Raising a Kingdom Generation in Ethiopia

How a partnership between EvaSUE, Servant Partners, and Horn of Africa Evangelical Mission Engagers is mobilizing a new generation for urban mission.

Photo by EvaSUE / Ethiopia is seeing a national movement of students and graduates responding to God's call to serve urban marginalized communities across the region.

This story is for the February 2026 Issue of Journey of Hope.

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When Robel Chemeda Disasa talks about his home country of Ethiopia and the surrounding countries in the Horn of Africa, he speaks from lived experience with a clear sense of vision. He doesn’t only see a war-torn region marked by political instability and poverty—he sees opportunity with God.

“There is a huge demand for discipleship,” Robel said. “While the church is focusing more on evangelism, there is a dichotomy, with one group believing in the transformational gospel and the other in the evacuation gospel. But the gospel is not about evacuation from the world. We are called to be salt and light in the places where people are suffering most, to bring about societal transformation.”

“There is a huge demand for discipleship… We are called to be salt and light in the places where people are suffering most, to bring about societal transformation.”

As a sophomore at Bahir Dar University, Robel found himself called into Christian leadership early on. With no staff worker to guide his college fellowship, he led a

community of nearly 500 students.

Robel, on the right, after graduating from University

“It was overwhelming,” he recalled. “But it trained me in leadership and discipleship from an impressionable age. Scripture—especially inductive Bible study—shaped how I came to know God personally.”

That formation later carried into his leadership with EvaSUE, the Evangelical Student and Graduate Union of Ethiopia. While serving as General Secretary (President), Robel began asking deeper questions about what happens after students graduate. Ethiopia’s cities are rapidly expanding, and graduates are increasingly moving into urban centers—and beyond, into North Africa and the Middle East—for work. 

Photo by EvaSUE / Robel Disasa at the National Leadership Summit

“You cannot go as a missionary,” Robel said. “It’s not safe, but our students can go as professional doctors, teachers or engineers. The question was how to help them go with a missional mindset once they graduate.”

Those questions led to a strategic partnership between EvaSUE, Servant Partners, and Horn of Africa Evangelical Mission Engagers (HOAEME), launching the Kingdom Transformation Project in 2021. The vision: train and send Ethiopian graduates to live incarnationally in urban poor communities, planting Jesus-centered communities while pursuing holistic transformation.

As of October 2025, Robel serves as the Global Partnership for Urban Transformation (GPUT) Strategy Coordinator for Africa, working at the intersection of the three organizations. He continues to advise EvaSUE, allowing him to steward the movement from both the student and urban mission sides.

Photo by EvaSUE / Worship

“EvaSUE mobilizes the students,” he explained. “Horn of Africa sends the missionaries, while Servant Partners comes alongside with resources, structure and thirty-three years of experience to reach urban poor areas.”

This partnership focuses on urban areas throughout Ethiopia, the Horn of Africa, North Africa, and the Middle East—expanding beyond university students and rural areas. Together, these organizations are mobilizing and supporting Kingdom Transformation Workers (KTWs)— young Ethiopian leaders living among and serving some of the country’s most marginalized urban communities.

Today, KTWs serve in Ethiopia’s three largest cities—from a dump-site community in Addis Ababa to historically marginalized neighborhoods in Bahir Dar and a red-light district in Dire Dawa. Over the last three years, their presence has led to 280 new believers and a growing trust within communities often marked by deep trauma and exclusion.

Robel shared the story of a young man with a physical disability from a marginalized people group called the Negede Weyto in Bahir Dar who was initially denied access to university. Through the advocacy and sacrificial support of KTWs and student volunteers, he not only enrolled but graduated—becoming a visible testimony to dignity restored.

Another KTW, Biruk, chose to work as a bartender in a neighborhood known for addiction and sex work to build trust and pursue transformation from within. “God is raising up this young generation to serve these communities with the aim of transforming the society,” Robel said.

"God is raising up this young generation to serve these communities with the aim of transforming the society.”

In the next year, Robel will focus on learning and discernment—seeking to understand where God is already at work and how the partnership can be strengthened. He believes the church in Ethiopia is at a strategic crossroads, uniquely positioned for global mission.

Photo by EvaSUE / A student leader reads their bible at the National Leadership Summit

“Please pray for us to have courage to reach other nations,” Robel said. "and to navigate the challenges we face—poverty, political instability, long-standing conflicts, civil war, and even the lack of discipleship—so that the church, and our countries, can flourish and fully contribute to the Kingdom of God.”

Join us in praying for this movement, and read more about our national movements at www.servantpartners.org/vision2030.