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Our
History |
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What began in
1996, when a team of laypersons and clergy from Ohio's
Eastminster
Presbytery traveled to Dembi Dollo, Ethiopia on its inaugural mission
work trip, planted the seed for what would become Ethiopia Education
Endowment Fund in 2003.
Members of that
group, along with mission teams that followed from
Philadelphia Presbytery in
Pennsylvania, encountered and experienced much that left lasting impressions,
and further strengthened their Christian witness.
They
worked alongside dedicated leaders and missionaries who were convinced
that the western region of Ethiopia's religious and economic future depended on
children receiving a quality Christian education, and ensuring the
continued vitality and success of three schools.
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The educational institutions at the heart of effecting
change are Berhane Yesus
Elementary School, Bethel Evangelical Secondary School, and
Gidada Bible
School.
Each are educational mission efforts of the
Ethiopian
Evangelical Church, Mekane Yesus (EECMY), a partner in mission with the
Presbyterian Church (USA), whose mission presence dates back to early
1900s, and is
powerfully engaged in working with, and impacting the lives of people
through preaching and teaching ministries.
By 2000 a strong,
informal network of supporters had come together discussing ideas and
actions to
support and expand the existing EECMY and PC (USA) partnership. |
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Missionaries
Jo Ann Griffith,
then
BESS's English teacher, and
Rev. Michael Weller, Religious
instructor at Gidada Bible School
at the time, shared their vision of creating an endowment fund for the
schools.
With the blending of ideas and a call to faith in practice, nine
persons joined in April 2003 to establish Ethiopia Endowment
Education Fund as their Christian response to help young people in Ethiopia
obtain a faith-filled, stellar education.
For Ethiopian children, youth and young adults who do not benefit from any kind of education,
much less participating in top-notch
learning opportunities offered at Berhane Yesus
Elementary School, Bethel Evangelical Secondary School, and Gidada Bible
School, this is the dream to act upon, believe in, and achieve.
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With The Right Education...Miracles Can Happen |
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