Mehret’s Story
For two years immediately after college, I served on mission in the Horn of Africa. The first year I lived in a city in the desert working primarily with a Muslim people group. Year two I moved into the capital city and began working among people from all over the country that lived in the urban center. Our team’s primary goal no matter our location, job, or people group was always the same - to share the good news of the gospel and make disciples that will make disciples. This is just one experience of life change I saw when God’s story encountered peoples’ story.
It was a seemingly ordinary day for my language partner and me. We spent the morning as we usually did in language study - me trying my hardest to scratch the surface of this beautifully, complex language and Desta patiently rehearsing the same words and concepts over and over with me. After a lunch together of stew and injera we headed about thirty minutes out of the urban center to meet with one of her new neighbors with the hope of making a connection and building a relationship.
The road out of town is gorgeous yet extremely busy, cattle are herded through the streets, taxis and minibuses weave in and out of traffic around pedestrians, and the sides of the streets are lined with small vendors selling vegetables, flip flops, and everything in between. The backdrop to all of this hustle and bustle is lush green hills, the smell of crisp mountain air, and sound of centuries old churches and mosques calling people to prayer. On our way out of the city, Desta shared briefly about the young woman we were headed to meet. Mehret was a young single mother with a newborn, newly arrived in Desta’s small community. She was alone with no family around and was struggling to provide for herself and her new child. As we got closer to Mehret’s home we began to pray for opportunities to share the hope of Christ with her and that God would miraculously move in her life to provide for her physical needs and, most importantly, her spiritual needs.
We stopped quickly at a corner souk on the way to buy some food staples to share with Mehret. Coffee, sugar, lentils of all kinds, and rice are important parts of this often vegan culture, so we grabbed a kilo of each for her. Like many people in this part of the world, Mehret rented a room in a large compound. Often these compounds consist of several families, each having their own set of rooms, but sharing a bathroom and kitchen space. Mehret and her son lived in the smallest of the rooms with a single light bulb and a small foam mattress on the floor.
Despite her need, Mehret welcomed us as is traditional in this culture with a coffee ceremony and small snacks. The coffee ceremony demonstrates the great hospitality of East African culture and reflects the unhurried pace of neighborly visits. We sipped black coffee, oohed and ahhed over her newborn son, and I practiced my hardly passable language. Finally, after more than an hour, Desta whispered to me I think we should tell her a story.
In cultures all over the world, storytelling is an important source of entertainment, education, and sharing truth. My team had several Biblical stories that we used in opportunities for evangelism and sets of stories that we used to train new believers. Desta and I had learned these and shared them often with those we came across. In this moment the Holy Spirit led us to share the story of the Lost Son or as we most often call it here in America, “The Prodigal Son.” We shared,
A man had two sons, the youngest son said to him,”Father give me my share of the inheritance that is coming to me now.” And the Father did. The younger son took all he had and went on a journey in a faraway country. He wasted all of the inheritance in reckless living, spending it all. Then a famine came to the land, and the son was in great need. He went and got a job feeding pigs and was so hungry himself that he desired to eat the food of the pigs. Finally, he came to his senses and said to himself, “How many of the father’s servants have more than enough food to eat, but I am here about to die of hunger. I will arise and go back to my father and say to him, ‘I have sinned against heaven and you and I am not worthy to be called your son, please treat me as one of your servants.’’ So, he arose and went back to his father. While he was still a far way off, the father saw him and felt compassion on him. He ran to him and hugged and kissed him. The son said, “Father, I have sinned against heaven and you and am no longer worthy to be called your son.” But the Father called his servants asking them to bring the best robe and put on him, a ring for his hands, sandals for his feet, and to kill the fatted calf to celebrate the return of his son. The father said, “My son was once dead, but is alive; he was lost, but now he is found.”
As Desta finished the story, Mehret’s eyes were filled with tears. Before we could even begin explaining the gospel meaning behind this story, Mehret blurted out, “I am like the lost son!” She explained to us that she was from a small rural village far from the capital city. Her family had pooled all that they had to send her to university in hopes that her life would be filled with new opportunities. While at university she lived recklessly, failed out of school, ended up pregnant, and was abandoned by her child’s father. Unlike that lost son, though, Mehret didn’t have the perfect father. When she called home to confess her situation and beg for help, she was met with, “We no longer have a daughter.”
The Holy Spirit opened the door for us to share the gospel, that we are ALL like the younger son, we all turn to our own ways. But the Father in this story is not like our flawed, earthly fathers, He is God himself. When we were far from Him, God came running to us. Despite our broken and rebellious state, he made the perfect sacrifice, not of a fattened calf, but of His own perfect son, Jesus. Through his sacrifice on the cross, we can return to the Father, not as a hired servant but as a child of God. He gives us his righteousness to cloth us like a robe, a new covenant with Him like a ring on a finger, and a new purpose to walk like sandals on our feet.
By God’s mercy, in that smallest room in the compound, Mehret believed. Through prayer she returned to her prefect heavenly Father and became a child of God. We were all filled with much thanksgiving and much celebration, because Mehret who was once dead was alive, God’s daughter who was lost was now found!
It was such an incredible experience to be able to bring this and other stories of God’s love and grace to people who had never heard them before. My team and I faced many barriers, and the message was not always received with the excitement of Mehret, but we were still able to plant the seeds of the Gospel, which are now continually being watered by missionaries who remain in that country. My experience overseas truly opened my eyes to the worldwide need of hope and peace only found through Jesus, and the great sacrifice required by Christians to build relationships and spread the good news. We may not all have the opportunity to spend years in a foreign country, but we should pray for those who do, financially support the efforts of those who are able to go, and prayerfully consider opportunities that God puts in front of us to be a part of those efforts both overseas and in our own backyards.
