ALUMNI HIGHLIGHT:
REV. DR. GIRMA BISHAW Founder and Director of the Gratitude Initiative in Britain Doctor of Ministry, Asbury Seminary, 2005.
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ccording to the National Science Foundation, an average person has about 12,000 to 60,000 thoughts per day. Of those, 80 percent are negative thoughts, and 95 percent are repetitive, forming our imaginations and behaviours. Rev. Dr. Girma Bishaw, Founder and Director of the Gratitude Initiative in Britain, seeks to share the gift of gratitude with others to change the social imagination and thought patterns to transform the way we see ourselves and others. For Dr. Bishaw, a lifestyle of gratitude grew out of hardship. Fleeing civil war in Ethiopia, Dr. Bishaw left his family and home to immigrate to Britain in 1990. He arrived at the airport expecting no one to meet him and only with $250 in his pocket. He soon became involved with the Ethiopian Christian Fellowship Church who helped him grow deeper in his new faith, affirmed his calling and eventually appointed him to serve as pastor of their church for over 18 years. “It was a very natural progression, first an urge to disciple people, to have a heart for new converts,” he said. “As I gave myself to it, trying to disciple and teach follow-up classes, it naturally grew in me, and eventually I responded to that call.” As Dr. Bishaw pastored, he sought ways to give back to his adopted country, which gave him so many opportunities and privileges. After ministering many
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life of discipleship ∙ asburyseminary.edu
years among Ethiopians and Eritreans, the desire to reach out to the diverse local community and people of the host nation grew in him. “I began to see the limitation and exclusiveness of our ministry, which bothered me a lot and led me to seek ways to collaborate with others,” he said. As he wrestled with these things, he felt God place a burning question on his heart: What does it mean to be a disciple of Jesus Christ in a diaspora context? He longed to overcome cultural and linguistic barriers and other issues to unite the various congregations and ethnic churches within Britain. His congregation began partnering with the Church of England, ethnic churches and other denominations to reach out to the local community as one body, and as a result, Life Festival Enterprise was born. Through Life Festival Enterprise, his pursuit of gratitude was strengthened as he realized there wasn’t a platform to say thank you to the British people for their generosity and goodness to him. Through interactions with church leaders and wider conversations in society, Dr. Bishaw became aware of the negative narrative that created a toxic environment that made cross-cultural mission and genuine relationships difficult to form. He realized the need for true unity, rather than the pervasive false unity that avoided difficult conversations to prevent disagreement.
