Bekele Shanko, born and raised in Ethiopia, joined a full-time missionary work with Campus Crusade for Christ international in Ethiopia in 1993. Since then, he held diverse leadership roles for the organization including national director for Ethiopia for five years, regional director for Southern and Eastern Africa for 11 years, and global vice president since 2010.
Bekele also serves a chairman of GACX (global alliance for church multiplication), a global network of church planting organizations which he helped to start in 2011, and president of GATL (global academy for transformational leadership), a global leadership college, which he founded in 2008.
In addition, Bekele was involved in designing and leading major national and international evangelistic projects such as Operation Philip in Ethiopia, Operation Sunrise Africa in Southern and Eastern Africa, and the Global Church Movements that seeks to plant a church for every 1,000 people on planet earth.
Before joining Campus Crusade for Christ, Bekele worked as a head of information management for the National HIV/AIDS Control Program in Ethiopia for five years. Bekele holds a B.Sc. degree in Statistics and Mathematics from Addis Ababa University in Ethiopia, M.A. in Organizational Leadership from Azusa Pacific University, and a doctorate in Global Transformational Leadership from Bakke Graduate University.
Bekele and his wife Shewa and their four children, Nathan, Elim, Philip, and Nesiel, live in Orlando, FL. Shewa is involved in women's leadership development and has a passion for children's ministry, art, and helping orphans. Over the course of their ministry, the Shanko family has lived in Ethiopia, Uganda, Zimbabwe, South Africa, and the United States.
Bekele’s mission statement is, “To serve the purpose of God in my generation by empowering the Body of Christ for world evangelization that results in holistic transformation of humanity.”
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