Prayers For FRM and Sudan from Vicky Bentley

Dear Brothers and Sisters,
 
I plead with you to stand in the gap for Sudan. I have just received word that our chaplains in the Nuba Mountains, 50 men who ride for Jesus in our camel corps, have continued to bravely defend the faith. About two weeks ago a church was overrun. This particular church has been literally burnt to the ground by the Mujahedeen (Islamic terrorists who kill anyone who is not a radical Muslim) in the past. The chaplains have stood with the persecuted believers and even managed to force the government of the North to rebuild the ruins (using the international community’s established channels to protect human rights). When the church was attacked again it was deliberate. You see, all the chaplains were gathered in a city center awaiting the chance to be flown to our base for the Refresher Course. The army sent for Jaber Tutu, our head chaplain in the Nuba’s, to rush to the scene to prevent any killings of Christians. I learned that just as the Mujahedeen are known to be willing to pay any price for their faith – so too the chaplains have been given a name meaning, “They are the Fearless Christians of the Army.” These men are known to be willing to lay down their lives for the gospel, to protect the innocent, and to defend the weak and God is using them to protect our brothers and sisters suffering horrible persecution.
 
Furthermore, Wes and I have always desired to expand FRM/FRMA’s programs to this area. We established a small base back in 2008, but we have the desire to do much more. We have been planning a trip to refresh and re-equip the chaplains in November. I learned today the chaplains anticipate war will break out at that time due to the upcoming election. Per the terms of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement between the SPLA and the GoS, several areas were labeled “Marginalized.” These areas were not included in the boundaries of the North or South. As such, before the referendum allowing the people of the South to decide by vote to unify or secede, these “marginalized areas,” MUST be given a chance to vote which boundary they belong too. That vote has not yet happened. According to our chaplains, rumors are flying that the vote will take place at the expected time of the refresher. The chaplains said, “We don’t care about our incentive or supplies, we care about the ministry. To ask you to come when the danger is so high is too expensive for us, we need you to be there for us. We will gladly wait until God opens another time for you to come safely. Pray for us!”
 
My heart is broken for these people who have already suffered so much AND they have been discipling 30 men from Darfur for class eight in our Chaplains Training Program. I am working now to try and get flights to get these 30 men to our base for the school. Please pray! Wes and I are asking you to pray fervently for the following things:
·      Pray Jaber and the chaplains with him will be protected from all evil.
·      Pray the enemy will be stopped dead in his tracks from harming any other Christians
·      Pray for the elections, rumored to be held in November 2010, to be peaceful.
·      Pray the regions of Southern Kourdufan (Nuba Mountains), Darfur, Blue Nile, Abiyei, and all other marginalized areas will be free from the tyranny of the North FOREVER!
·      Pray for us to get flights for all 30 of the chaplain candidates.
·      Pray we can arrange a refresher course for these men BEFORE the election.
·      Pray God continues to give Wes vision for ministering to this nation no matter how intense the fighting becomes
·      Pray for the women and children of these marginalized areas, my heart’s desire is to go and live among them, to serve them and show them Christ’s great love for them. Please ask God to open a way!
Agape,
Vicky
FRM/FRMA South Sudan

Tags: Sudan

Sudan 2010 - Day 2 - Orientation... Holy Cow!

Sunday Morning began with CMA’s (Christian Mission Aid) orientation for our afternoon flight into Sudan. After a brief description of their work in Africa… they got down to the nitty gritty issues of working among some of the Sudanese tribal people… Don't touch the cows, women or politics.

First, cows are almost sacred, a sign of wealth (cost about $350.00 US) and status in their tribal world… so OK- not that we were tempted to go cow tipping or start a round up, got it- don’t mess with the cows. Second, be careful around the women as well… be careful touching them too… hand-shakes and greetings OK but watch anything that might be misinterpreted as an inappropriate advance which in times past would provoke revenge. Watch the small gifts of appreciation (which we brought many to thank them for their help) it could be construed as a down-payment on another wife… more than one is allowed here. The usual dowry is more cows which are expensive (see above). OK… got it… Cows and women keep a healthy distance. Finally, don’t go there on Politics… seems it’s elections season here with some controversial candidates and huge referendum vote coming soon. They tend to get passionate about their politics here (see last civil war on Wikipedia for info) so OK avoid conversations on the health care debate, tea parties or the unrest in Mideast (standard answer for all Q’s political- Hmmm- how about that! ).

Finally, we were briefed on water quality in the village, mostly good, they have us covered but showed us a nasty worm that was prevalent in the area in recent days. You swallow the eggs in the water, they loge in your muscle tissue and grow to 3 feet long. They come out your ankle or arm and you have to slowly extract the worm by rolling it up on a stick by ½ inch at a time. If it breaks? you have to get it removed by a painful ugly operation. OK then… avoid the cows, women, politics and 3 foot muscle worms, we are ready. Oh yeah… share Jesus – that we can do and are excited to do.

One last thing, we headed to airport with Cows and worms on our minds and boarded our flight to Loki, a small town in south central Sudan, our staging airport where were to fly in a small 12-seater plane to the village. Mid way to Sudan and just over the equator comes the announcement “We have a slight technical problem and will be returning the Nairobi!” What does slight mean? Visions of every airplane movie we have ever seen come to mind… the jokes start flowing among us to ease the tension. Did you make the life insurance payment? Wow, My wife will finally be rich. We had an uneventful flight back but as we landed- it sure took an extra long time to stop the plane, and as we sped down the runway we passed 4 emergency fire trucks with lights flashing waiting for us. Nah… we were fine and they never did tell us what was wrong. We did get a free hotel stay out of the airline and a promise to try again tomorrow morning! Now would be a good time to pray for Tom, Ted, Rick, Steve and Gary.

Sudan 2010 - Day 1

Our team of 5 eager Missionaries began their adventure at San Diego airport early Saturday morning at the Alaska Airlines check in area. The agent was looking up our reservations and made the discovery that all our flights had mysteriously been canceled… all the way to Sudan and back! We scrambled, prayed (woops- prayed 1st) and the agent was able to restore our tickets but we lost our seats… so we began what turned out to be 3 planes and 20 hours in the air – you guessed it… in the center of the rows. It was hard to be ungrateful since we did get seats at all, but “Lord…in the center of the row?”. We arrived in Nairobi, Kenya pretty worn, got in the longest visa line (always seems to work that way in traffic too- you know, when you change lanes) and we were greeted by Brett and Cathy Hoelzer’s big smiles… ahhh- home is where the family of God is.