The world was wonderful for the young
woman, Alem, in the early 1960’s. She was talented and well educated in the wealthier
strata of Ethiopian life. She
was secure in her Orthodox faith and family circle. She was engaged to an intelligent and enterprising
young man. Behailu was the son
of a state governor, was interning for a national figure in the country’s
capitol, had a dream of being an officer in the national Air Force with
an older brother, and then serving in the national assembly. More important to Alem
was that he shared her Christian faith in an equally strong Muslim country.
All of this dream
world came crashing down when Behailu, wanted
to learn English and heard of a children’s deaf school that had been
sponsored by the King’s daughter and was being directed by two Americans.
The month long study in English was presented in a series of
Bible Studies on film called the Jule Miller
film strips.
Behailu studied
and was converted. He was disowned
by his family, refused a place to stay and Alem,
broken heartedly, and family turned away from him.
Time and love brought
them back together and after sharing his new faith Alem was baptized. She faced the same losses of family and
isolation still surrounding Behailu.
From such troubled circumstances they begin building together
a life of faith and service.
While Behailu was
becoming a prime leader among churches of Christ as a founder of other
deaf schools and preacher training schools, preaching widely and planting
churches and being the director of national famine relief programs,
Alem was quietly becoming a servant of servants.
In addition to her own four children she gathered thirteen other
children to raise, some of them abandoned children from the streets
of poverty. She was busy in teaching
women both in Bible and in life. Her
home was a constant place for hospitality and counsel.
During the Communist years from 1974-1992 she suffered the constant
and growing fears of losing her determined husband like one of the Ethiopian
preachers who was ruthlessly killed by soldiers funneling gasoline into
his throat by a hose. In the
worst years both were threatened by imprisonment and death unless they
submitted to Communism, especially in the deaf school instruction. For two years they went into exile in Kenya,
waiting to slip back into the country.
Alem
is no less an instrument in the hands of God in the raising up a mighty
people in Ethiopia than is her faithful husband, or Missionary John
Ed Clark, or any other of the respected leaders. Her constant support of Behailu, her vigilance
of faith, her sweetness of spirit, her motherhood and care of children,
her speaking often of the Lord, and the steel like but calm courage
and Gospel loyalty will long inspire the faithful. She, as well as any woman of God in our times,
depicts the qualities and fruits that will be spoken of wherever the
Gospel is declared.
As her husband is often referred
to as the Lion of Ethiopia
after the symbol of the nation, so Alem can
well be called the Lioness of Ethiopia.
