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As I laid tucked into my bed at 4:45 in the morning, silent, hot tears slid down my cheeks. All around us were the booming, popping sounds of AK-47s, mortar rounds, and Lord knows what else firing into the darkness. My heart pounded, and I thought, “Oh God, this is what war sounds like!” The gunfire echoed throughout the empty streets of Tonj and rattled through my bones. I had flashes in my mind of random images that I had never seen in real life, but could easily imagine: militia on horseback throwing burning torches onto grass-thatched roofs, women running into the bush with their babies in the arms only to be gunned down from behind, men tied together and shot execution-style, tanks firing onto what was only hours before a sleepy, peaceful Dinka town. We were smack-dab in the middle of a war zone in South Sudan…
Or in the middle of a SPLA (Sudan People’s Liberation Army) Day celebration. Though Sabet had warned us that shots would be fired in town as a celebration of the soldiers who freed the South, there was really no warning for the intensity of gunfire that we heard for hours early Monday morning. I knew that it was a celebration and not an actual battle, but hearing the sounds of the gunfire helped me to understand what it sounds like when war comes to your village. Though I wasn’t actually scared, I imagined how terrifying it must have been for the men, women, and children who were taken by surprise by the northern forces during the war; how helpless they must have felt against automatic assault rifles, mortars, tanks, and aerial bombardments. I silently cried for the suffering and blood shed in this land that I had come to love so much.
And suffering that could so easily come again.
Sudan, at this very moment, is not just a ticking time bomb, it’s an entire land cloaked in kerosine-soaked rags that needs only the smallest of sparks to set it all ablaze. Recent reports have been flooding in here in Kampala that Abyei, the contested region that has long been known as the flashpoint between the North and South of Sudan, is under fire. Tonight, we received word that Abyei has been completely captured by the North, and that they are burning and looting everything in sight. Tens of thousands of people have, once again, fled for their lives, and many have been murdered.
Are we really going to let this happen again?
In this part of the world, war rarely stays contained. Abyei may be the only newsworthy topic coming out of Sudan right now, but there are reports from missionaries in other parts of the South reporting village takeovers and armed conflicts. War spreads faster than anything else in Africa, and if left unchecked, will overtake a nation of beautiful, tall cattle herders again.
Need there be anymore suffering, anymore refugees, anymore Lost Boys?
Please pray tonight in earnest and with urgency that God moves powerfully through Sudan. Pray that He gives courage to the right people, people who have the power to stop this craziness. Pray that He protects and hides the innocent mothers, children, and elderly. Pray that He fills the leaders with wisdom and an overabundance of love and forgiveness. Pray that this is the time that peace may reign. Pray that this is the time that God shows His might and absolute power over forces that rise against Him.
Please pray for this land of people whom I love with all of my heart.
