Born in southern Eritrea, in the small village of Areza, Yohannes Mengsteab was one of nine children. Education was an important part of his parents’ plan for their children. They wanted Yohannes and his siblings to have the opportunity for a sound education,
and they gave up their family’s agricultural lifestyle in the village to send them somewhere with a better school system. That move gave the Mengsteab children the chance to attend high school and continue toward their educational goals.
As a 10th grader, Yohannes left school to join the fight for freedom. The turmoil of war brought deep loss to his family, including the passing of two family members. Two of his sisters have remained in Eritrea. Yohannes is thankful that he was able to help two brothers and two sisters make their way to the United States.
While in his 20s, Yohannes left Eritrea for Sudan. There, he returned to his Lutheran roots and joined the church. He began working with small groups and the Children’s Ministry program, and his call to ministry began to blossom during the three years he spent in the Sudan. While still in his twenties, he also worked as a security guard and interpreter, skills that helped provide financial support.
In 1983, at age 24, Yohannes made the big move to Bronxville, New York. He received a BA with a double major in Mathematics and Judeo-Christian Heritage from Concordia College. His vision was to serve Eritrean refugees as a worker priest teaching high
school math. During a trip to move his family from their village in Eritrea to safety in Sudan, Yohannes met his future wife, Alemash. They married in 1987. Because of the paperwork needed for her move to the United States, Alemash could not come until March 1989. After a long two-year period, while studying at Concordia Seminary for his M.Div., the newlyweds were reunited in the United States. In July of that year, they moved to Illinois for his vicarage.
After graduating from Concordia Seminary Saint Louis in May of 1991, Yohannes moved to his first call as a parish pastor in Holland, Michigan, where he also earned a Master of Theology in missiology from Western Seminary. His ThM thesis later became the blueprint for the LCMS African Immigrant Ministry.
The move in 1995 to Washington, DC, initially included an assignment as a missionary at large to Ethiopians and Eritreans at first, but later evolved into the African Immigrants Ministry, serving all African immigrants.
In 1996, Yohannes was tasked with a responsibility to organize a national Taskforce for African Immigrant Ministry and became the national counselor. The blueprint, his ThM thesis, was then fully implemented, resulting in the formation of more than 60 ministries in the USA and Canada. Since all the ministries were led by lay leaders, during the years between 1998 and 2000, while serving in DC and working on his PhD, there was a movement to design a distance-learning theological education program to train pastors for North American immigrants. Yohannes was involved in developing the concept paper, which was accepted by both seminaries. He moved to St. Louis to implement the distance education plan and began writing their educational curriculum in 2001. He led the creation of the Ethnic Immigrant Institute of Theology and served as its first director.
Yohannes served the national church as Director of Urban and African Immigrant Ministry until 2004 and as Director of New Church Development from 2004 to 2010. From 1991 to 2010, he served as a parish pastor, missionary at large, and staff in mission leadership for the Lutheran Church Missouri Synod in North America. He also served as director of the Lutheran Foundation for northeastern Indiana between 2011 and 2015. While working for The Lutheran Foundation, he attended Ball State University, where he earned his MBA in finance; his vision was to work in the financial industry and serve as an urban missionary.
In October 2015, Yohannes moved to the Ft. Worth area and worked as a Mission Strategist of the Texas District of The Lutheran Church in Missouri Synod until his retirement in 2022. He now serves at St. John Lutheran Church in Mansfield as missions coordinator. He took his first steps toward becoming a true Texan when he purchased his first pair of cowboy boots. He continues to work as a translator of the Book of Concord and as a missionary to Eritrean immigrants, and in urban ministry for new starts in Dallas.
Bethlehem Lutheran Church is blessed to have him serve as pulpit supply pastor. In the life of Rev. Dr. Yohannes Mengsteab, we see how God has blessed His faithful servant and how God leads when we listen to His voice.
This article shines a light on only a small portion of a life well lived in service to God. Following an interview with author Christine Schulden, the book The Resilient Missionary was published. This biography of Rev. Dr. Yohannes Mengsteab reveals God’s faithfulness to a faithful follower. It offers an encouraging and eye-opening glimpse into the work of God in the United States and around the world. Those who would like to learn more about Yohannes’ life of mission may purchase the book for their own library. It is currently available on Amazon.
