American Awareness

Written by Chris Gilfillan - Observer New Enterprise - Newton, NC.
Tri-city hosts four who tell their stories.

The four work together as a team - each telling his own nightmare from the past.
***Stephen Dokolo is a teacher
he will tell you about the struggle for education.
***Jeffreys Kayanga is a pastor
he will tell you about the history of the conflict.
***Andrew Mandis will tell you about worship.
***Bullen Dolli will tell you his own personal testimony.

The quartet, affiliated with the support group "It Took A Miracle" spoke to Tri-City Baptist Church on Tuesday. They said their first priority is American awareness.
"We are here to raise awareness and to help with the understanding of the conflict in southern Sudan and the persecuted church," Kayanga said.

The group has been in the United States since March 8, 2006 and have been touring churches trying to get their message of hope outside the borders of their country. These people asked two questions, and I can never forget it," Edmonds said. "They asked, "Do the American Christians, do they pray for us? .... That's OK, we pray for them. How is the faith of the U.S. Christian?

Sudan has been a constant war-zone off and on for the past 50 years. The Darfur region currently is enveloped in the war that pits African Muslims against Arabian Muslims. Kayanga said, "the war historically has been an effort to persecute the Christians in the African country.

The Sudanese hope that through their testimonies they can raise funds for their villages in Mundri, which is populated by the Moru, who only number 100,000 and are mostly Christian.

When the Muslim government will drop a bomb, as Christians we'll hide ourselves in the bomb pit. But in the pit we will still worship and we are dancing with a Christian flag in one hand and a Bible in the other hand," said Mandis. Mandis said "they will sing songs while the bombs are dropping: "Help me Lord Jesus, Come close to me, Of course You are powerful You are mighty, Serve your child." The name of the song in Moru is Mi Pama opi Yesu.

ONLY God could Help

Men experience life in constant civil war
By Kim Gilliland - Persecution.org

Andrew Mandis and Bullen Dolli spend a quiet together. They both escaped the 23 year Civil War in Southern Sudan. For the first time, word about the 23 year civil war in southern Sudan is getting out. Four Survivors will tell their struggle to practice Christianity, teach and exist in the war-torn country in Africa at Tri-City Baptist Church.

It wasn't until a peace treaty was signed in January 2005 that survivors were able to leave the country legally. It was only recently that word of their struggles fell on the ears of Westerners.
Three of the four sat down for an interview Sunday in a small chapel on the grounds of Tri-City Baptist . Each one had a harrowing tale to tell.

Andrew Mandis, 22, would cringe every time he heard an airplane fly overhead. On Sundays near his village, Mandis and a group of Christians worshipped out in a field. Then the unmistakable drone of Islamic aircraft would send the group fleeing.
"We would hear the planes coming and hide in the hole, he said. After the bombs dropped, we'd come back up. We thought there was no way out, only God! The words of a song helped to take their minds off of the bombs falling around them: Help Me Lord Jesus, come close to me, the would sing while hiding in the makeshift underground shelter.

HOPE to Sudan

Bringing Hope to Sudan
The Gazette, Colorado Springs by Andrea Brown

Famine. Disease. Death. "That's a day in Sudan," Stephen Dokolo, 31, said about life in his wartorn homeland. "No electricity. No good roads. No running water," he said. "Girls in Sudan are more likely to die in childbirth than attend elementary school." Still, Dokolo told the Sunday afternoon audience at First Congregational Church, there is one thing years of war can't take away. "We want to give our children hope," he said.

Dokolo, Kayanga, Andrew and Bullen, Sudanese men are on a nine-city "One day in Sudan" tour in America to raise awareness and mobilize resources at political, church and civic groups.

The men told of millions of displaced families, enslaved women and wide hunger from the fighting that ended -- on paper -- with the signing of a peace agreement in January 2005. While the men spoke, photographs flashed on a background screen: sunken-faced children dying of starvation, smiling kids playing in simple schoolyards, refugees walking through intense heat without water, people dancing and praying. The tour is sponsored by a Tennessee-based ministry whose president met the men doing relief missions in Sudan. Edmonds recruited the men for the American tour, which started in March 06 and will end in June 2006.

"We dig gardens to support our families. People live in small mud and grass huts. Women walk up to 10 miles a day carrying four pounds of water. Rice and beans are the main fare. Normally, it is only one meal a day." Kayanga said. "People are very skinny"

Bullen Dolli, 21 and Andrew Mandis, 22 are students -- High school students. "I finished my elementary school in 1997, but I had to wait at home. There is no high school there," Bullen said.

We experienced only war, running from jungle to jungle,hiding," said Andrew, whose three sisters were held captive by the government during the war.
The two men moved to Uganda for high school. "It is three days away," Bullen said.

The trip to America is filled with new things: Machines washing clothes. Electricity. Nice roads. Everything here is really easy," Bullen said.

First Popsicle