Page 64 - Unseen Hands by Nona Freeman

Unseen Hands
and murder was not suspected. While Erkenesh regret ted the captain's untimely death, she could not help but thank God for deliverance.
Most of her classmates boasted of their betrothals and taunted Erkenesh for not being engaged. They called her a misfit. When their sneers became unbearable, she com plained to the Lord, "Why did You bind me with Yom" words? Please, tell me Your plans for my future." But God did not speak to her again for five and a half years.
Erkenesh tried to enter nurse's training at the end of every year of high school. She dreamed of building a clinic to give medical assistance to the poor; however, her goal eluded her each time.
Her academic success was nothing short of a miracle. An undernourished weakling, she seldom ate breakfast, never had lunch, and had to prepare her evening meal after a wearisome day and a long walk home. Exhaus tion prevented her from studying at night. She depend ed solely on lectures and the notes she took during classes. Yet she became one ofthe first two girls in Sidamo Prov
ince allowed to take college entrance examinations and the only one who passed the test. Her family rejoiced over this honor and urged her to enroll in Addis Ababa Univer sity soon.
Thinking to save money for further schooling, she chose rather to teach for a year in a Norwegian Lutheran mission in Dila, Sidamo. Instead of saving money, however, she helped her family with her salary and agreed to teach for a second year. This angered her brothers, who promised to pay her way through the university, but
she did not yield.
During the second year of teaching, the insistence of
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