Sudan/Egypt

Dear brothers and sisters,

 Greetings in the Wonderful Name of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. I have just returned from a two-week trip to North Africa and this was a great trip. The first week was spent in Khartoum, Sudan. I went into 5 prisons for services during the week with 530 inmates attending. About 450 prayed to be born again. We purchased and passed out 1000 New Testaments and Bibles. I purchased another 1200 Bibles to be distributed after I left.  The Bibles were in English/Arabic, Arabic and various tribal languages mostly Nuer. On Sunday, I was asked to preach at a Sudanese Presbyterian Church in Omderman and 2,000 people attended. 1,000 were seated inside and another 1,000 were outside because there was not enough room for them. What an opportunity. Also, we had the Jail and Prison Training Seminar for four nights with 71 in attendance.
 The prisons included two for juveniles, two for men and one for women. At the juvenile jails, I asked the boys why they thought that they were Christians. They said they were Christians because their parents were Christians and not Muslims. I carefully and simply explained to them about the one birth and how that that birth does not enable us to see the Kingdom of God but the second birth does (John 3:1-8). That became the theme of my messages in the jail because so many seemed to be trusting in the wrong birth for their salvation. Many seemed not to have heard this message before. In the men's prison in Omderman, there had not been Christian services conducted so when we called for the service, Christians and Muslims came to the service. We also passed out many New Testaments to those who came to the service and to those who were passing by outside of the service. Normally, the Christians are inside the service and some Muslims will listen from outside the service. At the end, one man stood up and said that I was wasting my time to come there and that nothing I said made sense. I told him that next week he could have his turn but this week was my turn and then I had the men sing a song so that we got control of the service back. At the invitation, all in the service raised their hands and some on the outside also to pray to be born again. At the Kobar prison in Khartoum, which is the maximum-security prison with 1000 inmates many of whom are there awaiting execution for murder. We walked past 6 doors to get to the chapel but were not checked for ID, searched or even questioned as we simply walked right in. I felt like Peter in the Bible in reverse when he walked right out of the prison. This chapel had open walls on the sides so that the men sitting outside could clearly hear and see us. We had a good PA system and I preached as loud as I could so that the outsiders who

understood English could hear me while the PA brought the message in Arabic. One inmate said that Hassan El-Turabi, who is a prisoner in that prison, requested that he

bring him a Bible. I knew who this man was so I wrote, "In here are the Words of Life" in the front cover and gave the New Testament to the inmate to give to him. El-Turabi is the founding father of the National Islamic Front, which is the current government in the Sudan. Under El Turabi, the National Islamic Front's (NIF) stated agenda was to turn Sudan into the brotherhood's concept of a model Islamic state and use its location, agricultural lands, and mineral resources to enable the radical Islamization of the entire continent by whatever means necessary. He is said to have been the main strategist behind the war in the south of Sudan. Now, he has been imprisoned himself since Feb. 21, 2001. And he asked for a Bible. 22 men stood to be prayed for and asked the Lord to be born again. 80 men had packed the chapel to capacity. 11 received special prayed for Bible study. While we were singing, one inmate on the outside dressed in white began dancing and asked us for a Bible which we gave him. I was told that last May, two inmates had received Christ as Savior and insisted upon being publicly baptized in the prison. The problem is that they had been Muslims and it is against the law there to convert from Islam to something else with the penalty being death. They stated that they would rather die than be ashamed of the Gospel or of Christ so they were baptized. Amazingly, after a furor, they were released instead of charged with the crime.

 We purchase two 55-gallon drums of grease so that female ex-inmates could make bars of soap to be distributed without charge to the women in prison. The service at the women's jail had 400 women attend. They keep their babies with them in the jail until they are three years old and then the children must leave. It was estimated that about 500 bars of soap could be made from this grease. 

 The seminar was well received and was scheduled for three nights but they insisted that I extend to four. They were hungry to hear about ways to minister to inmates and their families. At the end of the seminar, they showered me with gifts and gratitude. Of all the seminars thus far, this was the best received with the most grateful attendees. At the conclusion, we appointed a Nuer Sudanese Chaplain and an Arab Chaplain for Chaplains for Christ. 

 Then, it was on to Cairo. On Sunday, I was asked to "put on the robes" and participate in the Anglican service because I worked primarily with the Anglican Church in Cairo. Then, I preached at a Sudanese service and then a Presbyterian service making

three services on Sunday. On Tues., I preached at a Sudanese service of the Moro tribe from the Nuba mountains. As I sat with them I wondered if any of them had received a Bible out of the 1000 they we had shipped into the Nuba mountains through Open Doors Ministry from Nairobi, Kenya six years ago. 

I gave a one-day seminar from 10:00am to 4pm with about 20 attending. The jail ministry in Cairo is very sophisticated and the volunteers are very knowledgeable about the Bible and the prison work. Nonetheless, they said that they did learn some things and wanted me to return next year for a bigger seminar.

 We went to the Kenetar prison but in Cairo, only the Orthodox priest can have a worship service with many attending. The rest have to go as visitors with one inmate visited by one volunteer. However, when we got to the inmates, all the visitors and the inmates in that section were in one large outside cage (about 70-90 people altogether). 10 of these inmates stated to be Christians including Catholics. The Anglican pastor asked the 10 inmates and 10 volunteers to form a circle and he asked me to speak from the Word of God so I preached John 3 again that you must be born again (I sensed that some in the circle – both volunteers and inmates- needed to be born again) and talked about the Spirit of God moving like the wind where He wanted to do what He wanted. Then, I prayed for everyone as we stood in the circle and I noticed two things. One was that at least one of the visitors of the other inmates was listening very closely to what I was saying and the other thing that happened was that one of the inmates in the circle suddenly dropped to a squat. When we were done praying, he called me over and said that as I was praying he felt a "wind' hit him and he nearly fell backwards. He was afraid that if he fell down, the guards would arrest me for doing something to him so he quickly squatted to avoid falling down. He said that nothing like that had ever happened to him before and he wondered what had happened. I told him that I had read the passage about the Spirit of God moving like the wind doing what He wanted to do in an invisible way and that this may have been the Lord's illustration to the message and that He wanted to move in this man's life. As we sat on the bench, I prayed for him again and again he almost fell down. I even had a chance to preach in Spanish to a Colombian inmate and I really sensed the Anointing of God as I did so but his heart seemed hardened at the time.

All the Christian inmates wanted to correspond.

 On Friday, I went to a private juvenile prison of 60 with children from 6-18 years old. They are mostly there for petty theft, pick pocketing and other mischief. Many

listened carefully to the second birth message.

 Well, I also had the chance to ride a camel for an hour around the pyramids and the sphinx, which was a lot of fun. In addition to the hard work and pressure of these trips, the Lord always seems to provide a little refreshing fun and adventure.

 I also met an Anglican from Britain who is working on getting 100 Bibles from Addis Ababa in Ethiopia down to the Sudanese refugee camps on the Ethiopian side of

the border of Sudan. I told him that I have been thinking for six years about a way I can get 5000 Bibles into those camps. He had a breakdown of how many people and of what dialects were in three of the camps the Anglicans are working in. I told him that I wanted to rent a truck and bring the Bibles down into the camps myself to make sure they get there and into the hands of the people. He said that he would be glad to work with me on this and while I was in Cairo, I met for an hour with the Anglican Bishop, Mouneer Anis, who is responsible for all of North Africa and the Horn of Africa. He approved of the project and offered his support for it. Looks like another trip may be in the works.

 Praise the Lord for all that He did and I again thank all of you for your loving support in prayer and financially. This was an expensive trip but I think a successful one. To God be all the Glory and may He multiply the work and effort for the Glory of His Kingdom. 

Chaplain Rob Brown