Ethiopia

After visits to traditional healers and prayers from local sheikhs failed to heal her daughter from a mental illness, Makda decided to take her daughter to a Christian church for prayer. As the Christian leaders ministered to the girl and prayed for her, she gradually experienced full healing from her illness. Because of her daughter’s miraculous healing, Makda placed her faith in Jesus Christ.

Pastors Kejela Mekonnen and Tole Geramu were killed by violent rebels in late 2021 because of their faith in Christ. Members of the Oromo Liberation Front rebel group threatened these pastors, telling them to stop preaching about Jesus and instead lead their congregations back to the traditional Oromo religion.

​Sheikh Ashim Hussein, 41 and father to nine children, grew up as a devout Muslim. Zealous for Islamic teachings, he sought to destroy Christianity and once mobilized his students to set fire to a church. But when the church members gathered at the sight of their burned church and prayed aloud for the forgiveness of those responsible, their witness bewildered Sheikh Ashim and shook his spiritual foundations.

Chaltu Abdalla was born and raised in a Muslim family, but she found faith in Christ when she was young. She later married a Christian man and started a family. Earlier this year, her husband was killed by gunmen, and their home, crops and possession were burned to the ground in violent ethnic-based conflicts that targeted evangelical Christians.

“Mother Toltu” was raised as a follower of the Oromo traditional religion, but she committed her life to following Christ when she heard the gospel for the first time. She donated a plot of land from her property to be used for a church, and several other believers contributed funds to the construction of a church as well. However, a mob of local Oromo religious groups attacked the believers and tore down the church they had built.

Yimenu was one of the wealthiest merchants of a small town not far from Shashemane, the administrative city of West Arsi Zone in southern Ethiopia. A father of five and elder of his local church, Yimenu, along with his family, was targeted in 2020 by Muslim mobs who destroyed his home and businesses.

Momina Namee, 30, grew up in a Muslim family and was pressured to marry a Muslim man while she was young. Soon after they married, they had a son. But three years after their son’s birth, Momina’s husband suddenly fell ill and passed away. Devastated and a single mother, Momina struggled to get by as her husband had been the provider for the family.

Mariam was born and raised in Shashamane. She is the eldest of four siblings, and she works to provide for her aging parents through a boutique she started when she was in her mid-twenties. She is a Christian, having placed her faith in Jesus Christ at a young age. Through her witness, her entire family came to Christ as well. Last year, attackers broke into her boutique, looted all the clothes and destroyed the entire property.

Alimayu grew up in in a Christian home in the northern part of Ethiopia. As a young man, he placed his faith in Christ and became an active member of a local church. He is married with two children, and he runs a small café in Shashemane. In July, youth mobs destroyed Alimayu’s business in riots that targeted the homes and businesses of non-indigenous people and Christians.