Saving Sudan
Category: Faith...
Posted Tuesday, September 21, 2004 at 10:01 AM [GMT-6]

I was humbled and honored to receive a visit yesterday from Bishop Elias Taban. He is the National Bishop in the Sudanese province of Equatoria for the Independent Evangelical Presbyterian Church (IEPC). He is also the leader in a focused strategy to evangelize and disciple the entire region of southern Sudan and the northern regions of neighboring Uganda and the DRC.

Bishop Taban is in the States for a week or so as a guest of Stan and Deborah Fikes, the Midlanders who founded and head up BASIC Ministries International and its Sudan Project. I've had the privilege for the past several years to work with them as a volunteer webmaster, and thus have had access to the reports filed by Bishop Taban and his teams as they travel throughout the region showing the "JESUS Film."

I've been so impressed by this former child soldier as he uses a grass-roots strategy to reach out to the myriad people groups in the literally hundreds of villages and camps in the region...and I was equally impressed to meet him in person. He has a strong physical presence -- I'm no midget but he towered over me -- with a direct gaze, a ready smile and a mellow voice. This is a man who has seen death and destruction, but has a vision of peace and hope...and a realistic strategy for achieving it.

He is no naive dreamer, however. Bishop Taban is politically astute, but more importantly, he understands quite well the enemy's strategy, which is nothing less than to bring jihad throughout Africa, with the aim of eventually instituting Islamic law -- the Sharia -- in the government of every country. The battle is both spiritual and physical.

There's much more that I'd like to share with you about his visit and our conversation, but there are security issues to consider, and I'm not qualified nor authorized to act as a spokesman. From a personal perspective, however, the opportunity to pray with and for this man of God, and then to hear him pray for me by name and with great specificity was a wonderful thing.

If you want to be involved in this important work, there are instructions on the BASIC Ministry website. Take a look at the reports and photos that are being sent back by the evangelism teams, and see if God leads you to partner with them.