Concordia Seminary Newsroom
Sharing the Gospel Where the Lord Leads
From Ethiopia to St. Louis
A woman walks barefoot for miles along the Ethiopian roads, sharing the Gospel with whoever has ears to hear. She walks where the Lord leads, relying on Christian hospitality along the way. She is Meseret Gobena’s grandmother. Gobena, a first-year Master of Divinity student at Concordia Seminary, St. Louis, says his faithful grandmother had a lasting influence on his life and that of his family.
When Gobena was 7, the government changed, forcing citizens to move back to where they were born. Gobena’s father, Abebe Gobena Sugebo, moved his family to his birthplace: Gejja, a city in southern Ethiopia. In Gejja, the majority of people follow the state church, where only the priest speaks for God in Ge’ez, an ancient language of Ethiopia. The church emphasizes praying to Mary, not Jesus.
Gobena said those who do not follow the state church are not only ostracized but are in danger of being physically harmed. Nevertheless, Gobena’s father shared the Word of God. He began preaching in a house church with only three other families in attendance.
“It’s not going to be easy,” Gobena remembered thinking at the time, knowing that his family could be harmed for uttering Jesus’ name. “That was not easy for me. But seeing that and actually going through it, I could see the hand of God working through it. The Gospel is true.”
After two years of having a house church, the group finally opened a church building in Gejja. A few years later, five churches had sprung into existence from the small house church Gobena’s father started. In the span of just a decade, half of the city attended Christian churches that preached the Word of God. Gobena’s journey to pastoral ministry, part of his family’s legacy, had taken root, although the path was not exactly a straight one.
From 2004-06, Gobena attended Arba Minch University in Ethiopia to study architecture and urban planning. He landed a job just days after graduating. Three years went by. While he was skilled at his job, he began feeling pressure to make decisions in the workplace that did not honor Christ. “God had a way. He didn’t let me stay there,” Gobena said.
In 2012, something miraculous happened. As a result of a diversity lottery conducted as part of the United States’ Immigration and Nationality Act, Gobena was one of 50,000 individuals selected at random from more than 14 million qualified entries to immigrate and become a permanent resident of the United States. Another miracle: His wife, Hiwot Fundusa, also was allowed to immigrate.
The couple arrived from Ethiopia to the Twin Cities of Minneapolis-Saint Paul, Minn., welcomed by Gobena’s family and members of the Ethiopian Evangelical Mekane Yesus Church, part of the LCMS Minnesota South District. His family became active in the church, where the services are in Amharic, not English.
“The calling is not about you or about anything else. It’s always about God, the One who is calling.”
Meseret Gobena
As time went by, Gobena noticed how the children of the first-generation immigrants in the church were growing up speaking English and immersing themselves in American culture. Along the way, they seemed to be losing sight of their Christian faith as they moved into young adulthood.
“That’s part of why I wanted to go to the Seminary,” he said. “I wanted to cover that gap. If you don’t offer youth a stable foundation about Christianity, the outside world is always ready to welcome them. You have to be strong at your house and at the church to keep them.”
With encouragement from his pastor, Gobena applied to Concordia Seminary. His tuition — as for all the Seminary’s students enrolled in residential Ministerial Formation programs — is fully covered by faithful donors. The Seminary’s tuition guarantee helped make it more affordable for Gobena and his family of five to move to St. Louis. They were excited for what was to come even as they were saddened to leave loved ones behind in Minnesota. “But the calling is not about you or about anything else,” he said. “It’s always about God, the One who is calling.”
Life at the Seminary has been enjoyable for the young family — and busy. “God blessed us with three beautiful daughters. My wife is dedicated to taking care of them full-time while I am studying,” he said. He is grateful for her support.
When Gobena thinks about the future and about what success means, it’s not based in material things. He thinks back to his grandmother and to his father whose passion was in sharing the Gospel. Their passion is now his.
“My pleasure is always when I talk to someone and they grasp what life means — real life with Christ,” he said. “This is what gives me joy. No matter what the situation, no matter what topic it is, I have that on my heart.”