Jemal led a happy life in Ethiopia. He was a successful businessman with a beautiful family.
“We had a very good life,” says Jemal*. “My whole family and I go to church and worship God on Sundays and Wednesdays.”
When Jemal and his wife Fatima* became Christians, they at first experienced rejection and exclusion. But they worked hard to reach out to neighbours, and over time built back relationships with family and the wider Muslim community. He had businesses in woodworking and steel manufacturing industries and did well. Life was stable and secure.
But then, some visiting Muslim clerics began to share radical messages in the local mosques. They encouraged the locals to reject the Christians and boycott their businesses.
This pattern is a common one in some parts of sub-Saharan Africa. Muslim extremists will use economic exclusion to pressure Christians—especially men as they are most commonly the financial providers for the family—to change their faith or leave an area. This is what Jemal began to experience as the clerics’ influence grew. “‘Don’t buy anything from them but let them buy from us. If you buy from them, they will become richer,’ is what they told Muslims in my town,” he recounts.
This kind of treatment was not entirely unexpected—after all, religious tension had existed before the clerics had arrived. Plus, Jemal’s businesses were well-established enough to weather the challenge.
But no one expected what was to come.
‘They turned everything to ash’
Tensions had already been rising in the town since a group of Muslim students said they experienced difficulties at school and blamed Christian teachers. The situation was turning sour, until a spark lit the fire that was to consume the community.
“They began the attack on Monday night,” Jemal remembers. “By Tuesday, they even tried to kill me.”
At first, Jemal wasn’t sure what to do. “We had to leave and we found refuge in another Muslim’s house. Because no Christian home was safe.
“Then on Tuesday morning, they started burning everything. Mobs of people went from house to house, singling out Christian homes and businesses, destroying whatever they could find and setting it on fire. In just one hour, they destroyed everything. They destroyed everything I owned and built-up over the years … In a single day, they turned everything to ash.”
That day, at least 215 Christians’ homes were destroyed … and 375 families—including Jemal’s—were on the run.
“They did not want Christians to remain in the town. Their goal was to eliminate Christianity.”
Wounds of every kind
Jemal with his younger children. As a family, they were forced to flee after a brutal attack.
For Jemal this was just the start of an extremely painful time. The first complication was that one of his daughters was pregnant and went into labour in the middle of the violence. “When we took her to the hospital, there, too, the situation was unstable,” Jemal says.
“The doctors refused to treat her because she was a Christian. One doctor finally felt sorry for my daughter and gave her her own head covering [to disguise her as a Muslim]. Then, she gave birth and delivered her child. It was a horrible experience. I was so stressed that I might lose her.”
Jemal had no idea how to take care of his family, including his new grandchild and his younger children. He, along with hundreds of other Christians fled to a nearby town where local churches took them in. “Some of us came here by walking,” he says. “Some of us came here by begging for vehicles we found on the road. Others paid for a bajaj to bring them here.”
Jemal’s raw emotions are still apparent, even this long after the attack. “We felt deeply hurt,” he says. “Think about it – your children are separated and far away. I was devastated. Still the feeling of that moment remains with me. It deeply affected me.”
Cut deeply
In the attack, Jemal lost everything he had built up over the years. It was not only the buildings that were destroyed, but also equipment, raw materials and orders that were nearly ready to be delivered.
For two months Jemal, his family and almost 30 other families lived on the compound of the church that had taken them in. Though it was safe, the traumatic experience that had brought them here made him anxious. “What would have happened to us if there was no one to take care of us?” he wonders. “What could we have done? What could we do if this place were also full of people who hate Christians?”
Where do Christians experience the
most persecution?
The violent rejection from his own community also cut Jemal deeply. “We were forced to leave not because we are not Ethiopians,” he explains. “We were born and raised in that same village. Our whole family lives there. When you face things like this from your own family in your own village it is deeply painful. It truly made us feel heartbroken.”
The desperation of the situation was made clear the longer the family was on the church compound. “While we were living here, we were in need of many things,” he says. “We had no permanent house to stay in. We had no proper shelter. Even renting a place was unaffordable due to high costs.”
Tested, tempted … and rejoicing
Jemal says that his faith was tested and, like Job, that he was tempted to despair. “I temporarily lost the taste of walking with God,” he says. “Following the destruction of the property, my daughter hospitalized, my children dispersed.
“It truly wounded me. We were family, we had shared meals and lived together. And I felt very sorrowful. I felt like taking revenge on them.
But fortunately, the Holy Spirit worked in Jemal’s heart to release him from these feelings. “Later, I calmed down and repented,” he says. “Because we are Christians, we cannot kill anyone. The Bible does not teach that, and it is our guide. Even now, I am trying not to disobey God’s Word or treat [our attackers] with hatred.
"I say this is what Christianity is. It entails significant sacrifice. It's not without price. In this world you will be hated, you will be cast out. Now I know the meanings of these words. Blessed be His name!"
“Through all of this my faith has grown stronger. It has not weakened. Now I say, ‘Oh, God is so loving.’ Now I dedicate more time to the Lord. My affection for God has increased considerably. I have come to realize the truth of the teachings contained within the Bible.”
Though the attack had been intended to wound the people of God, the violence had the unintended effect of making the stories of the Bible come alive for Jemal. “It happened to me,” he says. “I witnessed it first-hand. The apostles were persecuted. They were killed. Others’ hands were amputated. Their legs were severed. Their property was destroyed.”
By God’s grace, in the upside-down economy of His Kingdom, what the attackers had instead created was a resilient believer. “I have now become accustomed to residing in adverse circumstances,” Jemal says. “It is astonishing that I now serve God with increased fervour. Praise be to God! I now possess a more profound understanding of His love. I say this is what Christianity is. It entails significant sacrifice. It’s not without price. In this world you will be hated, you will be cast out. Now I know the meanings of these words. Blessed be His name!”
Walking with the wounded
When Open Doors partners heard about the violence, they immediately responded.
“Praise God, we didn’t die from hunger and thirst,” Jemal says. “The ministry responded promptly and quickly from the outset of the tribulation by providing food supplies, not only when we were displaced, but enough so that we could take home when we returned.”
A holistic response to persecution requires multiple angles. Our partners provided food and aid, but when they saw the emotional and psychological toll the attack had on Jemal, they also invited Jemal to receive Open Doors trauma care. And it’s helped him heal.
“It has greatly benefited me,” he says. “Even though I feel better now, at that time I felt deeply hurt. I even forgot about my children’s future. I felt like I had lost all hope for the future. I gave up on everything. I had thoughts of harming them and myself. I had completely given up.”
As resilient as Jemal is, our partners knew that if he was to remain in his town and be salt and light, we had to help him restart his business. Open Doors partners helped Jemal buy new machinery and the necessary raw materials to restart his woodworking and steel manufacturing businesses. “We did not have any other means of surviving if the ministry had not bought us that equipment,” he says. “We might have been subjected to selling the land.”
As resilient as Jemal is, our partners knew that if he was to remain in his town and be salt and light, we had to help him restart his business. Open Doors partners helped Jemal buy new machinery and the necessary raw materials to restart his woodworking and steel manufacturing businesses. “We did not have any other means of surviving if the ministry had not bought us that equipment,” he says. “We might have been subjected to selling the land.”
Open Doors partners provided Jemal with aid. He also got a chance to read “leaves of healing”, prayers written by Christians like you, dedicated to the church in Sub-Saharan Africa.
Our partners also helped several other Christians to restart their lives and begin small businesses. “Some started baking bread and selling it, others sewed clothes, some started a restaurant,” Jemal says.
But there was also long-term support that has taken the form of prayer and regular check-ins. “Even after [Open Doors partners left], you would enquire, ‘Where are you? How are you? What are you doing?’”,” Jemal says. “For the people in persecution, the ministry is doing an exemplary service. I wish to express my profound gratitude to [you]. This ministry helped us to stand on our feet. You helped us feed our children. I really love this ministry. May God bless you all!”
‘Our God is the God of hope’
Eventually, the authorities invited the Christians to return, promising that what was lost in the attacks would be restored.
And so, Jemal and his family decided to return to a community that had made it clear that Christians weren’t wanted—but they did so with a dedication to continue following Jesus, no matter what. “We said, ‘how can we leave what belongs to us for them?’” he says. “We decided to return. Immediately after we returned, we began worshiping God again in our church.
Past and present difficulties makes it hard for Jemal to see a future for himself, his family and the church. “I feel hopeless about the future, regarding the preaching of the gospel in the area, when I see how tough it has become to preach in the town. This is what worries me for the future,” he says.
Yet when he looks to God, his attitude changes. “The Lord is the source of my hope!” Jemal says. “He will work in that place in the future. I still have hope in the Lord. When I see the church filled with people, I get overjoyed.”
“Our God is the God of hope. He is a God who can do everything. Because of that, I am joyful,” he proclaims. “The Lord will continue to give us hope. We will work. We will change. That is my hope.”
Stand with them
Today, will you stand alongside Jemal and other Christians in sub-Saharan Africa? Here are three ways that you can stop the violence and start the healing:
1. Speak out
Add your name to the Arise Africa petition! Our goal is to raise a million voices of prayer and advocacy, joining our petitions with those from the church in sub-Saharan Africa. Once we reach that goal, we will be presenting the petition to the United Nations and national governments.
2. Give a gift
A gift of $48 can provide trauma care to a persecuted Christian like Jemal. $110 can help a Christian to start small businesses and make them economically resilient amidst ongoing persecution. Give a gift here.
3. Pray
“My prayer request is for you to pray that God will change the area where I live. I have a strong desire for God to change that place. Pray for us regarding this.
“The other thing is as whole for Christians to be economically resilient. Poverty makes you surrender for anything. It makes you change your mind.
“Pray for us to have influence in our community. So we will be heard in various places. In every place I go pray for God to give me boldness.”
*Name changed for security reasons
