June 18, 2001
Dear Friends and Family,
As I write this Phileena and I are scheduled to leave for Africa on July 13. Back in 1996 I led a team into Kenya and Uganda to do some rural development in a Ugandan village called Bukaleba. With that exception, most of our time and energy has been spent in South Asia and more recently South America.
For the past 7 months the WMF Justice Fund has been receiving gifts for the refugees that have suffered because of the civil war in Sierra Leone (see the article “Wounded Childhood” in The Cry Fall 2000). Phileena and I are then planning on flying into West Africa to facilitate a small team made up of WMF staff to assess the situation in Sierra Leone.
Fighting for control of the vast natural diamond minds in this small West African nation, a war has dragged on in Sierra Leone that has created more refugees than any African conflict. Considered the poorest country in the world, Sierra Leone has a life expectancy rate of 37 years. Over half of its 4.5 million population have assumed refugee status. More than 15,000 children under the age of 18 have been forced to pick up arms for the government or the rebel groups and fight.
During the democratic elections in 1996, the electoral commission proposed the slogan, “The future is in your hands” as an inspirational call to get the population to the ballot boxes to vote. The rebels responded with a campaign of their own… they chopped off the hands of anyone they suspected to be pro-government. Today this terrible practice continues to be used as a tool of fear and intimidation–usually being carried out by kidnapped children who are heavily drugged and brainwashed to perform such horrendous acts. More than 100,000 have survived having their hands amputated and are forced to live in camps throughout the country.
WMF is praying and considering what we as a community can do to address the horrible suffering created by this war. The team that Phileena and I will be a part of will begin a needs assessment phase that we hope will provide opportunity for on-going transformational contributions from our community.
During the first weekend of June the Word Made Flesh board of directors met in Wilmore, KY for the first of our semi-annual 2001 meetings. It was a productive time as new staff members were added to the community and decisions were made pertaining to the future ministry of WMF.
One of those decisions was to approve a proposal to initiate an educational program in southern Sudan.
As I'm sure you're aware, a civil war between the Muslim majority in the north of Sudan has been waged against the minority Christian population living in the south of Sudan. More Sudanese (primarily Christians from the south) have been killed during this 18 year civil war than the total number of casualties produced from Rwanda, Kosovo, and Bosnia combined. Even now there are an estimated 3,000,000 southern Sudanese on the brink of starvation- many won't live through the summer.
Phileena and I have been invited by a member of the RASS (the Relief Association of Southern Sudan which is the humanitarian wing of the SPDF or the Sudan People Democratic Front) to visit some of the refugee camps in southern Sudan as a first step in initiating a formalized partnership with Sudanese believers in pioneering a faith-based, development-oriented relief effort.
This relief work would be an educational project that WMF would sponsor and support by bringing a Sudanese project administrator on staff. The work would be carried out by Sudanese refugees living in the camps along the borders of Sudan-Kenya and Sudan-Ethiopia. The project would provide educational opportunities for the persecuted Christian community of Sudanese refugees living in these refugee camps.
The first step in seeing this vision implemented involves an assessment trip during July-August of this year. We have taken a step of faith and purchased tickets to East Africa but have yet to secure the needed funding to enter Sudan.
Because both Sudan and Sierra Leone are nations torn apart by civil war Phileena and I will need your prayers.
1) Pray for our safety. In many areas we will be traveling the risks may be greater than we have ever faced during any of our previous overseas trips. In some of the areas we will need armed guards as escorts.
2) Pray for our health. Because we will be spending much of the summer in refugee camps, pray that the Lord would keep us healthily and free from any sickness. We will also be in some very poor and very rural areas where proper sanitation and adequate health care facilities may not be available.
3) Pray for sufficient funding. Civil war in Sierra Leone and Sudan make travel in and out of these nations almost impossible. The expenses involved in such trips are more than our usual ventures. We are still in need of sufficient funds to finalize our Sudan itinerary and if we are unable to raise these funds we will be forced to cancel or postpone the Sudan portion of the trip.
We will count on your prayers and when we return from Africa in August will be let you know how the trip was and how the Lord was faithful to answer all of our prayers.
Thank you for your love and support.
Peace,
Chris and Phileena