Pictures form National Repentance & Reconciliation Day at the Stadium in Addis Ababa and an account of a participant.

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Dear all:

What can I tell you? Sunday was a glorious day, to say the least? There are no words to describe what went on that day, except that Heaven Came Down on Earth!!! Our God is sooooooo good! The meeting was held in the Stadium as Meskel Square. The program
was supposed to start at 8:30 am but by 8 am the place was jam packed! You have never seen a stadium so clean and bright (can you believe I am talking about a place in Addis???) then by 8:30 it was literally flooded with people. People were not only on the bleachers but also on the tracks and later on filled the soccer field. This is the first in the history of the stadium. It was teeming with people and authorities felt that it was too much and closed the gates so thousands of others sat outside. Mechem, words fail me, I can not tell you what a wondrous experience that was. The air was charged, it was as if we were breathing in God’s presence. Everyone one was crying, begging God for forgiveness. From where we were on the bleachers, I could see countless men and women, old and young bow down with their faces in the dirt for hours. It is estimated that there were between 75,000 to 80,000 people there that day (I for one feel there were more than that). The songs and the “Amen’s” that came out of the congregation could be heard in Bole.

We prayed for forgiveness of our sin of atheism during the Marxist times, our tribalism, our patriarchal chauvinism, our superiority complex, our discord and disunity among evangelical churches, husbands and wives disloyalty to each other, children’s rebelliousness to parents, and parents neglect of children. We asked for forgiveness for sins in the palace, in the courts and our corrupt systems, in the churches, in the schools
and in the offices. We asked forgiveness for not being good stewards of the resources God has bestowed upon us, for polluting our rivers and air, for making the land bare, for not holding politicians accountable when injustice was being done. Most of all, we begged forgiveness for driving out God’s presence out of our land by denying Him His rightful throne as the Maker and Leader of the Nation.

We all cried, and cried until we could cry no more. Mechem, God is good, He Spoke. He gave us Isaiah 60:1 “Arise, shine for your light has come and the Glory of the Lord rises upon you” Then we all rose and need I tell you how long the “ililta” was. Isaiah 60 was given as a proclamation on the nation. Read it and rejoice!

In a nut shell, this was how it went. I am very sorry that words are not sufficient to explain the divine presence there was. It’s a bummer you were not here but let me tell you something for sure, things have changed for Ethiopia now !! Halelluya !!!!!!!
He is Forever Lord !!!!

Rejoicing with you,
Kuleni,

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The National Repentance & Reconciliation Day will be from March 19, 2003 to March 23, 2003 for a total of five days. The main Repentance & Reconciliation Day event takes place on Sunday, March 23,2003. The event primarily will include the following:

Repentance and forgiveness will be given and sought among:

  : March 19 – Family Level
  : March 20 – Parish Level
  : March 21 – Denominational
                     Level
  : March 22 - Church
                  Repentance day
  : March 23 – Christian
           National Repentance
          and Reconciliation day

The National Repentance and Reconciliation will take place on over 100 public squares all over the Country. This includes forwarding and receiving of forgiveness among all peoples.

At this occasion we pray for the move of God upon our land. Please join us in your prayers and achive this honorable cause.