A remarkable story of the Holy Spirit in action to encourage us as we enter a new year.
This week I stumbled across the Ethiopian Kale Heywet Church. I for one had never heard anything of this charismatic denomination.
Not that Ethiopia ever makes the news. In fact, sadly it is in this ancient country and not in the Ukraine where the biggest war in the world is currently being waged.
Of course, the church in Ethiopia goes back to the earliest days of the church, when the Holy Spirit directs deacon Philip away from the action to a deserted desert road to share the good news of Jesus with an Ethiopian eunuch homeward bound in his chariot. The outcome is that this key official is baptised. (Acts 8:38)
Fast forward 19 centuries: the Ethiopian church is stuck, lumbered with an obsolete language and confined to just a few tribal groups.
Our story begins in the 1920s when Emperor Haile Selassie allowed non-Orthodox missionaries into Ethiopia and as a result Presbyterian doctor, Thomas Lambie, from Pittsburgh (where incidentally my father-in-law drove his taxi) ventured to this far-off land to found a hospital while conducting evangelism in the surrounding rural areas.
The key date is 1927 when the Sudan Interior Mission founded the Kale Heywet Church as part of its New Churches Movement.
It was a tough time for those early missionaries, even more so when the Italians invaded Ethiopia and on 17 April, 1937 expelled all Protestant missionaries.
Dejected, they left behind a small community of less than 50 baptised believers with little more than the Gospel of John in their own language along with a single pamphlet entitled God Hath Spoken.
The missionaries’ diaries at the time express the expectation that they would have to start from scratch whenever they could return.
And when they did return – just five years later – to their amazement they found around 100 separate churches with about 10,000 believers. The Holy Spirit relishes hopeless situations.
But that was only the beginning for today, despite periods of persecution, the Ethiopian Kale Heywet Church has grown to about nine million members from multi-ethnic backgrounds with about 10,000 local churches.
One key player in the remarkable growth of this church for over 50 years was Mahay Choramo, the most successful evangelist you have never heard of.
Growing up in a culture of tribal religion he had no contact with Christians but on hearing the gospel from itinerant evangelists, he turned to Christ, embracing the good news of God’s wonderful love. No longer need he fear the power of Satan, an anxiety dominant in his local culture.
At the time of his conversion there were no other believers in the immediate area and he had no access to scripture in his own language. So in order to read scripture he had to teach himself Amharic, the language of absentee landlords and corrupt government officials.
For Choramo the Bible was the primary source for his service of Christ, especially inspired by the ministry of the apostle Paul as recounted in Acts.
And so he planted many new congregations throughout southern Ethiopia.
Like Paul, he would move into a new area, make contact with locals, and live with them, sharing the gospel until a church was formed. He would then help select a pastor – and then move on.
And like Paul he had every confidence that once the gospel seed was planted it was only a matter of time before a church would grow.
At the very outset Choramo understood that persecution was part-and-parcel of following Jesus. In fact, on one occasion in the early 1940s, when sentenced to prison, Choramo thanked the judge, explaining "I will be able to pray and meditate better on my own."
At his funeral in 2014 one of his friends made him tribute: “More than 59 years ago I first met Mahay at Bulki. Battered, bruised and bleeding from a severe beating, he sat in chains, imprisoned for preaching the Gospel. That time was one of at least thirty-five times Mahay was arrested and suffered for Christ.”
Today the Kale Heywet church plays a key part in the life of the nation, establishing in 1974 Development Commission, a humanitarian aid organization supporting schools with teacher salaries and equipment. In fact, I came across KWC through reading on the ministry of reconciliation in today’s fractured Ethiopia.
However, the key lesson here is that this is God’s work and it is his Holy Spirit who builds his church. Of course, we are entrusted with the responsibility of sharing Jesus and building his church.
The fundamental is that this is God’s mission, his commitment. We need not fear hopeless situations.
So a verse for the new year to encourage us in our varied ministries, as the apostle Paul writes: “I planted the seed, Apollos watered the plants, but it is God who gives the growth.” (1 Corinthians 3:6)
More info here: https://ekhc.net