Zacchaeus may have climbed a tree to see Jesus, but two Ethiopian evangelists just wanted to make a phone call.

The two evangelists, Tesfay* and Dawit*, went to a remote Muslim village in Ethiopia to share the gospel. The villagers listened politely to what they had to say but didn’t seem to respond.

On the third day of their visit, Tesfay and Dawit wanted to make a call, but they had no cell signal, so they climbed a tree to find signal.

As they clung to the scrubby branches, a 10-year-old boy called to them and asked them to make a call for him. They told the boy to climb the tree. But he shouted back that he couldn’t because he was sick.

Back on the ground, the evangelists found out the boy had been sick for six years and rarely slept. They asked if they could pray for the boy, and they prayed that he would sleep well that night.

The next day, the evangelists visited the boy’s home. They learned that he had slept all night long and that he no longer had any symptoms of sickness. The boy gave his life to Christ, along with all 18 members of his family.

Today, Tesfay and Dawit continue to visit the village to disciple this new believing family and others who have come to faith.

There aren’t many gospel workers in northern Ethiopia, but those who are there are making a big impact. So many people have come to faith in the region that there aren’t enough more mature Christians to teach the new believers. At one church ICR workers recently visited, 90% of the congregation were recent converts.

This same region has experienced a drawn-out conflict between rebels and the government. Thousands of people were killed, and thousands more were affected by the fighting. Here Christians serve their communities by offering meals, trauma counseling, distribution of food, clothing, medicine, and job training.

This conflict weakened the central government’s influence, while giving the Ethiopian Orthodox Church great power. In some cases, the Ethiopian Orthodox Church has used this power against evangelical pastors who they see as a threat.

Under the influence of the Ethiopian Orthodox, several pastors have been arrested, including three pastors who were arrested and spent four days in prison last summer. After their arrests, they had to leave their homes for a while. Their church remains closed, and the pastors continuously receive threats.

Even during the war, God was at work. Berhane’s father is a well-known Muslim who practiced occultism. When the war started, Berhane joined one of the rebel factions and was fighting on the front lines. At a certain point, he ran out of bullets. He knew he would die at that moment, but instead he saw a pair of hands protecting him from the oncoming bullets.

Later, he was captured and held as a prisoner of war. In the high security prison where he was being held, one night, Jesus appeared and told Berhane it was him who protected him during the battle. “I want you to serve me,” Jesus told him. “I will get you out of here.”

Berhane thought this was crazy, but the Lord warned him that the prison lights would go off in three minutes and that he should escape. In three minutes, the lights went out, just like Jesus said. Berhane escaped the prison miraculously.

He spent six months in hiding, before he realized he missed his family and longed to tell them about Jesus.

Berhane returned home and was warmly received – until the part where he told them he was now a follower of Jesus. His father locked him in a room dedicated to evil spirits, but the spirits couldn’t hurt the new Christian. Eventually, Berhane’s father publicly denounced him.

As Berhane left his village, he was beaten so badly that he spends the next year and a half in the hospital. As soon as he recovered, he began serving Jesus passionately.

Today, Berhane is part of a small evangelical congregation and teaches at a Bible school. “God uses this man to bring hope to people,” an ICR field worker said. “His goal is to serve the church.”

Berhane is so committed to serving God because he feels that without Jesus, he never would have survived the war or any of the things he experienced afterward.

“I owe my life to him, which is why I am prepared to sacrifice my life for him,” he said.

*Names changed