Kes Iteffa is one of the most highly respected of all the
Ethiopian church leaders. He retired in 2010
after serving eight years as the President of the five million member Ethiopian Evangelical Church Mekane Yesus
(EECMY). He remembers working as an
evangelist at the Bethel Home for Children in Gore back in 1973 when an event
occurred which has since been referred to as the “Ethiopian Pentecost.”
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| The Old Chapel at the Gore Home |
Iteffa and several high school students felt that they
wanted to pray and went into the chapel at the Gore Home. There they said that they felt the strong
presence of the Holy Spirit. They began
speaking prayers in words that they could not understand. Others on the compound heard a lot of noise
and wondered what was happening. They
remembered that they had been studying the book of Acts and they had asked the
missionary if those kinds of things still happened in their day. Does the Holy Spirit still come? Are people still given gifts to proclaim the
Gospel in other tongues? As they look
back on it they felt that their Bible study had prepared them for what they
experienced.
Those high school students spent the next several days going
from door to door in Gore proclaiming the gospel of Jesus Christ. They said they could not help
themselves. They just had to tell the
good news. That was the beginning of the
young indigenous church that took off and grew like wildfire. But then other things happened that would
both test and multiply the young church.
A communist government came to power in 1975 which expelled
all the foreign missionaries and began severe persecution of religious people
in Ethiopia
Iteffa was one of several Christian church leaders who was
imprisoned and tortured for his faith.
Fortunately he was not one of the many who were killed. He still carries on his wrists the marks of
where he was chained and hung from the ceiling while he was beaten for hours at
a time.
Through this experience of violent persecution, these young
Ethiopian Christians remained steadfast in their faith, and miraculously during
that dark time the young church grew strong.
When the communist regime was finally overthrown, Iteffa and other
leaders who had survived provided strong spiritual leadership to the church and
it continued to grow rapidly.
After serving the maximum of two terms (eight years) as
president of the national church.EECMY, Iteffa was not really ready to fully
retire. Consistent with his lifetime of
service to God as a leader in the church, Iteffa began another project which
may be even more inspiring than the other features of his amazing life. He got together with the Roman Catholic
Archbishop and approached the Prime Minister of Ethiopia with a request that
they be allowed to begin a Reconciliation Project to heal relationships with
the now imprisoned communist leaders who had beaten and tortured them, and who
had done the killing of their fellow Christians. The Reconciliation Project as they envisioned
it would also include, if possible, the release from prison of their former tormentors. Many of them were still in prison having
received either the death penalty or life imprisonment for their crimes.
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| Kes Iteffa |
Iteffa told me that Reconciliation Project has grown and gathered
religious leaders from other churches and from the Muslim community as well,
and that they are beginning to see results from their efforts. He said that beginning in September 2011,
seventeen of the top communist leaders, who had been among those who tortured
and beat him, have been pardoned.
The ones who have been pardoned know the reason why those whom
they tortured now seek their release. It
is because of their faith in Jesus Christ.
They take literally Jesus’ teaching to pray for your enemies and for
those who persecute you. And they are
living out the words of 2 Corinthians 5:19
“…in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself,…and trusting the
message of reconciliation to us.”
Because of their witness to the power of Christ in this particular
way, those former communist oppressors who have been pardoned, are now also
followers of Jesus. In a truly profound
way, they have received more than their lives back, they have received a whole
new life in Jesus Christ. I cannot
imagine a more dramatic way to apply the good news of what God has done in
Jesus Christ to the horrible specifics of people’s real life sins and situations.
Once after he had been tortured Iteffa was taken to the
office of a guard who had witnessed the torture. The guard told him that when he started at
the prison there was an inmate who had been imprisoned because of his role in a
failed attempt to overthrow Emperor Haile Salassie. That prisoner had prayed for this guard,
quoting Jesus’ words from the cross “Father, forgive them for they know not
what they do.”
“What do you have to say about that?” the official asked
Iteffa. “I say the same thing.” was his
reply. The guard spat on him and walked
out of the room.
On a visit last fall to the prison, Iteffa was looking for
that particular guard among the prisoners but had not been able to find
him. Then, he said, just as he was
leaving, that prisoner came up to him from a group of prisoners, fell at his feet
and said “Forgive me, I was ignorant. I
didn’t know what I was doing.”
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