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Perilous Exodus & Dream Come True

Writer's picture: Avi TekleAvi Tekle

Updated: Aug 22, 2022


Tents of Mercy Congregation and Humanitarian Aid

Kiryat Yam, Israel



Fifty days following Yom Kippur (the Day of Atonement), the Ethiopian Jewish community celebrates Sig'd, a special day of Thanksgiving in realizing the fulfillment of God’s promises. This is an ancient practice among Jewish descendants from Ethiopia. In Ethiopia, it was commemorated with half a day of fasting and intercession, and the latter part of the day was spent breaking bread and feasting as a community. Still cherished among the brethren of Ethiopian Jewish ancestry, today Sig’d is also a nationally-recognized Israeli holiday. On this day we like to take the opportunity to acknowledge the miraculous nature of our own family’s story and enjoy our Ethiopian-Jewish heritage.


The government-sponsored event in honor of Sig’d takes place at Armon HaNatziv, a beautiful promenade overlooking Jerusalem. This year we couldn’t make it to the main event, but decided to drive to Jerusalem anyway and see if we could catch the afterglow. Arriving just after sunset, we watched as clusters of beautiful Ethio-Israelis of all ages walked about with joy-filled expressions, matching beautifully the breathtaking view of Jerusalem bathed in soft evening light. Unexpectedly, we ran into two young adult girls who knew our daughters from believing conferences. “Are you coming to the youth worship night at Succat Hallel?” they asked as if the answer was obvious. We thought – what a way to end this day of celebration: coming together with young Messianic Ethio-Israelis to worship Yeshua in Jerusalem. It felt as if we were walking into the fulfilment of this verse right before our very eyes: “From beyond the Rivers of Ethiopia, My dispersed daughters, My worshippers, they will bring Me an offering” (Zephaniah 3:10).


It was the perfect timing and location for our daughters to join a youth worship night. Both our daughters are worshipers in heart and calling, and would happily give up other plans for such an event. Upon arriving at the building, the first person who met us was a daughter of dear friends we had not seen in a long time. Yet another special touch from God to encourage us parents, that even now, God is fulfilling His promise not just in bringing us back into the Land, but causing us to walk into prophetic Messianic fulfilment, with our very own daughters coming together with others to “bring an offering” to God. We were doubly blessed to celebrate Sig’d and witness a generation of young Messianic Ethio-Israelis serving Adonai shoulder to shoulder, welcoming the King of Glory in worship!


2021 marks 30 years since my own arrival in Israel, and is the anniversary of the Operation Solomon airlift. Despite the fact that modern Israeli life is nothing like what the Ethiopian communities dreamed it would be, we see that God’s grand plan has not changed. He is faithful!


As a tribute to God’s faithfulness, we want to share excerpts from an article published in 2007 – the gripping story of our dear Aunt Webijig, a member of our congregation who made the miraculous, perilous exodus from Ethiopia to Israel decades ago…


The perilous exodus began at night


The elders of the Jewish Council had given each family notice when to depart. On the appointed night 27-year-old Webijig, her father and three of her seven siblings set out to meet the guide whom they had hired for the price of one cow and a 50 birr ($5) wristwatch to lead them through the desert. They were filled with excitement. The dream and longing for Jerusalem, passed down through the generations, were finally coming to pass.


Leaving the familiar outskirts of the village in the darkness, barefoot Webijig stumbled and fell. Her little four-year-old sister whom she had been carrying in a sling flew off her back and landed in the bushes. Webijig searched frantically but couldn’t find her until she cried out. It was only after Webijig drew her close to her chest to quiet her, that she noticed the large and bleeding gash in her leg. Fearful of the barbaric night thieves, she carried her sister in her arms for some time so that they wouldn’t hear the child’s cry and attack.


The excitement of the journey carried them swiftly along the path that first night. As the dawn began to break, Webijig could suddenly see hundreds of additional families from her village and others, trudging along determinedly in the same direction. Her home already seemed a lifetime away. The sun was already hot at seven in the morning as they stopped to get some rest and hide from bandits.


After a fitful sleep, they woke and prepared for the night’s walk, eating a small meal of dried meat, dabo kolo (a cracker-like snack), honey and water they had brought. With charcoal they smudged dark streaks on their faces, camouflaging to blend into the darkness and distort any physical beauty liable to appeal to the desperate lusts of the night thieves. When everything was ready, Webijig lifted her six-year-old brother onto the family horse and hoisted her little sister back up into the sling on her back.


For six weeks, Webijig and her family followed this same harrowing routine, night after grueling night, day after blistering day. At night, the sound of lions, hyenas and other wild beasts sapped their courage. In the day the sun beat down as they slept, drying out their exhausted bodies and baking the earth they slept on. Bandits besieged the families, stealing, assaulting and even killing. The more they walked, the farther they spread out one from another.


One evening after walking a short distance, Webijig noticed that her aunt was no longer beside her. She went back and saw to her grief that her aunt had collapsed dead on the path! The family wept and stood in reverence for a moment. As they walked on, they saw other grieving families. At that same time they also heard the cries of a woman in labor walking with a family beside them. The family cried out in joy at the birth of a sweet new son, and Webijig was awed at the fusion of death and life together on the path to Jerusalem.


The physical adversity of the journey did not weaken their deep faith and desire to reach the Promised Land. “This will all be worth it,” Webijig thought, “because when we arrive in Jerusalem we will wipe our feet with oil and draw milk and honey out of the earth.” Webijig and her family envisioned a land of righteousness, and she and all the other journeyers determined that, “even if our hands and legs are cut off and our eyes cease to see, we will be content just to reach the Promised Land!”


After crossing the border into Sudan, they were in refugee camps for 9 months until being airlifted to Israel along with with hundreds of other Ethiopian Jews to Israel by disguised Israeli planes from a remote rendezvous point. Webijig came to faith in the Messiah 3 years after her arrival in Israel.


“Behold, I will take the people of Israel from the nations among which they have gone, and will gather them from all around, and bring them to their own land.” (Ezekiel 37:21)




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