Page 182 - Unseen Hands by Nona Freeman

Unseen Hands
ter qualified to declare the gospel in his home village. He left Tekle with a request to visit his newly baptized relatives in Chole.
Wolde-Giorgis went with Tekle to Chole. Asefa, one of Teshome's brothers, received them as if they had been angels. They spent the night in teaching and praying. They baptized four the next day and six the day after that. The ten people baptized received their Spirit baptism before Tekle left for Addis, taking Asefa with him.
In Addis, they spent several days in intensive Bible study to prepare Asefa for the ministry, and Tekle sent him home ordained as pastor at Chole. The group grew until they could qualify for a land grant. They made ap plication for one in January 1976.
The Coptic church relentlessly wielded its power to deny the Apostolics a place to bury their dead. In the few towns where people could dig graves on their own prop erty, they were able to escape the Coptic threat "We will not give you a place to bury your loved ones unless you denounce the Apostolics."
In Cholethe law required all graves to be on church property. Asefa and his believers praised God for a grant of eighteen thousand square yards, ample space for a church building and a cemetery. They learned of the ex treme animosity held against their faith by the state churchwhenthey tried to bury a lady on their land. When they escorted the body to its last resting place, a mob sur rounded them and someone began shooting into the crowd
of believers. The police arrested Dejenne, who had come from the nearby town of Nazareth to help with the funeral, on the Coptic priest's word that he was the leader of the heretics.
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