Mihretu’s Story
For this week’s blog post, we are excited to share a personal testimony from one of our very own staff members, Mihretu. Mihretu has been on staff with us since he finished his DTS, and he is someone who brings so much joy and life to our base and team. He has a huge heart for worship, kids and the nations. We are excited to share his testimony with you!
“It was 2018, during our DTS. We were in a town in southern Ethiopia for the week, during our lecture phase. That week we were learning about spiritual warfare, and our speaker was with us. For the whole week we were there, we started the day with our quiet times, then we had evangelism and worship.
Our first couple of days, the Holy Spirit spoke to our team leaders to spend Monday and Tuesday just praying, instead of going out for evangelism. We spent those two days doing spiritual warfare during our prayer time. A few people on our team got visions and words during our prayer time, having to do with people wanting to hurt us. I got a vision of a man with a long knife, wanting to hurt and kill people.
On Wednesday morning, we ate breakfast, prayed and got ready to do evangelism. Around nine that morning, we split into groups and we went out and started preaching. In my group it was me, one of our DTS staff and three other students.
When we went out, we had many opportunities to share the Gospel and talk with people. We helped one man cut down a tree in his yard and our DTS staff shared the Gospel with him, and he gave his life to Jesus. We talked to two construction workers, one of whom was already a Christian, and the other gave his life to Jesus after we shared with him. As we continued to walk, we met a group of kids and one of my teammates started talking with them. She told them about how God made the world, how He created them and how much He loved them.
As we were talking to the kids, our team leaders who were not with us, called. They told us they were at the police station and that we needed to go back to the guesthouse we were staying at. We were pretty scared, because we didn’t know what had happened, or why the rest of our team was at the police station.
As we started walking back, we started hearing people shouting. There was a crowd of people coming towards us, some of them were carrying rocks, another man was carrying a large knife, like the one I had seen in a vision the day before. The people were saying, “Where are they? We need to find them! We have to kill them!” We were so confused, we didn’t know what they wanted or why they were coming after us.
The DTS staff we were with started to run, and so we followed him. We got to a compound, and the back door was open, so we ran inside. The front door was locked, so we couldn’t get out, and we were just running inside the house. We ran into the back room and that is where the crowd of people caught us. One guy grabbed me by my shirt and he punched me in the face, on my mouth and chin. My mouth started bleeding, and the Holy Spirit spoke to me, and told me that this wasn’t my blood, but it was His. I also had this feeling that the guy who was punching me would become a missionary. The Holy Spirit told me to pray for this guy and to forgive him. There were people surrounding me, and they were hitting and punching me in the stomach and back as I was trying to protect my head. As I was praying, I forgot my pain.
The people then pushed me outside, and I fell. They jumped on me and started beating me again, and I kept interceding for them. The police came and were telling the crowd not to beat us. The police took us to the police station and there were two rooms, one for the guys and one for the girls, so they split us up.
Once I got to the guys room, I started praying over the town, that there would be peace and that the people would come to know Jesus. I prayed for forgiveness over the people who beat us and that nothing bad would happen to them. As I did this, I felt at peace.
The next day, the police and the woreda leaders talked together and we found out that in the woreda we were in, it was illegal for the foreigners that were a part of our team to be held by the local police. They were only allowed to be in custody of and talk to the federal police, but our teammates that were foreigners would not leave the Ethiopians with the local police. We all wanted to stay together.
On the second day, the police decided to escort us out of the town, because if we stayed, it would cause more problems in and for the community. We packed our bags and found a car that would fit all 21 of us, to take us back to Addis Ababa.
There are two ways to get to Addis Ababa: one way that goes through Wolkite, and the other passes through Butajira. We didn’t know this, but at the time, the crowd of people that had attacked us the day before, split into two groups and were planning to attack us again. One group was going to go each way, so that either way we went, they would meet us. Also, our driver talked with the people who wanted to kill us, and he was working with them.
The policemen accompanied us on their motorbikes, for security. They were driving very fast, to get us out of the area as fast as possible. However, our driver was driving very slowly, because he wanted us to get caught. Once we got out of the city, our driver stopped the van and got out. All of a sudden, a crowd of people came running out of the shops and houses, and they surrounded the car. They were shouting at us “Get out! We will kill you!” They began spitting on us, and they opened the back door of the van and were hitting us with a large stick.
Everyone in the van was shouting, but I remained quiet. I prayed, “God, if this is the end of my life, and if my life is supposed to be a sacrifice, I am willing to sacrifice. I am happy to come to you. But, if you want to reach more people and other nations through me, please help us.” God spoke to me right then and reminded me of the story of Moses and the Israelites in Exodus 14. When the Israelites were on their journey out of Egypt, there was the Red Sea in front of them and the Egyptians were chasing and catching up to them from behind. Even in that moment, God split the Red Sea and the Israelites walked through, and the Egyptians didn’t harm them. God also led His children with light, and darkness came over the Egyptians. I was very encouraged by this word that God gave me, and I chose to believe it. I chose to believe that God would save us from this situation, and I felt my faith returning.
While I was praying, one guy from the crowd climbed on top of the car and started pouring gasoline on the car. When we smelled the gasoline on the car, many of us started crying, and we were all scared. One of the policemen fired his gun in the air six times, and he pulled the guy who was pouring gasoline off the car. Because the policeman was firing his gun, the crowd broke up and left us.
The man who was driving us, left in the middle of the riot, so the man who the car belonged to, drove us back to the police station, with the policemen.
We got into the compound and we were all together in one room. We started calling people, and praying, and we were all still very scared. This was very hard, but I knew that God was with us. That day, the girls and guys stayed together, and we knew that the people in the town wanted to kill us. We didn’t want to be separated, because then we wouldn’t know what was happening.
That night, our leaders called the church we work with and also the federal police, and they sent policemen to us once again. They got us out of the compound and into a bus that was going to Butajira. The federal police had two cars and they escorted us out of out, one car in front and one car behind us.
As we were driving, a crowd was gathering in the square and they blocked the road so that we couldn’t get through. They were angry that the federal police were taking us and making it so they couldn’t kill us.
That day was very sunny, there weren’t any clouds, until suddenly, it started raining and there was also a lot of hail. Because of the hail, all of the people ran into their houses and shops and we were able to get through.
After that, we made it to Wolkite and spent the day there. We ate breakfast and lunch there with the federal policemen and then we made our way back to Addis Ababa.
Going through this situation was very hard, but through it I learned so much. One of the main things I saw through our persecution experience was that even in hard situations, we are never alone. God is always with us, and He’s always willing to help us.
Another thing God taught me is the importance of following God, even when we don’t know where He will take us. We don’t know what the future holds, but He does, and we can trust Him all the way to the end. It is so worth it.”
