Out of the Darkness and Into the Light — Bekele Shanko (CRU Legacy)
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I grew up in rural Ethiopia, in a world ruled by fear. From the time I was a child, my family believed that spirits controlled everything — sickness, protection, crops, danger. Every decision we made was shaped by the need to appease those spirits. If something went wrong, we assumed we had angered them. If something went right, we believed they had been satisfied.
That was the atmosphere of my childhood. Darkness wasn’t just around me — it lived inside me. I learned to fear the night, fear the future, fear the unseen. I didn’t know any other way to live.
But even in that darkness, God was stirring something in my heart. I didn’t have the words for it then, but I felt a longing for truth — a longing for a God who wasn’t cruel or unpredictable. I wondered if there could be a Creator who actually loved His people instead of demanding sacrifices from them.
As I grew older, I met followers of Jesus. They carried a peace I had never seen before. They weren’t afraid of spirits. They didn’t live under the weight of curses. They spoke of a God who created the world, who had authority over every spirit, and who loved me personally.
That idea was completely new to me — a God who loved.
When I heard the message of Jesus Christ, something broke inside me. For the first time, I saw a way out of the fear that had shaped my entire life. I learned that Jesus had conquered every power of darkness. I learned that He died for me. I learned that He wanted to free me.
I surrendered my life to Him.
The moment I did, the darkness that had followed me since childhood began to lift. The fear that had ruled my family for generations lost its grip. I felt peace — real peace — for the first time.
But God didn’t stop with me. As I grew in faith, I shared the gospel with my family. One by one, they came to Christ. The same home that had been filled with fear became a home filled with prayer, worship, and joy. The spirits we once feared no longer had any authority over us.
God took a boy from a village bound by Animism and turned him into a witness of His power and His love. Today, I have the privilege of helping people around the world hear the same message that rescued me — that Jesus brings people out of darkness and into the light.
My story is simple: I lived in fear. Jesus found me. And His light changed everything.
-Bekele Shanko
