Missionary profile – Kirubel Girma

By Mercy Kambura

Kirubel Girma, missions mobilizer with SIM’s East Africa Sending Office in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, says, “I am finally embarking on my long-awaited dream to serve as a full-time missionary, focusing on mobilising, facilitating and sending missionaries from East Africa to the global mission field.”

Despite setbacks due to Covid-19, he is amazed at the unwavering commitment and passion of local churches and candidates. He adds, “We have been working to send eight couples and five singles from Ethiopia, Kenya, Eretria, Rwanda, Uganda and Tanzania. Our focus is least-reached communities.”

His first five-year goal is to see at least one church from 11 East African countries mobilised.

Journey to missions

During his first year at university, the Lord challenged him to let go of an engineering career and commit to ministry preparation. He obeyed and enrolled at Addis Ababa Bible College, though he was unsure how his father might respond. But God had gone before him.

Soon his sister phoned him, “Dad thinks you would be a good pastor. He suggests you switch to studying theology.” So Kirubel earned his Bachelor of Theology.

He says, “I realized that how we respond to the call of God might look like an escape from reality to some. But the conviction to serve the Lord does not come out of the blue one day; it is deeply rooted in the heart and lingers on the lifelong journey.”

At seminary, he found wonderful people and a safe space to ask questions.

A professor urged him to be active in the local church. So he committed to his childhood church, the Ethiopian Kale Heywet Church – Mekanisa Branch. The elders heard his testimony and affirmed his calling in a tremendous way.

A second turning point came when his pastor connected him with the director of SIM’s East Africa Office, Worku Hailemariam. Kirubel became an assistant for Worku, and this turned his life upside down.

Kirubel says, “I was challenged to leave my preconceived thoughts about missions and learn from scratch what it meant to give-up one’s life and become a missionary.”

“I am overjoyed God has carried me through this journey to now be able to facilitate missionaries to successfully complete their missions at the diverse locations.”

Please PRAY for Kirubel as he begins a new chapter of ministry as a missions mobilizer in East Africa.