هنگامی که یارد هفت ساله بود، پدرش مرد و مادرش برای ادامه زندگی‌اش او را نزد عمویش فرستاد که اهل فرقه ارتدوکس اتوپیایی بود یکی از قدیمی‌ترین کلیساهای جهان 
When Yared was seven years old his father died, and his mother sent him to go live with an uncle, who was a priest of the Ethiopian Orthodox tradition, one of the oldest churches in the world. 