The Case of the Roasted Turkey

At a remote airport neighbouring Sudan, I was sitting outside my thatched room pondering the contrast between what was served for lunch and what my family back home was probably enjoying in my absence. My deep thoughts were suddenly interrupted by a flock of turkeys that wondered nearby. Temptation began to stir in me. “I want roasted turkey”, I thought to myself. I looked at the book on ethics that was in my hand. Yes, I was in a serious ethical dilemma. After a second glance at the birds, my eyes returned to the pages of my book drowning out any more “unethical” thoughts. The next day I was to fly into the Nuba Mountains. Little did I know that I was the turkey to be roasted.

The Nuba Mountains have always been one of the most hostile areas to work within Sudan. For one, the place is completely surrounded by Government of Sudan (GOS) forces. It is literally an island of Christianity in a sea of Islam. Flying there is always done at the risk of being shot down. Clearly the Lord was with me as the aircraft arrived safely after a rough landing on a crooked runway. On the far end of the airstrip were the remains of a crashed plane, indicating that not everyone was as blessed as us. Although the landing was good, this mission trip started off on the wrong foot. The people I’d radioed to meet me at the airstrip didn’t arrive. After the pilot helped me offload the Bibles and other Christian books, he was quickly on his way. So I remained alone in the middle of the Nuba Mountains in 115 F (45 C) heat with a ton of Bibles and no one to meet me. So I waited….

After some time, a vehicle from the Joint Military Commission (JMC) came by to facilitate another flight coming in. The JMC are a neutral, non-UN, unarmed, peacekeeping force that is monitoring the current ceasefire agreement in the Nuba. They were willing to help me in getting the literature to the nearby church.

Once the literature was offloaded, I began walking around with a local interpreter to some of the nearby dwellings to find out if anyone knew of the people that were supposed to have met me at the airstrip. I began to feel very sick, so I sat down under a tree. After a while, I could no longer sit, so I lay on the ground. The vomiting and bad diarrhea kept me from retaining any of my fluids. My condition worsened. I knew I was in bad shape. By some miracle, I found the strength to walk to the nearby JMC compound. There was a doctor there, who after taking one look at me, rushed me into his clinic and began treatment.

I was suffering from heat stroke. My body temperature was over 104 F (40 C). My pulse was through the roof. I was on the verge of going into convulsions, and possibly a coma. Death was close, yet God’s sovereign command overruled. The next two days were spent lapsing in and out of consciousness and frequently racing to the latrine. “My flesh and my heart fail; but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever” Psalm 73:26 Sunday morning came, and I had much to thank God for. My life had been spared and my strength had recovered. After attending the morning service, I met with the church elders, who assisted me in distributing some of the literature. They also knew the people that I was looking for that were supposed to have met me at the airstrip. The only problem was that these people were 40 miles (65 km) away with enemy territory between them and us. I spent the next couple of days training evangelists on the use of the Gospel Recording machines as well as showing the God’s Story in Arabic.

The time came for me to organize transport to meet the people I had come to see, and distribute the remaining literature. After asking around, it looked like taking a camel was my only option to walking. As I returned to the JMC compound to bid my farewells, I saw a Mi-8 helicopter. “Wouldn’t it be nice to take that”, I wishfully thought. Well, the Lord granted the request that I hadn’t made, due to my weak faith. It just so happened that they were taking the helicopter not far from where I needed to go that very day! I was even allowed to take my cargo. I didn’t tell them that my cargo was actually Bibles because they would never have allowed it, due to their policies. Yet I successfully loaded them onto the helicopter, without them knowing what it was. After flying for some time, the helicopter descended into a garrison to pick up some Norwegians monitoring the ceasefire there. When we landed, I looked out and saw the Norwegians saluting some other soldiers, just before they came onboard. When I saw this, I realized that they were not saluting SPLA soldiers, but rather GOS soldiers.

We had landed in a Government of Sudan garrison, and I had half a ton of Bibles with me! This was big trouble. If they were to find me with the Bibles, they would have put my ‘head in a basket’. The ceasefire may have also abruptly ended. Yet God prevented that from happening and soon we were back in the air.

“I will call upon the Lord, who is worthy to be praised; so shall I be saved from my enemies.” 2 Samuel 22:4

Upon arriving at my desired destination, I finally met with my friends and distributed the remaining literature. Reuniting with old friends in the Nuba is always very special.

The last Frontline team had left a complete Jesus Film kit with an evangelist there. During our absence, he had shown this film to over 29,000 people. This kit was carried by foot to villages over 90 miles away. This is an impressive feat considering the heavy weight and size of the generator, fuel, projector and screen needed for each showing.

As we sat down together and spoke of their many needs, I was overwhelmed. The ceasefire signed six months prior, had ended much of the bombings and atrocities, yet the suffering of the people was far from over. Because of the continued presence of the GOS forces, the people are too scared to come down from the mountains to grow crops or receive medical attention. Many people are still hungry and there have been outbreaks of disease claiming many lives. The four-year-old son of my friend had died from malaria a week prior to my arrival. This disturbed me, because I had the treatment with me, and yet it was too late.

Some of the women walk 10 hours a day to haul one bucket of unsanitary water to their family for cooking and bathing. This is because the limited water sources are only in the valleys during the dry season. I was blessed because the water I received only required 40 minutes walking.

The educational needs are also great. There are only five primary schools in that region. The students build their own schools, and the teachers are under trained. There are no secondary schools and there are only about two textbooks available per primary school. Lord willing, we can be used to change all of this. One day, I had the opportunity to minister at the market place. I wasn’t sure about going because I would have to walk for two hours to get there. Having experienced a heat stroke a few days before, getting back out into the sun wasn’t advisable. Yet I went, and clearly God went before me. On the way there, I met up with a tractor that had just dropped some people off and was heading in the same direction. So I got a lift there. After some hours in the market I began to go back and got a lift most of the way with a JMC truck also heading in my direction. This left me with only one hour of walking to do. During that one hour, a cloud remained in front of the sun keeping us cool. This was unusual because it was the dry season and I hardly saw a cloud in the sky for three days.

The words of Hudson Taylor are true; “The will of God will never lead you where the grace of God cannot keep you”. God has certainly taken good care of me.

Though the challenges of this trip were great, God had done great things. All in all, about 700 Arabic Bibles were distributed along with over 3300 Hymnbooks, Prayer books, and Catechisms in six local languages. I was able to train and equip five evangelists on the Gospel Recordings machines complete with tapes and flipcharts. I also equipped and trained one of the leaders on using a VCD kit donated to us by Summit Ministries. I’d used this VCD to show the God’s Story to hundreds of people. We trust that the Lord will multiply the use of these audio-visual tools just as he had the Jesus Film kit that was left before. On my exit flight, I was able to leave over 1500 lbs (700 kg) of food, mosquito nets and supplies behind to meet some of their most basic needs.

Thank you for your fervent prayers, which have contributed greatly to the success of this mission trip. Your continued participation is greatly appreciated.

Your Brother in Christ,

Timothy Keller

“For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it.” Matthew 16:24

Related items:-
Faith Under Fire in Sudan (230 pages with 140 photographs and 7 maps) by Peter Hammond
Terrorism and Persecution (video)