New Life Amid Destruction

The region is located northwest of Addis Ababa and is home to around 400,000 people, 75 percent of whom belong to the Oromo people. The past five years have been marked by instability: amid widespread unrest, several church buildings belonging to our partner church were destroyed.

This partner church, the Full Gospel Believers' Church, has more than ten million members nationwide, with around 60,000 in the region itself—about 15 percent of the population. Local congregations refused to let the loss of their meeting places stop them and continued to gather. If anything, they took to the streets even more, distributing Bibles, preaching, and visiting people in their homes.

Some of the destroyed buildings have since been rebuilt, and the new movement has even given rise to a daughter congregation, which has already been able to construct its own building. There, the young congregation—made up of the 50 new believers—now gathers regularly for worship.