Page 180 - Then Came the Glory
P. 180

 Then Came the Glory
them have perished and besides, no hardship or suffering will make them deny their faith."
In some places they asked the Apostolics to return to the Benevolent Association saying, "We put you out trying to change you. Now, we understand no matter what happens,
you will hold fast to your religion, so we want you to come back and let your cattle graze with ours."
In other places they stopped attacking us face to face, but they devised more subtle ways to hinder us saying, "If
you do not come back to your old church, we will send you to the front lines of the battle field, and you will not return."
Some of our men went to the battle front and returned declaring firmly, "Jesus Christ saves!"
Today, with our rights protected by the constitution, we have our own graveyard and God has performed so many
miracles the families of our persecutors have found true salvation. We have sixteen churches in Butajira and when the scattered saints are gathered together, it will be twenty. Ten denominational preachers now preach the true Gospel.
Kembatta and Hadiya
When friends and families of Erkenesh and Tekle
chased them away because of the gospel, Mekonnen
Ludamo, the cousin of Erkenesh, shared their problems and
their faith. He is now the presbyter of this section. He has
experienced bitter hatred from enemies of the gospel and God's power to deliver when evil men encircled his house
many times determined to kill him.
During the reign of the Derg, they confiscated
Mekonnen's land for collective farming and forced him to be a member causing him multiple hardships. A few days before
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