Most true Christians in Ethiopia can worship freely and
openly, but those who leave Islam or the traditional Ethiopian church
(Orthodox) to follow Christ face opposition.
Multiple large-scale attacks during the last few years have devastated
Christian communities. Many church
buildings have been destroyed. Here is
an example: From Voice of the Martyrs,
November 2021.
Negasi grew up in a traditional Orthodox church in Ethiopia
(northeast corner of Africa; it borders Sudan, just south of Egypt), but he
also attended a special school to learn how to cast demons, curses, and cause
people to lose their minds. He became so
proficient at witchcraft that he was honored with a title reserved for the best
students. Later, after moving to the
spiritual capital of Ethiopia, he opened a pharmacy to supplement his
income. One day a customer asked him if
he would heal his sister, who was seriously mentally ill—she had become a penti—a
derogatory term for a biblical Christian. Negasi could only cast his spell if she were
present, but when the customer finally arrived with her. he had forgotten. Since he had already been given half the
money, the customer filed charges against him, and after a trial, he was sent
to almost 4 years in prison.
As a police officer escorted Negasi to jail, they passed a
group of young boys playing games with some strange coins. Out of curiosity, Negasi asked the boys if he
could have one of the coins. When they
obliged, he put their gift in his pocket.
He didn’t know it, but it would one day become a treasured
keepsake.
Negasi began to think God was punishing him for practicing
witchcraft; he feared the consequences of his sins more than he feared
death. Too miserable even to eat, he
went 20 days without food. Then one day he cried out to God with a broken
spirit. “I know that I am a sinner, and
I don’t deserve to be in Your home with You in heaven; but if there is any
place that is outside Your home for me, please allow me to go there.”
Burdened by the weight of his sins, Negasi confessed to an
Ethiopian Orthodox priest at the prison, believing that confession to a priest
was required for forgiveness. But he still didn’t feel any comfort. Seeking
some kind of penance for his misdeeds, Negasi devoted himself to the central
church teachings. He celebrated a
different saint each day, just as the church does, and checked out an Ethiopian
Orthodox Bible, in the ancient language of Ge-ez. Every time he tried to study one of its 81
books, he fell asleep—even when he wasn’t tired. He also borrowed another Bible, with 66
books, that he found in the prison library.
That was in the native Tigrinya language, and it captivated him, and he
soon noticed passages that contradicted many things that he had believed.
Then one night, Negsi had a dream in which he was told that
the salvation he was seeking is found in the Gospels. And after a deeper study of the life and
teachings of Jesus Christ (which he had never read or heard anything about), he
concluded that salvation is found in faith in Christ alone. Overcome with joy, Negasi began to share this
revelation with everyone he could.
During times when he was allowed to leave his cell, he walked cell to
cell telling other prisoners about Christ.
He would explain as much as he could before the inmates or guards grew
angry and forced him to move on.
(Note: Ethiopia is 50% Muslim,
40% mostly Orthodox/Coptic, and 10% Animism.
“I couldn’t understand why this message was not being taught,” he
said. Negasi had no idea the Tigrinya
Bible was the same one used by penti, from biblical churches in
Ethiopia. And he didn’t realize the
gospel that had suddenly changed his life was the principal message of biblical
churches worldwide. “I thought I was sharing something that was completely new
to the world. I became passionate about
telling this message, even to the point that I forgot about my years in prison.“
Each month, some prisoners gathered to worship depictions of
the angel Gabriel. But after coming to
understand the gospel, Negasi refused to join them, explaining that only God is
worthy of worship. As a result, many of
the inmates threatened him, calling him a penti and a
heretic. When guards had learned that
Negasi had been sharing the gospel, they ordered him to stop. And when he refused, they transferred him to
a maximum-security cell and placed shackles on his legs.
Shortly after he was released from maximum, he met a fellow
prisoner, Ephrem, who had the same religious upbringing that he had
before. But now Negasi led him to the
Lord. But when authorities learned that a
second prisoner had begun sharing the gospel, they decided to take action. He
was back in solitary confinement. They
sent another prisoner, named Dinaw, to check on him and bring his daily
rations. Dinaw was serving a three-year
sentence for assaulting a neighbor.
Fellow prisoners had warned Dinaw about the gospel message
being shared by Negasi and Ephrem. But
as Dinaw brought his daily meals to solitary, he became friends with Negasi and
Ephrem. Although Dinaw wanted to follow
Jesus, he feared the repercussions.
“When persecution comes, I will not stand with you; we are all suffering
in prison, but you are suffering even more.”
Negasi encouraged Dinaw with passages from Romans 8 and John 16,
explaining that trials, tribulation, and persecution are part of following
Jesus Christ. And after gaining a better
understanding of what it means to be His disciple, Dinaw placed his faith in
Him.
Some of Dinaw’s relatives who worked as local police
officers soon reported his “heretical” faith to his father, who decided to
gather his brothers and friends and go have a talk with him. “Did you become a penti?” they
asked Dinaw. He replied, “I have given my
life to Jesus.” His father was so angry
that he wrote a letter to the police chief, urging him to keep his son behind
bars beyond his eligibility for release.
When guards told Dinaw about his father’s letter, his response surprised
them. “I like prison; I can read my Bible every day here, so don’t worry about
that.”
Some local biblical pastors came to visit, and opened Negasi’s
eyes that his beliefs were biblical Christian, and there were many more
believers like him. The pastors
discipled the three, and before long, 15 prisoners came to faith in
Christ.
After release, the three men soon found out that following
Christ is more difficult outside prison than behind bars. When Negasi’s wife learned of his
faithfulness to God, she divorced him and took their daughter with her. And Dinaw, from a small village, had no one
to share his faith with, and couldn’t fit in.
He returned to his home village, where he faced continual threats. They found out that as biblical Christians
have shared the gospel and planted churches in the north of Ethiopia, some
members of the Ethiopian Orthodox church carried out violent attacks against
them. And in some cases, traditional Orthodox
have sided with Muslims against the biblical Christians, considering them a
common enemy.
About 18 months after Dinaw returned home, the threats
turned to violent persecution against his family. One night when he was sleeping in a field
near his house, to care for one of his cows, a group of villagers came to his
home. They tied the door shut from the
outside with rope, trapping Dinaw’s wife and children inside as they
slept. Dinaw awoke to the smell of smoke
and the sight of his house burning a few hundred yards away. After running home, he untied the rope, and
got his family out just in time. They
lived in a wood wall and a tarp, with no money, until Voice of the Martyrs
heard of them and arrived, and rebuilt their home two years ago.
Despite the challenges, all three men have remained firm in
faith. And Dinaw, who once resisted
following Christ, now accepts persecution as integral to the Christian
faith. As he says, “I knew the Lord led
me to sleep next to my cows, to be able to save my family. As I watched my
house burned, the story of Meshach, Shadrach, and Abednego came to my
mind. They were asked like me, to
worship another god, and I said no. So
they tried to convince me with fire. But
our real home is in heaven. They burned my earthly house, but my heart is not
full of hatred, and I pray for them.” When asked why he has stayed in his
village, under continual threat of death, Dinaw explained that he has no fear
of death. “My life belongs to God, and I
believe He put me here where He is working.
If He allows me to be killed, I am ready to die.” When Negasi reflects
on the past few years, he, too, sees how God has worked in his life. Upon his release from prison, the guards returned
all of his original belongings. And in
the pocket of his clothing, he found the coin that the boys had given him on
his way to jail. On one side of the coin
was printed “John 3:16,” and the words “Those who have the Lord Jesus have
eternal life.” On the other side of the
coin was the question, “Where is your eternal home?” He says, “I thank God that He put me in
prison for a purpose.” Negasi is at a
Bible college and hopes to become a full-time pastor. He has paid back all the money he owed the
man who filed charges against him, and they are now good friends. Negasi hopes that he will become a believer
soon. “You are my everlasting good person because you put me in prison; I will
not forget you, because you helped me find eternal life.”
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