This update is related to the Crossway Global Ministry Fund campaign.
An Effort to Equip Future Generations
Dawit Bekele didn’t originally set out to publish books. With his sights set on a law career, he completed his degree and landed his first job at an international development organization in his hometown of Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. But the lack of theologically sound resources available in his language, Amharic, kept nagging at him. It persisted until the Lord called Dawit to act on it by attending a pastoral internship in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). Compared to his experience at home, he couldn’t believe the number of high-quality English resources he encountered. During this nine month internship, he received more books than he knew he’d be able to find in all of Ethiopia. Then he put two and two together: what if God was calling him to make these resources available to his Ethiopian brothers and sisters by translating them to their native language of Amharic? He explained his thought process: “The internship was catered toward making me a pastor or a church planter. Though it’s secondary, publishing is a major need. There were other church planting efforts happening, so I thought that providing resources to the local church would be the best way to serve the Ethiopian evangelical community.” By faith, Dawit accepted God’s call to start a publishing house called Wongelu, which means “The Gospel” in Amharic.
Part of the nagging feeling Dawit felt came from what he knows about his country:
I’ve heard that Ethiopia is projected to be the fifth or sixth largest evangelical nation in the world in the next 30 to 50 years. . . . Right now, Addis Ababa is a city of about 10 million people in a country of almost 130 million. I know of only three or four reformed churches around Addis Ababa and all of them have less than 120 members. This gives you the perspective of the reformed landscape in Ethiopia—access to theologically sound resources is almost non-existent.
He learned from local church planters that if leaders don’t have access to theologically sound resources, there is plenty of room for misunderstanding and error.
Thankfully, God has made a way for Crossway to partner with Dawit in this effort to make more theologically sound resources available in Amharic. The Crossway Global Ministry Fund has supported their translation work as Dawit and his team at Wongelu respond to the growing needs of the church. “If we don’t have a healthy church movement, supported by healthy, biblical resources starting now, what’s going to happen in 20-30 years? This is the Lord’s work . . . he will provide at the right time, and in the meantime, we need to act in faith that he will work.” By building up resource availability now, future generations will be equipped with key titles to encourage and support them in their understanding of the gospel.
Give the Gift of Biblical Resources
The Crossway Global Ministry Fund supports book and Bible distributions to aid pastors and believers in need of theological resources. Would you join us this spring in equipping fellow Christians around the world? Learn More.
The Spirit Reaches Beyond Our Reach
Since starting Wongelu three years ago, Dawit and his team have worked tirelessly to translate and publish a variety of resources with the goal of clarifying what the Bible says about foundational questions like Who is Jesus? and What is the Gospel?. “We’re not trying to push an agenda [with the churches]—to make them accept this or that thing. We’re hoping to bring people back to the basics of the gospel. Often, that begins by them recognizing that, ‘Hey, I think I’ve been misunderstanding this biblical truth.’ Then we have a chance to encourage them to look at what the Bible says through giving them these two practical, easy-to-read materials.” By faith, the Wongelu team translates and publishes, trusting God will create an impact beyond what they may ever know or hear this side of Heaven.
Since Ethiopia is a culture that best learns through oral communication, Dawit recorded audio for the translated resources. Dawit was especially surprised by one of the audiences who benefited from them:
I had no idea who was on the receiving channel of our social media platform. Come to find out, there’s an administrator for a blind community who is a member of that channel. When we started posting audio recordings of our resources, he would take those to post daily on his social media group for that blind community. I didn’t know this was happening until he contacted me. He sent me an audio message introducing himself and sharing the breadth of influence of his community. After listening to his message, I looked up the group and discovered there are more than 30,000 people who are now receiving these resources.
Indeed, the Lord has powerfully made a way for these digital resources to impact thousands of people who may otherwise not be able to access theologically sound materials they can read.
A Determination for Gospel-Centered Resources
Through partnership with Crossway and his local church, Dawit received translated copies of God’s Design for the Church by Conrad Mbewe and distributed them to pastors and church leaders in both cities and rural communities in Ethiopia where books are especially challenging to find. One pastor, as Dawit shared, was especially motivated to obtain a copy:
When this pastor heard about the opportunity to receive a copy of God’s Design for the Church, he was so determined to get one that he walked over 10 kilometers, only to realize he had gone in the wrong direction. Undeterred, he made the journey back the next day (10 kilometers back to his original starting place and another 10 kilometers in the right direction) to get a copy of the book.
After reading the book, he reshaped his church’s leadership, implementing biblical eldership and teaching his congregation the importance of meaningful membership. Though I . . . [haven’t heard] all of the details, the impact was reportedly significant—his church grew in unity. Their culture of discipleship deepened and members developed a stronger understanding of what it means to belong to a biblical church. This is just one example highlighting the hunger for biblical truth among church leaders in Ethiopia.
When brothers and sisters in Christ are given resources to support their understanding of God’s Word, they’re equipped to lead their churches, care for their families, and live in accordance with the Word. This is why Crossway is determined to continue to provide gospel-centered resources to believers around the world. The need is great, and by providing resources, we can help meet that need. This spring, you’re invited to join us as we partner with ministries like Wongelu to provide English and translated resources to pastors and church leaders.
Would you consider making a gift today as we seek to raise $200,000 by May 30, 2025? We praise God for the work he is doing in the church in Ethiopia and worldwide, and we eagerly wait to see how he will continue to work through these gifts.
Pray that the Lord provides the right people to work for Wongelu who are of the same mind theologically and linguistically gifted for the work of translation.
Pray for the planting of healthy local churches and the establishment of more ministries like Wongelu so that the impact for the Kingdom would be even greater.