VOM Partners Spread the Gospel to Sudan in the Midst of Volatile Peace

Despite peace being volatile in Sudan after the formation of the peace treaty between Sudan's Khartoum government and the rebel Sudan People’s Liberation Movement (SPLM) on 9th January, Christian groups have begun to scatter the seed of the Gospel across the physically and spiritually wounded nation.

Voice of the Martyrs, a US-based interdenominational organisation providing aid to Christians around the world who are being persecuted for their faith in Christ, has recently partnered with the Persecution Project Foundation to focus on a crisis relief outreach in Sudan.

During the 21-year civil war in Sudan, there were often clashes between Muslims and Christians from Southern Sudan. However, the crisis in Sudan has opened a way for a new opportunity for the Gospel to reach out to unbelievers.

Brad Phillips with Persecution Project explained to Mission News Network (MNN), "What's happening now is these Muslim Darfuri's that are fleeing other Muslims that are persecuting them on behalf of the government, are coming into Southern Sudan and it's Christians that are ministering to them, and so as a result, many of them are coming to Christ."

Radio broadcasting was reported to be a useful tool in reaching into Darfur, between Christians and Muslims, even though they have different believes, the common language they speak allows them to share the same message of Christ.

Phillips said, "One of the other ways that we are reaching believers and unbelievers is through a radio station that we were able to establish in Southern Sudan called Radio Peace, and we've been broadcasting the gospel in Arabic as well as in African dialects, in seven languages being broadcast now from Radio Peace, seven days a week. So we distributed a lot of self-powered radio sets which are being used as a platform for the Gospel in the nation of Sudan."

"It's the Dinka Christians that are providing relief to their Muslim neighbours, and as a result many of these Muslim neighbours are open to the Gospel and open to preaching. And it's very exciting to see now some churches beginning to pop up in Darfur. And so, I think that before the crisis there wasn't much of a presence of the church, but because of the relief situation, and because of, really, Christians are the ones responding to this tremendous crisis (there now is a larger church presence)," Philip testified that the outreach ministry has led to the formation of a large number of churches.

Phillips says that Christians everywhere need to be the first responders to the crisis, to provide relief and the compassion of Christ. And as the deep hatred is overcome by absolute love, the Gospel will go forth.

"What's exciting is to see some cultures that are traditionally closed off to the Gospel now having the opportunity to receive the Word of God in the context of their situation that they're in right now."

According to Freedom House, a US-based centre for religious freedom, two million people - mostly African Christians and traditional believers from south and central Sudan - have perished in the two-decade civil war. The Khartoum government and its agents were carrying out genocidal levels of violence against the Southern Sudanese. A Commission on International Religious Freedom found in a 1st May 2000 Report that Khartoum was the "world's most violent abuser of the right to freedom of religious belief."