Where is your loving Jesus?

Tsehay Tolessa
Ethiopia
Circa 1980s

“They forced my hands under my knees and tied them there. Then they put a stick through these ropes and hung me upside down. They filled my mouth with dirty rags. I almost suffocated. They beat me, breaking my bones. Great pieces of skin hung from my body.

“Then they freed me from bonds and forced me to run with bleeding feet over a path with sharp stones.

“Next, they put me in a small cell containing 62 people. There was only room to stand. Stand on what? On bleeding feet, on broken bones. The cell was completely dark and there was no air. Don’t ask how prisoners fulfilled their bodily needs. There was only one hole serving as a toilet, but no one could get to it.

“All had to stand pressed against each other to give a few the opportunity to sleep a bit lying on one side. Because of the limited space, no turning was possible.”

Her cuts bled, but there was no medicine. Tsehay could not even hold a cup, so others had to help her drink.

Tsehay Tolessa was tortured by the Ethiopian Communist for her faith in Jesus Christ. She of stayed in that cell for over a year, spending a total of ten years in jail. As a result of spending such a long time in darkness, she had not regained full vision.

As they tortured her, the Ethiopian Communist mocked: “Where is your loving Jesus?”

But Tsehay only pitied the blindness of her tortures. She knew the Lord was always with her, alive in her heart. “Jesus was there, in the midst of human waste, in the humiliation, in the blood and stench. He is more than a King ruling in heaven, a Bridegroom. He is the One tortured in prison.”

In all their affliction He is afflicted,…
Isaiah 63:9

~Chapter taken from “Jesus Freaks.” Written by DCtalk and Voice of the Martyrs.


How would you take this torture? Could you persevere until death? If you would ask most people if they would deny God, they would probably be shocked and say, “Of course I wouldn’t!” But really think about it. It takes a lot faith and stamina to die a martyr’s death. My friends, this is true faith that only comes by an unconditional faith in God. Think about Peter. Both of them ate with, fellowshipped, and were in the presence of Jesus on a daily basis. When they had the Passover together Peter told Jesus that he would never deny him. Still Peter denied him three times, just to save his skin.

K.K.M.D
Isaiah 63:9