Bekele and Nigat with Bev Smith

Congratulations to the Alemayehu’s. This is the Ethiopian refugee family brought by First Baptist Church to Canada from a camp in Kenya six years ago. They had been forced to flee in 1992 because of political persecution. The children had been born in the camp. The family have now completed all the requirements for Canadian citizenship. The citizenship ceremony for Nigat was held on June 16th in Grand Pre. Bev Smith, Sandi and Ed Tummers were there to represent the First Baptist Church family.

Nigat and Bekele recalled the day when they arrived in Canada. Dave Bourque, Bev and Sandi met them at the airport, took them to their new apartment and a full turkey buffet dinner with all the trimmings awaited them. It was then, for the first time, that they could relax and feel that they had found a home.

However, when they turned on the television the next day, they were worried that trouble had followed them here. Their eldest son, Caleb, was watching TV in the afternoon when they interrupted the show to warn that there was "Bad News for Maritimers, Details on the Six-o-clock news". Caleb warned his father. For the next two hours, they were glued to the TV set to hear what troubles had befallen on their adopted country. Finally, Steve Murphy arrived with the headlines, and repeated the dire warning. The next twenty minutes seemed to take forever until this segment was aired. "Coming up, bad news for Maritimers, but first, this commercial". By now, they were getting frantic. The next two minutes lasted a lifetime. Steve Murphy returned after the commercial and reported: "Bad news for Maritimers, the price of milk will be going up 4 cents a litre on Friday". Bekele gathered his family together, and with a big hug and a sigh of relief, he thanked God that they arrived in a land where such an event could be considered bad news. He knew from that minute that Halifax was where he wanted to raise his family.

Immediately following the citizenship ceremony, Nigat and Bekele made a beeline back to Halifax to the passport office to start the process of getting this most precious document. After an absence of 16 years, they planned to go back for a visit to Ethiopia for the summer. They will return in late September after having introduced the children to relatives they had never met and a homeland they had never seen.

Nigat and Bekele are very grateful to the congregation of First Baptist Church for their generous sponsorship in getting them here, for the support network of the church family as they got themselves settled, and for the unconditional gift of independence. We are thankful that they have become part of our extended church family. We look forward to hearing of their Ethiopian adventure when they return.

(story by Ed and Sandi Tummers)