Joint Endeavour in the Work For the Gospel

The Ethiopian Evangelical Lutheran Church (EELC) was founded in 1960. It
consisted at that time of congregations that had emerged as a fruit of the
work of the Swedish missionary society Bibeltrogna Vänner (SMBV) conducted in
central, eastern, and southern Ethiopia. When the EELC was founded, its
members were few, estimated at around 500. Since then, the Church has grown to
have nearly 30,000 members. SMBV was founded in 1911 and almost immediately
began missionary work in Eritrea. However, the main goal was to reach the
Oromo people of Ethiopia. In 1921, SMBV missionaries began work in Ethiopia's
capital, Addis Ababa. From there, the work extended to the cities of Harar and
Dire-Dawa in the east and to Arsi province in the south. SMBV's work, which
had expanded rapidly, was greatly influenced by the attack of fascist Italy on
Ethiopia in the autumn of 1935. Due to the subsequent Italian occupation, all
SMBV's missionaries had to leave the country in 1936. To some extent, however,
the work was able to continue during the occupation, despite the suffering and
restrictions of the Ethiopian employees and parishioners. The book, which is
the second part in a series describing the history of the EELC, deals with the
period 1935 to1941 when Ethiopia was attacked and occupied by fascist Italy.
The book has general and specific sections. The general ones briefly describe
Italy's war of aggression and the subsequent occupation of the country. The
specific parts descibe what happened to SMBV´s missionaries and their
Ethiopian associates during the war (until September 1936) and what Ethiopian
Christians associated with SMBV experienced during the occupation. The
specific sections also include an account of visits to Ethiopia October 1938 -
January 1939 by representatives from SMBV in Sweden, and an account of
missionary work among Ethiopian refugees in Kenya 1939 - 1942.