The Karo are a small people group, of about 3,000, who live in southern Ethiopia, near the borders of Sudan & Kenya. They clothe themselves in goatskins, adorn their faces and bodies with paint, brandish spears and appear to have come from centuries past. A Photo and Arts Discipleship Training School team from YWAM Herrnhut in Germany was warmly welcomed by the tribe because one of the Karo had attended a Discipleship Training School and where he told a deeply moving story about the fear of curses that had besieged his tribe for generations.

Karo elders openly shared with the DTS the needs of their tribe and in doing so revealed the Tribe’s vicious “mingi” (cursed) tradition. There were three ways a Karo child could be considered “mingi”. First, if they were born out of wedlock; secondly, if a married couple did not announce their intent to conceive and thirdly if the child’s teeth erupted from the top instead of the bottom gums. The presence of “mingi “children was believed to bring war, famine and illness to the tribe so they were killed to remove the curse from the land. Since parents did not want to be the source of cursing the tribe they cooperated with the elders to ensure that their child was killed. Often “mingi’” children were bound to a tree far away where they were left to die slowly or be eaten by wild animals. Other children were strangled by family members or thrown into the river to be eaten by crocodiles. Every year approximately 70 children died this way.

The YWAM team sought to understand the meaning of “mingi” better, while sharing about Jesus and how much He loves every child. “We asked if there was any way we could help save these lives. We were very careful in what we said because we didn’t want to close any doors.” says a DTS student. “ At the end of a meeting a tribal elder said, ‘Only someone who knows God can speak like this and have such a request.’” The seed of the “mingi” ministry was planted – a place of refuge for children who would otherwise be killed.

Soon after, the team learned of a child in a nearby village whose teeth had emerged from the top first, signalling to the Karo that the child was cursed. The little girl’s parents had hidden her for five months, but the tribe knew of her and repeatedly beat and threatened her father for not cooperating with the tradition. Under threat of being thrown out of the village, the father agreed to kill his daughter, but on meeting the YWAM team, he asked them to rescue her instead.

The next day, the village gathered to witness the team receiving the “mingi” child. A team member reports, “We asked for the girl's name. Her father answered with a smile on his face: "Bale." We could see the love her parents had for Bale. They were happy that we would take her with us, but of course that was also a hard moment for them. They asked us if they could visit Bale and to write down their names and story so Bale wouldn't forget them.”

Arriving with Bale back in a larger village, the team met with the tribal elders and again explained their plan. The elders looked at the team and replied, "We knew why you had come - to rescue these children...we have been waiting for you to start."

YWAM Hernhut has sent a missionary family to live in one of the Karo’s villages. They continue to minister there, eagerly striving to share God’s promise of salvation with the tribe. Please find more information at their website www.mission-live.com <http://www.mission-live.com> .