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Sudan: project archives
2001 FTH Food Distribution in Northern Sudan
This report was filed by Bill Meyer
Former FTH Director
from 1999-2004
FTH, had the incredible privilege of working together with Strategic World Impact - the only Christian organization working in the North East area of Sudan and over the border in Eritrea in that same general area.
Kevin Turner, the head of Strategic World Impact, is on the front lines and we thank God for what they are doing in this area and for the opportunity to work with them there.
“Where Has All the Laughter Gone?”
On Sunday we headed out to a remote area in North East Sudan. We brought approximately 13,000 pounds of Sorghum to this area. This is an area where approximately 15,000 people from the Beja tribe were freshly displaced because of bombings and attacks between government and rebel Sudanese forces.
When we pulled up in the landcruisers we were met by a group of the Beja people, including many children. The first thing I noticed was how serious the children looked and how laughter and smiles among them were missing. I thought to myself “Where has all the laughter gone?”
You could obviously tell and feel that it was from the recent trauma incurred by the
bombings/attacks and having to flee for their lives. I also thought “This should not be…this is so wrong!”
FTH team member, Lamar began to hand out some sweets to the children and other members of our team began to hand out little toys (small Frisbee’s etc). As the children enjoyed the sweets and played with the little gifts, the children began to smile and the laughter returned. How precious to Him are the innocent children of the world.
The Story of the Lost Goat
After we played with the children a little bit, distributed the Sorghum and viewed the newly “set-up” displaced area for some of the 15,000 Beja people. We were able to sit down and talk with about 20 to 25 of the elders of that area of Beja people.
The Beja people are about 3 million people strong, a Muslim group who have never really heard the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ! In fact, there are only a few Beja people converts in the more populated areas and there are no churches among the Beja people at all. This was especially true among the tribal elders who had never heard the Gospel message in their entire lives.
Kevin Turner asked me to share the gospel with them.
I began to share with them the love of God and how in the beginning God created man to fellowship with God, man was without sin, but man sinned and there was separation between God and man. Also, how Jesus bridged the gap between sinful man and a holy God etc.
As I was sharing I felt led to share two parables that Jesus taught from Luke 15, the parable of the lost coin and the parable of the lost sheep.
I explained how God was into finding lost things and that if a person did not know God through Jesus Christ they were “lost” and God wanted them to be “found” or saved. I explained how God loved them so much that he sent us all the way here (in Sudan) to tell them about His love for them and that there was nothing special about us but everything special about them.
As I was telling them the parable of the lost sheep I felt to tell and explain it (to be
culturally relevant and sensitive as well as being led by the Holy Spirit) as it was a “lost goat” and explained that it was like if you had 99 safe, found goats and one was lost etc.
Most of the Beja people are nomadic people and many of them are goat herders. In fact goat is a main item of food and is ate at almost every meal-we ate goat at every meal I can remember while in Sudan. Goats are everywhere and certainly the Beja can relate to goats in general and the “lost goat” specifically.
After I had finished speaking and Kevin Turner had finished sharing his testimony, the leader over all the Beja people of this area related the following to us - to our complete amazement...
He said that in 1950 a “prophecy” was given by their spiritual leader at that time. The leader said that “One day Kuwaje (white man) with hair on their arms would come out of the east from Eritrea and would tell us things that would help us and we (the Beja) would become like they are (which we believe to mean Believers in the Lord Jesus Christ!) and THEY WOULD TELL US THE STORY OF THE LOST GOAT”
Praise be to Almighty God for His great goodness in revealing Himself to these precious people!
Later, the commissioner explained how it was even more significant as at that time in 1950 there was NO Eritrea. Because of various wars, conflicts etc. it is not strange for countries to not exist and than possibly exist again, especially in Africa. Such was the case for Eritrea in 1950, there was no Eritrea in 1950 but God saw a day when there would be an Eritrea and…To God be the Glory…For such a time as this!
As we all would agree and understand, Muhammad or Allah did not give this “prophecy” to this elder. It is important to understand that there have been many testimonies of Muslims throughout the world having dreams or seeing visions revealing Christ to them and their people.
I truly believe that God sovereignly shared this with this spiritual leader 51 years ago as a result of deep, honest spiritual searching. Even like God sovereignly gave a dream to King Nebuchadnezzar and put the handwriting on the wall for King Belshazzar in the book of Daniel.
Our experience has been that the Beja people are truly searching and seeking for spiritual truth as it says in Romans
“How then shall they call on him in whom they have not believed? and how shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard? And how shall they hear without a preacher? And how shall they preach, except they be sent? As it is written, How beautiful are the feet of them that preach the gospel of peace, and bring glad tidings of good things!”-Romans 10:14-15 KJV
Tender Muslim Hearts
In the middle of this there was such an incredible sense that at that time we were on holy ground and this was a true kingdom moment. As we lifted our hands and praised God…many of the Muslim elders also raised their hands and joined in praying…we do not know what they said or who they were praying too, but, this is not ordinary (For them to lift hands and pray like that) but truly an evidence of softening hearts. Our eyes were filled with tears as we gloried in the goodness of God and His great love for the precious Beja people! To God be the glory!
The Jesus Film
On Monday night we had the opportunity to show the Jesus film to about 60-70 Beja people. The Jesus film is about 2 ½ hours long in a language they can understand. It portrays the pure gospel from beginning to end.
What an incredible moment watching the muslim Beja people hearing about and “watching” Jesus for the first time. The humble bush compound was packed and guards with machine guns made their rounds around the compound. One guard sat on top of a truck outside the compound and watched the Jesus film with his machine gun by his side.
Amazingly, the spiritual leader of the Beja tribe, sat eagerly watching the film on the front row. In fact as he was watching the film he took 2 pages of notes with 18 different discussion/question points to understand better the gospel of Jesus and to make comparison to his current Muslim belief.
He was incredibly open to the gospel and truly searching for spiritual truth. Let us agree that the eyes of the heart of this Muslim spiritual leader of approx. 3 million Beja people would be open to receive the glorious gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ! 2 Corinthians 4:4-6.
The Sheik asked during the film, “Why did His own people reject Him?” He along with many other Beja muslims watching the film cringed and gasped at the scenes of Jesus being beaten and crucified.
Short-wave and Sad News from the States
Tuesday, September 11, 2001: We returned to our Beja base compound, just over the Eritrea border, at about 9:30 pm after a long drive from deep inside Sudan. This trip that night back to the camp was a “Psalm 91” trip in the dark. Thank You Lord for your protection!
When we arrived back at the base camp we began the process of setting up our bunks with mosquito netting and preparing everything for another night sleeping under the stars. After we finished this, Lamar and I were fellowshipping with a SPLA soldier outside the bush thatched compound listening to his incredible heart wrenching stories of war that he was a part of.
After a long day, an intense drive and with it getting late we were all ready to get a great night sleep. At about 11:40 pm our Beja host came out and said “Dinner is ready-let’s eat”. To be totally honest, the last thing any of us wanted to do this late was eat dinner, especially bread and goat again. But to avoid offense and a bad testimony we ate away.
At about 11:50 pm as we were still eating, an SPLA soldier came up to us with a short-wave radio in his hand and said “You must hear this”. We heard the voice of a British woman reporter from BBC describing the events of the day.
She said “The world trade center has been hit by hijacked planes and have collapsed…the pentagon in Washington, DC has also been hit…” “All airports in the United States have been closed…” We could not believe this had happened and were shocked like the rest of the world. Our thoughts and prayers rushed home to all those impacted by the tragedy and the rescue efforts as well as for the safety of our family and friends.
I’ll never forget those moments praying under the stars, just outside Sudan in the desert like surroundings. The day ended as we slept in the bush compound under the stars surrounded by Muslim guards with machine guns on guard duty…peaceful, friendly Muslims. How totally different from the terrorist actions of the militant Muslim extremists performed that day in the United States. I thank God for His presence and peace amidst all that was going on.
The Sheik, The FOG & Open Doors
As mentioned before we saw an incredible openness to the gospel in the Beja Sheik. In fact, he took a taped copy of the Jesus film to view on his own when he goes into the city of Asmara. He also gave permission for the Jesus film to be shown to all 3 million of the Beja people and he really wants them to see it.
It was also interesting to see the softening of the Beja peoples hearts towards the gospel as we spent time with them. One time when one of our team members got sick we gathered around and prayed and laid hands on him, to our amazement, the commissioner of that whole area, a muslim, also joined in and laid his hands on him.
On the morning we were leaving for Asmara we gathered around in a circle to pray over the trip, the Sheik also grabbed hands in the circle and joined in with us. Just about as we were leaving he asked “What does this Alleluia mean that you always say?” Kevin Turner responded, “It means Praise the Lord!” the Sheik then immediately said “Alleluia”.
All the muslims in this area were very saddened and upset about the terrorist attacks in the US. The Sheik also said that on that Friday he would instruct all the Muslims to pray for our safe trip home and also for the United States and all Americans.
Obviously praying to Allah is not correct and we do not endorse that at all…what is significant is the evidence of softening hearts towards Christians and the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ!
It was also interesting that our group noticed the early morning (4:15 am etc.) and late night prayer chanting by the Beja muslims in the area where we stayed for three nights, became softer and quieter every night.
We experienced the incredible favor of God (FOG) in getting through all the checkpoints to the Sudan border. Praise God for the incredible open doors and favor of God! May we always walk in the Favor of God to bring food and the gospel to the hurting of the world!
TO GOD BE THE GLORY FOR ALL THAT HE HAS DONE AND WILL DO IN SUDAN/ERITREA!
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