Page 151 - Unseen Hands by Nona Freeman

In the Furnace
Josiah, who pulled down the idols in Jerusalem. She deeply desired that the Lord would remove all idols and every hindrance to the free spread of the gospel in Ethiopia.
Strangely enough, that year marked the beginning of the end of the Coptic church's strangleholdon the land of Ethiopia. Communists took over the government and abolished longstanding, foolish, unbiblical traditions and idolatrous festive occasions, which had been commonly practiced for thousands of years.
The money the two young friends brought every month kept Tekle and Erkenesh alive for nearly a year, though Erkenesh felt troubled by the situation. Finally she had to speak. "Above everything we want your souls to be saved. I feel so badly about accepting your tithes for nothing. Please do not be offended, but do not bring the money again unless you are ready to accept the truth."
That ended the income. Eleven years later one of the young men, Kaleab, and some of his family accepted the truth and were baptized in the name of Jesus.
WorryoverwhelmedTekleasErkeneshlaywithher new baby, and they had not one bit of food in the house. He went to a store nearby and asked if they would give him thirty birr worth of food on credit to be paid in a month. As he approached his home, carrying the bag of
groceries, he felt a rebuke from the Lord: Why have you made this debt, and how will you pay it? Then he real ized that he should have trusted the Lord. Taking the foodstuff back would be too embarrassing; having chosen his road, he had to walk it.
A few gifts of food or occasionallyan item of clothing came to their house in the next three months, but no money. Tekle's debt haunted him; he refused to walkby
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