In a normal search for a Bible study after college, Ready wasn’t prepared for a dip into the ‘dark side,’ but that’s what she got. It wasn’t funny.

Ready (Esaiteberhane) Berehe

Ready Berehe was born and raised in the capital city of Ethiopia, Addis Abeba. She’s also part Eritrean.  She moved to the United States at the age of 10 with her mother and younger brother and joined her father who had already emigrated to the States a few years before. Ready attended Roanoke College for undergrad where she studied Environmental Studies and Biology. She taught for a few years and then, with a change in heart, she transitioned into working for the Department of Family Services in child welfare. This fed her growing passion for social work and social justice. Ready is currently a part-time graduate student at West Virginia University while working full-time at her job in Family Services.

When she returned to this area from Roanoke, she actively sought out faith-based communities like groups she’d known on campus: Intervarsity and Cru. In her search for community, she ended up a Bible study which turned out to be a high control group (i.e., a cult). Those were some of the most challenging years, but God was present in every step. Today she believes that He allowed that experience to further her understanding of Him and so that she might share her story for the sake of others as a cautionary aspect of the gospel.