God’s Amazing Timing

Dr. Tilahun Mendedo, former president of Concordia College Alabama, has accepted the position of Executive Development Officer with Lutheran Bible Translators. We are as excited as he is!

I firmly believe that the next big step forward for Lutheran Bible Translators will flow out of the active participation of the many individuals here in the USA who send the missionaries and spur them on to do great things. Tilahun is eager to help us do that. Born in Ethiopia, he knows personally how important God’s Word is in one’s own language.

In the next issue of The Messenger you will read how the Spirit is developing our relationships and work in Ethiopia. I actually was on the first visit to Ethiopia to respond to an invitation to help the Ethiopian Evangelical Church Mekane Yesus (EECMY) translate the Scriptures for unreached people groups in south east Ethiopia. We stepped out in faith that God would provide people and resources to respond. He has been, and I believe will continue.

A native of Ethiopia, Dr. Mendedo served in multiple capacities with the Ethiopian Evangelical Church Mekane Yesus (EECMY), including evangelist, youth leader, church elder, Bible school teacher, project director and curriculum advisor for the theological centers in Ethiopia, school administrator of the Theological Training Center of the EECMY-Central Ethiopia Synod in Addis Ababa, and coordinator of the Mobile Bible Schools of the Mekane Yesus.

Dr. Mendedo also served as pastor of Faith Lutheran Church in Mobile and taught as an adjunct professor of philosophy at the University of South Alabama and Spring Hill College. He has academic memberships in American Missiology Society, Evangelical Missiological Society, and the Lutheran Society of Missiology. He earned his bachelor degree in counseling, a masters in systematic theology, and his doctorate in missiology from Concordia Theological Seminary, Ft. Wayne, Indiana.

Dr. Mendedo and his wife, Aberash Aklilu, have three children. They reside in Mobile, Alabama.