Page 39 - Unseen Hands by Nona Freeman

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this stranger is telling us about the invisible God is true." With their hearts opened to him by the elder's story,
Tekle arranged services in a school nearby. At the con clusion of those meetings, the oak tree did not have one worshiper left.
Moving as the Spirit led, Tekle returned to Mekele for two weeks to strengthen the believers, supported by Tewolde and Getachew. Next, he went to Adigrat, near the border of Eritrea Province. Strong Catholic influence did not hinder his faith; without a coin in his pocket he rented a large hall and advertised a revival meeting.
A hundred people came the first night, and attend ance increased nightly as numbers received the Holy Ghost. Many found healing and liberation firom demonic power. In the second week Tekle met persecution for the first time. The police arrested him for preaching without permission fi:om the authorities. (This was in 1966.)
The preacher had suddenly disappeared. The new believers would have gladly brought him food, but they did not know that the police had thrown him into prison. Fleas and bugs along with the pangs of hunger and the dreadful smell of vomit and excretion from drunken prisoners tormented him for five days before a relative bailed him out. God helped him settle his accounts before he went to Senafe for a week of services.
He spent the next month in Asmara, the capital of Eritrea, preaching in different mission chapels. The Holy Ghost fell like precious rain.
"Come to Mandefera and preach in my home. You willfind hungry hearts." The invitation came from Shewit and her uncle Kaleab. He first met them in the meetings at Mekele early in 1966.
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