All articles in category Sudan
By John Brand
Article
March 2013
Sudan
Sudanese repatriation
Sudanese repatriation On the morning of Tuesday 18 December, a convoy of 33 buses and 35 trucks left Khartoum, taking some 1500 people and all their worldly possessions ‘home’ to South Sudan. For some of them, depending on which part they were going to, this was to be a four-day journey. I say ‘home’, but, although these folks are Southern Sudanese, many have never lived there or even seen the South. Yet, it is undoubtedly home for them and they were overjoyed to be leaving an increasingly hostile and difficult North. Around a quarter of a million Southern Sudanese, many of whom are our Christian...
Read more
By Julie Ward
Article
January 2012
Sudan
Life at home in South Sudan
World Mission Life at home in South Sudan I realise how far I have journeyed to be able to join together the words ‘at home’ and ‘in Sudan’. I remember when we arrived five years ago. I was in our aracuba, the temporary grass shelter we lived in as we constructed a hut to dwell in for the next four years. I was pregnant and sitting on a small stool, washing cloth diapers in a rationed amount of water. It was Sunday morning and I was doing this wash out of necessity, because Samuel, two years old, had been having diarrhoea through the night....
Read more
By Emma Stewart
Article
December 2006
Sudan
Wings over Darfur
The humanitarian crisis in Darfur has affected millions of people. Many have died through the war and its consequences. Disease and starvation are rife. Since 2003, two million people have fled the region. Many seek refuge in displaced people’s camps in neighbouring Chad; others make their homes elsewhere in Sudan. Christian relief organisation Safe Harbor is working in the village of Nyinbuli, 100 miles from the border between southern Sudan and the Darfur region. There has been an influx of refugees to this small village. When 10-year-old Fajah came to the clinic needing extensive treatment, the team called Mission Aviation Fellowship (MAF) to fly her...
Read more
By John Brand
Article
November 2001
Sudan
Missionary Spotlight – Sudan
recognised him as soon as I answered the knock on the guest-house door. He had been one of the evangelists at the previous week’s conference. His two top front teeth were missing and the first tooth on either side of the gap was bright gold. But it wasn’t his dental work that had imprinted him on my memory — it was the smile on his face when he sang and worshipped, the beauty of the Lord in him. And he wasn’t the only one like that. I was in Sudan at the invitation of the Africa Inland Church (AIC-S) to minister at their first...
Read more
By Doug and Gill Reitsma
Article
November 1999
Sudan
Missionary Spotlight – Suffering in the Sudan
The Sudanese [Ethiopia] will raise their hands in prayer to God’ (Psalm 68:31). This is the ‘battle cry’ that many Sudanese Christians have adopted. This young church has seen much suffering since independence came to Sudan in 1956, along with civil war as the Arab north began to dominate the African south. The few church leaders in the infant church soon went into exile in Uganda and Kenya. The small church seemed to disappear, as most of its buildings were burnt and looted. Later, all missionaries were expelled under the Missionary Act of 1962, which is still on the statute books in Sudan. Lively faith...
Read more
Article
June 1999
Sudan
MISSIONARY SPOTLIGHT-REPUBLIC OF SUDAN
Size – The largest country in Africa, with an area of nearly one million square miles and a maximum north-south length of 1,400 miles. Bordering countries – Eritrea, Ethiopia, Kenya, Uganda, Congo, Central African Republic, Chad, Libya and Egypt. Geography – Tropical in the south, with swamps and rain forest; arid desert in the north; vast semi-arid plains and steppes in central Sudan. The Nile and its two tributaries are prominent. Population – Nearly 34 million. Many have died from war and famine since independence. Millions have been displaced from the south to the north of Sudan and to neighbouring countries, by the unrest. Ethnic...
Read more
Article
June 1999
Sudan
MISSIONARY SPOTLIGHT-REPUBLIC OF SUDAN
The joy of loving enemies How about meeting people whom you then discover were involved in ransacking your own home village and killing your relatives? Christians of differing backgrounds have experienced that kind of thing for the past two thousand years, but here is an up-to-date account concerning two Sudanese Christians, ‘S’ and ‘K’, both from southern Sudan. They come from two different black Sudanese tribes, the Nuer and the Shilluk. Growing up ‘K’s grandfather and father were converted from animism over thirty years ago through the testimony of an American missionary. ‘K’ grew up in a family that cherished freedom from fear and superstition,...
Read more
Article
June 1999
Sudan
MISSIONARY SPOTLIGHT-REPUBLIC OF SUDAN
The church in Sudan The church in the Sudan has not only survived persecution but continues to grow. Unofficial reports indicate that the number of those associated with Reformed churches (Evangelical and Presbyterian) is close to 1.8 million. Through the conversion of the Nuer people in south Sudan, the door has been opened wider for the conversion of hundreds of thousands of their fellow-tribesmen living in the south-western part of Ethiopia. Sudanese evangelical Anglicans also continue to grow in numbers. African Sudanese Christians are among the poorest people in the world. Yet they are persistent and steadfast believers, who have remained loyal to Christ under...
Read more
Article
June 1999
Sudan
MISSIONARY SPOTLIGHT-REPUBLIC OF SUDAN
Northern Sudanese also belong to Christ! ‘N’ and ‘A’ grew up in a well-to-do Muslim family in the Khartoum area. They are the only son and daughter of their parents. ‘N’ is twenty-four years old. Her brother ‘A’ is twenty-one. They have always been close. One day, about six years ago, ‘N’ heard a gospel message over the airwaves. She became curious about what she had heard. She decided to keep listening week after week. Then she made up her mind that she must find a copy of the Christian holy book (the Bible). The gardener She talked to her brother about the gospel broadcasts....
Read more
Article
June 1999
Sudan
Missionary Spotlight Republic of Sudan
Sudan, Islam, and the gospel Sudan is an Arabic word meaning ‘the place of black people’. To the Ancient Egyptians it was ‘Cush’ and to the Romans ‘Nubia’. Sudan has a richly diverse terrain, climate and ethnic community. Endowed with copious natural resources, it has been called the ‘bread basket of Africa’. It is probably the African nation with the greatest economic potential, second only to South Africa. Yet because of prolonged civil war, it is now one of the poorest nations on earth. Ancient enmities Over the last twenty years, nearly all of Sudan’s neighbouring countries have been torn apart by ethnically-based civil wars....
Read more
Article
June 1999
Sudan
MISSIONARY SPOTLIGHT-REPUBLIC OF SUDAN
Islamic agenda Dr Hassan Turabi is the most powerful figure in the leadership of the northern Sudanese government. He master-minded the Islamic-dominated military coup d’etat which brought the present regime to power. His brother-in-law, El-Mahdy, served as Prime Minister of Sudan prior to the coup. El-Mahdy escaped house arrest and became a leader of the secularist opposition in neighbouring countries. He describes Turabi as ‘a ruthless power-hungry Islamic ideologue’. Turabi’s own words confirm his brother-in-law’s assessment. In a news conference with the international media at the end of March, Turabi lashed out at ‘those enemies of Islam who are hampering the purification of the nation...
Read more
