Written By: John Jefferson
The next morning we rose early and had a meeting with the leaders of the command post which we used as our forward base for the distribution of the food. Working with community leaders, the most needy families were identified and we set out early to visit the people.
Walking past open fields where it would have made sense to see crops growing and farmers tending to them, we moved along narrow paths leading into the hills. Everywhere small houses or tukals appeared nestled in between the rocks and crags and amongst them stalks of sorghum rose valiantly, if not defiantly as if to make a vain challenge to Bashir’s program of annihilation.
We first visited a large extended family that had taken shelter amidst these rocks and built lodgings to protect themselves from the bombardment of the Government of Sudan’s Antonovs. Their physical appearance and surroundings testified to the desperateness of their situation. The children had the characteristic red hair caused by protein malnutrition and everyone was thing and gaunt.
Though the Nubans are a strong people, the weariness of war and hunger, and a certain sense of resignation and hopelessness, showed on the faces of the adults.
One story typified the predicament of the Nuba people and their intimate ties to the land and the seasons.
We came upon a woman with four young children living among the rocks in the hills around the compound we were visiting. She had a look of profound weariness on her face, and seemed drained of life as we talked to her with the children scattered around her. (They were thin and ill-clothed as well) Also present was an older women, her mother-in-law, and another woman with two children who was her husband’s sister) She told us how she had come from a village further north that was first raided by government soldiers than payloads from the bombers. Unable to plant crops, she and her family fled and wound up in this, one of the southernmost villages of the Nuba mountains. Here they occupied a compound that was abandoned by a family fleeing the bombing there. (Yes, the Government of Sudan bombs indiscriminately, and very near as well as on the Republic of Sudan side of the border – and has even bombed the refugee camps in Southern Sudan!) In essence, she had gone out of the frying pan and into the fire, and now, with no food or energy to go further, was forced to scrape out an existence for herself and her four children in the rocks, hiding in the caves when the bombers strike. (The fields in the valley below the hills are fertile, but this woman and her husband could not go to them to cultivate for security reasons and out of fear the children would follow them and not be able to get to safety fast enough should something happen. This was a common theme) What can people do in the face of such evil? Well, fight. Fight to stay alive another day, and fight the good fight of faith, that in the end they will receive the crown of glory. We gave the family some rice and sorghum to help them in their battle against hunger and disease and prayed more aid would come before the end...
Blessed is the one who perseveres under trial because, having stood the test, that person will receive the crown of life that the Lord has promised to those who love him. James 1:12 NIV
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