Crisis In Sudan

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Speak your mind. And now, here's today's Truth Talk Live host. You might think maybe it's over in the Ukraine in the Russian war, the conflict there. Maybe it's in the Gaza Strip in Israel. And those are horrible events going on, and a lot of bloodshed. But there's an untold crisis, Matt Chansey, Perfusion Project Foundation, that we have no idea about. Listeners, I was shocked when you told me we were trying to get Brad on a satellite phone. Brad Phillips is in the middle of it. There's piles and piles of people trying to get out that are on the banks of the Nile River, just like, almost like in ancient Egypt. Tell us what's going on, Matt Chansey, PPF.

Stu, thanks so much for having me on. Yes, you hit it. You hit the nail on the head. It is the worst humanitarian crisis in the world today. And it's sad because most Americans have no idea it's going on. You can barely find a news story about it. But it's been taking place since April 15th of last year.

It's been rolling and rolling and getting bigger and bigger. And now, for instance, in the capital city of Khartoum, 90% of the industry is gone from where it was just before April of last year. The currency is in freefall and over 10 million people have been displaced in a population, maybe 40 million nationwide.

It's 10 million and growing. And several hundred thousand of those displaced people are Christians who are ethnic newborns. They live in the southern Kordofan region, or they come from that region. And for whatever reason, they had moved to the city, like many people in the country moved to the city here to find better work or educational opportunities. And they were trapped in the city when the war began on April 15th, and they've been gradually trying to make their way out over the last several months and trying to stay in safe areas.

And when those safe areas now become not safe anymore, they moved to another area. And many of them are trying to head back to their ancestral lands in the Nuba Mountains because that's safe right now, comparatively safe. And so what we've been doing is Persecution Project is trying to help as many of those people who are not able to get out on their own. There's a lot of widows, a lot of orphans, a lot of elderly who just simply do not have the resources or the ability to hike for days and days and days to try to get to a safe area back to the Nuba Mountains. So what we've been doing is we've been working with our team on the ground to try to identify those people who really need our help and to get them out. And we're finding them in different places. Months ago, we did an emergency evacuation out of Khartoum itself.

That is a very difficult place to work right now. And so what we're finding is there's other people who are making it out of the city but they're getting trapped in certain areas because they just run out of resources or they just don't have the ability to move and there's no transportation. And one of those areas is on the White Nile River in a place called Rank, which is actually in South Sudan. So sometimes it's kind of funny how there's a sliver of land that goes way up into Sudan. It's like a finger that points up into Sudan. And there's at the very top of South Sudan and it's called Rank. And so you have a lot of Sudanese refugees, a lot of Nuba people who are fleeing Sudan and they're going into South Sudan but they don't have any other way to get back into Sudan to go to the Nuba Mountains, which is in Sudan proper. So they're working through this circuitous route to go kind of around down the river and up and around and then back into the Nuba. So we identified several thousand that are in that position right now. Brad is there now. Yesterday he was able to get out almost 300 Nuba believers and many of them, mostly by boat, but they did send a plane in there to get the people who were the worst in terms of their physical health or their condition. So you had a lot of elderly, particularly, who couldn't survive the boat trip, so they took them by plane.

So that's what's happening right now. And we have an opportunity, Stu, as the body of Christ, to really minister to our brothers and sisters who are trying to make it to safety. And you're not going to read about this most anywhere else.

There have been very few stories. So we invite your listeners who've partnered with us many, many times in the past, if they want to help us, they can visit our website, persecutionproject.org, and they can contribute to our relief and shelter program, which is funding our evacuation efforts right now. But any donation of any amount will just be fantastic. The price point to get one person to safety is around $240, $250.

That's obviously fluctuating depending on what mode of transportation we have to use and how many legs in the journey they have to take, or how many stops they have to make. So we're just doing whatever we can to get as many people out. We need to raise, right now, we need to raise around $300,000, $250,000 to $300,000 to get out another 1,000 refugees. So any help that your listeners can provide will be extremely appreciated right now, and certainly we have, you can go to our website and sign up to receive updates. We just sent out an email today to let people know.

We had a couple of photos and an audio message from Brad, who was able to get us a little message via satellite, just to give people an update about what's happening, because you're not really going to find it on the major network news channels. So persecutionproject.org, you can sign up to receive our emails and newsletter, and we can keep you informed on how you can pray and get active for the persecuted church in Sudan. That's wonderful. I mean, just imagine you're in your town, and the bombs go off in your big city you live in, and it's a complete war zone, and you're like stuck, and you can't get out, and there's snipers trained on your house or your RMB or whatever, because they find out you're a Christian. And so the Persecution Project, you are actively trying to help these dear souls get home or to get to a safe place, and the Nuba Mountains has been identified as a place that's safe, I guess, right?

That's correct. That's where people can go and get sanctuary, and there's a strong Christian community. A lot of Muslims are fleeing there, and they're getting the gospel. You guys are sharing the good news of Christ. Talk about the evangelism when we come back from this quick break on Truth Talk Live. It's Stu Epperson here. We're going to talk a little more about this crisis that no one else is talking about right here on this show.

Do not touch that dial. Back at this. Sudan is on fire. There are all kinds of civil wars brewing. People are being killed. Bodies in the streets.

All kinds of human beings made in God's image are lined up on the banks of the Nile River trying to get out of these densely war-filled areas. Matt Chancey, we couldn't get Brad Phillips, but Matt Chancey, you are really the guy who does a lot of getting the word out for the Persecution Project Foundation, and you're on the phone. Talk about the severity of this, Matt, and how important it is in this time of need that we pray for our brothers and sisters in Christ in the Sudan and pray for great open doors for the gospel, because this is a prime emission field.

That's correct, Stu. Thanks again for having me on to talk about this. With any crisis, there's also an opportunity, and sometimes crises in our lives get us to change course and go where we should have gone from the very beginning. But it's God's mercy in our lives to bring suffering so that we can learn to trust fully in Him, and that's what's happening to our brothers and sisters in the Nuba Mountains. The church on the ground is responding. There is a very vibrant and growing church in Sudan. I've been involved in this 25 years, and I've seen just the amazing growth of the gospel message being spread throughout that country in the Nuba Mountains of Sudan. The population when I first started going there in 2011 was, I believe it was around 1.5 million, so now there's over 3 million.

It's probably closer to 3.5 million now, because just in the last six months, we have seen over 400,000 refugees pouring out of other places of Sudan trying to escape the fighting in the current war there, and then coming back to their ancestral home in the Nuba Mountains, because that area is relatively safe. It is under the administration of the Nuba people. They have been fighting their own battle against the Islamists in Khartoum, the capital, and the central government there who have been trying to wipe them out, but the Christians and the Nuba people have been successful.

It's a mixed community. There are Muslims and Christians there, but in that area, because they're all related together, blood is thicker than faith, and Islam is relatively new to that area of the world. Christianity is historic in that area going way back because it was a part of the Coptic church centuries ago, but over time, the faith was lost, and then when missionaries started going in the 1917, I believe it was the first modern missionary, they started converting.

I think the first convert was in 1921 in a place called Haibon, and that is the site of a Bible college to this day. So there is a lot of evangelism. There's a lot of growth of the church, and the church operates in these areas of the world, very remote and cut off from just any normal infrastructure that you and I are used to.

The church really functions as the social safety net in these communities, and so that's what's happening right now. In the area of Rink, which is in the upper Nile in South Sudan, it's a little sliver of land that pokes into Sudan. There's thousands of people who are Sudanese trying to escape the war.

Most of them are Nuba, and they're trying to get boat passage to areas in South Sudan from which they can more easily transit back into the Nuba Mountains, which is right across the border. And so what the church is doing is seeking to intercede in not just prayer, but in active compassion by getting these people out. And so Brad Phillips, our president, is there on the ground right now. He was in Rink yesterday, and with him, of course, were several pastors who are a part of the consortium that distributes relief and shelter items that we're able to bring in through the giving of people like you and your audience who equip us. And then we take these items into the areas of need, and the church makes sure that those items get to the people that need them the most, and that's what's happening right now. So we're moving people, we're evacuating as many people as we can, and then comes the resettlement where we're providing them with relief and shelter supplies and, of course, discipleship materials. Bibles, print Bibles and audio Bibles, which are very popular as part of an evangelistic effort because we want people to not just physically be blessed, but also spiritually. And this is what the church has been doing for years.

So yep, this is a need right now. You're not going to hear about it in the news. It's just not as interesting to the major networks as other items around the world, areas of crisis. But it's something that interests us, and it's something that interests the church, the persecuted church on the ground in Sudan, and it's a real opportunity for us to partner with them not only in prayer, but in active compassion. Matt, how encouraging is it, and I've been with you in the dark for a reason in Sudan, and our listeners hearing this may just join us.

Folks, there is an absolute crisis going on with millions of people displaced and trying to survive, trying to get food, trying to get water, trying to get medicine. And right in the thick of it, Brad Phillips is not on the phone with me now, Matt Chancey is, because Matt is stateside. That means he's in the U.S. with me. I'm on Truth Talk Live right now. I'm Stu Everson.

Brad is there in an area called Rank. The Nile River runs through there, and there's thousands of people begging him, please take me to safety. Please, will you go in and get my family?

Please, my sister just got killed by the radical Muslims or by this army or that army. And the Appreciation Project is trying to help them with medicine and trying to get them to a safe area, which the Nuba Mountains, which is a largely Christian area, is a very safe area if we can get them there. And you're trying to get buses, you're trying to get a transport. But Matt Chancey, how encouraging is it to look in the eyes of these people? These aren't beggars. These aren't freeloaders. These people work hard. They're industrious and they love the Lord. And they're like praying for us that we'll wake up here in America, aren't they?

Aren't they, Matt? It's probably the best prayer partner you can have is somebody who has been persecuted and who has so little compared to us, and yet they're concerned about us and they lift us up from prayer. And so over the years, you know, we've been in this area just time and time again, growing these relationships, and they just literally become a part of your family. And so when they reach out to you and ask for help, you know they're not just waiting for you to show up and save the day. You show up and they're already doing the work. And they're just needing a little bit of help to get across the finish line. And that's what we do.

A big problem for them might not be so big for us. You know, if your family was in dire straits, you could probably scrape together a few hundred bucks to get a ticket on a barge out. But for most people, that is incredible. That's what they may make in a year. So if we can raise two or three hundred dollars, we can save a life. And that's really cheap when you consider what's at stake. And so that's one thing that attracted me personally to this work is that we just don't realize sometimes how little it takes to do so much good.

And it's not just the financial side of it. Just when somebody prays for you, you can really feel the difference. You can really feel loved. And that enough, that vapor of hope sometimes that you have to live on when you're going through a desert in your life. That's where these people are right now. And the little help that we offer them, the few starfish we could throw back in the ocean, as it were, those are vapors of hope that people, not just the people that are saved, but the people who hear about the people who are saved, it gives them encouragement.

You know what? We haven't been forgotten. God is providing for us. And it just gives them the encouragement to keep going. We have an opportunity to do that. People can go to persecutionproject.org. They can sign up for our newsletter.

They can sign up for our email alerts and we can keep you posted about all the different ways that you can ally with us and serve the persecuted church. We call it active compassion because we all care, but that care has to translate into action. And that can be in the form of intercessory prayer. It can also be in the form of financial gifts or in the case of like Brad, he's there. He's on the ground doing it so we can all work together in whatever capacity that God places us in and we can make a difference. Please pray.

Please give. Please support this mission. You may be upset by all the bad stuff happening in America. Imagine a country like war towards Sudan that they're desperate for any help, any sanctuary, any hope you can give them. And Brad Phillips and the Persecution Project Foundation, Matt Chancey, Ed Lyons, all of the wonderful folks at Gaza, everyone at this ministry.

These are the real deal folks. I went to Sudan with them. I'll never be the same.

In fact, that was the name of the newsletter that I helped write. I will never be the same because I looked in the eyes of people who are beaten and persecuted and ransacked and they love Jesus and they love me and they had nothing. And I have so much. Everyone listening to my voice is 50 times wealthier than the wealthiest person in this area. But they have Jesus and that's all they need. But they can sure use help from their brothers and sisters Christ in the West. Thank you, Matt Chancey, for joining us on Truth Talk Live. Give the website one more time, will you, pal? Persecutionproject.org or you can go to nubahospital.com if that's easier for you to remember. And that'll take you to a page about our medical work. And from there you can find all the things that we do.

But persecutionproject.org is where you can find more information and sign up. And we'll keep praying for Brad, who's right there and the rest of the team and all those pastors that are working side by side with him to disciple and rescue these refugees. God bless you, Matt. Thanks for being on, pal. God bless you, too.