Thank you. I. The longest war of this century is still in progress, and it is intensifying, in the largest country in Africa, Sudan. The Muslim Arab North has been attacking the Christian Black South since 1955. This war, in fact, is part of an even longer conflict. For 1,400 years, Islam has been forcing itself south, and the Christians in southern Sudan have been resisting the southward expansion of militant Islam literally for 14 centuries. The oldest community of Christians in Africa are in Sudan, and they are suffering the most severe persecution in the world today. In particular, the Nuba Mountains, which is actually in central Sudan, A little island of Christianity in the sea of Islam has been suffering the most severe human rights abuses and the worst persecution anywhere in the world today. Over one million Nubans have been forced into concentration camps. Most of the villages have been destroyed. Most of the churches have been burnt down. The vast majority of their crops have been burnt. Their cattle have been destroyed. Even the wells have been poisoned. Hundreds of Christians have actually been crucified in the Nuba Mountains. Sudan is the largest country in Africa. It is also the most difficult to travel across. It is a country of contrasts, stretching from the equatorial rainforests and swamps of the Sud in the south, through the Nuba, Jebel Mara and Red Sea mountain ranges in the center, to the Sahara Desert of the north. It is about one-third the size of the United States of America. There are approximately 30 million people in this vast area of Sudan. but they constitute over 140 ethnic groups and they speak 117 languages. But even here the contrasts are great, between the Muslim Arabs of the North, approximately 70% of the population, and the Christian Blacks and Animists of the South. Arabic is the official language of the Muslim North, and English has been chosen as the official language of the rebel and resistance-controlled South. The International Human Rights and Relief Agencies rate Sudan as amongst one of the five countries in the world with the worst score on human suffering index. Some of the very poorest people on earth are in Sudan. Approximately 2 million people have died since 1983 as a result of the war. Over 5 million people in the south of Sudan have lost their homes and are internal refugees or displaced people. Sudan has the greatest concentration of medical needs on the continent. Yet, while Sudan is the site of the most vicious anti-Christian persecution raging anywhere in the world today, the church is growing faster in southern Sudan than anywhere else that we know of. More Muslims are coming to cross the Sudan than anywhere else that we know of. South Sudan remains as the oldest community of Christians in Africa, a bulwark against the southward expansion of radical Islam. It is on the very front line of the fight for faith and freedom. We are fighting for freedom of our religion. We see that the government in Sudan has been depriving us all this time. from worshiping our religion and we are not free at all. Whenever you are a Christian, you will suffer a lot. Especially when we were in school, we were really finding it very difficult to go ahead with our education simply because we were Christians. Many times I have seen witnessing this personally even. Since when I was a small boy, up to now, I'm still witnessing all these atrocities and bad things done to our people. Simply like here in Kota Bibi, they were bombarding our innocent displaced people with gunship and they were burying our chayis. But I'm sure most of our SPLA soldiers who have been captured by Sudan government have been killed. when we were seizing Juba, they were getting their supply through UN... planes and other things. And recently they have been supplying this tractor, Carbino, with other equipment to continue with atrocities to our people. They should not think that the Sudan government, as a Muslim government, is going to defeat us whatsoever the case, because we have a will to fight them up to the last man. I fear so many atrocities being committed by the government of Sudan and also by the militias, which they call popular defense forces, or the marae. A few examples I can tell you are that in one of the villages in Awil area was burned and about 13 young boys, girls were taken. I have seen one of the young ladies, her breast was cut and also were taken, but we rescued her after one day we pursued them. It has really repeated itself. The same problems which faced us at first, then we joined the first movement, there was a lot increasing. There was opposition of religious, Christianity especially. The Arabs were opposing their Sharia, Islamic law. They were killing also innocent people, civilians, as well as the schoolboys and officials. The message I could give to the outside world is that they should really help, not to bring us weapons, but to help us in our movement, to bring some medicines for our casualties. That means that treatment and also to convey our struggle to the other outside world. We don't kill our captives of war. We do preserve them and put them and give them their treatment and they are really being treated as our brothers because we don't want to kill. but we want our rights. We request from the outside countries to help us, to pray for us to have peace in our country and to help us with medicines. I'm not going to do it. Although the oldest community of Christians in Africa are suffering the most severe persecution in the world today, in the largest country in Africa, Sudan, yet there are barely 24 active Protestant missionaries for the entire country of 30 million people. And most of these are actually in the capital city of Khartoum. The war afflicted mainly Christian South, where there's approximately 7 million people, have only 5 permanent missionaries. And all of these actually come from South Africa. Since Frontline Fellowship first became aware of the monumental needs and the unprecedented missionary opportunities in Sudan, we have written literally hundreds of articles and letters to make the plight of our beleaguered brethren in Sudan known. We've spoken out on hundreds of occasions in churches, public meetings on radio and TV programs throughout the world to inform and involve others in the campaign for religious freedom in Sudan. and to inspire prayer and love and action for the persecuted believers of Sudan. We've also published Faith Under Fire in Sudan, the first book to comprehensively deal with the current conflict, the persecution and the revival in Sudan. Just in the first half of 1997, Frontline Fellowship delivered over 30,000 Bibles, hymn books and prayer books and other Christian books in 13 languages to seven different regions of war-torn Sudan. Frontline Fellowship also conducted over 22 field missions, field trips into Southern Sudan, delivering over 17 tons of Bibles and 2 tons of medical equipment and medicines. Our missionaries have conducted over 450 church services and leadership training courses inside Sudan, and we've repaired and restored two hospitals. A registered nurse on our staff conducted medical workshops for medical orderlies, nurses and field medics in Sudan. and now we are busy seeking to deliver a fully equipped four-wheel drive ambulance to one of these clinics. In order to reach the suffering believers of Southern Sudan, We need to overcome many obstacles. The logistics are complicated. Sudan is the largest country in Africa and it's one of the most difficult to travel across. The logistics are always very complicated. We need to travel over some of the harshest terrain imaginable. The heat is often stifling. The roads are treacherous. We've suffered various accidents on both motorbike and vehicle. River crossings have been challenging and much of our ministry inside Sudan has been accomplished while sick. Several of our missionaries have had to actually be casualty evacuated by aircraft while coming down with various tropical diseases. Of course, the outreaches into Sudan are dangerous because Sudan is officially an Islamic country and it's involved in a vicious war of aggression with the Christian South. When we fly in, we need to fly in no-fly zones in defiance of flight bans and behind enemy lines. much of our work is actually done at the battle fronts, ministering amongst the soldiers and presenting chaplaincy services, delivering Bibles to those in the most inaccessible areas. This is a mountain. This is a mountain. This is a mountain. This is a mountain. This is a mountain. This is a mountain. This is a mountain. This is a mountain. This is a mountain. This is a mountain. This is a mountain. This is a mountain. This is a mountain. This is a mountain. This is a mountain. This is a mountain. This is a mountain. This is a mountain. This is a mountain. This is a mountain. This is a mountain. This is a mountain. This is a mountain. This is a mountain. This is a mountain. This is a mountain. This is a mountain. This is a mountain. This is a mountain. This is a mountain. This is a mountain. This is a mountain. This is a mountain. This is a mountain. This is a mountain. This is a mountain. This is a mountain. I can't even touch that. I can't even imagine if he might let me do that. He's like a little kid. Ha! Hey! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha I don't want what they've done. On one particular mission outreach into the Nuba Mountains in central Sudan, our mission team, in conjunction with an affiliated organization, were attacked by government of Sudan helicopter gunships upon arrival. within 45 minutes of the plane landing with the Arabic Bibles from our mission and with the agricultural tools and food and medicines from the other mission. Two Mi-24 Hind helicopter gunships came roaring in over the airstrip, machine cannons blazing. Our team saw two Nuba women shredded by the machine cannon fire. Missiles were fired, huge boulders were blown into pieces. As the helicopter gunships came roaring across the treetop level with the 30mm machine cannons blazing, our workers could actually see the helmeted face of the pilot. The door gunner actually fired directly at one of our workers. Bullets cracked and ricocheted all over, churning up the ground as they dived for cover. Some SPLA soldiers, the Sudanese People's Liberation Army resistance fighters who are controlling most of the hillsides in Nuba Mountains, led our mission team up the mountains to a secure area controlled by the resistance movement. This was the beginning of an eight-day mission to the Nuba Mountains. During this time, our missionaries saw government of Sudan forces burning villages. They amassed documentation and photographs of the systematic scorched earth policy of the Muslim government of Sudan. They saw some of the terror bombings. They received testimony about the slave raids and the concentration camps. The people in the Nuba Mountains are incredibly tenacious. One individual had his kneecap shattered by a bullet of a government of Sudan soldier when his village was destroyed. They took him to a concentration camp, one of the so-called peace camps. They refused him medical care. They would not even allow him a drink of water unless he renounced Christ and recited the Islamic creed. He refused. They smashed his other kneecap with rifle butts until He was left there in the ground in agony in the blazing sun. They left him alone there. They would not give him water or medical care and he would not renounce Christ. Later that night this Nuba civilian escaped. He crawled under the barbed wire fence and without the use of his two legs he just pulled himself by his arms all night and all day he would hide under a bush and then all night he would crawl again. It took him several days to reach the lines of the resistance movement. Since then, he's had his one leg amputated, he's got a crutch, and he's fighting. These are the kind of people that we're now dealing with up in the Nuba Mountains. In August 1996, two helicopter gunships of the government of Sudan came roaring in over the village of Kotibi. They shot rockets and machine cannon fire directly into two churches. These two churches were burned to the ground and five civilians were killed in this attack. It is over 120 years since General Charles Gordon suppressed the slave trade in Sudan. Before he began his campaign, seven out of every eight Sudanese were slaves. Incredible as it may seem, the specter of slave traders swooping down unprotected villages is once again becoming commonplace. Tens of thousands of Sudanese Christian men, women and children have been kidnapped and have been sold as slaves by the government of Sudan's soldiers and militia. There can no longer be any doubt that slavery is widespread in Sudan. There are also frequent and consistent reports that slaves have been exported to Muslim countries in the Persian Gulf and to Libya. Many of these captives are beaten, treated brutally and sexually abused. Many are branded like cattle. Slaves who are caught trying to escape are often beaten, mutilated or even murdered. Slavery acts as an inducement for the government of Sudan militias to attack the South and also serves as a weapon of terror to destabilize and debilitate the South. In the Bible, in the book of Isaiah, we read of the land of Sudan. Woe to the land of whirring wings along the rivers of Kush, which sends envoys by sea and papyrus boats over the water. Go swift messengers to a people tall and smooth-skinned, to a people feared far and wide, an aggressive nation of strange speech, whose land is divided by rivers. All you people of the world, you who live on the earth, when a banner is raised on the mountains, you will see it. When a trumpet sounds, you will hear it. This is what the Lord says. For before the harvest, when the blossom is gone, when the flower becomes a ripening grape, He will cut off the shoots with pruning knives and take down the spreading branches. They will all be left to the mountain birds of prey and to the wild animals. The birds will feed on them all summer, the wild animals all winter. At that time, gifts will be brought to the Lord Almighty from a people tall and smooth-skinned. from a people feared far and wide, an aggressive nation of strange speech, whose land is divided by rivers. These sacrifices will be brought to Mount Zion, the place of the name of the Lord Almighty. In Zephaniah 3 verse 10 we read the prophecy, From beyond the rivers of Cush my worshippers, the daughters of my dispersed ones, shall bring my offering. In Psalm 68 verse 31 we read, Cush will submit herself to God. The virtual news blackout over southern Sudan is very disturbing. The largest country in Africa is suffering the longest war of this century and the oldest community of Christians in Africa are suffering the worst and most vicious persecution raging anywhere in the world today. Yet the opportunities for ministry in Sudan are so great. The suffering is so intense. The needs are so desperate. The largest country in Africa requires our largest and greatest missionary efforts. The oldest community of Christians in Africa require our most urgent and wholehearted assistance. Frontline Fellowship needs your help. to rise to meet this challenge. Please join with us in fervent prayer that the sufferings of our Christian brethren Sudan become known to the whole world, that the persecutors be exposed and opposed, and that peace with justice be firmly established. Kush will submit herself to God. For more information about the various literature resources, the Frontline Fellowship newsletter, audio tapes or videos, speakers available or training courses offered, please write to Frontline Fellowship, Post Office Box 74, Newlands 7725, South Africa.