The Wolaita Sodo University Area Kale Heywet Local Church began in 2012 (2004 E.C.) with 17 households as members. It started in a hall built with 70 corrugated iron sheets on a 200-square-meter plot of land donated freely by a mother named Emama Weyze Debena. With many of its members and servants being Christian students from Wolaita Sodo University, the planting work was carried out with unforgettable support from the mother church, Fana Kale Heywet, and the Wolaita Zone Kale Heywet Office. At that time, since the university was newly established in the area, there was an influx of students from various parts of the country facing behavioral issues and spiritual oppression. It was a period when tragedies—such as suicides by hanging or poisoning, and abandoning newborns in ditches—were common, and a significant number of thieves and robbers made life very difficult for the local community. By providing spiritual services through the Lord's grace and spreading the Gospel, these common problems decreased, making the area a preferred place to live and accelerating the church's growth.
Although the church began with only 17 households and about 60 members, it managed to accommodate up to 700 people, including university students, on its very first Sunday worship service, becoming a prominent local church in our city. Because the number of congregants increased weekly, the original hall became too small after just three weeks, leading the leaders to expand the space using tarps. May God bless the ministers and leaders of that time for their diligence in equipping students for service and helping them maintain their fellowship with the Lord before they were deployed to various locations for work. Within just seven months of starting in the cramped 200-square-meter space, the Lord multiplied the congregation so much that even a 600-square-meter tarp-covered hall could no longer contain them. All glory be to God our Lord!
It is a recent memory for us how the coordinators struggled to find individuals among the members to appoint as leaders during the church's planting phase. However, today, by God's help, the church can select servants for all departments without difficulty, which confirms that God is working with our church. Due to a lack of capacity, the church operated for its first two years without any specific spiritual departments or full-time ministers. In 2014 (2006 E.C.), the church was able to hire her first full-time servant. Today, praise the Lord, the church has become a local church with 3 pastors, 9 evangelists, 5 missionaries, and 9 administrative staff members. From a beginning of only 60 members, God has expanded her to a point where the church has planted a branch called the 'Diaspora' church and now serves over 2,900 regular members and more than 2,000 students.
For the first three consecutive years, the church lacked a proper choir or worship leaders and was forced to invite ministers from other local churches. Today, there are more than 12 choirs and worship leaders within the church and its zones. By fulfilling all requirements, our church has opened a Theological College with a degree program in Amharic, accepting and teaching students from the 1st to 3rd year from our local and nearby churches. This makes it the only local church in our city to do so next to the Stadium Kale Heywet Church. Despite its short age, our joy is great because the church has built its own modern worship hall featuring a basement (-1) and a 30-room ground floor, while providing various other developmental and spiritual services. The Lord who works with her is faithful. Blessed be the name of God.