Posted: 5/26/06
| Texas Baptist Men bricklayers build a wall of an Ethiopian Baptist church. The team worked with a Texas Baptist couple serving as volunteer missionaries. |
TBM volunteer bricklayers
help build church in Ethiopia
By John Hall
Texas Baptist Communications
ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia—Texas Baptists joined hands across the world to help construct a church building for Ethiopian Christians.
A team of Texas Baptist Men bricklayers worked with a Texas Baptist couple serving as volunteer missionaries to help build the walls of a church in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia’s capital.
Ray and Lauralee Lindholm serve as Texas Envoys through the Baptist General Convention of Texas
The men built the walls for the first story of the Baptist church. A second story will be added later. Several churches will move from a tent they have used the past 15 years to the permanent building when it is finished. The church needs additional funds and materials to complete the building.
TBM volunteer Travis Maynard said construction was a way for the team members to live out their faith.
“Our main purpose was to encourage the people and then come back and tell people what is going on there,” Maynard said.
Lonnie Green, another member of the bricklayer team, echoed Maynard’s thoughts.
“Laying the bricks is one thing, but they can do that,” he said. “I think just seeing us over there encouraged them. It was a very humbling experience.”
Maynard was impressed by the Ethiopian Baptists. They have few material items but are sustained by their faith, he said.
“I never saw a frown on their face,” he said. “All the evangelicals over there are just so happy. It’s all they have, but that’s enough.”
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