Page 41 - Unseen Hands by Nona Freeman

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them, and they made a hasty retreat.
Furious over the failure of his plan, the bishop ar
ranged for teams of Coptic sympathizers to rain stones on the iron roof during every service. He gave a man 200 birr to kill Shewit on her way home from school. As she walked alone through thick woods, a man brandishing a deadly knife sprang from behind a bush. At the point of attack, something (an angel?) made him start spinning around and around. She rzmtoward safety but looked back several times and saw him whirling like a top. He disap peared from the community. However, persecution against Shewit and her family intensified until they felt compelled to move to Addis Ababa.
Tekle returned to Mekele in a spiritual vacuum of ex haustion and inadequacy. His desperate need to fast and pray led him to a cave where he could lay prostrate before the Lord, undisturbed for hours at a time.
On a day of weeping and groaning, a vision of hell came before him. He saw the huge, repulsive figure of Satan standing up to his waist in a violently boiling lake of fire. He reached toward the multitudes of people; with enormous hands he grasped thousands in one sweep and tossed them into the bubbling fire behind him. Tekle viewed the torments of the lost for three hours, then begged, "0 Lord, please remove this sight from before my eyes."
A vision of the New Jerusalem followed. It glowed with a sparkling radiant glory. The palace in the midst of the city outshone the sun in dazzling resplendence. A long bridge spanned the distance from the world to the city of God. Throngs waited their turn at the foot of the bridge, some clad in sparkling white, others in filthy rags.
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