The attacks, torture and genocide taking place in Darfur make headlines day after day, week after week. More than 200,000 have been killed there in the region of western Sudan since 2003 — and the death toll is still rising.
The southern portion of the African nation, however, is contrastingly calm, now under a six-year agreement of “relative peace” after 22 years of civil war. But even so, conditions aren’t wonderful there either, according to Dr. Raymond Lyrene, a member of Dawson Memorial Baptist Church, Birmingham, in Birmingham Baptist Association.
“South Sudan, a land frozen in time by seemingly endless civil war, has been robbed of its future by the senseless murder of its citizens and the destruction of the country’s infrastructure,” he said. “Things that we take for granted such as safety, clean drinking water, sanitation, passable roads, commerce, a dependable supply of food and access to medical care are lacking.”
Lyrene knows. He and his wife, Allyson — both in medical professions — saw the needs firsthand on a Sept. 28–Oct. 11 trip they took with a group from Dawson Memorial Baptist to Akot, a tiny village in southern Sudan.
But they saw something else there, too.
“Already there is a rebirth of Christianity in south Sudan as churches are planted and new believers are nurtured in the faith,” he said.
And now through the work of a new mission hospital Dawson assisted in opening during that trip, the love of Christ can be shared at a new level as the medical needs of area people are met, he added. The Akot Medical Mission, built and manned by Mustard Seed International and volunteers like those from Dawson, “offers hope in a land where there has been little reason to hope — hope of an eternal future in Christ Jesus,” he said.
The team was the fifth from Dawson to work in the region since the church adopted the Sudan project in 2003.
Ben Hale, Dawson’s minister of evangelism and missions, said in addition to running bush clinics and doing Bible storying with children, team members spent time on their most recent trip at the new hospital training medical staff, establishing a pharmacy there and seeing the hospital’s first patients.
“The physical needs are tremendous — it’s almost as if time has stood still,” Hale said.
According to the United Nations Children’s Fund, southern Sudan has the highest rate of infant mortality in the world, one in four children die before reaching the age of 5 and more than 21 percent of children suffer from severe malnutrition — the highest rate in the world.
And the region — more than 8 million strong in population — only has one doctor per 100,000 people.
But the Akot Medical Mission is a sign of progress, according to Hale. “[The people of southern Sudan] live in a situation that cries out for the life-changing impact that only the gospel of Jesus Christ can bring,” he said. “When the facility opened and lives began to be touched in Jesus’ name, the eternal impact of the ministry became very evident.”
And it became evident in other avenues cleared by the hospital’s ministry as well, according to team member Laran Lofton.
“The Dinka people (the people group that inhabits the area) are happy and eager to meet foreigners. Is it because we look so much different, or is it because they know we are there to give them aid? I am not really sure, but when the Dinka children came out of the tall grasses waving and screaming, ‘Hello, hello, hello,’ it warmed my heart,” Lofton said.
In this way, the volunteers’ presence made possible several outreach activities, such as a tea that attracted more than 60 area women.
Allyson Lyrene said that in a world where a woman is only worth the payment of cows her father receives when she marries, a foot washing service held at the tea did a world of good in demonstrating Christ’s love.
“Our purpose in planning the tea was to show them their worth by washing their dry, dusty, calloused feet and tell them we loved them as Jesus loved them,” she said. “It is our hope that … they will be reminded of the bond of love that was formed that day.”
For more information about how to partner with the Akot project, e-mail Hale at ben.hale@dawsonchurch.org.
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