Portrait: The Rev. Yohannes Mengsteab, LIRS Board Member

During the 1960s and 1970s Eritrea, a country on the Red Sea that borders Ethiopia and Sudan, was torn by a struggle for independence. Many young people, including Yohannes Mengsteab, joined in the fight for freedom in his homeland.

Because of his involvement in the political uprising, he was forced to flee…first to Ethiopia and then to Sudan, where he lived until he was granted refugee status and admission to the United States.

Mengsteab reflects on his first day in America: “It was just like in the movies. Here I am, a refugee far away from my homeland. I’m granted refugee status and one day, I get on an airplane and land at Kennedy Airport. Then a taxi takes me to my hotel in Manhattan, across the street from Macy’s. It was unbelievable...like a dream come true.”

Mengsteab studied at Concordia College—New York and then went on to seminary at Concordia Seminary in St. Louis. It was during these years that he first learned about the important work of LIRS. Following seminary he led a Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod (LCMS) congregation in Holland, Mich. He then went on to serve as missionary-at-large in Washington, D.C., before returning to St. Louis, where he founded the Ethnic Immigrant Institute of Theology and served as the LC-MS director of African immigrant ministries.

When his immigration status permitted, Mengsteab called on LIRS for help in reuniting with the family he was forced to leave behind so many years before. LIRS assisted him in sponsoring two brothers, a sister and their families to join him in the United States.

As a former refugee, Mengsteab truly understands the difference LIRS makes in the lives of those we serve: “LIRS works to welcome the stranger and helps people see a sense of hope through their circumstances. It is a humbling experience to be involved in a national leadership position with a major church body. Through my work, I hope to forge meaningful connections between LIRS’s ministry and congregations. As an LIRS board member, I feel gratitude that I am able to contribute in a small way to an agency that has done so many great things!”


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