Eritrean Evangelical Lutheran Church Gheleb

Eritrean Evangelical Lutheran Church Gheleb

source of the above picture from facebook Childhood ChurchMY CHILDHOOD SCHOOL"

Gheleb means shield in the Tigre language. Gheleb, as its name indicates, is surrounded by mountains and has a mild climate. Gheleb is located in the Anseba region of Eritrea, 55km from Keren. Established in 1873, the Eritrean Evangelical Lutheran Church in Gheleb is the second oldest Lutheran church in the country. It had a church, Boarding school, clinic and other facilities that educated many pastors, teachers, medical professionals and others through its 150 years of history. Gheleb Church is also known for contributing to the growth of Tigre language literature. During the Eritrean Struggle for independence, the people of Gheleb had to flee twice in February and December of 1970. As a result, most of the town residents left and relocated within Eritrea and abroad. After Eritrean independence, several residents returned to the town and restored the school and church buildings. And now, by God's grace and mercy, the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Eritrea in Gheleb is preparing to celebrate 150 years of proclaiming the gospel in July of 2023. To help with the cost of the celebration, the church is asking kindly for support.
God bless you!

vገለብ እብ ህግያ ትግረ ትርጅማና ፡ ሕጌ ባህለት ቱ። ገለብ ክም ስማ እባ እት ድዋራ ፡ ሕጌ ላገብኣው ዓባዪ ኣድብር ክልልት ታ። ምግባይ ዎ ጥዑም ኣየር ባ፡ እግል ትንበር እታ ሰኒ ጥዕምት ታ። ምምሕዳር ገለብ እት ዞባ ዕንሰባ ቱ፡ ዎ ምን ከረን 55 ኪ.ሜ. ፍንቲት ትትረከብ። ወንጌላዊት ሉተራዊት ቤት ክስታን ገለብ፡ እት 1873 ዓ.ም. ትመስረተት፡ ዎ ኣብያት ምህሮ, ሕክምና, ዎ ብዕድ ላትፈናታ ክድሞታት ላ ሓቅፈት፡ ናይ ብዝሓም መንፈሳይት እም ታ። ምን መትኣሳሳ ላሓልፋ 150 ሰነት፡ ብዙሓም፡ ኣቅሸት, መምሃራን, ሓካይም, ወንጌላውያን, ዎ ብዕድ ላትፈናታ ክድመት እዴይ፡ እብዝያዳ መንፈሳይ ዎ ታሪክ ላሓቅፋ ኣክትበት ላ ኣፍረት ቤትክስታን ታ። ሸዓብ ገለብ ድብ ውቀት እስትዕማር፡ እብ ዝያዳ እት ወርሕ መጋቢት ዎ ታሕሳስ 1970 ላዓባ፡ ቅትለት, ዝምተት, ኣንደዶት ድጌ፡ እብ ኣባይ ክም ትከራ እቱ፡ ድጌሁ እንዶ ሓድጋ፡ እታ ሓይስ ለበለዩ ስደት ኣምረሓ። ሓቆ ሕርየት፡ መላኪን ሸዓብ ገለብ ፡እግላ ላባደመት፡ ድጌሁ, ቤትክስታኑ፡ ዎ ቤትምህሮሁ, እግል ለስኔ ሓድ ላ ዓቅሙ ከድም ሀላ። እብ ሰሀል ዎ ራሕመት ረቢ፡ ኣዜ ማሕበር ወንጌላዊት ሉተራዊት ቤትክስታን ገለብ፡ ዲብ 07/ሓምለ/2023፡ ሓድ 150 ሰነት እግል ተብዕል፡ ትዳሌ ሀለት። እግል መትዳላይ በዓል ለገብእ፡ ማሕበር ወንጌላዊት ሉተራዊት ቤትክስታን ገለብ፡ ሰዳየት ሶልዲ፡ ለትሓዝያ ሰበት ሀላ፡ እብ መትሸላጥ ሰዳየትና ትትሰኣል ሀለት፡ ረቢ ህያብና ልባርክ።

ገለብ ማለት ብቋንቋ ትግረ ዋልታ ማለት አዩ። ንገለብ ከም ሽማ፡ በቶም ዋልታ ዝኾንዋ ጎቦታት እተኸበት፡ ወይናደጋዊ ክሊማ እትዉንን፡ ንክትነብረላ ኣዚያ ሚችእቲ ዓዲ እያ። ገለብ ኣብ ዞባ ዓንሰባ፡ ኣብ ንኡስ ዞባ ገለብ፡ 55 ኪሎሜተር ካብ ከተማ ከረን ተደኩና እትርከብ ዓዲ አያ። ወንጌላዊት ሉተራዊት ቤተ ክርስትያን ገለብ፡ 1873 ተመስሪታ፡ ሓዳሪ ኣብያተ ትምህርቲ፡ ሕክምና ካልእ ኣገልግሎታትን ዝሓቆፈት መንፈሳዊት ኣደ ብዙሓት አያ። ካብ እትምስረት፡ ንዝሓለፈ 150 ዓመታት፡ ብዙሓት ካህናት፡ መምሃራን፡ ሓካይም፡ ወንጌላዉያንን፡ ካልኦት ሞያዉያን ከምኡውን፡ ታሪኻዊ ስነ ጽሑፋት ዘፍረየት ቤተ ክርስትያን እያ። ህዝቢ ገለብ፡ ኣብ ግዜ መግዛአቲ፡ ክልተ ግዜ ኣብ ወርሒ መጋቢትን ታሕሳስን 1970 ዝምታ ምቅታልን ምንዳድን ዓቢ ግፍዒ ምስ በጽሖ፡ ዓዱ ገዲፉ እግሩ ናብ ዝመርሖ ተሰደደ። ካብ ድሕሪ ናጽነት ኣትሒዙ ድማ፡ ህዝቢ ገለብ፡ ነታ ዝዓነወት ቤተ ክርስትያንን ቤት ትምህርቲን ጸጊኑ፡ ንገለብ ናብ ናይ ቀደም ሂወታ ንክመልሳ ብትግሃት ይዓዩ ኣሎ። ሕጂ ድማ፡ ወንጌላዊት ሉተራዊት ቤተ ክርስትያን ገለብ፡ ብጸጋ ኣምላኽን ምሕረቱን፡ ን 07/ ሓምለ/2023 ን150 ዓመት ከተብዕል ትሸባሸብ ኣላ። ነቲ በዓል ንምድላው ድማ፡ ወንጌላዊት ሉተራዊት ቤተ ክርስትያን ገለብ፡ ገንዘባዊ ሓገዝ የድልያ ስለዘሎ፡ ብትሕትና ሓገዝኩም ትሓትት ። ኣምላኽ ህያብኩም ይባርኽ።

Birthdate: August 18, 1869
in Sånga Parish, Uppland, Sweden
Death: June 16, 1919 (49)
Keren, Anseba, Eritrea
Richard Sundström was the son of the homesteader Gustaf Adolf Sundström. After matriculation at the Fjellstedt School in Uppsala in 1893, he studied at the Evangeliska fosterlandsstiftelsen's missionary institute Johannelund in 1894–1896 and was ordained a priest in Linköping in 1896. He prepared for missionary work through medical studies at Livingstone College in London in 1896–1897 and language studies in Florence 1897–1898 and was a missionary in Gheleb, Eritrea 1898–1913. In Keren, where he worked from 1913 until his death, he directed the construction of a new mission station and was occasionally appointed by the Italian government as city doctor there. Sundström's distinct scientific orientation made itself felt in several areas. he quickly learned to master Tigre in speech and writing, translated into this language parts of the Bible (including the entire Psalms) and a large number of songs and stories, and prepared a grammar of Tigre and a Tigre-Italian lexicon. Customs and usage, religious views, stories and fairy tales he tried to explore more closely. Much of this was included in the Publications of the Princeton Expedition to Abyssinia. For ethnographic research purposes, he also undertook excavations, among others in Adulis, and the objects found formed the basis for a later museum in Asmara.
ጉስታቭ ሪቻርድ ሱንድስትሮም (1869 -1919)
1917 ኣብ ከረን ብሱንድስትሮም ዝተሃንጸ መደበር ሚስዮን ገዛ ከኒሻ ከረን

Source from facebook "Childhood ChurchMY CHILDHOOD SCHOOL"

Evangelical Lutheran mission house Keren, Eritrea built in 1919

Evangelical Lutheran Church of Asmara, Eritrea (GEZA KENISHA) in 1905.

Eritrean students at Evangelical Lutheran School Geleb in 1937, Solomon Yohannes and Gustavo Be' algäd (Ato Gustavo, convert from Islam, became an Evangelical Christian and the name Gustavo was given by the missionaries

Solomon Yohannes and Gustavo Be' algäd

The role of The Swedish missionaries

The Swedish missionaries arrived at Imkullu near Massawa the port city of Eritrea on 15 March 1866. The missionaries did not come to preach the gospel in Eritrea. But they came to Eritrea on their way to go to Ethiopia to proclaim the gospel to the Oromo people. However, because of the political unrest in Ethiopia, they could not go there. Instead, in the same year in 1866 they traveled to the Kullku (Gash-Barka) and Gheleb (Anseba) people in Eritrea to preach the gospel. After six years, (1872-1874) both the Eritreans and the Swedes had training and experience at Northern Red Sea, Gash-Barka and Anseba. The missionaries came to Central Eritrea the missionaries and the converted Eritreans especially the deacons and priests from the church of Saint George in the village called Tseazega were reading and discussing the Bible and they had a common goal to proclaim the Good News. The Evangelical Lutheran Church of Eritrea is unique because it was initiated by a group of Orthodox priests in the 1860's who felt that teaching Christianity in the archaic Ge’ez language that people did not understand did not make sense. Their argument was to teach the Bible to people in the Tigrinya language that they understood. They saw themselves as Orthodox priests, but also as reformers. The reform movement was a completely local phenomenon. The achievements of the priests were twofold. First and foremost, to start a reform movement that would give people access to the scriptures in the language they understood, and, secondly, to make Tigrigya a written/literary language. As a result of the association they had the Evangelical Lutheran church of Eritrea was established. Therefore, historical evidence put Tseazega as the birth place of Evangelical Lutheran Church of Eritrea.

Tseazega (ጸዓዘጋ) is about 09 kilometres north west of Asmara, Eritrea. It was the capital of Hamasien from the beginning of the 18th century to the 1870s. The rulers of Tseazega were able to control the whole Medri Bahri, as well as Tigray in the first half of the 18th century.
ኣብ 1928-1935 ኣብ ጸዓዘጋ ወንጌላዊት ሉተራዊት ቤተ ክርስትያን ዕጹው ቤት ትምህርቲ (Boarding School) ናይ ዘኽታማት ከም ዝነበረ:: እዛ ስእሊ እዚኣ ናይ'ቲ እዋን እቲ ተማሃሮ ኣብ መዓልቲ ሆሳኢና ኣጒሳዕና ሒዞም ክዝምሩ ከለዉ ዘርኢ ስእሊ እያ። ቀሺ ሆልመር ዝተባህሉ ሚስዮናዊ ዘልዓልዎ ስእሊ ምዃኑ ይፍለጥ።

Evangelical Lutheran School of Imkullu (Massawa) Eritrea.
The Swedish Mission had established itself in Massawa and could expand its activities after General Charles Gordon (1833-1885) granted land to it in 1877. A center was erected at Imkullu in 1879. Gordon was on a visit to Massawa at the end of the year 1877. He received the Swedish Missionaries in audience, bought a plot of land in Imkullu, and gave a plot of land to the missionaries as a gift.
Regarding education of women, according to Lundstom Rosa von Hagen and Rev. Olof Mansson opened a school girl in January 1876. The first to come was an Oromo girl, followed by some refugees. Due to the persecution in Hamasen, the school was soon filled with girls most of whom had an Orthodox background. The school had 20 girls in 1877, 31 the following year, and 35 in 1879. By then the school was short of space. Munzinger Pasha had promised the missionaries land for additional facilities. However, after his death during a military campaign in Ethiopia in 1875, the missionaries saw no way of acquiring land. The school could move to a new site at Imkulu in 1879.
Furthermore, Pankhurst states that later in the century the Swedes founded a school in the north of the region, at Zazega, in Eritrea, but in 1897, transferred the establishment to Asmara, the then capital of the Italian colony. The school had four classes, as well as a handicraft annex, for instruction in typography, bookbinding and carpentry. A school for girls, also run by the Swedes, was likewise set up at Monkullu, but was moved to the Eritrean village of Belleza in 1890. This school taught Tigrinya reading and writing, and a little Italian, as well as housework, needlework, spinning and weaving. A second girls’ school was set up further south, in Adi Ugri. Two further schools, one for boys and another for girls, were founded to the west of Eritrea (Mensa people), in 1889 and 1903 respectively.
The German traveller and scholar Gerhard Rohls'who undertook a journey to Abyssina in 1889-1881, and also visited Imkullu, writes,
At the institution that was led by Mr. Lundhal, his wife and five other married missionaries, 150 Abyssinian children are being taken care of at present ranging in age from infants to 12-15 years of age. Apart from learning to read, write, count etc. each child must learn a practical skill. Here one sees learning to knit, do crochet, and sew and over there one sees boys making shoes, doing carpentry etc. All are smartly dressed in European fashion.
Some of the teachers who taught at Massawa and Tseazzega, Qeshi Zer'a Tsion Muse(1850-1940) was a teacher at school for girls at Massawa, Mrs Emelie Lundahl had trained him for the task. He moved to Addi Qoantsi as a distric evangelist in 1890. Another native of Tseazzega was Qeshi Tirfe. He was employed in 1877 to teach boys. He died in 1880 and was succeeded by his son Habte-Giorgis.
After Eritrea became an Italian colony in 1890 the Swedish missionaries moved the school from Menkulu (Moncullo) to Belleza in 1890 which became the center of their activities through the 1920s. and taught subjects like Tigrinya, Italian, reading, textile and home economics.
In 1889, a boys’ school was opened in Gheleb and a new girls’ school was later opened in Adi-weghri in 1890. Other schools soon opened in Asmara, Tse-Azegha, Keren, Gheleb, and Kuluko (Kunama area.) A very small percentage of the school age population children was lucky to benefit from the Mission schools and by 1905, the total number of students in Eritrea was only 100 By 1920, these schools were able to enroll and offer education to about 1000 students at any given time.
Belleza, just outside Asmara, was one of the first mission stations in the highland run by the Swedish Evangelical Mission. Belleza is a small hill close to the main road to Keren. It consisted of a school, with boarding facilities and a church. Nowadays the school is run by the government, but there is still a church Belleza as well as a small congregation.
Sources: Karl Johan Lundstrom.

The Evangelical Lutheran Church of Eritrea Special School for the Deaf.
A Swedish missionary called Rev. Olle Hagner was send to Eritrea for missionary work in 1922, and was working in Gash Barka. The out break of Second World war (1935-1945) forced him to leave Gash Barka. He stayed in Asmara, he hired a hearing and speech-impaired housemaid called Fikadu. The girl has two deaf sisters (Dehab and Sendek) their father (Mengis) died during their childhood. The widow mother named Hagosa started to work with missionary to foster her daughters.
Rev. Olle Hanger learnt that the Deaf are good workers, provide that they get proper education. From that time on he started to think about the Deaf in Eritrea. Deaf people in Sweden and Finland had already started collecting money to be used to help the Deaf in Africa, so that they could get the opportunity for Education as they had it.
In 1947 Rev. Olle Hagner returned to Sweden for vacation. There he contacted his former friend and class-mate Rev. Ivar Svennas. He informed him about his plan, to do something for the deaf in Eritrea. Rev. Ivar Svennas welcome the idea and shared it with the adult deaf and pastors for the deaf in Sweden.
Rev. Ivar organized meetings with the adult deaf and their pastors. The idea was accepted all in all. A committee consisting all of them and from the Swedish Mission (EFS) was set up. This organization called "DEAF's AFRIVAN MISSION "( DAM)
After several meeting they were looking for a missionary, who can start the work among the Deaf in Eritrea. It took a long time to find. Rev. Ivar through his good contacts wrote a letter to his friend in Finland Rev. Laurie Paunu.
He found him a middle aged lady, teacher for the deaf, called Miss Elsie Ross. She became the pioneer teacher for the deaf, in Keren, Eritrea (1955-1967). Both missions for the deaf in Sweden and Finland agreed to start the work jointly.
In 1960 Deaf mission (DAFEG) from the Republic of Germany joined the mission for the deaf in Eritrea. These three mission societies called joint Committee mission for the Deaf (JCMD).
Rev. Olle came back to Eritrea in 1953, with the good news he had and immediately meet the Government officials of Eritrea, among them Tedla Bairu the first chief executive of the government of Eritrea and Isaak Teweldemedhin head of the Eritrean Schools system in Eritrea. They had welcome the idea and started to discuss where will be a suitable place to start the School.
Considering that Keren's climate is good, life is moderate, and beside that Rev. Olle Hagner was already settled in Keren, they have decided then the school should be started in Keren. The leader of Eritrea, Tedla Bairu, consulted the governor of Anseba (Senhit) region Embaye Habtu. He provided them with a place which was a manger and army camp during the Italian colonialism.
KEREN SCHOOL for the deaf started in 1955 and became the first School of its kind in East Africa.
Finish lady Elsie Roosevelt performed her first class in a rented house in Pallaso Riva, and later the School moved to the modified premises near Forto.
The School continued for 14 years in these modified houses and later new school building inaugurated in 1969 near Dearit River.
As a result, Swedish and Finnish Sign Language (SWSL & FSL) were introduced to the sign language of Eritreans. There is no record of indigenous signs prior to the arrival of missionaries.
ቤት ትምህርቲ ጽሙማን ወንጌላዊት ሉተራዊት ቤተ-ክርስትያን ኤርትራ 1962.

1886 when Italian ships intercepted a boat which was taking her to be sold on the Arabian Peninsula, then took her to Eritrea where the Imkullu (Massawa), Eritrea school of the Swedish Evangelical Mission took her in. Aster (by Ethiopian custom, she is referred to by her first name) was educated at their school. Onesimos quickly “discovered that Aster was endowed with considerable mental gifts and possessed a real feeling for the Oromo language” (Arén 1978:383). She was assigned to compile an Oromo dictionary, which was first used in polishing a translation of New Testament published in 1893.
Aster also translated a book of Bible stories and wrote down 500 traditional Oromo riddles, fables, proverbs, and songs, many of which were published in a volume for beginning readers (1894). She later worked with Onesimos in compiling an Oromo hymnbook. Arén reports that a large amount of folklore she collected is still unpublished, preserved by the Hylander family (Arén 1978:384, fn. 71).
Aster and Onesimos completed translating the complete Bible into Oromo, which was printed in 1899. The title page and history credit Onesimos as the translator, but it appears that Aster's contribution was not, and still is not, adequately appreciated.
On April 13, 1903, Onesimus received a letter from Boji, Wellega, in which the pioneers told him that the evangelism work under the protection of two leaders was promising. At this news, he decided to leave Asmara, Eritrea and return to his country, because the journey was now easier thanks to the railroad built from Djibouti to Dire Dawa in 1902.

So the Asmara congregation commissioned Onesimus, his family of four, Aster, and four other people as messengers to the Oromo on behalf of the church on December 6, 1903. The next day the entire congregation was there to send them off when they started their journey. Although Onesimus expected to meet Swedish missionary and personal friend Karl Cederqvist at the Port of Djibouti, that proved impossible. Onesimus and the group had to go on to Addis Ababa, because Cederqvist was behind schedule by six weeks.
In 1904, Aster, together with Onesimos and other Oromos, were able to move from Eritrea back to wellega, where they established schools, Aster serving as a teacher at Nekemte.

Habtemariam Bairu when he was a student at Evangelical Lutheran School Imkullu (Massawa), Eritrea in1884
ORIGIN AND DEVELOPMENT OF EVANGELICAL LUTHERAN CHURCH OF ERITREA E. L. C. E.
The Evangelical Lutheran Church of Eritrea, was established by dedicated Eritrean deacons and priests from the Orthodox Church of Eritrea and the members of the Swedish missionaries.
The Swedish missionaries arrived at Imkullu near Massawa the port city of Eritrea on 15 March 1866. The missionaries did not come to preach the gospel in Eritrea. But they came to Eritrea on their way to go to Ethiopia to proclaim the gospel to the Oromo people. However, because of the political unrest in Ethiopia, they could not go there. Instead, in the same year in 1866 they traveled to the Kullku (Gash-Barka) and Gheleb (Anseba) people in Eritrea to preach the gospel. After six years, (1872-1874) both the Eritreans and the Swedes had training and experience at Northern Red Sea, Gash-Barka and Anseba. The missionaries came to Central Eritrea the missionaries and the converted Eritreans especially the deacons and priests from the church of Saint George in the village called Tseazega were reading and discussing the Bible and they had a common goal to proclaim the Good News. As a result of the association they had the Evangelical Lutheran church of Eritrea was established. Therefore, historical evidence put Tseazega as the birth place of Evangelical Lutheran Church of Eritrea.
Tseazega (ጸዓዘጋ) is about 09 kilometres north west of Asmara, Eritrea. It was the capital of Hamasien from the beginning of the 18th century to the 1870s. The rulers of Tseazega were able to control the whole Medri Bahri, as well as Tigray in the first half of the 18th century.

Habtemariam Bairu