Ethiopian Pastor

In October, 1935, the African nation of Ethiopia was occupied by the fascist forces of Benito Mussolini.  Ethiopia, traditionally a Coptic Christian culture, had over the centuries endured the brutal tyranny of Islam and other oppressors, and were now faced with another trial of significance.  Their much revered King was exiled, and their Archbishop was executed. 

In 1937, Christian missionaries were expelled from the country by the Italian invaders, leaving the evangelical Christians to face the prospect of further persecution alone.  Happily, there followed a wide-spread revival among the Protestant churches in the South. 

In May of 1941, British forces liberated Ethiopia and returned their King.  Following the end of World War II, Ethiopia regained its independence. 

After these events, this prayer was offered by an Ethiopian pastor at Soddu, Walamo, Ethiopia: 

"Almighty God, from the depth of my heart I plead with thee to send us trouble. When our king was exiled we were in much trouble with the foreign [Italian] rulers.  We had to meet in secret and were in constant danger of our lives.  That was the time when we worked in harmony with our fellow Christians.

"Many a night after I had locked my door and gone to bed, tired from a day's long journey of preaching and teaching, there came a persistent knocking.  Lord, how I wanted to sleep, and surely but they wouldn't want to be baptized at night and be hunted and chased and put in prison and beaten, but they said they had seen the Christian's joy and they too wanted that religion. Every night there were more and more.

"We read Thy Word and talked about it and prayed through the nights. We shared our joy in the Lord. We worked side by side with only one desire, to preach and teach the Gospel.  Then, Lord, our king came back.  The foreign rulers were forced to leave our country...

"We have peace in our land.  We baptize in the daytime.  We are not beaten.  We meet and pray, yes, but we are beginning to grow careless in our zeal for Thee.  Jealousies creep in and spoil the harmony.  Petty troubles take on in large meetings.  We are selfish in our ambitions.  Dear Lord, send us more trouble, I pray Thee, that we may forget ourselves and be so dependent on Thee that we have no time to become selfish and jealous of our fellow Christians.  For Jesus' sake. Amen.” —Grace Robinson —Encyclopedia of 15,000 Illustrations