Covenant News

Thorpe Participates in Mission to Ethiopia

ADDIS ADABA, ETHIOPIA (August 18, 2001) - Dr. Roger Thorpe, a Covenant missionary in Zaire for 30 years, is one of two Swedish Covenant Hospital doctors who served on a mission trip to Ethiopia through Global Health Outreach (GHO) and Prison Ministries Fellowship.

Thorpe left in late July for Addis Ababa (the capital of Ethiopia) en route to his sixth mission trip since retiring as a Covenant missionary in 1996. He and Toh-Hoai "Wesley" Lim of Swedish Covenant Hospital also went to Nazret to visit prisons there. They were scheduled to return August 11 after traveling to Assella, a city of more than 150,000. The leader of the Ethiopia trip was Dr. Sam Molind, the director of Global Health Outreach. GHO is a branch of Christian Medical/Dental Association. "Praise the Lord for God's Holy Spirit moving with power and deliverance for these prisoners," reported GHO associate director Ron Brown after a conversation with Molind midway through the trip. "They have been on television three times boldly sharing the gospel."

According to Brown, many previous government leaders and dignitaries in Ethiopia are coming to Christ through prison ministries such as the one sponsored by GHO. This is the first GHO trip to Ethiopia, a largely Muslim nation with strands of Ethiopian orthodox and anamist religions. Ethiopia has many internal diseases and many transmitted diseases in the prisons but little medical care, according to GHO. Ethiopia's communist regime was ousted recently and some of the previous government leaders are now in prison. They include Ethiopia's former prime minister and the country's 1968 Olympic gold medal-winning marathon runner Mamo Wolde. Follow-up ministry will be provided through GHO's connections with Prison Fellowship-Ethiopia. GHO runs 35 mission trips annually, many to South and Central America.

For more information on the Bristol, Tennessee-based Global Health Outreach, call administrative staff members at 844-1000, extension 3020, or email Brown at ronb@cmdahome.org.

Printable version of this page.