Extra Commitment Opportunities

There is a channel through which gifts can be designated for specific items that support the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)'s work around the world. These are called Extra Commitment Opportunities (ECOs). You can give directly to an ECO account online or by mailing your check designating the name and account number of the particular item you have chosen to:

PC(USA) Individual Remittance Processing
P.O. Box 643700
Pittsburgh, PA 15264-3700

Your gift will go directly into the ECO Account designated, and you will receive a letter indicating that your gift has been received and will be used for the purpose intended.

Below are some ECOs related to Ethiopia. For a complete listing visit Mission Funding's Web site and type Ethiopia into the search box.

Children and Youth

Children of Africa

Education

Bethel Evangelical Secondary School (BESS)

Bethel Evangelical Secondary School is a premier institution with a reputation for producing well-qualified graduates. With 335 students now attending, funds are needed for improvements, a new library, a laboratory and the replacement of underground water pipes. Gifts to this project may also assist with necessary related project expenses that are essential to the successful completion of this project, such as mission personnel, travel and administrative support.

Bethel Mekane Yesus School, Addis Ababa

This school enrolls about 800 girls (day students) and lives up to its name, which means the Light of Life. Bible study and daily worship are a part of the everyday schedule. The academic standards are high and in many ways the school is a model for education in Ethiopia.

Ethiopian Graduate School of Theology

The Ethiopian Graduate School of Theology (EGST) is the only graduate-level theological training program in the Horn of Africa. Its ownership is shared by the Ethiopian Evangelical Mekane Yesus Church, the PC(USA)'s partner in Ethiopia. EGST is the first graduate theological school in Ethiopia offering master's level training in systematic theology, biblical studies and church history. The mission of the school is to prepare Christlike servants through postgraduate theological training who can equip churches, primarily of Ethiopia, for maturity, ministry and mission. EGST pursues this mission primarily by training those who will serve as professors and instructors in the theological training programs of Ethiopia's many churches.

Health

Christ-centered care for AIDS patients addresses physical, spiritual and emotional needs by providing medical supplies, clinical referrals, food, household help, pastoral support and prayer. Gifts to this ECO will assist in all aspects of patient care and training of care providers as well as support for the caregivers themselves.

AIDS continues to be a crisis for entire families in many parts of the world. Gifts to this account will support congregation-based AIDS projects, prevention education, various forms of training and continuing education events, including the training of pastors, materials development, support of hospitals doing testing, counseling and training of staff among other things.

AIDS Orphans and Vulnerable Children in Africa

Because the needs of orphans and their caregivers (often a grandparent or an older sibling) are so desperate, this ECO has been established as a separate ECO. Gifts to this account go specifically to projects working with children who have lost one or both parents to AIDS to help provide their basic needs, including food, clothing, education and medical care. Through the ECO people who work to care for the orphans are also trained in ways to best support these children.

Contributions to this ECO help provide training, medicines and supplies for health work in the Bethel synods of the EECMY.

Suri Health Work

Community health work is combined with basic development in an isolated, underdeveloped area of western Ethiopia. Roads and wells have been constructed. With a new health clinic, funds are needed to train community health workers who will provide basic health services such as immunizations, prenatal care and health education.

Water for All

Without clean water, good health is impossible. In many parts of the world people suffer chronic and life-threatening illness and children die needlessly for lack of accessible clean water. Gifts to this ECO help provide technical assistance, equipment and training to develop sources of clean water in needy communities.

Women's Health International

In much of the developing world women's health is undermined by traditions and practices that leave women disempowered, marginalized and living in poverty. Gifts to this fund will support a range of programs, including health services, education and economic development that improve the well being of women.

Mission Personnel

The Rev. John and Gwenyth Haspels — Evangelist

John and Gwenyth Haspels have served in a remote area of Ethiopia for over a decade, partnering with the Ethiopian Evangelical Church Mekane Yesus. John, an ordained PC(USA) minister, works with church planning and Gwenyth is a medical clinic supervisor among the Suri people in Tulegit. In a church that has grown from 20,000 to more than 4 million members in under 40 years, church planning is a vital ministry. A neighboring chief said to John, “We have come and we can see that the people living here in Tulegit are living in the light. We are still living in the darkness. Please come and bring the light to us.”

Marie Lusted retired after 49 years of service in November 2004. Soon after, she returned to Ethiopia to continue her work translating the Bible into Anuak, this time as a long-term volunteer. Marie, known to most as “Breezy,” has been interested in Bible translation since 1957. While working as a nurse at the Pokwo and Gilo clinics in Ethiopia, she got involved in the mission’s literature program, helping proofread the New Testament in Anuak. While her primary work is translation, Marie’s faith also compels her to advocate for the human rights of the Anuak people and the care of orphans.

Michael  and Rachel Weller, along with their four children, have served in Ethiopia since 1994. Michael, an ordained PC(USA) minister, serves in evangelism and leadership training with the Western Wollega Bethel Synod (WWBS) of the Ethiopian Evangelical Church Mekane Yesus. Rachel works with women from WWBS teaching about healthy practices. As a result, some churches now have community vegetable gardens, more people maintain clean drinking water, and there is greater awareness of how HIV spreads. Michael feels the burden of equipping Christian leaders with sound biblical education to provide “both the motivation and the means to discover new ways of living in relationship with neighbor and enemy.”

Other Support

Ethiopian Evangelical Church Mekane Yesus, General

The Ethiopian Evangelical Church Mekane Yesus has congregations, evangelistic programs, educational, medical and development institutions throughout the nation. Because of the general poverty of the nation, each of these programs can function only with outside contributions.

Regional Liaison for the Horn of Africa

Gifts to this ECO provide travel and operating expenses for the work of the regional liaison in supporting partner churches and programs, mission personnel, involvement of PC(USA) presbyteries and congregations, organizations and mission networks in the region, which includes Eritrea, Ethiopia, Somalia and Sudan.