When persecution comes home
Last Summer, my friend Danny and I spend a couple of weeks in Alaba, Ethiopia with Dave Black. We met many of the evangelists while we were there. We worked with them and ate with them. They took us around the city and villages and even introduced us to Ethiopian macchiato.
This morning, I read the following on Dave’s blog (Sunday, December 5, 2010 at 8:50 a.m.):
Special time of prayer this morning for the persecuted church in Alaba. Things have deteriorated. Our vehicle’s windows have been smashed, and three of our evangelists have been injured. One has a serious head wound, the result of being stoned. Thankfully, God’s amazing grace multiplies in times of trouble. To think how minor my trials are compared to the sufferings of these saints!
I’ve read about persecution before, but this is first time that persecution as hit so close to home. I don’t know specifically who has been injured, but chances are we spent time with them last summer. And, we used the vehicle (the one with the smashed windows now) as we drove around the city and into the villages.
Here is a link to some videos that I made while in Ethiopia. Some of the people in these videos may be the ones who have been beaten. I’m praying especially for my brother and friend Nigussie, who is in the video below:
Nigussie teaching Danny a song in Amharic from Alan Knox on Vimeo.
Knowing the people who are being persecuted has changed my praying. I wonder how much more my prayers would change if persecution really came home…