I was born in Massachusetts, and my parents were immigrants from Ethiopia. I have always taken Jesus seriously and became a Christian when I was a very little kid and when I was 10 I was baptized. I remember the day I gave my life to the Lord. I was five, and at church, the Sunday School teacher was telling the older kids about salvation. I then raised my hand telling her that I loved Jesus but I never was “saved” before. She then told me she would talk to my parents about this. That night my mom told me what salvation was, and I felt convicted even at a small age of all the bad things I did. So I gave my life to the Lord. As I continued to grow, what really strengthened my faith was my parents’ example and their testimony, because it showed me how valuable God is and how worth it it is to make sacrifices for Him.

My mother was born in Addis Ababa, and she grew up in the Ethiopian Orthodox Church, as a child due to civil unrest she moved to the countryside with her grandmother where she faced death on multiple occasions, and always wondered what would happen when she died. I too, understood that fear, watching death in movies, and wars on the news seeing the dead bodies always gave me a feeling of dread, making me ask what would happen to me when I died, how would I feel, and so it really resonated with me. At the time, the Orthodox Church in Ethiopia oppressed the Protestant faith. Despite this, my mother sought to show kindness and respect to those of different religions. In 11th grade my mother became sick with tuberculosis, and that was when my mother decided to become serious about being Orthodox and in college joined the choir, and was preparing to do communion, and that’s when she met my father.

My father grew up in the country in Debre Sina, his family was Orthodox, and then slightly atheist during Communist Derg. In eighth grade there was a revival meeting and there heard the Gospel, and he gave his life to the Lord. After that, the village began to attack the newly converted Protestants, so my father escaped, not willing to recant his faith. When my mother met him, she wanted to convert him, so they talked and became friends. My mother had a question about the Orthodox faith. Mary was considered the mediator between God and Man, she was the one to take prayers, so how could Protestant communicate with God and have a relationship with him? So my father explained that Jesus is our high priest, our mediator between God and man, when he came to earth as man, he became the one to intercede for us. With that, my mom became saved. She told a friend who told her siblings, who then told her parents. They kicked her out, but then forgave her and allowed her back in. When my parents decided to get married, they didn’t tell her parents since they hated my father for taking her away from the faith.

Their story gave me a realization that I was blessed to have such a faith and to have parents who sacrificed everything for Christ as it says in Matthew 19:29, “And everyone who has left houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or children or farms for My name’s sake, will receive many times as much, and will inherit eternal life.” I want to follow their example.

I also admire the love and joy my parents have from Christ. When I grew up, we didn’t have much, but we had such happiness and joy in Christ, that I knew could only come from Christ.
I attended public school from K to 12. When my mother was pregnant with me, she waited by the bus station and witnessed some teenagers doing inappropriate things. Everyone in Ethiopia warns of Americans’ lack of morals, so my mom, witnessing this, feared for her child, and prayed to the Lord asking him how to raise a child in this type of environment. That’s when she felt the Holy Spirit leading her to what Jesus said in the Gospel, that “we are the light of the world”( Matthew 5:14-16), and that she felt the Lord leading for me to go to public school, and that I would be light to bring others to the Lord. If I am too light I can’t hide away, and through actions and witnessing, I can be that light. So I went to public school and used that opportunity to tell others about Christ because Christ is the center of my life.

I have wanted to join an evangelism focused Christian ministry since I was in fourth grade and I joined a campus ministry as soon as I got to UW-Madison.. When I knew I was going to UW Madison, and since I lived in the area, I went to their summer connect, and being a part of this organization has been the highlight of college. Being a part of Christian community with the same passion I have for the Lord has been so awe inspiring. It is so empowering to know that I’m not alone and that I am part of a greater mission

Jesus is the most important player in my life, I can’t stop myself from telling others about Christ.