20% of denominations have access to it. In a country with 30,000 local evangelical pastors, it enrolls around 100 students per year. Many serve their churches for little or no income, and such training is simply unattainable.
YOU can help bring local adoption to Ethiopian churches. Just $70 covers ALL expenses for a local pastor and his wife to attend the Seed Adoption training. Click here for more.