Kale Heywet Word of Life Church

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Kale Heywet (Word of Life) Church is the largest evangelical denomination in Ethiopia. Started in the early 1920s by pioneering Serving In Mission, formerly, Sudan Interior Mission, (SIM) missionaries, Kale Heywet Church thrived in the South Central and South Western corners of the country during the five-year Italian occupation in the 1930s.

Dr. Thomas Alexander Lambie (1885-1954) is one of the prominent of early missionaries towards the establishment of the KHC. His entry and stay for some seven years and re-entry with a group of the first batch of missionaries into the country, his fast friendship with the commoner as well as the emperor himself, his brave commitment even to relinquish his birth citizenship to be an Ethiopian in order to get the right to buy and retain land titles and build mission stations with less bureaucracy, is all a fascinating story in its own right. Articles such as found in, for example, http://www.dacb.org/stories/ethiopia/lambie_thomas.html and his books testify his sweet life and brave ministry^[1]. In the first decade of the missionary endeavor the mission itself was known locally as "Lambie's Mahber" - Lambie's association.^[2]

Unbeknown to the first missionaries, God redirected their planned trip to the western part of Ethiopia into a south-central bearing. The early missionary work was concentrated among the Wolaita, Kambatta, and Sidama peoples, which are, not by coincidence, the three most densely populated awrajas (regions) in Ethiopia.

The few missionaries that entered the country had all to exit the country during the country's invasion by the Italians. They left a handful of believers with the translation of portions of Scriptures and the Gospel of Mark. What the missionaries found when they came back after the five-year occupation of the country was astounding. The handful believers were multiplied by thousands and the fledgling congregation was real strong. The price of planting this church in Ethiopia was at a very great cost, even cost of the lives of three of the earliest missionaries. Nearly 100 missionaries toiled hard for about ten years before they left the country during the invasion. The Italians were not friendly to the Orthodox Church and treated the new Evangelical believers very harshly.

Changed lives were very evident among the converts who had followed the animist way of life. The congregations that grew in the absence of the church planting missionaries wasn’t lacking anything. In fact, their unprecedented absence was a boon in a way as it gave birth to a church with an indigenous local texture. The devotion of the believers was pure and their worship biblical as well as culture-sensitive. Returning missionaries, aside from church planting in unreached areas, provided needed biblical and theological teachings to the growing church. It was this unwavering commitment to the teaching of the Word of God, that kept KHC healthy and strong. To see the growth of the church in the SIM timeline, visit: http://www.sim.co.uk/standard.asp?id=815. To learn more about SIM's current continued and active involvement in the the ongoing ministry in KHC, visit: http://www.sim.org/country.asp?CID=10&fun=1.

Kale Heywet Church grew and matured in its primal years not without persecution and challenges. The long established and state supported Ethiopian Orthodox Church tried from long before not to permit missionaries into the country. What crystallized this was the church’s unfortunate experience with the Jesuit missionaries some four centuries earlier. The missionaries were limited in their effort to preach the good news. The nationals were tried and imprisoned.

It was thus that Kale Heywet Church, numerically by far the largest Evangelical denomination, was started and developed. In the seventy years of its history the church has witnessed not a few ups and downs. In the 1950s together with like denominations of the Baptist Church and the Church of Christ, the Yewongel Amagnotch Andnet Mahber (Gospel Believers' Fellowship?) was established. This body served as the voice of the Evangelical believers in Ethiopia for no less than three decades.

Currently KHC has about or more than 7,000 local congregation and estimated 4-5 million members and adherents. Its 300+ intermediate and higher level Bible Schools, 3 ministers' trainiing centers, 1 theological college, and 1 seminary (a consortium) teach and equip tens of thousands and graduate thousands each year. The multi-faceted ministries of EKHC include Evangelism, theological training, Women's ministry, Youth ministry, Children's ministry and Children's Centre, Missions, Urban and Rural Integrated ministries, and diverse training ministries.

The Head Office of Kale Heywet Church is conveniently located south of Mexico Square and near the Africa Union Head Office.

For furthter info visit the official web page of the KHC at: http://www.ekhc.org.et/

Contributed by: Ezra Senetsehuf

[edit] References

1. ^ Doctor Without a Country, New York, 1939.
2. ^ F. Peter Cotterell, Born at Midnight, Moody Press, Chicago, 1973, pp.32-33.