On Dangerous Grounds - The Ongoing Saga In Sudan

Romans 12:21

"Be not overcome of evil, but overcome evil with good."

Juba, South Sudan

May 2012

The Republic of Sudan (North Sudan) has left many in the South resentful. In 1956 the South initiated a rebellion, motivated in large part by fears of further marginalization as political and economic power were centralized in the north. This conflict was ended by a peace agreement made in 1972.

Yet this fragile peace was soon ruptured by violations of the peace agreement, division of the regions, and the nationwide imposition of Sharia law, which led to the outbreak of open conflict in 1983. Specifically, the accusation was that the Sudanese government was oppressing non-Arab, non-Muslim Sudanese in favor of Sudanese Muslim Arabs.

This conflict lasted 22 years and is estimated to have killed 2 million people and rendered another 4 million homeless. It is also known as the Darfur Genocide, which caught the world’s attention. In 2005 the Naivasha Agreement, was signed by the Sudan Peoples’ Liberation Movement (SPLM) and the National Congress Party (NCP) in Khartoum, bringing an official end to the conflict. However, trouble continues between the two Sudans, with fresh accusations by each side that the other is supporting rebel groups against their respective governments, causing instability along the border.

There are crucial issues such as border demarcation, sharing of debt, and oil revenues and the use of the North’s pipeline remain that unresolved. To say the least, the Sudan region remains a tinderbox.

Presently, the current fighting along the disputed border between Sudan and newly independent South Sudan threatens to throw the region back into chaos. Just seven years after a peace agreement successfully ended a war that had killed somewhere between 1.5 and 2.5 million people (in a country with a present population of 8 million), there are daily reports of bombings and border attacks, troubling reminders of the frailty of the post-conflict status quo.

The region’s non-Arab Christians and other groups successfully separated themselves from an Islamist regime that imposed sharia law, depopulated much of Darfur, sheltered Osama bin Laden, and bought advanced weapons systems from Iran.

In South Sudan, Christian evangelicals are openly welcomed​—​in particular, a group of American aid workers who have helped build the country, and lobbied on its behalf, and who now have no intention of abandoning it, even on the brink of war.

Justin Lotio, a pastor in Juba who stayed through the violence, told a Western jounalist, “We were living like people in a cage [during the civil war],” It is documented that Christian pastors were taken out and killed simply because they were pastors. The North came and took people out of Christian communities and tried to indoctrinate them, and still they held onto Christianity to the point of death. It’s something that gives them hope. It sustains them. Pastor Lotio said, “Today, there is freedom.”

In South Sudan, American aid groups have opened hospitals, drilled boreholes, fed refugees, and trained rural South Sudanese in farming and water management. The director of one of the aid groups summed up the organization’s mission this way: “If people are starving, helping them is what we’re called to do.”

The report on Sudan, which comes from various news sources & outlets, point to the dire need of the Gospel of Christ in that region. If people's basic needs are met without hearing about their need for a Saviour then all of that wonderful effort to lend succor to a newly founded nation is in vain.

I ask this dire question: Is there anyone out there in cyber-land whose heart is pierced by what took place - and, indeed, continues to manifest itself - South Sudan? That nation needs Christian missionaries. Don't let the Mormons - or any other group - beat us to the punch. Don't allow lies to take the place of the Gospel.

Please be prayerful about how you can be a blessing to this nation. If you are not called out to the missions field by the Lord, then please pray for South Sudan and that the Lord strengthen the Christian pastors and believers there. Pray that the local New Testament church is established and its needs are met to serve the Sudanese.

To be sure, the local New Testament church can bring together poor and geographically scattered communities. When there is no church, the people are divided according to clan, and there is a lot of fighting. The church is the only place where people can and agree, and act like brothers and sisters because it is the love of Christ (Heb. 13:1; Jn. 13:34; Rom. 12:9-10; I Pt. 1:22-23)  and His abiding Presence that hold people together. The glue that binds people together in a society is the local New Testament church. It is here that good overcomes evil.

What are you going to do about it, dear Reader? I Want To Send the Light!

There’s a call comes ringing over the restless wave,
“Send the light! Send the light!”
There are souls to rescue there are souls to save,
Send the light! Send the light!

Send the light, the blessed Gospel light;
Let it shine from shore to shore!
Send the light, the blessed Gospel light;
Let it shine forevermore!

Let us not grow weary in the work of love,
“Send the light! Send the light!”
Let us gather jewels for a crown above,
Send the light! Send the light!

Send the light, the blessed Gospel light;
Let it shine from shore to shore!
Send the light, the blessed Gospel light;
Let it shine forevermore!

News sources: Weekly Standard, Insight on Conflict & BBC News. Photo credit: United Nations.