HeReturns
Ethiopia
Publishing Project
Funding Goal: $130,000+
Collected:
$77,400
Equipment Phase 1 & 2
Collected:
$8,300
Collected:
$5,400
Collected:
$5,000
Collected:
$6,400
Inventory Project
$8,000
Water Supply $1,400
Forklift $4,000
Electric Generator Project $5,000
Building Project Phase 1 & 2
$6,400
Collected:
$22,000+
Publishing Workers
Food Project
103 million people populate Ethiopia. This is a great mission field populated by 44% Orthodox Christians, 34% Muslims, 19% Protestant Christians and 3% animists/pagans. God has provided a large pool of witnesses to recruit Literature Evangelists from the 200,000 Seventh-day Adventist members.
The Publishing Director, Pastor Angaw Getahun, is dynamic, talented, is an ordained minister, has his degree in Theology, and has canvassed as a student literature evangelist. He has most recently been the president of the Central Ethiopia Conference.
The national language is Amharic, related to Hebrew and Arabic, and is spoken by a great majority of the population. Oromiffa is another major language of Ethiopia in which Bible lessons are printed, both for adults and children. Now more than 200,000 baptized adults and many visitors rely on Sabbath School Lesson Quarterlies from Ethiopia Adventist Press. Nearly as many children have no other source of Bible guides.
Several books by the great Christian author Ellen G. White have been published over the years, but only two or three are still in print. Desire of Ages was first printed in 2005 but went out of print in 2015. It was reprinted in 2017, but was sold out within weeks and is out of print again. Patriarchs and Prophets was completed in 2018. Four new books in Amharic and Oromiffa have been printed in the first half of 2019.
Greatest need in 2017: Ethiopia Press needs to repair or replace its paper cutter. It is the only one they have, but is very dangerous in its present condition. Its safety locks are broken. Since it is powerful enough to cut several inches of paper at one time, it can quickly cut off fingers or hands. We want to help them with this important equipment!
The gently used, German-built Stahl paper folder needs its third unit repaired, but it is otherwise in good condition. Cliver Mbwana repaired the second unit in 2018 and has ordered parts to repair the third unit.
After many years of communist dictatorship and then a civil war, Russell Thomas was informed in 2017 that only 4 part time Literature Evangelists still remain active. So a whole new team of Literature Evangelists must be recruited, trained, and supplied with books. Our project can help supply them with the critical materials they need! In 2018 sixty two screened and approved recruits came to Addis Ababa for professional Literature Evangelism training.
The pressman, Samwel, has 20 years of experience. Here he’s operating the venerable Heidelberg KORD offset press, the main press for EAP. It is still a valuable press but the ink and water rollers must be recovered. Russell Thomas took a full set of roller cores to Dar es Salaam, and HeReturns funded the cost of recovering the set and delivering them to Nairobi, Kenya. Upon installing the recovered rollers, this press will be good for several more years—like putting a new set of tires on a car.
October 1, 2018 - Over 24,700 net pounds of printing and binding equipment was sent on its way from Nebraska to Ethiopia by ocean freight via Djibouti. Thank you for your support!. The container cleared customs and arrived in Ethiopia in March 2019.
October 1, 2018 - Over 24,700 net pounds of printing and binding equipment was sent on its way from Nebraska to Ethiopia by ocean freight via Djibouti. Thank you for your support!. The container cleared customs and arrived in Ethiopia in March 2019.
EAP now buys paper in small quantities because they have inadequate capital to buy more. So, a challenge-project has been proposed and approved officially between HeReturns and Ethiopia Adventist Press. Called the “Inventory Project” it will gradually allow EAP to build its own raw materials Inventory. When that inventory reaches about $29,000 (840,000 birr) it will have sufficient inventory to buy one fourth of a year’s supply of materials. The Press will then start to build its inventory of finished books. Adventist Home will be printed as the first book of that project as soon as the $8,000 challenge funds from HeReturns arrive in Ethiopia. THIS PROJECT IS OF THE FIRST IMPORTANCE! See the progress graph above.
In early 2018, HeReturns funded a visit by Cliver Mbwana from Tanzania’s press. In ten days Brother Cliver repaired four of EAP’s old machines. Though it is old, the cutter is now safe and reliable. It will be replaced with a larger, newer one, but will be kept as a backup cutter in the new bindery.
The Lord helped us find a “low mileage” Komori perfector offset press—just what Ethiopia needs. It was packed in a 20-ft shipping container in California and shipped via China and Djibouti. It will multiply EAP’s output capacity by nearly three times! That is also why the Inventory Project mentioned above is so urgent. They must have a bigger supply of raw materials on hand.
A new challenge is presented by the need for space to install the new machines. So the next step is to repair and upgrade its existing Storage Building to serve as a Bindery Building. It needs roof, ceiling, window, and floor work. Progress of this $2400 project is shown in the Building Project Phase 1 graph above.
Even the remodeling of the Bindery Building will not give room enough to work comfortably. We need to build an extension to the Bindery Building for space for materials, inventory, working space, offices, and classrooms. It will need to be 3 stories tall. This is Phase 2 of the Building Project. Costs are still being calculated.
Ethiopia Press employees.