Michael and Rachel Weller
26 Foster Square
Pittsburgh, PA 15212
Email: Michael Weller
Email: Rachel Weller

Editor's note: Rachel ended her service as a mission co-worker in December 2008. Michael will continue as regional liaison for the Horn of Africa until December 2009.

Michael and Rachel Weller were appointed in 1994 to serve in Ethiopia with the Ethiopian Evangelical Church Mekane Yesus (EECMY). Michael is PC(USA)’s regional liaison for the Horn of Africa, where PC(USA) works with partner churches in Sudan and Ethiopia. Rachel is health coordinator for the East and West Gambella Bethel Synods of the EECMY in western Ethiopia.

The Wellers began their service in Ethiopia in Dembi Dollo in the remote western highlands, where the first Presbyterian mission was established in 1919 to combat the worldwide flu epidemic. From 1994 to 2001, Michael taught at the Gidada Bible School, which trains adults for various positions of leadership within the church. Michael helped put together a curriculum so students could receive a diploma at the end of three years of study and pursue ordination as pastors.

From 2002 to 2004 Michael worked with the Majangir people, nomads who were settling on the outskirts of Dembi Dollo. Through his work with the Majangir, gained experience in community development and church planting. While Michael lived with the Majangir, Rachel moved to Addis Ababa with the children so that the children could attend school.

Letters from
the Michael and Rachel Weller Family

• June 2008 (2)
• June 2008 (1)
• September 2007
• May 2007
• January 2007
• March 2006
• May 2005
• August 2004
• February 2004
• January 2003
• November 2002
• May 2002
• April 2000
• June 1999

Michael moved to Addis in 2004 to teach at the Mekane Yesus Seminary. He also filled in temporarily as the coordinator of the Bethel Synods Coordination Office, the office through which the EECMY relates to partner churches around the globe.

Rachel’s work with three medical clinics in one of the most remote parts of Ethiopia offers her many challenges, the largest of which is finding well-trained medical staff willing to live and work there. She is encouraged by the commitment of the East and West Gambella Bethel Synods to overcoming these obstacles so that the people of the area may have access to health care.

The Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) has worked in partnership with the people of Ethiopia for nearly a century. The people of the five Bethel Synods, in the west and southwestern part of the country have a keen sense of kinship with Presbyterians in the United States. Michael and Rachel are very proud to be a part of both communities to be a conduit through which a deeper understanding of God is communicated.

Michael was born in Durham, North Carolina. He spent his school years in Norfolk, Virginia, where he was a member of Coleman Place Presbyterian Church. After graduating from Randolph-Macon College, in Ashland, Virginia, he went to Cairo, Egypt, with the PC(USA)’s Volunteer In Mission program and taught English at Ramses College for Girls. He received his M.Div. from Union Theological Seminary in Richmond, Virginia.

Rachel was born and raised in Ethiopia, where her parents were missionaries with the United Presbyterian Church. Returning to the States after high school, she earned an R.N. from West Penn Hospital School of Nursing in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Rachel served as a volunteer in mission in Egypt at Tanta American Hospital for two years and met Michael while on a retreat for the volunteers at Mt. Sinai. They were married before Michael entered seminary.

The Wellers are the parents of four children. After spending most of their childhood in Ethiopia the Weller children are now moving into adulthood. Brian lives and works in western Pennsylvania. Amira is in high school in South Africa. Thomas is in high school Addis Ababa, and Lydia studies at the Rift Valley Academy in Kenya.

Birthdays:
Michael - October 27
Rachel - July 21
Brian - September 14
Amira - January 25
Thomas - June 2
Lydia - October 21