Gilead missionaries Dean Haupt and Raymond Egilson established a similar school in Diredawa, a commercial center not far from Harar, strategically located on Ethiopia’s only railroad line from the port of Djibouti to Addis Ababa. It was here that Brother Hatzakortzian had died.

Life was far from being posh. Brother Haupt explains: “Our first night was an unforgettable experience. We had no furniture as yet, so we used a trunk as a table and sat on suitcases to eat our meal. We put mattresses on the floor, as our beds had not arrived yet. This was not so bad, but when we switched out the lights, bedbugs started coming down the walls to get a taste of us! It seems that this part of the house had been vacant for some time, and the bugs were out to get fresh blood! I don’t think we slept a wink that night.”

Gilead missionaries: Dean Haupt and Haywood Ward in Addis Ababa