Page 183 - Unseen Hands by Nona Freeman

The Lord Working with Therm
In the midst of the confusion someone called the district administrator.
"All right," he said. "If you do not want them to bury their people on their own land, let the lady be buried at the Coptic church." The Coptics certainly would not agree to that, so he ordered them to leave the Apostolics alone and released Dejenne.
Asefa and his two brothers, Merru and Aberra, jointly owned a large shop that caught fire one night. Out of spite, the neighbors did not notify the owners, nor did they at tempt to put out the fire. They said, "God is punishing them." The brothers praised the Lord for the loss of prop erty valued at over sixty thousand birr and remained strong in the faith.
Chole had neither a hospital nor a clinic for Merru's wife to attend when she went into painful labor, and the child could not be born. She had not had this problem with any of her other children. The Coptics taunted, "Where is your God now?" The saints fasted and prayed. When it seemed she would die, the Lord touched her, and after a week of intense suffering, the baby came.
A group of fanatics called the town together, saying, "These people are heretics, and God will punish us if we do not destroy them." With many words of hate they stirred the mob to action. Priests, monks, and chiu-ch leaders helped to fan their anger. The policebrought the whole church to stand in the middle of the crowd to decide their fate. They had previously discussed what to do: should the "heretics" be executed in mass or dismembered
or tortured? Now the mob was to make the decision. The meek-looking group of saints prayed some unusual prayers that those surrounding them could not
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