Lalibela:
You might wonder why Lalibela is important – here are a few discoveries I made. As a proud Ethiopian I was sharing and talking about Lalibela but have never been there before. My visit there caused a stir. On the one side I am inspired by the people who lived in my country in the 12th century who build such astonishing structures using only their hands. At the same time I returned back home with lot of questions and compassion for the people I encountered in Lalibela who are so desperate for righteousness and are very poor.
This is how Pilgrims Camp for Christmas in LalibelaI realized that I’m a Christian, and specifically an Ethiopian Christian. My country’s history affects me directly and indirectly. Lalibela was build with the motive to represent the second Jerusalem.
My visit to Lalibela made me

• rethink the history of my country Ethiopia,
• love the people more and stirred a prayer need for our people who are lost despite their religious rituals.
• appreciate the skills and passion of the people who build the magnificent cross hewn church called Saint George.
• appreciate how they call God’s name and are very zealous about it.
• think about my country, my history and what I should do about it.

This is what happened in Lalibela during our 3 day stay:
We arrived on the eve of Ethiopian Christmas and stayed in a beautiful mountain view hotel called Maribela. After we dropped our luggages and ate lunch we rushed to see the 11 rock hewn Lalibela churches which is one of UNESCO’s world heritage sites. Our first scene was at Bete Amanuel. This historical site was packed with thousands of pilgrims who were attending rituals and Ethiopian Christmas celebrations. The teaching priest was preaching from Matthew 25 about The Parable of the Ten Virgins. We listened to him for about 30 min as he shared about the gospel from the Bible.
The history and legend behind Lalibela as told by our guide: Our guide Gashaw gave us a long explanation about the person and king Lalibela. Lalibela means “Mar Yibla” literally translated “honey eater”. When Lalibela was born, bees surrounded the baby and his mom prophesied he will be a great king and named him “Lalibela” – honeyeater.
Background about the place from Wikipedia
Lalibela, revered as a saint, is said to have seen Jerusalem, and then attempted to build a new Jerusalem as his capital in response to the capture of old Jerusalem by Muslims in 1187. Each church was carved from a single piece of rock to symbolize spirituality and humility. Christian faith inspires many features with Biblical names –- even Lalibela’s river is known as the River Jordan. Lalibela remained the capital of Ethiopia from the late 12th into the 13th century. 
Lalibela was killed by his own brother according to the legends through poisoning his food. This incident made a huge transition to Lalibela’s divine destiny. As he was poisoned, angels came and took his body to heaven. There he received a vision from God to build the rock hewn church. Gashaw said Lalibela was resurrected from the death. This is where the story is becoming even more amazing …
In hearing this, I started asking myself should I ask more questions to get more proof? Or shall I just believe what our guide was saying? There are many similarities between Lalibela and Jesus. For example, their birthdays are on the same day! I started asking if someone was trying to relate or equate Lalibela with Jesus or was this just a co-incidence?
My grandpa is a priest and he told me after my trip to Lalibela that anyone who goes to Lalibela will make his 7 generations be saved! It disturbed me that many people, like my Grandpa added such huge spiritual value to Lalibela, not checking it against Biblical truth. Our history is full of legends and some truths. This makes it very hard for people to understand the true meaning of Christmas and Christianity at large. If I could save my soul by just being in Lalibela’s churches, then Christ died for nothing. While visiting the Saint George church I encountered a group of ladies singing and it was touching. Sadly the many pilgrims visiting Lalibela consider it their soul destination.
In Acts 8, the Ethiopian eunuch encountered the Apostle Philip on his way home from Jerusalem. He was reading the book of Isaiah. Here is the story from the Bible on Acts 8
I believe we have men and women who should become the modern day Philip’s in Ethiopia. You and I! If you know Jesus Christ is the Son of God, we have to pray and ask God to use us to be bold enough and share the true meaning of the Gospel with our people in Ethiopia.
Would you join me?

​After a year of battle against brain cancer, my dear 14 year old little bro Aser (my nephew) died on December 23. This has been incredible hard for us as a family, but we do not grieve as those without hope. We are comforted by the knowledge that Aser is with our Lord where there is no more pain and suffering.
When Aser was 2 years old his dad died and my parents took his mother Genet under their wing and raised Aser and his sister Loza as their own kids. They were like a blood brother and sisters to me. Loza is now in High School.
After Aser was diagnosed with cancer, he lived with me for about nine months during his seven cycles of chemotherapy and four cycles of radiation. He was a brave young man during the treatment. Unfortunately it did not cure him. Before he died he saw a vivid vision of where he was going and saw the glory waiting for him. He loved Jesus so much!
In his vision he saw himself go up in the sky and he saw a bright face which he says was like Jesus. He heard a voice saying “the time is finished”. While he was in the air he looked down and saw a very old house. He saw the old house being replaced with a new house. Then he woke up from his dream and told my brother about his dream. Though he was in extreme physical pain, he had the presence of the Lord with him that was very comforting and he is now a new house!
Around 700 people attended his funeral and it was clear that his short life on earth impacted many. His classmates all came with flowers and notes like this
“Aser your dreams were many but we lost you so quickly! RIP!’
Aser freely shared his future plans to study to be an astronomer. One time as I drove him to Black Lion Hospital, I saw a big truck with a name on it saying “Aser Construction” and I asked Aser if he would like to change his idea of studying astronomy for Engineering. He said No!
Once while visiting him in hospital, he asked me some questions related to my ministry. He turned to me and said “Miheret, what you are doing is great, please keep it up, I know it’s going to be big”
Based on our culture, for four days after his death, the gospel has been preached to all visitors who came to our house to comfort us. We had a tent in our compound and people get a chance to visit and comfort us. We are very thankful for all who came to visit us and prayed for us. Every night we had prayer and praise time with gospel presentation.
One of the preachers who came from the neighborhood was very special to me. I know him since I was a kid and he was a Muslim. And all his family are still not believers. But God saved him and he is now a strong believer and preacher! It was such an inspiration for me to listen to him as a vibrant young man preaching the gospel very well. My family told me because of his faith in Jesus he is persecuted. But believers are helping him to grow in his faith. Pray that the seed from the gospel will take root.
The Lord took two wonderful people home on December 23 – Mrs. Bright co-founder of Campus Crusade for Christ at the age of 89 and Aser at the age of 14. I’m sure they met in heaven and could rejoice in being in the presence of our Lord! Mrs. Bright served the Lord faithfully until her last breath. You can read more about her remarkable life on www.vonettebright.com
I highly appreciate your prayer for Genet (his mom) and our whole family.
Thank you!
Miheret T.