In 1996 I was asked: 'Would you consider organising a vaccination team in the southern Sudan?' Sudan is ten times the size of the British Isles, with a population of 25 million people. Five million live in the country’s southern provinces. Most of the south is covered with swamps and rivers and is fairly inhospitable. Civil war. has raged there since 1982, but from the beginning I felt God was drawing me to serve these people.
The first step was a pilot expedition. This helped formulate clear goals: to seek and encourage the embattled and to bring relief through medicines and vaccinations, A few months later we flew to the northern boarders of Kenya and boarded a DC3 for a four-hour flight into Sudan. We had emergency backpacks in case it was necessary to walk back. An enthusiastic welcome awaited us. The plane stuck in the mud and had to be dug out and pushed by hundreds of tribesmen. We walked to our base camp.
We trained three teams in the art of giving injections. In the first two days 350 children were immunised. Then in the next three days the teams were sent out, immunising about 1,000 a day. I learned that in the months prior to our visit about 700 babies had died in this area in a measles epidemic, and I saw many malnourished as a result. There were also some cases of active polio. On the previous visit the local dialect version of Jesus film had been left, along with a small generator. It had been shown 26 times. While we were there it was shown twice. At one location, on a tributary to the Nile, there must have been 1,000 people in attendance.
Only the New Testament has been written in their dialect. The Old Testament stories are heard second-hand or read in Arabic or English, the language of education in the south. There is no currency. The people plant crops but the army comes down to .steal, rape, and burn their crops. The barter- system is based on salt, sugar and soap. There is much corruption and I was unsure I could trust anyone. The people feel betrayed by the free world.
Many Christians are paying the ultimate sacrifice for their faith. There are reports of Christians crucified upside down. Many children have been taken into slavery by raiding forces from the north.
Despite all the agony and deprivation caused by war., the churches are growing. To visit one we trekked 14 miles, sometimes up to the neck in swamps, and crossing two rivers.
In all it took eight hours. We were met by hundreds of people singing praises to God. The church, made of mud in the shape of a cross, seated 1,000 people and was full. They wanted us to preach and teach immediately and listened through translators. They killed several chickens and a goat for- us to eat. The next morning I tried to hold a clinic but had to give up because there was a risk of it causing a riot.
Since then I have paid two more visits to southern Sudan. It lovely to meet old friends and they were overjoyed to see us. I organised the immunisation of 2,500 children and saw many sick people. There were many surgical and medical conditions including. river blindness, guinea worm, bilharzia and tuberculosis, but malaria was the most common. The afternoons, were too hot to work or even to sleep. The International Red Cross is hoping. to establish centres for primary health care and have already begun a vaccination programme.
During all my visits I saw despair, but also hope. The church of Jesus Christ is being built in a way I have never- experienced before. In one area I visited it has grown from 11 to 17 churches of over 1,000 people. 'The wind blows wherever It please,,' (John 3:8).
Dr Raymond Givan works for the Africa Inland Mission
The first step was a pilot expedition. This helped formulate clear goals: to seek and encourage the embattled and to bring relief through medicines and vaccinations, A few months later we flew to the northern boarders of Kenya and boarded a DC3 for a four-hour flight into Sudan. We had emergency backpacks in case it was necessary to walk back. An enthusiastic welcome awaited us. The plane stuck in the mud and had to be dug out and pushed by hundreds of tribesmen. We walked to our base camp.
We trained three teams in the art of giving injections. In the first two days 350 children were immunised. Then in the next three days the teams were sent out, immunising about 1,000 a day. I learned that in the months prior to our visit about 700 babies had died in this area in a measles epidemic, and I saw many malnourished as a result. There were also some cases of active polio. On the previous visit the local dialect version of Jesus film had been left, along with a small generator. It had been shown 26 times. While we were there it was shown twice. At one location, on a tributary to the Nile, there must have been 1,000 people in attendance.
Only the New Testament has been written in their dialect. The Old Testament stories are heard second-hand or read in Arabic or English, the language of education in the south. There is no currency. The people plant crops but the army comes down to .steal, rape, and burn their crops. The barter- system is based on salt, sugar and soap. There is much corruption and I was unsure I could trust anyone. The people feel betrayed by the free world.
Many Christians are paying the ultimate sacrifice for their faith. There are reports of Christians crucified upside down. Many children have been taken into slavery by raiding forces from the north.
Despite all the agony and deprivation caused by war., the churches are growing. To visit one we trekked 14 miles, sometimes up to the neck in swamps, and crossing two rivers.
In all it took eight hours. We were met by hundreds of people singing praises to God. The church, made of mud in the shape of a cross, seated 1,000 people and was full. They wanted us to preach and teach immediately and listened through translators. They killed several chickens and a goat for- us to eat. The next morning I tried to hold a clinic but had to give up because there was a risk of it causing a riot.
Since then I have paid two more visits to southern Sudan. It lovely to meet old friends and they were overjoyed to see us. I organised the immunisation of 2,500 children and saw many sick people. There were many surgical and medical conditions including. river blindness, guinea worm, bilharzia and tuberculosis, but malaria was the most common. The afternoons, were too hot to work or even to sleep. The International Red Cross is hoping. to establish centres for primary health care and have already begun a vaccination programme.
During all my visits I saw despair, but also hope. The church of Jesus Christ is being built in a way I have never- experienced before. In one area I visited it has grown from 11 to 17 churches of over 1,000 people. 'The wind blows wherever It please,,' (John 3:8).
Dr Raymond Givan works for the Africa Inland Mission
