Historical Background
Historically in the book of “Adventism in Ethiopia it has stated that “Green Lake Seventh-Day Adventist Church was established in 1963 by the indigenous person whose name was Jabesa Ejeta. His title was “Balambaras”-a military title, which means the head man of the Amba or hill fortress. He was a member of parliament in the House of Representatives. He had made some commitments to the people around Jimma Genet at the time of his election campaigns. He now was trying his best to fulfill his promises. With these thought he went to EUM office in 1963. By sheer coincidence he knocked at the office of Tiruneh W/Silasse ‘s office. After exchanging his traditional salutation with him he explained his entire burden concerning the urgent needs of his people at Jimma Genet. He presented his request to open Clinic to meet the health needs of his people. Then Pr. Tiruneh stated that “I must admit, I too was impressed by the urgency of the need and the sincerity of the man.” I introduced Balambaras Jabesa to pastor O. Jordal, president of the Union. The Idea caught fire,” and the committee decided to send both Pr. Tiruneh and Pr. O Jordal to the Jimma Genet specifically to the place B/Jabesa Ejeta had a plan to erect the clinic which later called Green Lake.
“Green Lake is in the Wellega province, 307km from Addis Ababa and 116km away from near-east hospital from Nekemte and 226km from WEC/Gimbie/while Bako town is 191km from Gimbie the head quarter of the WEC. Pastor Turuneh has also stated that “The visiting group was taken by big surprise at the time they arrived at Green Lake, to find such a vast gathering of people waiting to welcome them. In their surveying of the place they saw a large lake covered by green grass which was the deepest lake in Ethiopia with about fifty islands on it. Thus, according to pr. Tiruneh it was pastor O. Jordal who called the place Green Lake, which otherwise was called Jimma Geneti. Jordal called it Green Lake because of the green grass we saw covering the lake and that was how the name green Lake was coined.”
After two years of processing on the project, “a brand-new clinic was born, whose birth brought untold joy and rejoicing to the heart of the indigenous people and Seventh-Day Adventist Church.” That was the foundation for the introduction of the Gospel to the area. It was in “May 2, 1965 that the official opening date of the clinic was conducted.” Since, that pioneers such as “Sr. Anna Jensen, Mr. John Oddie, Mr. David Syme, Sr. Alice Osana and Ato Tamiru Dafa and etc., was rendered their service “as the physician and church pastors.
The book of “Adventism in Ethiopia” has stated that “Green Lake is a very isolated place. The feeder road from Bako to the Clinic was miserable in the summer months and impassable in the rainy season. There was no telephone line and no sign of civilization around there. People who volunteered to work there had to accept that kind of environment.” However, despite of many challenges to penetrate the area with Good news of the Gospel of Christ, the SDA church has been expanded to the four directions of its surroundings. The church grew from single mother church Green Lake to 45 churches in both Green Lake and Bako. But today praise the Lord and the Current government has connected the place with towns around and provided with electric power and road. Thus, Bako is the expansion from Green Lake surrounded by many un-entered areas, like Gedo, Ijaji, Shoboka, Sire, Chari, Gebeya Sanbata, Guduru Kombolcha, Dadu, Homi, Amarti, Jarte, Abe Dongoro Boshe to west Bako and areas around Gibe river to Limu Saka.
Bako was penetrated in the year 2000 by the Global pioneer pastor Temesgen Edesa who was assigned by the WEF at the time. Teacher Yohannes Gudina and His family were the right hands for the establishment of BaKo SDA church who were settled in the town at the arrival of the Global pioneer. This family was the base to allow some members to worship God in their own house every week for some years. Then, upon the arrival of the pioneer SDA church is introduced to the government officials and the house of worship is rented and the activity of worshiping is officially started under the leadership of the global pioneer. His leadership helped the WEF leaders to further plan for the future of the church around green lake. Probably, it was after five years of struggle the West Ethiop Field leaders determined to buy the land with 100,000.00 ETB with one residence and open kg school at the request of the community. Today this kg school has developed to elementary school.
The West Central Ethiopian Field (WCEF) was established in March 8/ 2017G C. WCEF is subsidiary entity of the former Ethiopia Union Mission which is now subsidiary entity of the Western Ethiopia Union Mission of Seventh-day Adventist Church, established for the purpose of facilitating the proclamation of the everlasting gospel, in the context of the Three Angels Message of Revelation 14: 6-12, to all peoples within its territory. The population data of WCEF Territory as shown in Wikipedia free Encyclopedia is total of 2,109,925 of which 1,054,530 are Male; 1,055,395 are female and 282,900 are urban. Furthermore the major religious groups comprised West Central Ethiopia Field are Coptic Orthodox 34.21 Protestants 51.67; Muslims; 7.23 Traditional 3.6 Adventists 1.06 in Average. This is based on the 2007 census conducted by the Central Statistical Agency of Ethiopia (CSA). (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oromia_Region), accessed on March 10/2021.