My name is Temie, and I am Tigrayan. After I became a believer, I shared the Gospel with many of my people in the Tigray region of northern Ethiopia. Then, war broke out. I found myself in Addis Ababa, the capital city, but I longed to return to my Tigrayan homeland.
Between 2020 and 2022, militants who controlled Tigray fought in bitter conflict with both the national army of Ethiopia as well as neighboring Eritrea. My people experienced war crimes, human rights abuses and ethnic cleansing and, when the war officially ended in 2022 and the Ethiopian government took over, I returned to find Tigray in ruins.
The faith of my people was also in ruins. Most Tigrayans come from a very traditional Christian background, and believe that Jesus is the son of God, but they do not have a relationship with him. The war left them without hope. Yet, many were also searching for meaning, and this opened a door for the Gospel.
God gave me many opportunities to share my faith during this time. One was especially encouraging, as I saw that others were awakening to faith in a new way, and sharing in God’s mission to reach the Tigrayan people. I met a Tigrayan that I had led to faith, just before the war. He shared with me his experience of being in a concentration camp.
“I had been serving as a soldier in the Ethiopian national army,” he related, “and when war was declared against our homeland, I was one of the Tigrayans rounded up and taken prisoner. In the camp, I faced extremely harsh conditions, yet it was there that the Gospel came alive to me.” This brother did not waste any time in sharing his faith with his fellow prisoners, and was able to lead thirty-two men to Christ!
It took two years for this man to be released. “Those years as a prisoner of war were incredibly tough,” he told me, “but I would not trade them for anything!”
Stories like these keep me laboring for the Lord. In the face of devastation, poverty, and brokenness, I am undaunted. Pray for the Gospel to come to war-torn Tigray. Pray that my people would find their hope in Jesus.
