Rescued: How God Delivered One Man from Demonic Depression, Epilepsy, and Death

By Daniel B. Betsuamlak

Daniel Betsuamlak, son of a renowned Ethiopian pastor, has an anointing to preach the gospel of Jesus Christ from the day he is born, but threatened by God's call, Satan targets Daniel in merciless efforts to kill him before his ministry can begin.

A difficult birth, two near-fatal car accidents, resulting epilepsy, heavy, addictive medica

• Language: English
• Publisher: Daniel Bahta Betsuamlak
• Release date: Jun 3, 2022
• ISBN: 9781778171314

Daniel B. Betsuamlak

Evangelist Daniel Bahta Betsuamlak lives with his precious wife and two children in Toronto, Canada. He ministers in the office of an evangelist as he serves his local community, especially among the Ethiopian and Eritrean populations.Visit www.rescuedministries.org for booking information regarding itinerant speaking.

Book preview

Rescued

How God Delivered One Man from Demonic Depression, Epilepsy, and Death

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Endorsements

Rescued will pull you into a journey of spiritual awakening. Brother Daniel’s testimony effortlessly leads the reader in a way that not only demands attention but speaks to you with conviction. Once you start his journey, you don’t want it to stop! Truly, a blessing to read.

Dr. Andre Hughes 

I consider it a respected honor and privilege to not only endorse but recommend the reading of Rescued. Daniel opens up virtually his entire life and in simplistic timely details takes you through experiences that we all encounter at various times of our lives. Lovingly, the author clearly teaches us through his experience not only to hear the voice of the Holy Spirit but follow that voice. He also shares with us the price that has to be paid for disobedience. Letting us know, He Whom the Lord loveth He chasteneth.

While reading this book you will feel the power of family ties, loving care of Mom and Dad, their Wisdom and Sacrifice. No doubt you will both weep and rejoice as you read this heart warming book entitled Rescued.

This is one book you will want to share with your friends.

Pastor Paul Melnichuk

Founder and Senior Pastor of The Prayer Palace

Rescued is a first-hand account of what can only be described as a miracle of God. To follow the life of Daniel is to see firsthand how much God loves his children. When God said Lo I am with you always, He really means it. When Daniel needed surgery, what happened next can only be described as a modern day miracle, a claim that is shared by a doctor who attended Daniel through his amazing medical journey.

Rev. Dr. Rondo Thomas

Executive Director Evangelical Association Toronto Canada

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Rescued

How God Delivered One Man from Demonic Depression, Epilepsy, and Death

Daniel Bahta Betsuamlak

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Rescued

How God Delivered One Man from Demonic

Depression, Epilepsy, and Death

Copyright © 2022 All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any manner without prior written permission from the author.

Cover design and interior layout design by Uberwriters Christian Ghostwriters

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All Scripture quotations, unless otherwise noted, are from the NIV taken from the NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION (NIV): Scripture taken from THE HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION ®. Copyright© 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.™. Used by permission of Zondervan.

Scriptures marked ESV are taken from the THE HOLY BIBLE, ENGLISH STANDARD VERSION (ESV): Scriptures taken from THE HOLY BIBLE, ENGLISH STANDARD VERSION ® Copyright© 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.Used by permission.

Scriptures marked KJV are taken from the KING JAMES VERSION (KJV): KING JAMES VERSION, public domain.

Scriptures marked NKJV are taken from the NEW KING JAMES VERSION (NKJV): Scripture taken from the NEW KING JAMES VERSION®. Copyright© 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Scriptures marked NLT are taken from the HOLY BIBLE, NEW LIVING TRANSLATION (NLT): Scriptures taken from the HOLY BIBLE, NEW LIVING TRANSLATION, Copyright© 1996, 2004, 2007 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved. Used by permission.

Scripture quotations marked (GNT) are from the Good News Translation in Today’s English Version - Second Edition Copyright © 1992 by American Bible Society. Used by Permission.

ISBN 978-1-7781713-0-7 Paperback

ISBN 978-1-7781713-1-4 eBook

This book is dedicated to:

My beautiful and precious wife, Fanos—you knew of my health challenges from the start, yet you chose to suffer with me because of our mutual love of Jesus Christ. I pray the Lord’s richest blessings upon you for your faithfulness and love.

My precious children Ebenezer Bahta and Manna Bahta—you are truly my greatest treasures from the Lord. You brighten my life every day in a million different ways. May God keep you and make His face to shine on you, and lead you in the paths of His righteousness and power all the days of your long and healthy and fruitful lives.

My wonderful parents who raised me in the ways of the Lord God, and left everything to suffer with me in Athens, helping me through my wilderness journey—I love you more than words can express and when my work is finished on Earth, I greatly look forward to being reunited with you in Heaven.

The Hansel family and all from Grace Lutheran Church in Oshawa, Canada—when Satan had tried to rob me of so much, you showed me new life and new opportunity through the love of Jesus Christ that shines so brightly from within you.

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Darkness

Descending

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I did not know how long I had been staring at the wall. It could have been twenty minutes. It could have been an hour. It could have been six hours. I did not really care. The only thing I knew was there was no way forward.

I wondered for the ten-thousandth time where it all went wrong. I mean… I knew where it went wrong—the damage to the right anterior lobe of my brain. I had experienced other life-changing events but this problem crept up on me long after I thought it was all done. Plus, what I was going through was not my fault. It was not my fault I could not play guitar anymore. It was not my fault I barely knew who I was anymore. It was not my fault the seizures had increased from one grand mal in the beginning, to four or five a week. My beautiful wife had been so strong, standing with me, praying, taking the pain with me… but she was the only one—and how much could she take anyway? I loved my church, and I understood everyone gets busy, and we all have our own battles to fight, but I felt so alone.

The seizure medications were worse than the seizures. Much worse. I had tried so many; some made me so nauseous I could not even eat. Some made me terribly aggressive. Some, at random times, made the whole world start spinning and I became so dizzy I had to sit down. Almost all of them made me so tired I could hardly keep my eyes open, yet, ironically, I suffered from merciless insomnia. My once-sharp mind had been dulled to where I felt like a patient shuffling around a mental asylum. I could barely think, and my moods would sharply swing from being somewhat calm and feeling like everything would be okay, to plunging into sudden, deep and terrible despair. Hopelessness cannot even begin to explain what I experienced.

There was no chance of stopping the medication. When I even switched from one to another because of the side effects, I would have so many more violent, convulsive seizures. Besides the injuries I sometimes sustained from falling, or biting my tongue, or just the terrible headaches and grogginess after the seizures, what most people don’t know is seizures can be fatal. Sudden Unexpected Death in Epilepsy, or SUDEP, is a very real danger, and claims many lives each year. What would happen to my wife and my son? A lone tear trickled down my cheek, onto the flattened pillow.

I was not angry with God... but I had to wonder how He allowed all of this. And why had He not answered any of my prayers? I had been begging for help, but I wondered if it even mattered anymore. It had been so long. So desperate. So dark. I sighed and rolled over in my bed. The other wall stared back at me. The whole room felt dark and gloomy. That was how life remained now. The happy days of my youth in warm, sunny, friendly Ethiopia seemed like another lifetime. When I could play music, and hang out with my brother, and mom and dad and friends at church. Now I was all alone. Even Athens had been better, but of course, yet another disastrous tragedy had occurred there. So many struggles. So much unusual suffering for one guy, even since I was born. How did I end up like this? I kept staring at the wall as though it might somehow project an answer.

I was not angry with God... but I had to wonder how He allowed all of this

Even the psychiatrists had not helped me one bit. When the seizures remained resistant to medication and uncontrolled, several people suggested I see a psychiatrist, just to deal with all of the life changes the epilepsy had caused. I did not want to go at first; my dad would never have approved of me going to a psychiatrist—but my dad was not with me. I desperately needed to talk to someone because I felt like I would die if I did not get some answers. Even a small word of encouragement would be like a drop of water on the tongue of the rich man in hell, from the Lazarus story in the Bible. When I went to the first psychiatrist, he told me I was severely and understandably depressed. We talked for a little while then the first thing he did was prescribe antidepressant medication. I was surprised at how quickly he jumped to more medication, but I went along with it and took the medication. Despite more side effects, when that medication did not work, the psychiatrist added another. When that one did not work, he added yet another.

Before long, I was on an insanely heavy cocktail of antidepressants, anticonvulsants and epilepsy drugs. Every day I took Celexia—60 mg, Epival—500 mg, Lamatrogine (Lamictal)—100 mg, Zyprexa—5 mg, Clonazepam—2 mg, and Dilantin—200 mg two times a day. And it was not helping. It turned me into a zombie, staring at the walls all day. I had just been looking for someone to talk to, but the psychiatrists had just told me enough to dose me up with even more expensive drugs.

The epilepsy and depression had become so bad, my neurologists decided something had to be done. They gave me endless batteries of tests—sleep studies, electroencephalograms, MRIs—you name it, I’d had it. The one piece of good news—if you can call it that—was the doctors knew what the problem was. The tests showed right mesial temporal sclerosis. This meant the right anterior lobe of my brain was severely damaged from the wreck, and almost certainly causing the seizures.

In January 2003—two years before—Doctor Yufe, my neurologist, recommended brain surgery. The situation had become so bad, my doctors were strongly trying to persuade me to have the surgery. The procedure they wanted to perform was a temporal lobectomy. The temporal lobes are parts of the brain situated on both sides of the head, just above one’s ears. The surgery was projected to take between four and six hours, during which, a piece of my right temporal lobe would be removed.

The surgeon assured me only abnormal tissue would be removed, and all vital areas of the brain would be left untouched. The areas of my brain which controlled language and motor function would be mapped before the surgery, to minimize the risk of collateral damage. Still, with all surgery—especially brain surgery—there was considerable risk. Infection, bleeding, stroke, language dysfunction, and cranial nerve disease were all possible. That is if everything went well in the surgery. Permanent memory dysfunction is reported in two percent of patients, and any slight error by the surgeon, and I could die. Or even worse—be paralyzed.

I had not asked for my struggles. I had tried to follow the Lord my entire life, but these disasters kept happening. Everything that had happened to me since almost dying at birth, I had not asked for. My burning question was Why God? I now faced a choice to undergo surgery that carried risk of paralysis or death—or I could continue having seizures, with barely any life at all. With the seizures came the terrible, crushing depression. At least that is what I believed at the time.

My burning question was Why God?

I was stuck in a desert. I had cried out to God so many times, so many long nights, so many long days. Like that day starting at the walls. I was lost. I was alone. I was ready to give up. A spiritual darkness descended, covering me like a heavy shroud. I did not want to live any longer. I could not face my life continuing as it was, but the option of surgery was terrifying. Over and over and over in my head, I heard, It’s hopeless. You are destitute. This is the end for you. This despair will never end. You might as well give up.

I tightly shut my eyes and begged God for help. But I expected nothing.

A Season

of Change

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Early in 1866, Swedish Lutheran Missionaries arrived near Massawa, the port city of Eritrea. Their mission was to evangelize Eritrea, and then preach the gospel to the Oromo people in Ethiopia. Due to political unrest in Ethiopia, however, their plans were suspended for the time being. After several years of living with the Eritrean people, and learning the culture, the Swedish missionaries established the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Eritrea (ELCE).

It took twenty-one years, but after much ministry in Eritrea, in 1897 a priest named Gebre Ewostateos Zemikael converted to the ELCE from the Eritrean Orthodox Church. Pastor Zemikael led a group to Wollega, Ethiopia, to share the gospel with the Oromo people, finally fulfilling the vision of the Swedish missionaries. The accomplishments of this team and those born again from that movement in Wollega and beyond, was remarkable. The gospel spread like wildfire in Ethiopia, through the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Ethiopia. During that time, a powerful offshoot of the ELCE was founded, called the Mekane Yesus Lutheran Church. This church would have a significant impact on my family’s future.

In the early 1950s, a young Eritrean man named Bahta Betsuamlak and his Eritrean wife, converted from the Eritrean Orthodox Church to the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Eritrea. Bahta was in love with God, and his family, and he knew without a shadow of doubt, he was called to ministry. In 1968, Bahta become the pastor of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Addis Ababa. This man is my father.

The first two years of my father’s ministry were very busy, gaining experience with pastoring a church, and the news of his wife’s first pregnancy. In June of 1969, his first son, my older brother, Amanuel was born. My parents took the Lord’s word in Genesis 1:28 literally, when He said, …Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth… so I was born thirteen months later, in July of 1970. When I was a child, my mother told me I was born without a plan. Each time I faced a trial or attack, Satan sent a thought to my mind by saying, The reason you have all these problems is because you were not born with a plan like other people. For many years I lived in bondage to this negative thought.

This was the first indication of the trouble I would face in life. I nearly died during childbirth, with my birth being extremely dangerous and difficult for my mother, too. When I became stuck in the birth canal, the doctor had to use forceps. In fact, my birth was so painful my mother nicknamed me Jabez. This name means, brings sorrow and Jabez’ mother named him this because she said, I bare him with sorrow (1 Chronicles 4:9-11).