When her feet touched the land of her beautiful country, Ethiopia, after 15 years, a mixture of feelings stirred her mind, bathed in tears of unspeakable joy. Still, she felt a sense of accountability for an unfinished purpose she had given her life to accomplish. That underlying purpose of helping people in poverty was buried but remained very much alive in her broken heart.
As a student, Mulu joined a team of young revolutionaries in the mountains, organizing an army to overthrow the communist military dictatorship. She was a guerrilla fighter and a mother figure to everyone around her. In the mountains, she married the young, inspirational leader Tamrat Layne, who, with his friends, overthrew the dictatorship and later became Ethiopia’s Prime Minister. After 15 years of fighting in the mountains, the young victors had to take on the responsibility of governing a nation. Mulu transitioned from being a guerrilla fighter to public service as a political leader in the city municipality while starting a family with Tamrat and having two children.
In 1996, her husband, Tamrat, was imprisoned for political reasons. Mulu was then forced to flee to Kenya with her two children and ended up in a refugee camp for three years. This period was the most painful, challenging, yet transformational time in her life. Through a dramatic experience, Mulu became a follower of Jesus Christ, while her husband met Jesus in a unique way in prison at the same time. Then, her purpose of serving the most vulnerable, buried under the ashes of life’s distress, was rekindled with the love of Jesus. Mulu and her children migrated to America through a United Nations/United States immigration program and settled in Denver, Colorado. Mulu remembers, “Seeing my children growing up without their Daddy for twelve years was so painful for me.”
A Dream Come True
While visiting several slum areas in Ethiopia, she met poor single mothers who had no idea how to feed their children. It was discouraging to observe the status of people experiencing poverty, particularly destitute mothers and their children. This reality was what drove her to pick up a gun and become a guerrilla fighter. Witnessing that the situation had not improved, and perhaps even worsened, was agonizing. Seeing children searching for any sign of hope and mothers standing on street corners looking for a helping hand was a heart-wrenching reminder for Mulu of when she was once a poor, single mother in a refugee camp while her husband was in a dungeon.
To make her dream come true, Mulu founded “Life Center Ethiopia” in February 2013 and began serving orphans and widows inspired by the word of God, “Pure and genuine religion in the sight of God the Father means caring for orphans and widows in their distress” (James 1:27). Mulu has come full circle. As a guerrilla fighter, she dreamed of ending poverty. But even as she was seated in the government, she felt she didn’t have the power to make a difference in the lives of those with the greatest needs. Now, with the power and spirit of Jesus of Nazareth, Mulu can genuinely serve the people in poverty, which is what God has called her to do—her heartbeat!
Mulu says, “I gave birth to Life Center out of the womb”
