An Ethiopian Jewish Journey to Messiah

David B. (00:00):
Welcome back to another episode of the Covenant and Conflict Podcast with us today. A very special guest from Israel, David sfa. Probably one of the best names we’ve had on the podcast. You’re the best sfa. It’s beautiful. Now you are a great friend to us at Gateway to the Center for Israel. You have long relationship with Nick, and you are an Ethiopian Jewish believer. You’re an Israeli and you are the leader of a congregation. Is that the name of the congregation, right? Correct.

David S.(00:36):
Yeah.

David B. (00:37):
Behe, which is the Hebrew word for Genesis, be Sheet in the beginning. It’s the name for the book of Genesis in Hebrew and a beautiful growing congregation with many Israeli believers, many Ethiopian, and we’re just so excited to have you.

David S.(00:54):
Oh, thank you for having me. Thank you so much. Gateway is a family of Beit for a long time, Nick, as you said, Sarah and all family, and you thank you for your love, really your partnership, your prayers. We’re seeing miracles in the end of Israel. And as you mentioned, behi is really unique name

(01:26):
Of

David S.(01:26):
Our ministry. I should start from this name and of course is about in the beginning or Genesis and also the deep meaning. One of the deep meaning of Be Behe consists two words, bar and Ashe. Bar is in aic, Hebrew. You can say a Sun Bar is a sun bar.

David B. (01:58):
Yeah. Bar.

David S.(01:59):
Bar Mitzvahs is a son of Mitzvah. Bar is a Ben Sun. And you have the Ashe is like, I will give or this will be the foundation. So this is the main idea. And you can see in the Bible in the first book, first chapter, first verse and sentence, first word. God said, I will give a son. And he started everything so means Yeshua. And our logo is bait. The first letter of the Bible and the last letter of the Bible is N finishing with Ah. Amen. So is N Be and Nom is Ben a son again.

David B. (03:02):
Wow.

David S.(03:03):
So from the beginning to the end, from Ale and Taf, alpha and Omega, everything is about Yeshua.

David B. (03:11):
Wow.

David S.(03:11):
Everything is about him. Never been about us Yeshua,

David B. (03:16):
Man. You didn’t know getting this blessed today at the beginning of the podcast. This is good. Thank you. I never made that connection of the bar being the sun because obviously Bar mitzvah Barabbas, but there’s the bar and the Ben, as you’re saying, the Aramaic and the Hebrew are so close together.

David S.(03:34):
Correct. Semitic language.

David B. (03:36):
When did you, tell us a little bit about your story. Were you born in Israel? Were you born in Ethiopia? Did you always know Yeshua? Give us a little bit of a backstory of just yourself.

David S.(03:47):
Okay. I was born in Gonder, Ethiopia. This is a north part of Ethiopia where the, let’s say most Ethiopian Jews lived. We knew that we are Jew and practicing the Jewish religion things all the time. Shabbat

David B. (04:13):
One of the oldest Jewish communities.

David S.(04:15):
Yeah. In the beginning we didn’t know that we have another brass and sisters in another color. Jewish, white Jewish.

David B. (04:27):
Yeah. Ashkenazi

David S.(04:28):
Ashkenaz. And this far and lots, many years we thought that we are the only Jews remain in the world.

David B. (04:37):
Wow.

David S.(04:37):
So when we saw the white Jews say, there are no Jews, we are Jews, they probably thought the same thing about you guys. Right. And the DNA test showed, so this is identical. Their result was an amazing, the Ethiopian Jews and Ashs and disparities. So we grew up in this environment in Ethiopia.

David B. (05:04):
Were you speaking about the historic Ethiopian Jews didn’t know that they were land ones or you personally didn’t know that there were other Jews, our fathers and

David S.(05:14):
Mothers. The majority of the Ethiopian Jews didn’t know because we were very close, a closed knit community, close community society. We didn’t want to expose our ourself to other communities, Christians or Muslims. And we kept our identity in a strict way. So that’s why. And the Ethiopian Jews, they’re very unique. They are the only Jews that try to camp. They tried to come to Israel to make Aaliyah by food. So the first attempt was in 1862 before Israel was born, they came to the Red Sea, they walk through Sudan and all the desert and they came to the Red Sea and they said about Mahari, he was the leader and said, okay, if the Red Sea will be opened and divided like Moses, so this is the time to make Alliya,

(06:28):
If

David S.(06:29):
Not okay, this not the time. And we’ll go back to Ethiopia. And they prayed and prayed and nothing happened. So they

David B. (06:41):
Went back

David S.(06:42):
To Ethiopia and we waited almost 100 and more years to Aliyah.

David B. (06:52):
Wow.

David S.(06:53):
So we have the operation Moses in 1984 or five, and then Operation Solomon, the big one, these are the major alias to Israel from Ethiopia. And my family and me, we came during these operations through Italy, Rome like a tourist. And day after the Al came and Jewish Agency and they took us to Israel. So I am Medallia when I was about nine years old and I grew up in Israel. So

David B. (07:43):
Yeah. Is it true, I’ve heard stories and you never know if it’s true or legend or a blend of both that the Ethiopian Jewish community derives their heritage from the Queen of Sheba and Solomon. Is that true? Is that what the understanding is or is that kind of a legend?

David S.(08:06):
Yeah, the story is true. This is from the Bible. Kings Solomon and the Queen Sheba about the Ethiopian Jews. We have some, let’s say, thinking or ways or stories that can be fit to our identity. One of them is this king Samon and k Shiba. And then the Ethiopian Jews came from them or from Moses and Ra, his Ethiopian

David B. (08:41):
Wife. Got it.

David S.(08:43):
And also other stories. But we know that our story is Israel, Jerusalem for manys. Jerusalem was a dream. A lot of our families, my family dreamed of one thing, Jerusalem all the time. Jerusalem is heaven that we We’ll get in and everything be okay.

David B. (09:17):
Yeah,

David S.(09:17):
Yeah. Now we understand this is a little bit,

David B. (09:21):
Yeah. We had another Israeli, Ethiopian and his whole family thought Jerusalem was covered in gold.

David S.(09:28):
Oh yeah.

David B. (09:30):
It was basically heaven.

David S.(09:33):
This is the heaven that we waited for thousands of years. And we understand now that we’re on a journey. It’s not the heaven we’re on a journey towards, we’re on a journey towards the New aid, the new heaven. Yeah, the new Jerusalem. Yeah, the new Jerusalem.

David B. (09:52):
That one’s got more gold

David S.(09:54):
I think. Yeah. More gold in the happiness in Shalom. No wars.

David B. (09:59):
Yeah, totally. So when you were in Ethiopia, were you a part of a Messianic Jewish community or more of a traditional non Yeshua believing

David S.(10:12):
Community? Okay, in Ethiopia, all my family, we were Jewish and practicing Jewish religion, even though some missionaries came and tried to talk with us and she with us the gospel, we resist them and say no. But after we made Aliyah to Israel, how Yeshua found me and my family in those times I was at Yeshiva High School studying the Mara Toba, the robotics studies. And then I had a dream. This is my encounter with Yeshua. And I saw Yeshua in my dream and it was powerful and the life-changing moment for me. And day after I said,

David B. (11:10):
Wait, wait, wait, pause. You got to explain the dream a little more unless you can, unless this is like a

David S.(11:15):
Yeah, no, the dream I can see even now the dream. I saw him and it was powerful. Did

David B. (11:24):
You know, just instinctively know it was Yeshua? Did he say something?

David S.(11:28):
Oh, he said a lot of things. Not for now, but yeah, I needed healing. I hated him. I hated Yeshua. And all the stories that were hearing about Christians, about Yeshua, we called him. So I was like a small pole against the believers. And I kept Shabbat with kippah and all of those things. And my mom started telling me about Yeshua. She just heard from someone and I was against her even. But she prayed a lot.

David B. (12:25):
Was she a believer in Yeshua?

David S.(12:27):
Here in Israel? In Israel. In Israel. After she made Aliya, someone shared with her the gospel about Yeshua and she started to believe in those times that she shared with me afraid and scaring of me.

David B. (12:45):
So she started to believe in,

David S.(12:48):
Started

David B. (12:48):
To introduce the idea a little bit. But you were hesitant. Oh, against aggressive maybe. Yeah.

David S.(12:54):
Very aggressive, fanatic. And then one day I had the unique dream. I just so Yeshua at that dream and we are talking, it’s like a conversation. And when he spoke to me is not empty. Words is powerful. When he said, I am the shua your savior, I am this, this and this, that you resist in the gift. This a healing world. And I can feel the presence, the Holy Spirit touching me. And this is the long with Yeshua. And as I said, I can see the vision, the dream, even now, it was powerful. I needed this because I was, again, nobody, no one

David B. (14:08):
Could convince you.

David S.(14:09):
No, only him we’re Jewish cultural things against Yeshua. So I woke up early in the morning and I said, I believe in Yeshua. And my said what I said, the Ethiopian Jews said, I said, no, no, be quiet. All my friends will hear and kill me. So this was my encounter with Yeshua life following Yeshua in Israel. It’s not easy. What age

David B. (14:48):
Were you?

David S.(14:50):
About 15. Yeah, about 15. And I remember this time all my friend left me and they were against me because I said, I believe in issue. My friends, even let’s say my family, all of them turned away. But we knew the truth. Yeshua, he worked everything. And the God of Israel, he’s faithful. And yeah, this is our life in Israel. And many of them, many of our brothers and sisters coming to faith. And we can talk of course a bit about our ministry or less.

David B. (15:45):
So you’re 15 when you start walking with Yeshua. From that point to you starting a congregation, what is life like in Israel? You said it was hard. You lost friends, you lost relationship with family. Did you always know God was calling you to lead a congregation? Or what did that look like? Did you go back to Ethiopia at all? What was your story?

David S.(16:08):
Oh, good question. For me, Yeshua found me. And then I thought the life going to be perfect and everything Jerusalem full of gold. Yeah. And now the spiritual, the new Jerusalem wasn’t like this, but with me all the time. And we grew up in the environment. In those times we had only one congregation, Ethiopian Israelis and I minister there with the youth department, and I was the leader of students and young people in those times and worship leader.

(17:11):
So I grew up in this. And deep inside I knew that I have a call, but I didn’t know what to do with this and what call which came. And I knew that I’m running away from my calling for many years. Even though I knew this. I started my studies at the universities. I served in the army, I studied law in economics and became a, I did a lot of things. And the best things is I am married to Thies and we have three children and life is good. I have my law firm, big one, very successful growing. And I established with my colleagues a big forum of Ethiopian Israelis lawyers in the land to help the Ethiopian people and regarding related to the loadings, advocating for them. But inside, I’m doing all this, but inside no peace, no shalom. And I said, what next? And I just shared this to Sarah and Charles here. One day, one big fish, you say client, big one

(19:09):
Came to our law firm. And then they said, okay, we are going to pay a lot of money for you. We have a big project in Africa, in Ethiopia, and we need someone who can understand the language, the culture, and we are going to pay a lot of money. So what do you think? And then one of the leaders of the Ethiopian Israeli lawyers in the land with the forum. And I said, oh yeah, yeah, of course, of course. And they said, okay. So they start and then they say, we are going to cover everything. So you can go to Ethiopia and we’ll pay everything. And they did this back and forth, Ethiopia, Israel, Israel, Ethiopia, and in Ethiopia, everything is silence and no food, no courts, no businesses and everything I did. And deep inside a big voice. So what are you doing? Something you should do another thing. And I said, okay. I had employees there in Ethiopia and in Israel. I told one of my employees that, okay, I need a prayers to pray with someone in Ethiopia. And he said, okay. And the pastor there prayed for me and he prophesied that I should serve Elohim only enough to be and live just for him. And said, okay, okay. I did a lot of money in those times. I said, okay, let’s wait. And again, I asked him to go to another lady to pray and same things. And I didn’t want to hear that. Now I need to be a minister.

(21:20):
I did a lot of money in those times. I worked very hard, hard for

(21:24):
This.

David S.(21:26):
And one day in Ethiopia, we have shoes, cleaners, young people doing this for their small money. Cheap. Yeah, small money. And my shoes are clean, but I love to encourage them. If they say timber, the local currency, okay, I will give them 100 just to encourage them.

(21:55):
And he’s cleaning my shoes and said, sir, can I speak please, please speak. I said, I’m so sorry to tell you that, but I feel that Elim telling me that you should serve him on this and this and this. I said, what? You don’t know me? I said, and then I heard the voice. I say, you should listen. And I said, okay. Wow. So you can speak with all these people and I’m there not hearing you, God. So I took a long time of prayers and fasting and my wife, she’s the best. She was with me praying with me. And we had a long, about 40 days of fasting and prayer time. And after that was born during the pandemic, the COVID-19 when the world shut down. But Elim opens, opened hearts in Israel. So since then we’re growing. Our vision is to raise and equip the generation for such a time as this, you know that we are the first Hebrew speaking Ethiopian Israelis in the country. In Israel

David B. (23:39):
Congregation.

David S.(23:40):
Yeah. Wow. Congregation. So very young community, very young people and all mixed. We have Ethiopian Israelis, Ashkenas, sdi, all mixed. The kingdom of God really? Is there? Yeah.

David B. (23:59):
Wow. That’s amazing. And how long have you had the congregation? Now

David S.(24:04):
We are going to celebrate our fifth anniversary.

David B. (24:07):
Five years.

David S.(24:07):
Yeah, five years.

David B. (24:09):
I got a little journal. That was your anniversary. It was be sheet something celebration. What month is the anniversary?

David S.(24:22):
Oh, we did this in December. Intentionally we didn’t want that. Young people will go to celebrate Silvester and the other party areas to say, no, we need to celebrate Yeshua. And these days, and many young people come and we have worship time in Hebrew, full in Hebrew, and in some songs we have the African style and happy dancing,

(24:57):
And

David S.(24:57):
Everybody love this. So this is our life in Jerusalem. And we’re growing. We have many home groups across the country. Every week we gather for worship, prayers, teaching.

David B. (25:19):
Are you in Jerusalem?

David S.(25:20):
Yeah. The main congregation in Jerusalem. And we are going to start in Tel Aviv. So please, we need your prayers on the of young people. So when I see this generation in Israel, I see really hope and revival, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, Moses, David. He’s raising up their sons and daughters

(25:57):
For

David S.(25:57):
Such a time as this to bring the final revival. And we are seeing miracles in the land of Israel among us, Jews and Gentiles. Gentiles coming together for the end of the end of the end. We are there.

David B. (26:19):
We’re

David S.(26:19):
There.

David B. (26:20):
Well, two questions as we close. What do you feel like God is doing right now in Israel as you look and you see, as you said, the end of the end, we we’re on a journey towards the restoration of all things. What do you feel like God is doing right now that’s unique? And then how can we pray for bee for you and just alongside what God is

David S.(26:48):
Doing? Perfect. We’re living in unique time. Israel having tough times with war. And before that, the COVID and we are seeing new believers

(27:12):
Coming,

David S.(27:14):
Especially in these days, new young people coming and we have a revival, not big one among the young people. And this is the hope that something happening in the land of Israel. And we need you guys to pray for us as you did. But now even more, this is the final or the final. We’re in the end times and things happening and running very fast. I believe that the fathers and the sons should go together and run the rest together. And I’m working on this, that the fathers, the hearts of the fathers and the sons will be together and run the rest together. I love him doing an amazing things in the land of Israel right now across the country, especially among the young people in the land of Israel, in Hebrew language touching hearts and preparing the way for his coming. So you can pray for us that this revival, even though this is small for now, that this will increase the flame, the burning will increase. And for let’s say that the body of Messiah in the land will come together in one

(29:11):
Unit.

David S.(29:12):
Yeah. One heart, one spirit. And to do his will in the land of Israel, we are in the front line in the spiritual realm.

(29:23):
So

David S.(29:25):
We’re facing not only the physical world that we’re seeing in Israel, but also the spiritual is the real war. So in these areas, we need your prayers support. Yeah. Beautiful. And gateway doing this very well. Oh, thank you. Thank you so much.

David B. (29:51):
We’re doing what we can to We believe in you. We believe in your congregation. We’re excited for what you’re doing.

David S.(29:56):
Thank you so much.

David B. (29:57):
Is there anything else before we leave, just anything on your heart that you’d want to share with the people listening, Gentile believers listening in, people who have a heart for Israel and Jewish people,

David S.(30:11):
Just to say, to stand with us, is standing with the move of God that preparing the way for his coming. So standing with Israel, standing specifically with the body of Messiah in Israel is being a part of this end time. Let’s say finishing or the final race in the land of Israel. So this is a huge part that we need you, of course, with prayers, but even to come to Israel and visit and encourage and support and say, we are with you guys. You are not alone. Oh, this is encouraging us a lot. A lot.

David B. (31:06):
Well, you’re not alone. Is there a way that we can reach out to you? Do you have a website for non Israeli speaker, non Hebrew speakers?

David S.(31:14):
Yeah. Yeah. We have beit israel.com.

David B. (31:20):
There you go.

David S.(31:21):
Yeah. We can go there and find about Beit and our activities.

David B. (31:25):
Beautiful. So if you’re going to Israel, look ’em up. If you want to partner with them, give support, pray. That’s the spot to go to.

David S.(31:33):
Thank you so much. And in this year, 2025, our plan to baptize 20 new believers.

David B. (31:43):
Wow.

David S.(31:44):
So this is a huge and a blessing to us. Praise the

David B. (31:49):
Lord.

David S.(31:49):
Yeah. So in this area also, we’re seeing really miracles.

David B. (31:54):
That’s amazing.

David S.(31:55):
Please continue to pray for us and support us. Thank you.

David B. (31:58):
Well, thank you for sharing your story. Thank you for all that you’re doing in the land. We are excited to be in partnership with you. Excited to pray and continue to serve alongside of you. Like we said, go to Bee Bee. Is it B-E-R-S-H-E-E-T.

David S.(32:17):
Good

David B. (32:18):
Israel, Israel riel.com to get more information. That’s all the time we have for today. Join us for another episode coming soon. We love you.