While visiting pastors and church leaders ARM personnel have been encouraged by informal statements about how the programs are being received in various places around the country. The following are examples of reports that provide information about how and where the programs are being used:
1. A call was received in April from listeners in Ambo who are building a church. The ARM staff will be visiting them to discuss baptism instruction and to introduce them to the nearby Mekane Yesus evangelist. The majority of the listener house churches meet in yards or in houses but several groups have gone on to build separate structures to accommodate more people.
2. Mekane Yesus Evangelist Birhanu from Arsi Negele uses the ARM program to provide good teaching and preaching for thirteen outreach centers in the his area. We have also discovered other groups in his area that have written to the ARM office and are also worshipping with Pastor Demalesh. The names of the people that write to us are being given to the Mekane Yesus Evangelism Department.
3. During two Western Wolega Bethel Synod conferences in March, 2006 one hundred and twenty-five pastors and evangelists were informed about how the ARM program can assist them to bring worship opportunities and good teaching to the difficult to reach places and to the elderly and to those who are in the hospital or in prison. About twelve evangelists said that they were already using the programs for that purpose. Brochures with the times and radio information were distributed and the evangelists said that they would advertise the programs among their people.
4. Rev. Shiferaw Feleke, Mekane Yesus evangelism chairman for the Kotobe congregation, reports that the evangelists for their outreach centers are using the worship programs for remote places where evangelists cannot easily go. They appreciate having this program assist their work by providing a radio service which is lead by a qualified pastor.
5. While visiting the Borana area in the south of the country early in 2006 Ato Shibru Galla spoke with people that were listening to the YDCS and ARM programs. Rev. Dawit Yohannes also visited the Borana area in early 2006 and reported that Mekane Yesus members are listening to the programs in Moyale on the Kenyan/Ethiopian border. This is good to hear because the Borana Oromo dialect is different from the Afaan Oromo dialect that is used for the programs and we are glad to learn that at least some Boranas can understand the programs.
6. The officer in charge of the Dembi Dollo prison told the ARM survey team that since the prisoners began listening to the programs he has noticed that crime inside the prison is declining and that it is easier to work with the prisoners. He also added that he is thinking about the message and may one day become a Christian.
7. Staff member Wondimu Matewos was invited to a prison in the south of Ethiopia to bring a few Bibles and materials to them. He was surprised to see seven hundred prisoners worshipping around the radio singing God’s praises. He baptized thirty-one people and gave out the few Bibles that they had with them. One of the opportunities that ARM faces now is how to supply the listeners with Bibles and materials in prisons and elsewhere around the country. The Liberian team also finds that there is a great need for Bibles and Christian materials.