Tensaie Umeta

(a) Tensaie Umeta

Tensaie Umeta's story interested us because he has a message that he wants to share; be thankful for every opportunity that you get, and don't take freedom for granted.Tensaie Umeta was born in Nekemte, Ethiopia, and lived there until the Communist Party of Ethiopia took power. When he was fifteen, the communist party imprisoned and tortured him. He managed to escape to Addis, where he spent approximately eight years. When he got word that the communist party was looking for him, he fled to the neighboring country of Sudan. After five years in Sudan, he was granted asylum. Today, Tensaie Umeta is married, has two sons and a daughter and works as an accountant.

By The Grace of God

My name is Tensaie Umeta, I just arrived in the United States in 1991. Previously, my origin country is Ethiopia. I was born and raised in Ethiopia. I left my country because of the communist government at the time. I was imprisoned and tortured while I was 15 and 16 years old. When the communists took over… basically they are oriented to command you. Which is number one, don’t believe in God. They don’t want to hear the name of God. They totally destroyed the worship areas, the churches are closed. The other thing is if you don’t agree with their side, you will be imprisoned, tortured even killed. Over fifty thousand youngsters were killed in that year. So basically it is my way or the highway, that's what communism is.

ACCEPT ME AS I AM

When I was imprisoned and tortured as a young man age fifteen, sixteen,(1) I don’t even know how to pray but I do remember one day, it was the day that they were going to make a final decision whether to keep us or to kill us. There was a kind of place where you can take showers, and is in a separate house, and then I went there. I just knelt down, I said “Lord, these people are going to kill me… Save me.” I have no way of expressing myself. I said, “Accept me as I am”. God listened to my prayer. The communists brought about a fifteen page of paper and they said, “You have committed all these crimes” the crimes were saying you have disobeyed government policy, just I mean all kinds of accusations. I was involved in an organization, distributing pamphlets against the government and the policy. That was true, but the other things are fabricated, because they want to execute you so they have to get all kinds of evidence. And whenever they said fabrications, I responded saying this, “I have no other word to defend myself” I took off my clothes, I showed them, because literally my whole back was torn like this (makes hand gesture of overlapping fingers to demonstrate the whip scars on his back). I was tortured with electric wires. “I have no other word, and you have all the power. All I need is a bullet from you, nothing else.” They are insisting on me to expose other friends whom they are writing papers against. Basically they are telling me “Okay you are going to go for free, but bring your friends!” (when he says go for free he means be killed for false evidence) So I said “No, I cannot do that.” ‘Cause I have seen my own friends whom they had been shot down in front of me, because they had refused to do that. They put pistols in my mouth with my hands behind, cuffed. You have no power to protect yourself, you just sit there and be tortured. Your blood is all over. That was really horrible story, but I thank God to be alive and tell the story now.

Tensaie managed to escape Nekemti and fled to Addis, the capitol of Ethiopia.

I made it to Addis. Addis was a total mess, it literally looks like warfare. So, I went there and I was imprisoned again. But the good thing is I found someone who knows my older brother. He’s the one who, well, it’s God who is the one who saved me but he was an instrument to take me out of that place. God is using people to do something.

(b) Addis Ababa, Ethiopia

I GOT THE INSIDE INFORMATION

Later on I was released and started working for the government official bank of Ethiopia. I worked in two different cities. I joined the Commercial Bank of Ethiopia at age 18 immediately after I had graduated from high school. One is in Addis, the capital of Ethiopia, the other one was in Awasa, southern part of Ethiopia. Then I went to the Bankers Institute, took evening classes, and graduated when I was nineteen. I moved to Awasa for two years, met my wife there—we met at church [when I was] a young man. I went back to Addis when I was twenty-five. The communists came around and asked me to join their party again. I refused.I got the inside information that they are going to take me back to prison, and of course I knew that maybe I could be tortured or killed, it could have been anything. So, I left the country on foot.

Escaping from the country wasn’t easy. It is a major risk in your life. That's not an easy choice. Once I made my decision we had to find a liner, we call it a liner, somebody who takes money and smuggles you out of the country. Those liners they have their own connections, so [a liner] is going to take me to a certain point, and [another liner] is going to take you from that point to somewhere else. It is in steps so one person will not take you the whole way down. It wasn’t easy though, the first day when we left it was rain. The rain we had back home is not like this country. Sometimes it is hail. I don’t know if you have experienced hail, it is like baseball size. We had to be running for seven hours.  We are totally dead because all our hands freezing, cannot talk, we are soaked and wet. We are hungry, and we had to walk in the jungle for seven hours, so it was a really horrible experience.

WHAT WAS THE FATE OF THIS KID GOING TO BE?

It is 1986, when I left the country, [travelling through] (2) Jib Washa. Jib Washa means high-ness, cliff, or area. It was really high mountain, really high about 3000 feet. It was dark at night when this kid slipped. It is steep, you don’t believe it when you see it. I mean it was very scary especially way down, down deep. And this kid was falling and by chance he grabbed [on] to this tree, to the root of the tree and hung in there so he cried for help. We tried to get him out but we can’t, and then the liner said “Okay we’ve got to move on”. So what was the fate of this kid going to be? He’s going to die there. He cannot hold on forever. If the government comes and sees him they are going to shoot him right there. Either way he is dead, so I said no I’m not going. He said “What do you mean?” I said either you guys can stay and help but take the risk or you can leave us. Why did I do that? Am I trying to say I'm a strong person? Am I exceptional? No, but I know that Christ, how he would want me because he sacrificed life as I said, He has been crucified on the cross. Right? that's what I told him that's what it is all about, so I have to share that life with my brother. So, by making that point, he said “Okay lets turn around and pull him up.” So we pulled him out. By the time we pulled him out he was up there, I slide down. I was then in his place. This guy [the liner] said “You guys, now we gotta move, I cannot do this anymore.” I told the people, “We are fine, you all go with him. We might be captured or might die so I would like to sacrifice myself. I’ll try the best I can to save myself, if not that’s fine. Just go ahead please.” So they said “No, we’re not going to leave you here. We’re going to die together.” So they pulled me up. So with the mercy of the Lord we all escaped that danger.

I don’t know the whereabouts of him [the kid I saved]. But, this is what I see... This kid has a print in my life. Even though I don’t see where he is, he sacrificed himself first in Jib Washa. When I said “Go,” he said “No.” That’s important because God is rewarding, that's the first thing. God is rewarding when you do something good to Him. You may not get it right away, you might not see it right away, the fruits, what you’re doing for Christ. But really, it was a big, big thing in my life. Because, I mean, this kid doesn’t believe in Christ. I have a reason to do that, but he doesn’t have any reason to do that, it’s humanity, you understand. You need to find humanity perspective. I don’t want to judge anybody because in humanity there are a lot of good people more than religious people but that does not give you warranty to enter the kingdom of heaven. It is not because of our deed that we are going to heaven, it is because of our faith in Christ.

GOD WAS PROTECTING US

I traveled for about two weeks to the country of Sudan. Sudan is basically a Muslim country and they had a Sharia law at the time. Sharia law means a Muslim country that is governing according to their religion. Like, a woman has to cover their face or they will kill you. Cause you have to like, dress up and cover your face as a woman. Man cannot walk with a woman, women cannot drive, so many things. It’s very difficult [living under Sharia law], because in Sharia law, basically, the Muslim belief is if they convert one Christian to Muslim, they will go to heaven. As simple as that; also, if they cannot convert you, if they kill you, they will go to heaven—that, they have that theory in their mind. [You have] no protection at all, you are a refugee, it's not your country. But the Lord is amazing within this country [Sudan], the Muslim country. Most of the refugees were worshiping and having a church. They don’t allow it in that country. God was protecting us. For worshiping there: As I said, it wasn’t easy, people were not happy, but still the protection of the Lord was with us.

There is a language barrier, because I mean, we don’t speak Arabic; they speak Arabic. There was the culture itself, as I said, Muslims are living a different kind of style from Christians, and, so many things. On top of that the climate, it is very very warm. When it is very cold, it is about 85 degrees. When it is hot, it was 125 degrees, the whole year-round. It is a very hot country. When you tell a story, what you have come through, living through it is totally different—it was stressful, it’s not easy. How did I get through it? With the mercy and grace of the Lord.

In Sudan, there was a Bankers Institute, the Bankers Institute is basically teaching you banking and finance, they are also teaching you insurance process and I was training there for a year. I finally found a job working for Doctors Without Borders. I was working for them as an accountant. They were helping Southern Sudanese people. They had a civil war at the time, the country split in two. So they [Doctors Without Borders] got shot at and decided to leave the country. So I have to work for different organization and I got that job with Intraworld Service.

(c) DWB logo 

I stayed for five years in Sudan. I was granted asylum by U.S. government and came to the United States. I sent [my wife] a paper wishing for her to come to Sudan. She came there, we met, and we left together.

Well, the… First of all, when I get out, it is about saving my life. As I mentioned before, it is not about coming, my intention was not to come to America, my intention is to save myself. It was dangerous if I was [to stay] in the country. But once I was in Sudan then, the US government was giving asylum for people whom they have tangible evidence why they left the country, because of persecution. You have to justify that–and I have justification: I was in prison and torture, there are scars on my back, and evidence from the US embassy in Addis.

YOU TAKE IT FOR GRANTED, WE CANNOT

[What] you guys may not understand is the freedom in this country, I could say too much. Because of that, you take it for granted. I’m always reminding my kids of this, they take it for granted. That is the reason people, they don’t really care about God. Because, you think that because you work, you can get money, you can do whatever you want. But, generally, freedom—freedom of speech, as I said. I mentioned about communism, you cannot speak your mind, because you will go to jail. Now, here, you can sit down, go in the street and, say, (3)rebuke Obama – the president of the United States. You take it for granted, but we cannot do that in [Ethiopia]. So there are a lot of things which you appreciate when you come to this country. Also, there is something that you don’t feel happy about—(raises voice) the faith. Without danger is, it’s not there. I don’t mean there are less faithful people here; I don’t mean that. Most of the people take it for granted. You have the freedom of worship: you can go to church, you don’t have to go to church, you do this, you do that, you can be involved in politics—you can be whatever you want to be in this country, right? Because of that, that freedom, makes people–in some areas of their life–lost.But, because of the difficulty we had there [Ethiopia], we stick with God—we have no other choice.We have experienced God’s hand, when He’s helped, when He’s lifting up, when He’s saving your life from danger. So, you start comparing the things you have in your life. I’m really thankful to God to be in this country. I’m fortunate, I’m not better than [anyone else] here, but God gave me this opportunity. I don’t have to forget because the Bible says, “When ever you are comfortable, when you are prosperous, when you are getting this and that, says, do not forget your God, Who brought you from the land of poverty, who brought you from the land of persecution, who brought your life, from death to life.” I did not forget that. So when I compare that, I bless this country.

Later when I came here, I went to Washington D.C. I was working for Hills Capitol, they call it parking facility, they have about a hundred locations in Washington D.C. I was cashier/bookkeeper for them, I was collecting from a hundred cashiers everyday balancing and sending the money to the bank. When I came here, I was working in different areas, including office cleaning, security, taxi company, bus driver, you name it. I went to Northwestern College, and then got my bachelor’s degree in business administration. Once I got there, I [I got the job that] I’m working right now; Metro Transit in the finance department.

I CAN RAISE MY KIDS WITH FREEDOM

Listen, let me list some things. Number one, I found the people welcoming—to be honest, I found the people welcoming here. Why are they welcoming? It is because this country is the country of immigrants. Simple as that. Down the road, somebody came from somewhere else, so, everybody has that experience. You might be first generation, here, your parents, grandparents somewhere down the road, they came from somewhere else, they don’t belong here. So, because of that, everybody is living a community, that country itself is built on that ground, one. Number two is: The founding fathers of this country: they are based on the Christian foundation. That is the reason we still see we trust in God on the dollar that’s why they trust in God. That foundation is a blessing itself, because this country had God first that is the reason it has been prosperous to this stage. That makes me at home—feel at home—because I can raise my kids with freedom. I can work myself, I can speak my mind—that makes me feel at home.

I have three children, the oldest is 19 years old, his name is Baeza, and he’s [a freshman] going to Bethel University. He’s on the football team. He played during high school and now he plays in college. My second oldest son, he goes to Concordia, he’s [in] tenth grade now. My youngest, she’s the daughter, is in fifth grade now. And one thing I could say is, I’m so blessed because these children, they love Jesus. More than I do, I assure you.

WE CAN MAKE A DIFFERENCE IN THIS WORLD

(d) Tenasie Umeta and Ethiopian Orphans

About 4 or 5 years ago I took my children to Ethiopia for the first time and by the time we went there, I myself had gone up in poverty, in society but the poverty I had grown up with and the poverty I saw when I took my children was totally different. There are children on the streets without mother or father, so that broke my heart. God brought to [me and] to my wife's attention, to look after those children. As a human being, we have a part to help society whether it is religious or not. So we said, according to [the] Bible, “God [is] asking us something.” God doesn’t ask you something that you can’t [do]. God is always asking you something that you can [do], because whatever you can’t is in His control. So we start doing our share of what we can, and then we start praying. We started praying together, I shared the vision I have. And we started organizing the orphanage. It is the (4)ROCN orphanage center in [the] city where I was born. The process is not easy and it requires money and time. It requires intellect to put together teams so this family [that were a part] of my life in this area, God put them in this position. I thank God for that. They are really committed, we are working together. So, in a years time everything [was] orchestrated, I went back home, and [then] we start orphanage with 4 children. We [were] incorporated in the state of Minnesota [in] March 2012. And we got 501c, which is a tax exempt status, in September 2012. The house was established in October, which [was] one year ago. We have four children at house right now. And in one week or two weeks, we will have another six more children at house because it is a process, a lot of political problems are still in [Ethiopia]. So, God gave us someone to provide for six more children. But, we didn’t get the chance to fulfill it because of the political process there. Tomorrow they will have final conclusions.

(e) Orphanage in Ethiopia

So, why are we doing this? You can assess the Bible; it says,“religious pure and before God is to look after orphans and the widows in the nations”. So, that is the reason. The Bible tells us to do something, [and] we are trying to do something. That is what its all about, because of our religion, because of our belief we have God in our heart and the love we get from Christ, we can love the way He does it for us. Because He loved us, we have to love those who are in need. We can make a difference in this world.

FOOTNOTES:
(1) At this point, Tensaie knew he was a Christian but he had never read from a bible and had no idea how to practice Christianity. 
(2) Jib Washa is a city in Ethiopia. It is known to have the highest elevation in the country.
(3) Rebuke: to express stern disapproval of http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/rebuke?s=t
(4) ROCN stands for Resurrection Orphanage and Center of Nekemte.

IMAGE CREDITS: 

• (a) Picture of Umeta, Tensaie Family Photo, circa 2007
• (b) http://travel.state.gov/travel/cis_pa_tw/cis/cis_1113.html 
• (c) http://beta.syriadeeply.org/get-involved/
• (d) Picture of Umeta, Tensaie and 4 orphans Trip Photo, circa 2007
• (e) Picture of Ethiopian Orphanage, Trip Photo, circa 2007

STORY FACILITATORS: Danny Quinn, Collin Larmour, Nhoua Moua