Eritrea: Grounded Faith and Suffering

[While in solitary confinement, in a metal shipping container,] "I had a routine: I would wake and pray, read and study my [smuggled] Bible, then write songs and write to prisoners, then exercise."

"Prison is a living death, and more than that, it is a death of dignity, hopes, and dreams."

[While being interrogated, I said,] 'I am always looking for opportunities to talk about my faith,' I replied, 'and to spread the news about Jesus. I am not ashamed of the gospel, and I will talk to anyone and to everyone. Jesus does not just want me to tell the prisoners about him, He wants me to tell the guards too. Even if the president were to visit the prison, I would tell him about the gospel.' They looked furious, so I continued, 'I am not afraid of you. You can do what you want to my body, you cannot touch my soul. You cannot even kill me unless it is God's will that I should die.'

- H. Berhane with E. Newrick, in Song of the Nightingale.