The Everlasting Father, Always At Work For His Children

The Everlasting Father, Always At Work For His Children  The visiting team of travelers sat huddled on wooden benches in the mud-constructed home. Feeling the intensity of the Ethiopian noonday sun, the group listened closely as a teen quietly recounted her story. Just a few months prior she had been hard at work in the marketplace, selling goods for her family income. At the end of the day she wrapped up later than usual. The group she normally walked home with had already left for the day, forcing her to walk alone. Suddenly she found herself surrounded by young Muslim men. Confiscating her cart and remaining goods, they captured her and one of the men forced her to be his wife. Spending a week in her captor's home, constantly under guard, she saw no means of escape. Still determined, she employed a tactic like the biblical David in 1 Samuel 21. She pretended to accept the marriage and Islam that was being forced upon her. The captors gradually began to believe her and lightened the guard surrounding her. This gave her the opportunity to slip out late one night when her guard fell asleep. Running down dirt road after dirt road, trying to find her way home, she suddenly came across a pack of hyenas. In the terror of the moment she cried out, "The God who helped me escape, help me escape these hyenas too!" Miraculously, the hyenas moved into a line behind her and began following. They left only after she found the right road home. Laughing, the young girl said she believed that the hyenas became her protector that day, adding that her captors would not have chased her down a road filled with hyenas. One With Them Ethiopia’s population is two-thirds Christian, and yet persecution exists. Authorities seem powerless to stop attacks on Christians or to bring the perpetrators to justice. Stand One With Them, praying in the name of Jesus, that the Everlasting Father will go ahead and come behind Ethiopian Christians, hemming them in and keeping them in the center of His Will. Praying for Muslim extremists persecuting Christians; they too need the grace that only Jesus can provide. 2013.07.18

Have you not known? Have you not heard? The LORD is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He does not faint or grow weary; his understanding is unsearchable. He gives power to the faint, and to him who has no might he increases strength. Even youths shall faint and be weary, and young men shall fall exhausted; but they who wait for the LORD shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles; they shall run and not be weary; they shall walk and not faint. (Isaiah 40:28-31)