Page 92 - Unseen Hands by Nona Freeman

Unseen Hands
church burial.
Fully aware of the hazard, Gebre-Ewostateos ob
tained a copy of the New Testament from Evangelical translators and studied it joyfully. Both of his parents were descended from a long line of respected priests and longed for their son to succeed his father as head of the
village church. When they discovered him reading the for bidden book, they stomped it irretrievably in the mud.
He protested, "This is God's Word!"
His father angrily retorted, "There is no Word of God besides Dawit."
Gebre-Ewostateos obtained another Bible from the Evangelical Mission in 1890. His mother threw it in the fire, but she could not end his friendship with men who encouraged him to examine the traditions of the church inlightoftheScriptures.A venerable monk, Abba Gebre- Egziabher, inspired him by denouncing the unscripturaJ worship of Mary, the worship of angels, and the masses
saidfor the dead. His approval of the monk's dissension cost Gebre-Ewostateos his position as priest in 1891 and the allowance that came with the title.
With bard-to-understand logic, church leaders recy cledhim as an evangelist, a downgraded position in their thinking. He assisted a priest named Selomon for a time and built a life-long friendship, and they shared a burn ing zeal for evangelism. A Swedish missionary society then asked Gebre-Ewostateos to work as a translator. By the end of 1896, he had produced the four Gospels, Genesis to the books of Samuel, a reader, and a Bible history in Tigrinya. His expertise in that language and his frequent evangelistic efforts did not satisfy his intense burden for the Oromo people that motivated him to learn their
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