DarjeelinGirl

Really! I just heard it on KTIS. He was fifteen years old.

Dan, Rick, Jen, you can all rest easy now.

In conjunction with my review below about William O. Levi’s book The Bible or the Axe, my friend Amy who is ministering in Sudan as I blog this has given me permission to use clips of her emails. Amy testifies how hard it is for these people. We can also see how God is using people like William and Amy (and us!) in Sudan:

September 9, 2005
[T]he property we are on is beautiful. 2 miles down from us is a logging camp. [I]t is terrible to watch the forest surrounding us disappear. [T]he fear here is that it brings the desert closer… [W]e did an open air preaching for the loggers camp. [I]t was hard. [I]t is mostly men with few wives and children. [T]he men were mostly drunk and heavy smokers. [T]hey view women as sexual objects. [T]hey have a hard life with not much to live for. [T]hey work 24\7 from early morning to late night. [P]lease pray for these people they need a hope and a reason to live.

At one point in the beginning of October, for reasons Amy couldn’t get into, the camp did have to break and move back into town where is was safer. What she told us shortly before the move was

[I] was just at a [UN] meeting and they said the security level may go back up. they said they have heard of LRA movements. [T]hey said the LRA would be coming from east to west, but they could come from [DRC] (Democratic Republic of Congo)as well. [A]lso the LRA in Congo did not disarm so congo government is threatening to disarm them and other groups. They said they would start next week with this plan. If things get bad, those groups might be fleeing and fighting out of Congo. This was the update. The UN wants us to check daily with them to see what the security level is. I will let you know more later.

For the time, that danger passed and they were able to move back to the mission area. Terrorists aren’t the only worries they have, however:

Octopber 29, 2005
[W]e also need prayer for staff and students. [W]e have people with different types of worms, malaria, and other tropical diseases… Please pray [G]od keeps us safe from all of that. [P]ray that God heals all the ill staff and students.

Finally, I just received this this morning:

November 8, 2005
we are in week nine of our mission training school. we have had a week of teaching on what the holy spirit is and the giftings that come from Him. we also … taught on what worship was and how to enter into it. last week we had teaching on marriage, parenting, conflict resolution, diciplining your children, and i can’t remember what else. i loved that week. i learned much about the african culture on how they raise kids. this austrailian couple taught it. they used the bible as the way to teach. …

this week has been rather hard. there have been a couple of NGOs (Non-Government Organization) that have been killed recently by the LRA (bad guys). the most recent was a married couple with small children. they killed the husband in front of the pregnant wife and children. got them all out of the vehicle and then burned the vehicle. the whole family including the [deceased] was later (after a hospital visit) airlifted out of sudan. this has raised the security level here. the UN is saying that the LRA are now attacking the NGOs (targeting). Please pray for this family and the NGO group they worked with. it has been hard on everyone.

According to World Magazine, LRA stands for “Lord’s Resistance Army” and it is lead by a mad man who claims to use the Bible for what he does. Obviously, if he can read it at all, he’s using it backwards. He has got to be every wicked man and woman in the Bible all rolled into one, starting with Lucifer himself.

And because of Amy’s email, this news article is more than just news, it’s real life. Let us keep Amy and the people she works with coated in continual prayer. Let us also pray for and support men like William O. Levi. There is no reason that Sudan, let alone Africa, should have to suffer such darkness.

Lord, shine Your Light, pour out Your Spirit, let Your Reign come down.

We’re up to 11 now. I’ve quit taking pictures because they’re dying really fast if we leave them - I don’t know if it’s the cats or the cold. One thing I have noticed, though - frozen shrews don’t stink.

Like any American, I hear, weekly, reports of this or that unrest and war here or there in Sudan, Darfur and like African places. I have often wondered what all the trouble is about - why such horrible death and destruction, poverty, starvation, hatred? And then not being able to make heads or tails out of this political group over that political group or the Muslims against the non-Muslims, I feel overwhelmed and useless, so I close my web browser and go blissfully back to my untouchable, comfy, American cocoon.

Until now.

Two things have happened in the last three months that have forever shredded my ignorance. One, a gal from the bluer women’s group has gone to help in the Yei area of Sudan and has been able to email first hand reports of the conditions and the needs there. The second is a book called The Bible or the Axe. It is an autobiography of William O. Levi, a Sudanese man who has lost and gained everything he has for the cause of Christ in southern Sudan.

Levi tells the story of his childhood in Sudan and his journey to America to receive an education - the one thing that will make a difference in his country’s future. Through it he explains the political and religious problems in his country and the hope believers there have for a better future for their children. I found it inspiring the way the God’s hand so faithfully rests upon Levi’s life and future. Once caught and about to be executed by Islamists, William’s escape was nothing short of Biblical proportions reminiscent of Paul’s and Silas’ escape from prison or Daniel’s from the lion’s den.

Levi’s ministry began long before he ever received a diploma and headed back to Sudan. On his journey to the US, he left a trail of Christians in his wake. Starting with a prostitute in Cairo, the Lord used Levi to bring a whole apartment full of roommates back to His heart. From there William inadvertently landed in Istanbul where he led a Turkish Muslim to the Lord by pointing out that whereas Allah demands his followers to sacrifice for him in order to achieve holiness, Jesus offers His followers holiness through accepting His sacrifice for them. It’s subtle, but significant. Many more people touched and were touched by Levi’s life as he traveled to America.

I’m sure that those were the times that kept William O’Levi forging ahead because the road was quite costly. Indeed, he did lose his parents to militants shortly after he left his village. There have been many stuggles and a few points of major decision that have greatly impacted where Levi is today.

The book was an easy, but valuable read. It does end rather abruptly, but that probably means the rest of us need to jump in where Levi left off. Our help is sorely needed because the work there is very, very difficult, but so important. The Sudanese Christians (and those to be) need our prayers and support desperately. People like my friend Amy are coming alongside people like William O. Levi and making a difference, and people like us can help.

William O. Levi formed a ministry called Operation Nehemiah. From the website,

Operation Nehemiah Missions is a non-profit Christian relief and development ministry that addresses the plight of the persecuted church in the Sudan. Operation Nehemiah is unique, in that it is overseen and managed by Sudanese Christian nationals living both in the United States and Africa. The work could not have been a success without the collaborative efforts of the American churches and individual Christians.

Operation Nehemiah provides medical relief, refugee aid, education and employment training, agricultural development and so much more to the people of Sudan. To support this ministry, order the book at Operation Nehemiah’s website. I can’t think of a more relevant, timely book to read this year. Sherry at Semicolon mentioned that she would even read it to her kids as a modern example of God’s hand in our world today. I think that’s a great idea and will do so also.

Magnanimous Disclaimer:
This book was given to me as a gift by William O. Levi through Stacy at Mind&Media for the sole purpose of this review. Make a dent in American media, become a reviewer today!

I’m making stickers for my writing classes and as I searched for images of queens for “Queen Adjectiva”, I found this -

Queen Patsy! I’m not kidding; that’s her given name. She’s some sort of doll, I guess. Looks just like me when I was a kid! I probably even had the same dress.

I tried to make her into a funny sticker, but my graphic artists abilities are limited. So instead I made these stickers -

See how Trogdor forms the “S” in “Strong Verbs”?

and

“Queen Adjectiva” herself.

Here’s one more -