Two Pennsylvania schools, Dock Mennonite Academy in Lansdale and Lancaster Mennonite School, hosted Anabaptist leaders from Ethiopia in October.

Gishu Jebecha, principal of Meserete Kristos Seminary, and Desalegn Abebe, president of the Meserete Kristos Church, visited the schools as part of a fundraising trip. They were hosted by the Lancaster-based Anabaptist denomination LMC and Bishop Mark Wenger.

At Dock, the Ethiopian leaders ­talked with high school students in Bible classes and “provided a powerful end to our Spiritual Life Emphasis Week ’25 by telling the incredible story of the growing church in Ethiopia, which was like hearing a modern retelling of the Book of Acts,” said Zach Bowers, Dock communications associate.

At Lancaster Mennonite, the leaders spoke in high school chapel; shared in Bible classes about the history of the Ethiopian church, peacebuilding efforts and ways the church is growing and flourishing; and connected with the school’s local and international Ethiopian students.

“Lancaster Mennonite School has a long history of having Ethiopian students at our school as international students since the 1980s, and we have a number of families and faculty/staff that have personal connections with Meserete Kristos Seminary and Meserete Kristos Church and have volunteered or lived in Ethiopia,” said Aubrey Kreider, Lancaster Mennonite director of marketing and communi­cations. “It was amazing for our students to hear how much the Ethiopian church is growing and flourishing.”

With over 500,000 members, the MKC is the largest national church affiliated with Mennonite World Conference. During 17 years under a Marxist regime in the 1970s and ’80s, the church survived as an underground movement. Growing rapidly since that time, the MKC will host the next MWC assembly in January 2028.