In October 2008 the leaders in the Horn of Africa were thrilled to announce that the Ethiopian South Central District was multiplying from 1 to 3 districts—plus adding a key target area.  This year, 2009, the South Central district multiplied again into 3 sub districts!  A sub district is a district broken into smaller sections that will later become a full district.

In August 2009, the new target area held their first Holiness Conference at the new zone, Shebdino.  Rev. Tomotewos Gada and his family have lived in that area for more than 7 years teaching the message of salvation through Jesus Christ.

Rev. Gada is one of our 2007 Awassa extension graduates from Creative Leadership Institute.  He was ordained in 2008.  Rev. Gada came from an African Traditional Religious background where his family practiced ancestral worship quite heavily.  However, in 2002 a group of Nazarenes went into this village with the holiness message and showed the JESUS Film.  Gada repented and began discipleship training.  Soon he realized God was calling him to full time preaching and teaching.  Gada began attending the nearest CLI extension school for his training.

This was just the beginning of his journey.  He had left his family’s faith, which meant he had left his family.  In August 2008 he felt God leading him back to visit his family and the village where he grew up in order to share what God had done for him.  When word got out that Gada had returned five local men went to ‘teach’ him a lesson.  That night he was beaten severely and left to die on the side of the road.  The beating included them pounding his head; which left him deaf for more than six months.

Other villagers witnessed the beating and took pity on Rev. Gada and took him home to his wife and children.  Word got out what had happened and his friends Birhanu and Noah came to find out why he was beaten.  Rev. Timotewos Gada shared that his only desire was to share what God had done for him and tell the village of the love of Jesus Christ the Savior.  The two men were intrigued and asked him to share with them about Jesus.  The men were so interested in what Gada had to share that they invited him into their homes to share the gospel message.

Noah and Birhanu accepted Jesus and continued to open their homes so others could hear of Jesus’ love.  Through the faithfulness of Gada, many people in that area have come to know Jesus Christ as their personal Savior.

In the new Shebino zone the first Holiness conference had over 1,500 new converts in attendance and 25 new pastors in training!  Rev. Timotewas Gada’s faithfulness to the leading of the Holy Spirit has changed many lives and those lives are impacting many areas that have never heard of the love of Jesus.