Janelle and Mike McCarty
Email: Janelle and Mike McCarty

Janelle and Mike McCarty were appointed in July 2005 to serve in Bethel Evangelical Secondary School (BESS) in Dembi Dollo, Ethiopia. The McCartys will live on campus and mentor the students while Janelle teaches English.

Mike works with the development office of Western Wollega Bethel Synod on projects involving the settlement of the Majunga people, a nomadic people now settling near Dembi Dollo.

BESS is one of two schools operated in Dembi Dollo by the Ethiopian Evangelical Church Mekane Yesus (EECMY). “Mekane Yesus” translates as "dwelling place of Jesus" in Ge'ez, Ethiopia's ancient church language. The EECMY was formed in 1959, the outgrowth of Lutheran missions. In 1974, the two Bethel Evangelical synods in Ethiopia, the result of Presbyterian mission work, merged with it.

BESS is a boarding school for students in grades nine through twelve located in western Ethiopia about 200 miles from the capital, Addis Ababa. Dembi Dollo is in the Didessa valley, which is considered the "bread basket" of Ethiopia, with fertile soil and consistent rains. Local infrastructure, however, is not good—roads are often impassable during the rainy season, and potable water, phone, and electric systems are unreliable. A plane from Addis Ababa comes once a week.

(Photo Album)

Letters from
Janelle and Mike McCarty

• August 2008
• May 2008
• January 2008
• September 2007
• August 2007
• April 2007
• March 2007
• January 2007
• October 2006
• September 2006
• June 2006
• May 2006
• March 2006
• January 2006
• November 2005
• September 2005
• August 2005

Janelle got a taste of what it is like to do mission service when she volunteered to teach English in Hungary in 1994 and 1998. “ I lived with a missionary in Budapest,” she writes. “We taught at an English camp in a military high school. Through this experience I saw how God worked in amazing ways. We were able to speak openly about faith and many of the Hungarians wanted to know more about Jesus. I was so grateful that the Lord would be willing to work through me.”

Mike is also eager to serve: “I would like to spread the word and love of God through mission service,” he writes. “Through my skills and experience as an urban planner, I feel God can use me in helping members of impoverished communities to lead themselves in community and economic development.”

Prior to his appointment as a mission worker, Mike was an assistant planner in the city of Snoqualmie. Until their daughter Carolee was born, Janelle taught social studies and language arts to seventh graders in the Snoqualmie Valley School District in Snoqualmie, Washington.

Janelle holds a bachelor’s degree in education from Western Washington University in Bellingham. She has her Washington teacher’s certification in language arts, social studies, and teaching English as a second language. Mike has a bachelor of arts in planning and environmental policy from the Huxley College of Environmental Studies of Western Washington University. He has a master’s of arts in urban planning and a certificate in urban design from the College of Architecture and Urban Planning, University of Washington.

Janelle and Mike are members of First Presbyterian Church of Kent, Washington, where they have served on the mission committee and helped lead the youth group. They are the parents of a daughter, Carolee.

Birthdays:
Janelle – April 30
Mike – August 27
Carolee – May 22, 2004