Mengistu Badada, Mange, was born to his mom and dad about 2 hours away from Harbu Chulule, Ethiopia in a small farming village. Before he was born, his mother and father were married for a short time when the dictatorship government of Ethiopia, came to their small home and forcefully took his father away to be a soldier. After he fighting as a soldier for a long time, Mange’s mother gave birth to his older brother and to him. This happened though very infrequent and short visits. Mange’s father was not there when he was born and did not see him in his early years. The dictatorship was overthrown after many years, so Mange’s father finally returned home, but he was changed emotionally. Mange described his father as having trauma from war; he saw many people die over the years. He began to fight with his with his wife and kids and was aggressive like never before. This made the families relationship suffer greatly.
There farming village had no school, so no kids in the community had any education. When Mange was around 12, his Muslim neighbor talked to the government and created a plan to build a school. He bought the land and funded most of it, and fast forward, all the neighborhood friends could receive an education. At this time, Mange’s older brother lived in Harbu Chulule with a relative to go to school. Mange begged his dad to go to school, but he refused because no one would be able to help him on the farm. For a whole year he begged his father, until his dad said he could with conditions. He could attend school until he could write his name on paper. Most farmers couldn’t write because they had no education, so to sign documents they used their fingerprint. Mange was very clever, as he would describe himself, and flew through school with flying colors. He moved up and up in his class until he was 2nd in his class.
One day on the 2 hour walk home, one of Mange’s friends asked him if he knew Jesus. Mange had no faith background. His friend told him that he had the power to cast demons out people, and that blew Mange’s mind. He asked to pray over Mange to receive Jesus. From that point on Mange traveled to church alone, and he couldn’t tell his parents. He says after all the fighting from school, one more argument would have made his dad do something awful to him. That little school only went up to grade 4 and to continue his education, he had to travel 2 hours away to a bigger school. Again when he asked his father to continue he said no. They got into a big argument and his dad threatened to kick him out. After a lo of prayer, Mange’s dad said he could attend school far away, but he would pay for nothing. He would only pay for Mange’s food, not clothes not school materials.
One day on the way home from school, it was near dark very quiet and no one around. He heard a buzzing like from a bee. In that moment, God spoke to him and told him that he would provide a bee hive for him. Confused he continued home and passed his uncle’s home. His uncle told him that he had an old beehive that was falling apart and had no bee colonies living inside. He gave the hive to Mange and he brought it home. In Ethiopia bees do not travel in the morning or night because it is too cold, they only come out in midday. That morning when Mange went outside and looked at the hive, it was swarming with bees. This was a miracle from the Lord because bees do not travel at night. Mange calls them “bees from heaven.” People from the community came from all around to see the bees and were getting stung all the time, but the bees would not touch Mange. He never got stung once. He sold the honey the bees made, and made enough to buy chickens. The chickens laid eggs, so he could sell the honey and eggs. This funded his schooling so much so that he could pay for school, for clothes, and materials. Hence the title, birds and the bees. They came straight from God.
Later he met Ralph, the founder of Hope Ethiopia, who sponsored him through university. There he studied to be a social worker, after which Hope Ethiopia hired him to work in the organization. His job is to visit sponsor families, help the families in the community, and much more. When you walk through the village with Mange, people of all age flock to him; he knows everyone. Children scream his name when he walks by and run and hug him. There are moments in life that you can feel Jesus present. Seeing little children around Mange is an example of that. He exudes joy and love. It is a pleasure to be friends with him. Keep him in your prayers as he patiently awaits the Lord to speak into what will come next for him!
