Photo Courtesy Open Doors USA
When a group of 15 Christian Ethiopian youths decided to join an evangelistic outreach to another town, they never anticipated that the journey could result in physical assault, arrest, incarceration, and restrictive penalties imposed on the local Christian community.
But that is exactly what happened to the Christian youths who traveled 267 miles from the capital of Addis Ababa to visit the eastern Ethiopian town of Karamile in a Muslim-dominated area of Oromia state last week to fellowship with other youths and engage in outreach.
Trouble started on the first day of their visit when a group of local people opposed their evangelistic efforts and physically assaulted two of the female members of the group. Police quickly intervened, but instead of taking action against the aggressors, they arrested and jailed all 15 of the visiting youths. Thankfully, the officials released them later in the day, after local church leaders intervened on their behalf and advocated for their release.
However, the local church leaders learned the next day that this incident would have much broader impact. Town administrators and security officers summoned all church leaders in Karamile to a meeting and ordered them to stop all evangelistic activities outside of the church...
But that is exactly what happened to the Christian youths who traveled 267 miles from the capital of Addis Ababa to visit the eastern Ethiopian town of Karamile in a Muslim-dominated area of Oromia state last week to fellowship with other youths and engage in outreach.
Trouble started on the first day of their visit when a group of local people opposed their evangelistic efforts and physically assaulted two of the female members of the group. Police quickly intervened, but instead of taking action against the aggressors, they arrested and jailed all 15 of the visiting youths. Thankfully, the officials released them later in the day, after local church leaders intervened on their behalf and advocated for their release.
However, the local church leaders learned the next day that this incident would have much broader impact. Town administrators and security officers summoned all church leaders in Karamile to a meeting and ordered them to stop all evangelistic activities outside of the church...
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