This was the assignment of three single missionaries who arrived in the capital, Addis Ababa, on September 14, 1950.

There were many new things to get used to. First was the altitude of Addis Ababa, which at 8,000 feet [2,400 m] is one of the highest capitals in the world. Next was the Amharic language, with its explosive p’s, t’s and s’s, along with the Ethiopic script of 33 characters and over 250 variations. In addition, there were over 70 tribal languages and some 200 other languages and lesser tongues. Furthermore, the priests still used a semiextinct language called Geez (Ge‛ez), similar to the use of Latin by some European scholars.

There were the people with attractive, tanned faces, unusual hairdos, distinctive garments, and festive costumes. Some had crosses tattooed on their foreheads. They had interesting names. Men could be called Gebre Meskal, meaning “Slave of the Cross”; Habtemariam, meaning “Servant of Mary”; or Tekle Haimanot, meaning “Plant of Religion.” A woman could be named Leteberhan, meaning “Slave of Light,” or Amaresh, “You Are Beautiful.”

Schoolteachers-cum-Preachers

At their first missionary home in an apartment in the Case Popolari section of Addis Ababa, the missionaries were surprised to have a colobus monkey as a regular visitor. This mischievous monkey was constantly into everything and made one mess after another. It was not enough just to get into the tomato paste, but he had to track it all over the house and smear walls with it! Of course, human visitors came too, and Bible studies were conducted on the front porch of the missionary home.

To protect the interests of the Ethiopian Church, the law prohibited proselytizing among Christians. It was permitted only among Muslims and “pagans.” Thus, the missionaries were allowed entry only on the provision that they would establish schools to teach such subjects as English, typing, and bookkeeping.

When the adult night classes were properly established in Addis Ababa, the missionaries had to move into a larger home on Churchill Road, the main street of the capital. The brothers decided not to mix religious teachings with academic subjects, but students were invited to attend meetings of our congregation on a voluntary basis. At meeting times one of the classrooms became a Kingdom Hall.

In 1952 eight additional missionaries from the 18th class of Gilead School arrived in Addis Ababa. Among them were Harold and Anne Zimmerman, who were assigned to help with the night classes in the capital city. Two couples from the 12th class, the Brumleys and the Lucks, opened a school in historic Harar, close to the Somalian border in the east, formerly forbidden to foreigners and still regularly visited by hyenas. In fact, so-called hyena men provide a nightly spectacle by feeding these powerful beasts for the enjoyment of spectators.​—See Awake! of November 22, 1985.

Gilead missionaries Dean Haupt and Raymond Egilson established a similar school in Diredawa, a commercial center not far from Harar, strategically located on Ethiopia’s only railroad line from the port of Djibouti to Addis Ababa. It was here that Brother Hatzakortzian had died.

Life was far from being posh. Brother Haupt explains: “Our first night was an unforgettable experience. We had no furniture as yet, so we used a trunk as a table and sat on suitcases to eat our meal. We put mattresses on the floor, as our beds had not arrived yet. This was not so bad, but when we switched out the lights, bedbugs started coming down the walls to get a taste of us! It seems that this part of the house had been vacant for some time, and the bugs were out to get fresh blood! I don’t think we slept a wink that night.”

A Small Branch Office

Despite the pests, a missionary explains that the work was enjoyable: “I was walking along the road one day when I met a young Ethiopian man and stopped to speak to him. Upon learning that I was a missionary, he asked, ‘Please, Sir, tell me about Jesus Christ.’ I invited him to our home the following day, and within ten minutes of his arrival, a study in the book “Let God Be True” was in progress. He returned the next day for another study, bringing with him another young man. These two became the first Ethiopian publishers.”

A steady flow of interested persons would visit the missionary home asking for Bible studies, so one missionary always had to be on hand.

[Picture on page 96]

Gilead missionaries: Dean Haupt and Haywood Ward in Addis Ababa