Tesfahun Agidew Dada

Tesfahun Agidew was born on August 25, 1948 in Angacha Woreda in the Kembata Tembaro Zone to Amose Koribo and Agidew Dada, his Mother and Father. He grew up in idyllic rural surroundings as a village boy. Even at this early age he would begin serving God by assisting his Father in reading the Bible and helping him to prepare his sermons. Tesfahun would complete his high school education in Nazreth at Atse Gelawdious Comprehensive High School in 1966, the first achievement for him as a lifelong learner. It was also the year he registered as a church member with the Mulu Wongel or Full Gospel Believers Church.

From 1973 to 1979 he served in the Church in leadership as a deacon, as Chair of the Elders and in coordinating local and national committees within the fellowship of the Ethiopian Full Gospel Believers Church. During his time in the Church he would meet his future wife Tiruwork and they would go on to have their first two children Kirubel and Ephrata. Tesfahun was a lifelong learner. In 1970 he would receive his Technological Diploma from Bahir Dar Ethiopia Polytechnic higher institute. This led to him working as a Technician Section Chief in the Ministry of Agriculture. During this time he would Travel outside of Ethiopia for further studies. He went to Singapore for leadership training at the Hagai International Institute for Leadership Training and received a Certificate after 2 years in 1975. He then traveled to the Netherlands to acquire training related to his work in the Ministry of Agriculture. He attended the National Agricultural College in Deventer, Netherlands and received his Diploma in the International Course in Farm Mechanization in June of 1975. Tesfahun would hold his position at the Ministry until 1978 when he became the Executive Secretary with the Evangelical Churches Development Council. There he served as a Denomination Leader, Administrator and Organizer.

While in office he was responsible for the implementation of 13 self help urban development projects worth approximately 300,000 birr at the time. In 1980 Tesfahun, Tiruwork and their children left Ethiopia for Nairobi, Kenya to attend the East African School of Theology. Two years later in June of 1982 Tesfahun would receive his Bachelor of Arts Degree in Theology. By 1984 he added a Certificate in Business and Accounting as well as additional training in Electronics. That would also be the year he would begin work with Portable Recording Ministries, later known as Audio Scripture Ministries based in Holland Michigan. Tesfahun’s career at ASM would last 17 years as the Africa Regional Director. He initially held the position to open, direct and build the Nairobi ASM office but it would later become the Africa Regional Office. Under his leadership ASM grew in Nairobi and expanded to 22 other countries in 15 years. He developed partnerships with the United Bibles Society Africa Region, congregations and various language groups that supported audio recordings of the Bible in 70 different languages and was responsible for delivery of the programs. He organized and supervised projects for ASM Studios, such as internal production and financing of studio facilities. He innovated new ideas to improve accessibility, such as sourcing low-cost solar panels to run hand-crank tape players for underprivileged communities in remote African locations to hear the word of God. During this time he started an MA in Social Science from Azusa Pacific University and was conferred the degree in August of 1991. Even after traveling with his family to another country Tesfahun still continued serving God in Church. He would be one of the integral leaders in the National Churches Council Ethiopian Student Fellowship in Kenya which would in 1985 become the Ethiopian Evangelical Churches fellowship in Kenya. There are volumes that can be said about the time Tesfahun and his family had in this church. This is the church home of this family where God would bless Tesfahun and Tiruwork with their third daughter Tsedal, and where their children's spiritual foundations were laid.

In 2001 Tesfahun finished serving as the Africa Regional Director in Kenya and returned to his homeland to become the founder and Executive Director of Gospel Communication Resource Center in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, continuing the work of Delivering Audio programming to teach reading skills and Christian scripture to Ethiopian churches. He had always wanted to create a resource center for people who are in Ministry to be able to retreat from daily life and gain renewed focus on their callings, but God had other plans. He was reunited with his family in California and lived out the remainder of his life alongside them.