Dick McLellan arrived at SMBC a few days after his 20th birthday, in 1952. After 70 years as a missionary in Ethiopia, Dick has seen areas where there were once no Bibles now have over 1,000 churches. The country that was once a mission field is now sending missionaries of its own. “His mercies are new every day. Great is his faithfulness.”
Becoming a Missionary
A few days after his 20th birthday, Dick McLellan arrived at SMBC in 1952.
“The Lord uses Sydney Missionary and Bible College to train missionaries to learn the Bible. Not to learn about the Bible, but to learn the Bible, and by knowing the Bible, you know the Lord Jesus, and he’s the one for whom you are carrying the gospel. A wonderful privilege.”
“The Lord had called me, I believe, as a missionary to Africa. While I was at SMBC, I heard of the great need there was in Ethiopia.”
Class of 1952 with Dick and Vida circled
He recalls, with a twinkle in his eye, meeting his late wife Vida, a nurse, at college. The two would serve for more than two decades with SIM in the Omo River Valley, working among 12 tribes across five provinces.
“I built a mud house to live in. I built clinics for Vida. Very often I had to build roads and airstrips and bridges. But our main work was to preach the gospel of Jesus Christ.”
“I built a mud house to live in. I built clinics for Vida. Very often I had to build roads and airstrips and bridges. But our main work was to preach the gospel of Jesus Christ.”
God blessed this work, and many came to faith. In fact, even at 94 years old, Dick continues to see this fruit firsthand.
He recently travelled back to Ethiopia to preach in Amharic to a convention of 40,000 people. Dick was given a traditional gift to honour his ministry.
“For 72 years now, I’ve been able to go back to Ethiopia, usually for three months at a time, to work, reaching unreached areas and working with evangelists and pastors. And we are seeing the Lord do some wonderful things. In areas where there were no Bibles, no churches, today there are well over 1,000 churches.”
The Konta Tribe: Gospel Growth in the Darkest Valley
One of the 12 tribes where Dick and Vida ministered was the Konta people. Dick reflects on how God was faithful, bringing new life even through times of great darkness.
“We had just come home on furlough. An enemy tribe on the other side of the Omo River called the Bodis, they came across the river and massacred thousands of people, destroyed all the churches, killed so many people. In one little church, before it was burnt down, the Bodis came and chopped down over 60 of the people in that one church alone.”
After this brutal attack, the region was left barren and deserted.
“Nobody was there for years,” Dick says, “but slowly over the years, slowly people have come back. Evangelists, some who escaped in remarkable ways during that suffering, have returned, and started little groups of believers in different places.”
“It’s been remarkable to see over the years how the number of churches has multiplied, and that has continued. Eventually there were 50 churches, and then there were 100.”
“Last week, I got an email from one of the pastors in the area, who was telling me there are now 228 individual churches among the Konta people. And they are still reaching out into other tribes – often enemy tribes that could kill the believers. But praise God, his work continues.
“And that is only one of the 12 tribes that we’ve worked among.”
A young Vida and Dick McLellan, Ethiopia
The Bunna Tribe: The Urgency of the Gospel
Even decades later, Dick is moved when he remembers one woman from the Bunna tribe.
“An evangelist and I went into this village, where this old woman sat on the edge of the crowd who were listening to the gospel as we proclaimed it. And sometimes, as she heard the gospel, she would say, ‘Oh, that’s wonderful! But is it true?’”
Dick notes that these non-literate tribes had thousands of oral stories, and some were true, but most were not.
“So you have to find out, is what we were saying true?”
“Mahi and I, the evangelist and I, walked towards this woman on our knees, which is a sign of the highest respect. People who approached the chief – who happened to be there that day – they would always approach him on their knees.”
Dick held the woman’s hands in his, and told her, “My mother, it is true. It is all true. God loves you. God loves you so much that he gave his son, the Lord Jesus, to pay for all your sins.”
“I get very emotional when I think of that woman. Lived all her life as a slave, abused and used and mistreated, and here, in her last years, we come and she hears the name of Jesus for the first time.”
“She looked up at me and she said, ‘If it is true, why didn’t you come before and tell us?’”
At this point in the story, he pauses.
“I get very emotional when I think of that woman. Lived all her life as a slave, abused and used and mistreated, and here, in her last years, we come and she hears the name of Jesus for the first time.”
“Why didn’t we come before?”
That question has stayed with Dick for decades. It fuelled his urgency for sharing the gospel, travelling to unreached areas, and raising up others to carry the gospel into villages where there are still people waiting to hear about Jesus.
Dick McLellan with two local Ethiopian evangelists
Seeing God’s Faithfulness Over the Years
When Dick McLellan, now 94, is asked what Scripture he has treasured, he thinks of the Great Commission.
“One of the Bible verses that is very precious to me is the promise of the Lord Jesus to go and he will go with us. And that’s a promise that he has fulfilled all these years, and I praise him for that.”
“His guidance is so important, but I just praise him for his faithfulness. His mercies are new every day. Great is his faithfulness.”
“And we just praise him for the way that not just my generation, but our children and grandchildren and, hopefully, eventually some of our 10 great-grandchildren will finish up somewhere, in the Lord’s will, in his service.
“His guidance is so important, but I just praise him for his faithfulness. His mercies are new every day. Great is his faithfulness.”
Dr Abe: Ethiopia Joins the Global Mission
Dick McLellan’s legacy has seen generations of Ethiopian Christians, church leaders, and now missionaries raised up.
At the 2026 SMBC Global Mission Conference, Dr Abe*, a passionate Ethiopian missionary who has served in Asia and the Middle East, was asked during Q&A what gave his “fire” for the spread of the gospel.
His first response was it came from the Lord himself, then went on immediately to say:
“Number two, Papa Dick McLellan! Don’t you know Dick McLellan? He was a graduate of Sydney Missionary and Bible College.”
Ethiopian man proclaiming the word of God
“God put a fire on him. Now he is over 90 years old and keeps coming to Ethiopia. I couldn’t believe this. When he comes to Ethiopia he doesn’t stay in the capital, he goes to the mountains, very rough roads, he travels and shares the gospel of Jesus Christ.”
“I want to thank Australian churches for sending kingdom workers way before I was born. We want to thank you for decades and decades of labour in our country.”
“Australia was a mission force, and Ethiopia was a mission field. Now your mission field has become a mission force as well!”
“Now we [Ethiopia] want to join you in the global mission field. We want to be partnering together, so that the Kingdom of God can be advancing.”
“Now we want to join you in the global mission field. We want to be partnering together, so that the Kingdom of God can be advancing.”
Dick McLellan went to Ethiopia to tell people that the gospel was true. His work has left a legacy for generations, beyond Ethiopia and around the world, all because a 20-year-old said yes to the Lord’s call in 1952.
