[No author has been found yet for the profile(s).
Please use the contact form below to get in touch with us.]
History and ministry
Nekemte [Qubee: Naqamtee] is the capital of the former Welega Province and at the centre of the road network for southwestern Ethiopia.
Onesimos Nesib and his colleagues served in Nekemte for many years
Also one of the early centers of charismatic revival in the Mekane Yesus Church
- Which was the first choir in the city (MW, MK, …)?
Singers associated with this congregation:
Excerpt from Agne Nordlander, Väckelse och växtvärk i Etiopien (Stockholm: EFS förlaget, 1996), as summarised by Lindahl, “Local history”:
NEKEMTE (p. 43-45): An Evangelical revival occurred in Nekemte at Whitsuntide [?] in 1972. Eight youth leaders, among whom Kes Tesfaye Denegde, were gathered in prayer, became ‘filled by the Spirit’ and started speaking in tongues. This event split the congregation into two parts, and the critical elders finally expelled the young ones in 1974. One Kes Girma lost his employment and salary and survived by being economically supported by missionary Fredrik Almqvist. Still, the conflict was so intense that Almqvist and even his family were threatened. Once when the young group was gathered in John Isaksson’s home, the elders came and threw them out.
There was drinking and other bad things in the Nekemte congregation. One Bible school teacher, Kes Belina Sarka, who often used to drink alcohol when praying, one night, was ‘penetrated by warm fire’ and the next morning in the school, he spoke so forcefully that one of the pupils fell to the floor. “It was the first time that Belina Sarka drove out evil spirits, but not the last.”
The Secretary-General of ECMY and Swedish missionaries gave some measured support to the charismatic youths. Some of them were accepted to join the Mekane Yesus Seminar, and so did not pass over to Mulu Wengel (Full Gospel), which was the local Pentecostal movement. Later, during the Mengistu regime, the young ones were often persecuted but also the most energetic opponents.
DALO (p. 46-47): An Evangelistic revival with its first wave in 1970-1972 spread also to the village of Dalo, 7 km from Nekemte. Dalo became a centre for activities with healing and exorcism. There was a second wave in 1988-1989. When Derg officials came to Dalo to control the activities, some of them converted. It happened that they left their party membership card, their ID card and their rifle in Dalo when they ‘delivered themselves to God.’
Unpublished songs
(1) Mekane Yesus Choir (early 1980s)
» Read manuscript with 10 songs
Connect
? Follow on Facebook
Videos
Joobira Choir
Nekemte MY “D” Choir
2022
Magaalaa Nekemte MY Choir
2022:
Rift Valley University Students’ Fellowship Choir
2018:
Pictures
(adapted from a photograph at the SEM Archives)
(adapted from a photograph at the SEM Archives)
Further reading
Berhanu Ofgaa. The Growth of the Evangelical Christianity in the Naqamte and in the Tinfa Parishes in the Central Synod of ECMY: Research Paper. BTh thesis. Addis Ababa: Mekane Yesus Seminary, 1980.
Nordlander, Agne. Väckelse och växtvärk i Etiopien [Awakening and growing pains in Ethiopia]. Stockholm: EFS förlaget, 1996.
—. “Charismatic Movement and Lutheran Theology in the Ethiopian Evangelical Church Mekane Yesus.” In Med Kristus til jordens ender: Festskrift til Tormod Engelsviken, ed. K. O. Sanne, p. 193-202. Trondheim: Tapir Akademisk Forlag, 2008.
Teka Obsa Fogi. “The Charismatic Movement in the EECMY: Some Doctrinal and Practical Issues: An Explorative and Evaluative Case Study: The Case of the EECMY Congregations in Nekemte.” Addis Ababa: Ethiopian Graduate School of Theology, 2000.
Online Resource on Local History
“Nekemte,” in Local History of Ethiopia, compiled by Bernhard Lindahl, 2005. (Published on the website of The Nordic Africa Institute, Uppsala)