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Feleke, Goshe (1917–2011)

By Eshetu Alemnew Wubetie

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Eshetu Alemnew Wubetie

First Published: February 19, 2026

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Goshe Feleke, popularly known among Ethiopian Seventh-day Adventists as “Prophet Goshe” or “the Illiterate Prophet,” was a lay member whose life and ministry left a deep impression on believers in the Gondar region of northern Ethiopia. Born into a farming family and unable to read or write, he nevertheless became widely known for his intense prayer life, strong evangelistic zeal, and what many regarded as manifestations of the biblical gift of prophecy.1 

Early Life and Conversion

Goshe Feleke was born in 1917 in the village of Aste Yohannes in the Gondar area of northern Ethiopia. He was the firstborn son of Feleke Eshetu and Aleme Abegar, small-scale farmers and devout members of the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church.2 Growing up as a shepherd and farm worker, he had no opportunity for formal education and remained illiterate throughout his life,3 During the Italian occupation of Ethiopia (1936–1941), Goshe reportedly took part in local resistance efforts to protect his community.4

Raised in the Orthodox Tewahedo faith, Goshe participated faithfully in the religious life of his family and community. In his youth and early adulthood. However, he began to experience a series of vivid dreams and visions that led him to seek a deeper understanding of the Bible. One of the earliest and most decisive of these experiences involved a dream in which he saw a fire consume his village while an angel rescued him and led him to a new house. He later understood this as a call to leave his former way of life and enter a new spiritual experience.5

Because he could not read or write, Goshe began searching for someone who could teach him the Word of God. Around 1938, he came into contact with Seventh-day Adventist evangelists working in the Gondar region, including Aleka Motbaynor Goshu and Pastor Takele Bizuneh.6 He attended their meetings regularly despite his father’s concern that joining a new church would bring persecution. Moved by the preaching of the soon coming of Christ, the Sabbath, and salvation by grace in Christ, he decided to join the Seventh-day Adventist Church. In 1951, at about 34 years of age, he was baptized by Pastor Erling Bjaanes at the Debre Tabor Seventh-day Adventist Church.7 

His Witness

In 1952, shortly after his baptism, Goshe, his wife Mebrat Wassie, and several other Adventist families moved to the village of Amora Gedel in South Gondar. It was in this new setting that his distinctive ministry began.8 Friends and church members testified that during this period he began to receive specific Bible verses in dreams and visions. Because he was illiterate, he would memorize the verse and deliver it verbally to the individual, family, or congregation to whom, he believed, God was directing the message.9 Recipients would then open their Bibles and read the texts he mentioned. Witnesses report that when the correct verse was read aloud, he would affirm it and then soon forget the reference, only to receive other verses at a later time for different persons or situations.10

These experiences often came with intense emotional burden. Those close to him recall nights when he wept in prayer, interceding for individuals or churches that, he believed, the Holy Spirit had placed on his heart. Some in the community feared that he might be demon-possessed or mentally ill. Others came to view his experience as a genuine spiritual gift exercised under the conviction of the Holy Spirit.11

As his conviction of a divine calling grew, Goshe requested permission in 1964 to address the congregation at the Amora Gedel Seventh-day Adventist Church. Local leaders were cautious. Because he was not formally educated and showed unusual behavior—such as intense weeping and delivering messages based on dreams—some felt he should not be allowed to preach.12
The matter eventually reached the leadership of the Ethiopian Seventh-day Adventist Union. After careful consideration, he was granted a brief time to speak between Sabbath School and the main worship service.13 Though the opportunity was limited and the leadership maintained a cautious stance, this decision indicated a willingness to listen while also exercising pastoral oversight and doctrinal responsibility.

Despite misunderstandings and opposition from some, Goshe continued to visit nearby villages, sharing messages of repentance, revival, and obedience to God. Evangelists and pastors who worked with him testify that he was careful not to contradict the teachings of Scripture or the established doctrines of the Seventh-day Adventist Church.14 Instead, his counsel generally emphasized the importance of prayer, holy living, Sabbath observance, and readiness for the soon return of Christ.15

Supporters recount that when individuals attempted to “test” him by reading the wrong verse after he had given a reference, he corrected them until the correct passage was found, insisting that the genuine text must be read.16 Such stories strengthened the conviction of many that his gift, however unusual, should be taken seriously, though always evaluated in the light of the Bible, by reason, and by the collective judgment of the Church (1 Thess. 5:19-21; 1 John 4:1).17 Within this biblical framework, Goshe Feleke’s work was understood as a local and personal manifestation of spiritual gifts, not as a new source of doctrine or a worldwide prophetic authority comparable to Scripture or Ellen White. Those who valued his ministry saw it as a call to deeper revival and reformation among Church members, pointing them back to biblical faithfulness and the distinctive Adventist message about the judgment, the Sabbath, and the nearness of Christ’s return.18

Goshe maintained a simple lifestyle. He continued to work as a full-time farmer, but he devoted significant time to visiting congregations and individuals, often at personal cost.19 Despite the time spent away from his fields, his family testified that they never lacked necessities.20

Final Years

Goshe continued his ministry of prayer, exhortation, and personal visitation into advanced age.21 He died on June 21, 2011, at the age of 94, in his home village of Amora Gedel in South Gondar. He was survived by his wife, Mebrat Wassie and 11 children.22

Legacy

For many Ethiopian Seventh-day Adventists, Goshe’s story illustrates the Adventist Church’s ongoing responsibility to test spiritual manifestations carefully by Scripture, to safeguard doctrinal purity, and at the same time, to remain open to the working of the Holy Spirit in diverse cultural and personal contexts.

Adventist pastor and church administrator Tiruneh Woldeselassie wrote a book in Amharic about Goshe’s life and ministry entitled Ye Noah Mitik (translated as An Ethiopian Noah or Noah’s Replacement).23 The title reflected both the way some Adventists perceived Goshe’s prophetic burden for his generation and Goshe’s own conviction that God had given him a special responsibility. The book preserves many of the oral stories and testimonies about Goshe’s ministry and remains a key source for understanding his life.

Sources

Woldeselassie, Tiruneh. Ye Noah Mitik [An Ethiopian Noah/Noah’s Replacement]. In Amharic. N.p., 2000.

Notes

  1. Tiruneh Woldeselassie, Ye Noah Mitik [An Ethiopian Noah/Noah’s Replacement] (Amharic), n.p., 2000.↩

  2. Ibid.↩

  3. Pastor Worku Tsegaw, interview by author, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, July 14, 2019.↩

  4. Pastor Tiruneh Woldeselassie, interview by author, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, July 13, 2019.↩

  5. Tiruneh Woldeselassie, Ye Noah Mitik [An Ethiopian Noah/Noah’s Replacement] (Amharic), n.p., 2000.↩

  6. Ibid.↩

  7. Ibid.↩

  8. Pastor Tiruneh Woldeselassie, interview by author, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, July 13, 2019.↩

  9. Tiruneh Woldeselassie, Ye Noah Mitik [An Ethiopian Noah/Noah’s Replacement] (Amharic), n.p., 2000.↩

  10. Evangelist Zewdu Alemayehu, interview by Desalegn Worku, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, March 30, 2025.↩

  11. Pastor Worku Tsegaw, interview by author, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, July 14, 2019.↩

  12. Ibid.↩

  13. Ibid.↩

  14. Pastor Tiruneh Woldeselassie, interview by author, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, July 13, 2019; Evangelist Zewdu Alemayehu, interview by Desalegn Worku, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, March 30, 2025.↩

  15. Pastor Worku Tsegaw, interview by author, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, July 14, 2019; Pastor Tiruneh Woldeselassie, interview by author, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, July 13, 2019; Evangelist Zewdu Alemayehu, interview by Desalegn Worku, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, March 30, 2025.; Evangelist Molalign Hailu, interview by author, Oslo, Norway, November 7, 2025.↩

  16. Evangelist Zewdu Alemayehu, interview by Desalegn Worku, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, March 30, 2025.↩

  17. Evangelist Molalign Hailu, interview by author, Oslo, Norway, November 7, 2025.↩

  18. Pastor Tiruneh Woldeselassie, interview by author, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, July 13, 2019; Evangelist Zewdu Alemayehu, interview by Desalegn Worku, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, March 30, 2025.↩

  19. Pastor Tiruneh Woldeselassie, interview by Eshetu Alemnew, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, July 13, 2019↩

  20. Evangelist Zewdu Alemayehu, interview by Desalegn Worku, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, March 30, 2025.↩

  21. Evangelist Molalign Hailu, interview by author, Oslo, Norway, November 7, 2025.↩

  22. Ibid.↩

  23. Tiruneh Woldeselassie, Ye Noah Mitik [An Ethiopian Noah/Noah’s Replacement] (Amharic), n.p., 2000.↩

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, Eshetu Alemnew Wubetie. "Feleke, Goshe (1917–2011)." Encyclopedia of Seventh-day Adventists. February 19, 2026. Accessed October 15, 2026. https://encyclopedia.adventist.org/article?id=FHTZ.

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, Eshetu Alemnew Wubetie. "Feleke, Goshe (1917–2011)." Encyclopedia of Seventh-day Adventists. February 19, 2026. Date of access October 15, 2026, https://encyclopedia.adventist.org/article?id=FHTZ.

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, Eshetu Alemnew Wubetie (2026, February 19). Feleke, Goshe (1917–2011). Encyclopedia of Seventh-day Adventists. Retrieved October 15, 2026, https://encyclopedia.adventist.org/article?id=FHTZ.

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