Encountering God in Ethiopia 

In 1960, 12,000 people gathered in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, to hear Billy Graham during his preaching tour across Africa. Sixty-five years—to the day—after Mr. Graham’s visit to Ethiopia’s capital, the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association (BGEA) launched a two-day Encountering God outreach that drew more than 430,000 people to hear Franklin Graham preach the Gospel in Meskel Square, a vast, outdoor venue in the center of the city.

The massive evangelistic gathering March 8-9, in Meskel Square, was the first of its kind, including broadcast of the four-hour program both days throughout Ethiopia on the nation’s government-owned television network. 

Semeon Mulatu, executive director of the Ethiopian Kale Heyot Church, an evangelical denomination that numbers more than 12,500 churches and more than 11 million members, said much has changed in his country since Mr. Graham’s first visit. 

“There were seasons that it was difficult to call the Name of God,” Mulatu said. “We went through persecution, but now we have the freedom and we are proclaiming the Name of Jesus, that He is the Savior. And doing it at this place is very historic for us, and we are very thankful. We praise God for this.”

From the early 1970s to the early 1990s, a communist regime in Ethiopia, known as the Derg, persecuted Christians and imprisoned them for worshipping God and refusing to recant their Biblical beliefs. During the nearly two-decade rule of the Marxist government, Meskel Square was the place for military parades and public rallies supporting the Soviet Union-backed forces.

But during the second weekend of March—34 years since the fall of communism in this African country—the Name of Christ reverberated throughout the nation as Ethiopian musical artists, the Tommy Coomes Band and Dennis Agajanian led the exuberant worshippers in praise for two hours before Franklin stepped up to the podium. It was his 11th visit to Ethiopia since 1985, having completed 10 humanitarian missions with Samaritan’s Purse to provide medical care, clean water and nutrition programs.

On the first day of the event, Franklin, speaking through an Amharic interpreter, preached from Mark 10 about a blind beggar named Bartimaeus. “Outside of Jesus Christ, you’re spiritually blind,” he said. “The Bible says there is no one righteous, no not one.”

And like he had prayed as a 22-year-old to surrender his life to Christ, Franklin encouraged the crowd of 117,000 to seek God’s mercy by confessing and repenting of their sin and trusting in Jesus Christ’s death, burial and resurrection for forgiveness and the promise of eternal life in Heaven.

Thirty-year-old Ashenafi Hariso wept tears of joy after responding to Franklin’s invitation to come forward to the stage area and prayerfully repent and profess Christ as his Savior and Lord. Hariso said that using drugs for a temporary escape from his frustrations and disappointments had only left him feeling regret and shame. “I feel a joy that I’ve never felt before,” he said. “I’m crying because I’m happy.”

Two prayer counselors said they were amazed to witness the healing of a 60-year-old man who limped to the stage area to pray and surrender his life to Christ. After receiving a copy of the New Testament from the counselors, the man walked away rejoicing without any pain or difficulty walking.

Dinknesh Metekel, 20, said she learned about the Encountering God event on the TikTok social media platform. Although she grew up in a religious family, Metekel said she didn’t feel close to God because of unconfessed sin in her life. But all that changed when she said the prayer of repentance with Franklin. “I didn’t have joy before I gave my life to Jesus,” she said. After professing Christ as her Savior and Lord, Metekel danced and sang along with throngs of worshippers while the local Christian artists continued performing on stage as sunset approached.

On the second day of the event, the attendance swelled to 320,000, more than doubling the size of the crowd from the previous day, as people filled the side streets adjacent to the venue. 

Franklin preached from Luke 19 about Christ’s encounter with Zacchaeus, a corrupt tax collector of small stature, who climbed a sycamore tree for an opportunity to see Jesus as He traveled through Jericho.

“Maybe you feel like you’re little in the eyes of God,” Franklin said. “I want you to know that your life is important—so important that God sent His only Son, Jesus Christ, on a rescue mission for you. A rescue mission to cleanse you of the sin that is blocking you from coming to faith in Him. Jesus wants to come into your heart and stay—today. … Do what Zacchaeus did and make Jesus your Lord.”

Wubalem Bafa, 27, a single mom of a 5-year-old daughter and 7-year-old son, was fearful for her children after recently dreaming that they both died. She said that she had been living with a family that had demanded she reject Christianity in order to receive their help. But after hearing Franklin’s message about Jesus forgiving and restoring Zacchaeus, she said that she was ready to trust Jesus for her eternal salvation and provision for her family’s future.

Bafa was one of more than 4,000 commitments to Christ following the two-day outreach.

On March 7, the day before the historic event, 1,200 Ethiopian pastors attended a daylong “Preach the Word” conference hosted by BGEA at the Sheraton Hotel in Addis Ababa.

Skip Heitzig, pastor of Calvary Church in Albuquerque, New Mexico, addressed some of the common challenges pastors face when trying to feed their congregations with Biblical teaching, including sermon preparation, expository preaching and effective communication.

Heitzig said that too often, pastors are guilty of communicating something other than faithfully preaching God’s Word. “You’re not the manufacturer,” he said. “You’re the distributor.” 

Encountering God Director Hans Mannegren, who has worked for BGEA for 33 years, said he has been “amazed and astonished” repeatedly over the past year-and-a-half by the scores of Ethiopian pastors, church leaders and volunteers who have prayed, trained and evangelized the lost in preparation for a harvest of souls.

Some 26,000 people completed the Christian Life and Witness Course (CLWC), a training offered by BGEA to strengthen believers in their faith and equip them to share it with others. 

Of those who went through the training, 8,000 committed to serve as prayer counselors for those who responded to the Gospel during the event—and to help connect them with a local church.

“We feel this is a spiritual landmark for the nation, for the leadership and unity,” Mannegren said. “There was a hunger and thirst, and a sense that people needed and wanted this recalibration of what is a victorious Christian life.”

Mannegren said he sensed that God was doing something very special across Ethiopia in March 2024, when 225,000 people gathered at Meskel Square for prayer and repentance during a meeting hosted by the Ethiopian Council of Gospel Believers’ Churches, an organization representing 32 million Christians in Ethiopia and around the world. 

“I have never seen as much excitement and as much devotion,” Mannegren said of Ethiopian Christians’ passion for worship and prayer. “The worship we saw here is directly reflective of their yieldingness to the Lord.”

And that combination, he said, produces a compelling burden to reach unbelievers with the Gospel. More than half of the 1,600 churches who participated in the Encountering God prayer and evangelism training events also distributed 1.2 million “I Am Andrew” cards. Many filled these cards with the names of people who did not know Christ. Then they prayed for those named on the cards, looked for opportunities to share the Gospel with them and invited them to the evangelistic outreach. And more than 1,400 buses transported people to the event.

For 20 years, Dereje Abebe has been the magazine editor and media coordinator for the Ethiopian Kale Heyot Church denomination. He wrote the script for an “I Am Andrew” dramatization that was performed in about 60 churches across Addis Ababa, resulting in some 150 people professing faith in Christ.

Abebe, 62, was only 16 years old when the communist regime arrested him while he attended a youth group meeting at church. “I was persecuted and imprisoned for two months,” he said. “They pushed us to deny our faith and not to go to church, and to say communist slogans. They kicked us and tortured us.” Yet, Abebe refused to recant his faith in Christ. 

Now, more than 40 years later, as he assisted several media organizations broadcasting the Encountering God event on television and radio around the world, Abebe cherished the magnitude of the moment. “It’s a big opportunity for Ethiopians,” he said. “Many people in their homes can see this Gospel message.”

When he was living under the communist regime as a teenager and young adult, Abebe said that he could never imagine Meskel Square overflowing with hundreds of thousands of Ethiopians singing praises to God. 

“Now we can worship in this area,” he said. “This is a great victory for God’s people. It’s amazing how God keeps His promises and helps His people, and gives freedom for His people.

“I was emotional in Meskel Square when people worshipped and the Word of God was spoken. My eyes were filled with tears.” ©2025 BGEA