Who We Are

Bantu Hebrew Israelites Awakening Ministry was formerly Siloam Outpouring Ministry International Church (SOMIC) established in Spring 2011 in Quad Cities Illinois. In fulfilment of Ezekiel 37 prophesied awakening of the 12 tribes of Israel, in Spring 2018 the church vision, ministry focus, and operational name transitioned to Bantu Hebrew Israelites Awakening Ministry.

Ministry History:

Before establishing Siloam Outpouring Ministry International, the founder, Dr. Cephas Yashar’el was the President of the International Christian Fellowship at Christian Chapel (Assembly of God) in Columbia Missouri where he also co-pastored churches with Rev. Dr. Obadina and Pastor Thornton.  He also ministered in various churches in Columbia and St. Louis and held monthly revival meetings. In the Quad Cities, he served in the Missions Council at Calvary Church and ministered to arriving refugee congregations before launching SOMI church. Prior to that, he co-pastored churches in Addis Ababa Ethiopia and Nairobi, and ministered in many churches (mostly Full Gospel), schools, colleges, and youth camps. He attended the Presbyterian Central Mission for Africa (PCMA) Bible School in Nairobi Kenya, including Bible Training Center for Pastors training from the USA. More recently, since 2019 he has attended the Gathering of Christ Church Hebrew and Bible Academy based in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and the Royal Roots Hebrew Academy based in California USA. He also has doctoral training in biomedical and allied sciences plus working experience in higher education, and health & allied sciences administration, as well as community development.

One of the greatest transitions that occurred with our awakening to our Israelite heritage and shift in ministry focus was the starting of keeping the laws, statutes, and commandments; the braking of which in the first place led God to judge our ancestors by scattering us around the world. Returning to keeping the said laws, statutes and commandments is therefore very critical shift in our religious beliefs, doctrines, culture, and practice (Please see section on laws statutes and commandments on pages 8-16).

The Vision Transition:

Siloam International Church has been an Independent Non-Denominational, Evangelical–Charismatic, Bible-believing, Bible-teaching ministry and is now primarily focused on the awakening Israelites in America, Sub-Saharan Africa and scattered around the world. The scriptures declared that we, the children of Israel would break the laws, statutes and commandments of our God, The God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob and as a result, the Lord would punish us by scattering us away from Israel to every nation of the world where would be a minority. We would be enslaved and oppressed and serve other gods. We would lose our image, identity, culture, and recognition as the children of Israel. The scriptures continue to prophesy that while scattered in other nations, we would awaken to the fact that we are the true children of Israel, repent, call upon our God and return to keeping the laws statutes and commandments of our God.

Bantu Hebrew Israelites Awakening Ministry is a timely visionary ministry that along with other similar ministries articulates with the fulfillment of these prophetic declarations, stretching out loving hands to guide the awakening Israelites through the path of repentance and return to The Most High God of Israel; and keeping the laws, statutes, and commandments – the transgression of which led us to being scattered around the world as oppressed and enslaved minorities. Awakening to our Israelite heritage and returning to our God in obedience to His laws, statutes and commandments will bring us the long elusive restoration that we have all been longing for.

Religious and Cultural Background:

Various scriptures, history, culture, and other relics testify to our historical journey and present day as well as future situation, religious identity, beliefs and doctrine and practices. Lamentations 4: 2, 8 states: ² The precious sons of Zion, comparable to fine gold, how are they esteemed as earthen pitchers, the work of the hands of the potter! ⁸ Their visage is blacker than a coal; they are not known in the streets: their skin cleaveth to their bones; it is withered, it is become like a stick. Jeremiah 14:2,3 further states: ² Judah mourneth, and the gates thereof languish; they are black unto the ground; and the cry of Jerusalem is gone up. ³ And their nobles have sent their little ones to the waters: they came to the pits and found no water; they returned with their vessels empty; they were ashamed and confounded, and covered their heads. All these happened to us because breaking the laws, statutes, and commandments of our God.

Quoting Songs of Solomon 5:10 and 1 Samuel 16:12; 17:42, the Zondervan Bible Dictionary defines Ruddy as a word used to refer to a red or fair complexion, in contrast to the dark skin of the Hebrews. It also defines Hebrew, Hebrews as a designation for Abraham and descendants, the equivalent of Israelites. Abraham is first in Old Testament to be called Hebrew (Genesis 14:13 and there came one that had escaped, and told Abram the Hebrew,), origin of the word may be same as  Habiru/Kabiru of Armana tablets; may come from “Eber,” the father of Peleg and Joktan (Gen. 10:24, 25), or from a Heb/Heba root meaning “to pass over” (from the crossing of the Euphrates by Abraham). It further states that Israel is used in scripture to designate: (a) an individual man, the son of Isaac (see Jacob); or (b) his descendants, the twelve tribes of the Hebrews; or (c) the ten northern tribes, led by Ephraim, as opposed to the southern, under Judah (true Jews). Zondervan further defines Ham as the youngest son of Noah, born probably about 96 years before the Flood; and one of eight persons to live through the Flood. He became the progenitor of the dark races; not the Negroes, but the Egyptians, Ethiopians, Libyans, and Canaanites (Gen. 10:6-20). There are therefore two people groups in Africa: The Hamites (Ham descendants) and the Hebrews, who are the Negroes, known as Bantus in Sub-Saharan Africa. Hosea 7:11-13, 2 Esdras 13:39-49, Jeremiah chapters 44 and 45, and other scriptures explain how the Israelites moved back to Africa after being delivered from the Egyptian captivity and coming to the Promised Land.

Further, Deuteronomy 4 states: ²⁷ And the Lord shall scatter you among the nations, and ye shall be left few in number (minority) among the heathen, whither the Lord shall lead you. ²⁸ And there ye shall serve gods, the work of men’s hands, wood, and stone, which neither see, nor hear, nor eat, nor smell. ²⁹ But if from thence thou shalt seek the Lord thy God, thou shalt find him, if thou seek him with all thy heart and with all thy soul. These scriptures have been fulfilled in the way our people have been in diverse religions. Jeremiah 17:4 prophesied that: 4 And thou, even thyself, shalt discontinue from thine heritage that I gave thee; and I will cause thee to serve thine enemies in the land which thou knowest not: for ye have kindled a fire in mine anger, which shall burn forever.

In Deuteronomy 28, scriptures declare that: ¹⁵ But it shall come to pass, if thou wilt not hearken unto the voice of the Lord thy God, to observe to do all his commandments and his statutes which I command thee this day; that all these curses shall come upon thee, and overtake thee: ³⁶ The Lord shall bring thee, and thy king which thou shalt set over thee, unto a nation which neither thou nor thy fathers have known; and there shalt thou serve other gods, wood and stone. ⁴⁸ Therefore shalt thou serve thine enemies which the Lord shall send against thee, in hunger, and in thirst, and in nakedness, and in want of all things: and he shall put a yoke of iron upon thy neck, until he have destroyed thee. ⁶⁴ And the Lord shall scatter thee among all people, from the one end of the earth even unto the other; and there thou shalt serve other gods, which neither thou nor thy fathers have known, even wood and stone. ⁶⁵ And among these nations shalt thou find no ease, neither shall the sole of thy foot have rest: but the Lord shall give thee there a trembling heart, and failing of eyes, and sorrow of mind: ⁸ And the Lord shall bring thee into Egypt again with ships, by the way whereof I spake unto thee, Thou shalt see it no more again: and there ye shall be sold unto your enemies for bondmen and bondwomen, and no man shall buy you. Deuteronomy 28:15-68 explains the situation of Israelites in Sub-Saharan Africa and their enslavement in the Americas and other parts of the world because of breaking God’s laws, statutes, and commandments.

In Genesis 15: 13-14, the scriptures declare that God told Abraham: “¹³ And he said unto Abram, Know of a surety that thy seed shall be a stranger in a land that is not theirs, and shall serve them; and they shall afflict them four hundred years; ¹⁴ And also that nation, whom they shall serve, will I judge: and afterward shall they come out with great substance.” In fulfilment to this prophesy, the first batch of slaves arrived in Jamestown Colony on August 20, 1619. In a further amazing fulfillment, the United States Congress in 2018 established H.R. 1242 “400 Years of African American History Commission,” This comes at a time when Israelites in America, the Caribbeans, Sub-Saharan Africa and other parts of the world are waking up to their Israelite heritage according to Ezekiel 37 dry bones coming back to life.