Schools Targeted Expatriates working in Khartoum, the capital of Sudan, have been harassed, threatened and interrogated. Independent schools have been targeted for Islamisation. Schools that have failed to strictly segregate boys and girls, and provide Islamic Studies, to the satisfaction of the State, have been closed down. "You have no rights!" The National Intelligence Security Sudan (NISS) have been calling in expatriates, and anyone connected with them, for interrogation. NISS agents have burst into homes of foreigners in Khartoum and confiscated their laptop computers, i-pads, cell phones, cameras, diaries and many books and personal items. When individuals have asked to phone their Embassy, they have been roughly prevented from doing so, their phones being snatched out of their hands and told: "NO! You may not phone your Embassy!" When people have protested about their rights, they have been told by the NISS: "You have no rights in Sudan!"
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Church Destroyed Reports have reached us that Muslims destroyed the St. John's Parish of the Episcopal Church of Sudan in Khartoum. A separate report from Bishop Ezekiel Kondo reported that the Episcopal Church in Haj Yousif, in Khartoum North, was destroyed by government forces. The demolition of the church building began Monday evening 16 April, after sunset at about 9pm. Third Attack According to Radio Tanazuj, the entire church building has been destroyed. It was reported as the third such attack on a church in Khartoum this year. Beheaded in Tunisia
Assist News Service has reported on a young male convert to Christianity being beheaded by Islamic militants in Tunisia. Graphic footage filmed in Tunisia was aired on Egypt Today, showing the militants reciting the Quran and chanting Islamic slogans and curses in Arabic, while the "apostate" who had refused to recant his conversion to Christ, was calmly praying before being beheaded. It was not long ago that Tunisia was regarded as the most free and open of all Arab states. The popular support for murdering of Arabs who convert to Christianity, bodes ill for the Arab Spring. By God's grace, it would appear that the culminative effect of many years of intensive prayer, worldwide publicity, international pressure, and missionary partnerships with the courageous persecuted Christians in Sudan are finally bearing fruit. For most of its independence, Sudan has suffered from successive oppressive governments, violent revolutions, coup d'etats and civil war. Since being granted independence in 1956, the increasingly oppressive Arab governments have discriminated against and waged war against the Christian Black South. The government of Sudan has bombed Christian schools, hospitals and churches, burned crops and poisoned wells. The long-suffering Christian Blacks of Southern Sudan have endured slave raids, scorched earth campaigns, amputations and even crucifixions. For many years it seemed that the international community and the mass media were blind to the decades of Jihad in Africa's largest country, Sudan. For some reason, most of the war correspondents never covered the longest war of the 20th Century, in Sudan. As the beleaguered Christians in Southern Sudan explained to me in 1995: “We are a hidden people, fighting a forgotten war.” The Frontline Fellowship mission teams have come under repeated attack in Sudan. Church services and Bible teaching lectures have been interrupted by air raid warnings or artillery bombardments as everyone has scrambled for cover. The Frontline mission base and school seem to have been especially targeted for repeated aerial bombardments by high flying Antonov bombers or low flying MiGs. Our mission base is now pock-marked with bomb craters and littered with shrapnel.
At one church service, my sermon was interrupted by an artillery bombardment from National Islamic Front government forces. As rockets and shells exploded nearby, everyone scrambled for bomb shelters or trenches. For the next 40 minutes we listened to the whistling sound of rockets passing overhead. The barrage appeared to have been fired from multiple rocket launchers. Recent mission trips to Sudan have included torrential rain, flooded rivers, a key bridge washed away, medical emergencies, vehicle breakdowns, lots of walking – including at night in an operational area - thefts, attacks and the abduction of one of our team by renegade soldiers. And much more. "Expect to be Bombed" It was just before departing on a recent mission trip that I was shown a ludicrous article entitled "Why Churches in Sudan are not Bombed!" I had to laugh reading this pathetic piece of propaganda. It had not even been a year since I had been buried under the debris thrown up by one of the 8 bombs, which all landed within 100 metres of a church we were ministering at on a Sunday morning. There had been few days since then that I had not had cause to remember the high pitched screaming of the bombs hurtling down upon us and the earsplitting noise of bombs crashing through the trees, exploding in pillars of fire and the bone jarring shock waves. Being pummelled by the debris propelled by the blast. Then the debris raining down on top of us. By God's grace, Frontline Fellowship's Sudan team leader, Tim, has safely returned from another mission trip to Sudan. He succeeded in delivering and distributing to desperately needy Christians in the Nuba Mountains over 1000 Bibles, Hymn books and catechisms in local Nuba languages, multiple sets of audiovisual evangelistic equipment, educational materials and relief aid.
Most of the Bibles were in the Krongo language. Not long ago, the Krongo were listed as an unreached peoples group. By God's grace, a high percentage of the Krongo are now confessing Christians and members of evangelical churches. Frontline Fellowship has been supplying Gospel literature, Hymn books, catechisms and Bibles in Krongo since 1999. After delays caused by an untimely charter cancellation and several delays to transport Bibles up to our forward base, we were finally all set to begin our trip. The Nuba Mountains is a no-fly zone several hours flying time into Central Sudan. Both the Government of Sudan and the UN forbid flights to the Nuba. It was a tense flight in.
Our Sudan mission started with a research and preaching hike through the Nuba Mountains. In 2 weeks we walked roughly 250 km. We ministered to and encouraged 26 active congregations. We also returned to the place and people who, with us, had endured the ruthless government of Sudan helicopter gunship attack earlier this year. “We thought you'd never come back, you have encouraged us with your return” said one church member who had aided our team in escaping to safety. Christian Kingdoms For one thousand years Christianity predominated in Northern Sudan. From the sixth century to the fifteenth century Christianity was the official religion of the three Sudanese kingdoms of Nubia, Alwa, and Makuria (later Dotawo). For nine hundred years the Christians of Sudan successfully resisted the southward expansion of Islam. Destruction Yet by the late fifteenth century the weakened Christian kingdoms reeled from waves of Arab attacks. Towns were burned and confusion spread. Nubia fell. The fall of the Christian kingdom of Dotawo in 1484 and the fall of the southern most kingdom of Alwa in 1530 heralded the demise of Christian faith in Northern Sudan. Today Sudan is an officially Islamic state. The National Islamic Front (NIF) regime declared Jihad (holy war) against the Christian South and against the Arabic speaking Nuba Christians in central Sudan. Sudan, the largest country in Africa, has been at war since 1955, with a brief ceasefire during the 70’s. The Islamic, military government of Khartoum has been persecuting the African Christians of the South by destroying their church buildings, burning their crops, massacring their people, denying them aid, banning the Bible and waging a war of terror against them. There is also a famine in the South after a severe drought – with heavy rains arriving too late for any crops.
Roadblocks and Mechanical Problems Virgil & I set out to deliver a 4 wheel drive ambulance to Southern Sudan, where transport is almost non-existent. While travelling through innumerable roadblocks in the aftermath of the failed coup in Zambia, on a road full of potholes, we drove through a tree laid across the road by bandits and evaded the attempted hijacking. However, as a result, our engine mounting sheared off causing further damage. Virgil checked out the address of one of the few contacts we had in the country – it turned out that we were just up the road from Christian friends, who provided us with accommodation, towed the vehicle to their farm workshop and repaired the vehicle for us! |
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