Sudan 8/19 blog-They Preach Without Fear

Friday August 19:
Yesterday I got up and ran the PT with the chaplains at around 6am. It was fun with their whistling, hollering and singing as we ran down the gravel road through Nimule. It was a cool and misty morning, almost like a fog had settled down on us. I think the men really appreciate when we westerners take interest in them. I got to meet and learn alot about a few of the men. Later that day I was asked to fill in and do the teaching for the Genesis class. That was in the afternoon and I will be doing the same thing today. We have postponed the refresher course for another day until the rest of the guys make it in from the field. Now we are going to cover Ezra and Nehemiah for the guys. It is a perfect section as it deals with rebuilding the spiritual and physical walls of the nation. Sudan is rebuilding their nation after 30 years of war and persecution from the Muslim north. Almost all of these men have seen horrible conflict. Many have been shot, stabbed and blown up but survive to tell about it. One man, Lino, has been shot three times (once in each arm and once in the head). He showed me the scar on the top of his head. He was also tied up and stabbed repeatedly but escaped from his captors. Another man was carrying a pick nap sac yesterday. We had been joking around so I said, "I like your purse." He nodded and walked on and my friend Ed leaned over and said, "Bro, he has killed like fifty men." These guys are the toughest and bravest people I have ever met. When we had just arrived Wes told me that he was on the phone with one of their chaplains (Hochnoch-arabic for Enoch) in the Nuba mountains where the North had attacked a village. Hochnoch lost his wife and 11 other family members. He was having a hard time with it but was resolute to carry on and both defend his country and preach the gospel to his soldiers. The main goal of these chaplains is to get into the war zone and lead their men to Christ before they die. They will crawl up to soldier who are mortally wounded and tell them the gospel and lead them to Jesus before they die right there on the dirt. If you ask one of them what they fear the most they will tell you. They are afraid they won't reach people for Christ befoe they die. They are truly a different brand of believer than most pampered American Christians. They worship the Lord as if they could die tomorrow...because they could. They sing without shame. They love without reservation. They preach without fear. One man I met, Abdul Achman, was a Muslim before he turned to Jesus. They say that he will go anywhere, to any battlezone and he will share the gospel anywhere to anyone. Even though much of their fighting is against Muslim aggressors they want to convert Muslims. They have Muslims in their own Southern Sudan army. Thay want to win these men to Jesus too.

Now I am sitting under my mosquito net waiting to teach another class of Genesis. I am missing my wife and my kids, looking forward to getting home and pouring my life into them. Being away from my family highlights how precious time is.