Description
The true story of Eritrea’s unlikely Christian revolution
by Dr Berhane Asmelash, with Andrew Boyd and Kenneth Harrod
188 pages, paperback, £10.00
“This book needed to be written – and needs to be read. The world should know of the suffering and bravery of thousands of Eritreans, barbarically imprisoned, tortured, and killed – simply on account of their beliefs. And to know that this is happening right now, in the third decade of the 21st Century.
Brother, I Have Come to Arrest You does just that. This profound account of Dr Berhane’s own experiences, and those of other Eritreans, is living testament to Paul’s words in the Bible, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness” (2 Cor. 12:9). But as Dr Berhane also states, and illustrates all too graphically, ‘This is not cheap grace’.
May this book compel all who read it to action – to stand with and support, in whatever way we each can, the many Christians in Eritrea today who suffer simply because of their faith in Jesus Christ.”
Fiona Bruce MP
Vice Chair of the All-Party Parliamentary Group for International Freedom of Religion or Belief
Gordon Pettie –
I want to share with you a new book I have just finished reading. It contains the story of a remarkable man, Dr Berhane Asmelash. He grew up in Eritrea and tells the story of his faith and imprisonment for Christ in that country.
Fiona Bruce MP, Vice Chair of the ‘All-Party Parliamentary Group for International Freedom of Religion or Belief’, writes: This book needed to be written – and needs to be read. The world should know of the suffering and bravery of thousands of Eritreans, barbarically imprisoned, tortured, and killed – simply on account of their beliefs. And to know that this is happening right now, in the third decade of the 21st Century.
Conditions for many prisoners of faith in Eritrea are unbelievable. Many – Dr Berhane believes as many as 2,000 – have been held in shipping containers where they bake in the African sun in the day and freeze by night.
One such prisoner was the Christian gospel singer, Helen Berhane. Writing of her experience of a freezing winter’s night in an Eritrea shipping container, she wrote: ‘A single candle flickers, its flame barely illuminating the darkness. They never burn for more than two hours after the container door is locked: there is not enough oxygen to keep the flame alive. Condensation drips from the roof and slides down my cheek, and when it moistens my lips, I taste rust. The air is thick with the ever-present stench of the bucket in the corner, and the smell of close-pressed unwashed bodies. I cannot believe this is my life, these four metal walls, all of us corralled like cattle, the pain, the hunger, the fear. All because of my belief in a God who is risen, a God whom I am forbidden (by the authorities) to worship.’
Life was hard for Dr Berhane as a boy – skinny, weak, bulled at school, hating himself, diagnosed with diabetes when still in his teens. In his early 20’s, with Eritrea in the midst of civil war, he committed his life to Christ. From then on all he wanted to do was to talk about Christ.
One day, the Communist cadre in the town sent him, and some other Christians, a letter informing them they were to be executed. They were accused of being CIA spies. Copies of the death sentence was posted around the town. At the time his small group was studying Daniel chapter 3, the story of Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego and the threat of a fiery death that they faced. They read how Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego told the King (Nebuchadnezzar), they would serve no god but the living God. Despite the Eritrean Communist cadre having a reputation for executing many young people, they stood firm, and saw their Bible Study group growing with more and more young people joining.
Today Dr Berhane Asmelash has been freed from prison in Eritrea, granted asylum in the UK, is married and runs a ministry called Release Eritrea, which as the name implies is seeking to help those still suffering persecution for their faith in Eritrea.