Oh that more of us in the church would have such dreams…dreams which spur us on to reach the lost!

Amy Carmichael’s Dream

“The tom-toms thumped straight on all night and the darkness shuddered round me like a living, feeling thing. I could not go to sleep, so I lay awake and looked; and I saw, as it seemed, this:

That I stood on a grassy sward, and at my feet a precipice broke sheer down into infinite space. I looked, but saw no bottom; only cloud shapes, black and furiously coiled, and great shadow-shrouded hollows, and unfathomable depths. Back I drew, dizzy at the depth.

Then I saw forms of people moving single file along the grass. They were making for the edge. There was a woman with a baby in her arms and another little child holding on to her dress. She was on the very verge. Then I saw that she was blind. She lifted her foot for the next step . . . it trod air. She was over, and the children over with her. Oh, the cry as they went over!

Then I saw more streams of people flowing from all quarters. All were blind, stone blind; all made straight for the precipice edge. There were shrieks, as they suddenly knew themselves falling, and a tossing up of helpless arms, catching, clutching at empty air. But some went over quietly, and fell without a sound.

Then I wondered, with a wonder that was simply agony, why no one stopped them at the edge. I could not. I was glued to the ground, and I could only call; though I strained and tried, only whisper would come.

Then I saw that along the edge there were sentries set at intervals. But the intervals were too great; there were wide, unguarded gaps between. And over these gaps the people fell in their blindness, quite unwarned; and the green grass seemed blood-red to me, and the gulf yawned like the mouth of hell.

Then I saw, like a little picture of peace, a group of people under some trees with their backs turned toward the gulf. They were making daisy chains. Sometimes when a piercing shriek cut the quiet air and reached them, it disturbed them and they thought it a rather vulgar noise. And if one of their number started up and wanted to go and do something to help, then all the others would pull that one down. “Why should you get so excited about it? You must wait for a definite call to go! You haven’t finished your daisy chain yet. It would be really selfish,” they said, “to leave us to finish the work alone.”

There was another group. It was made up of people whose great desire was to get more sentries out; but they found that very few wanted to go, and sometimes there were no sentries set for miles and miles of the edge.

Once a girl stood alone in her place, waving the people back; but her mother and other relations called and reminded her that her furlough was due; she must not break the rules. And being tired and needing a change, she had to go and rest for awhile; but no one was sent to guard her gap, and over and over the people fell, like a waterfall of souls.

Once a child caught at a tuft of grass that grew at the very brink of the gulf; it clung convulsively, and it called-but nobody seemed to hear. Then the roots of the grass gave way, and with a cry the child went over, its two little hands still holding tight to the torn-off bunch of grass. And the girl who longed to be back in her gap thought she heard the little one cry, and she sprang up and wanted to go; at which they reproved her, reminding her that no one is necessary anywhere; the gap would be well taken care of, they knew. And then they sang a hymn.

Then through the hymn came another sound like the pain of a million broken hearts wrung out in one full drop, one sob. And a horror of great darkness was upon me, for I knew what it was-the Cry of the Blood.

Then thundered a voice, the voice of the Lord. “And He said, ‘What hast thou done, The voice of thy brother’s blood crieth unto me from the ground.’”

The tom-toms still beat heavily, the darkness still shuddered and shivered about me; I heard the yells of the devil-dancers and weird, wild shriek of the devil-possessed just outside the gate.

What does it matter, after all? It has gone on for years; it will go on for years. Why make such a fuss about it?

God forgive us! God arouse us! Shame us out of our callousness! Shame us out of our sin!”

Amy Carmichael (December 16, 1867 – January 18, 1951)

Short bibliography of Amy Carmichael

Sudan Threatens to Arrest Church Leaders

Christians subject to stricter controls, religious freedom violations.

KHARTOUM, Sudan – Sudan’s Ministry of Guidance and Religious Endowments has threatened to arrest church leaders if they carry out evangelistic activities and do not comply with an order for churches to provide their names and contact information, Christian sources said.

The warning in a Jan. 3 letter to church leaders of the Sudan Presbyterian Evangelical Church (SPEC) arrived a few days after Sudan President Omar al-Bashir told cheering crowds on Jan. 3 that, following the secession of largely non-Islamic south Sudan last July, the country’s constitution will be more deeply entrenched in sharia (Islamic law).

“We will take legal procedures against pastors who are involved in preaching or evangelistic activities,” Hamid Yousif Adam, undersecretary of the Ministry of Guidance and Religious Endowment, wrote to the church leaders. “We have all legal rights to take them to court.”

Sources said the order was aimed at oppressing Christians amid growing hostilities toward Christianity.

“This is a critical situation faced by our church in Sudan,” said the Rev. Yousif Matar, secretary general of the SPEC.

Another church leader said the order was another in a series of measures by the government to control churches.

“They do not want pastors from South Sudan to carry on any church activities or mission work in Sudan,” he said.

Sudanese law prohibits missionaries from evangelizing, and converting from Islam to another religion is punishable by imprisonment or death in Sudan, though previously such laws were not strictly enforced. The government has never carried out a death sentence for apostasy, according to the U.S. State Department’s latest International Religious Freedom Report.

Christians are facing growing threats from both Muslim communities and Islamist government officials who have long wanted to rid Sudan of Christianity, Christian leaders told Compass. They said Christianity is now regarded as a foreign religion following the departure of 350,000 people, most of them Christians, to South Sudan following the July 9, 2011 secession.

Sudan’s Interim National Constitution (INC) holds up sharia as a source of legislation, and the laws and policies of the government favor Islam, according to the state department report. Christian leaders said they fear the government is tightening controls on churches in Sudan and planning to force compliance with Islamic law as part of a strategy to eliminate Christianity.

As he has several times in the past year, Al-Bashir on Jan. 3 once again warned that Sudan’s constitution will be more firmly entrenched in sharia.

“We are an Islamic nation with sharia as the basis of our constitution,” he told crowds in Kosti, south of Khartoum. “We will base our constitution on Islamic laws.”

His government subsequently issued the decree ordering church leaders to provide names and contact information of church leaders in Sudan, sources said. Christian leaders said the government is retaliating for churches’ perceived pro-West position.

Muslim scholars have urged heavy-handed measures against Christians to Al-Bashir, who is wanted by the International Criminal Court for crimes against humanity in Darfur.

Hostilities
Christians in (north) Sudan celebrated last Christmas amid several threats from officials in Khartoum, and some followers of Christ were arrested for their faith, sources said.

Yasir Musa of the Sudanese Church of Christ (SCOC) was arrested along with two other church members by national security agents in Khartoum on Dec. 23; they were detained because they were Christians and therefore suspected supporters of southern military forces. Released shortly afterward, they said authorities threatened to arrest them again if they did not comply with orders not to carry out Christian activities in the Islamic nation.

SCOC leaders said they have complained to the Ministry of Guidance and Religious Endowments and were told that the three were arrested for security reasons.

In another case, sources said that Islamic militias loyal to the government in civilian uniform abducted a church leader and two church members as they were returning from a worship service and demanded $1,000 in ransom. They were released after two days, according to Christian sources in Khartoum.

Christians in Khartoum increasingly fear arrests by militias loyal to the Islamic government, the sources said.

Security agencies in Khartoum have also ordered local Christians not to organize Bible exhibitions, as some churches have done annually, the sources said.

The pressures on Christians come as war in Sudan’s South Kordofan state has led leaders there and in North Kordofan to incite hatred against Christians, with officials in both states calling for holy war against the predominantly Christian Nuba people.

May each of us have an all consuming zeal to see lost men and women saved!

A special thank you to Ray Ortlund for posting this on his blog!

Travailing for souls

Update from BBC Africa (January 13th)–the violence continues in South Sudan…please keep praying!

South Sudan clashes: Murles exact revenge in Jonglei.

“Some 57 people, mostly women and children, have been killed in a revenge attack in South Sudan, officials say….”

The UN has launched a “massive” operation to help those affected by the clashes

Jonglei clashes: South Sudan declares a disaster

South Sudan has declared a disaster in Jonglei state, where some 100,000 people have fled recent clashes between rival ethnic groups.

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Update from BBC Africa (January 3rd)–Please keep praying!

South Sudanese ‘massacred’ after fleeing Pibor

Scores of people have been slaughtered after fleeing attacks by fighters from a rival ethnic group in South Sudan, according to numerous reports.

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A medical charity in South Sudan has lost contact with over a hundred of their staff!  Please pray for this medical charity and for peace in this newest country of the world. Please pray for our work there as well…thank you!

From BBC Africa: MSF fears for South Sudan staff caught in Pibor violence

South Sudan is still flooded with weapons after the end of the decades-long war with northern Sudan

Medical charity MSF says it is “extremely worried” after losing contact with some 130 staff in the town of Pibor in South Sudan.

An MSF spokesman said he believed they had fled into the bush after fighters from the Lou Nuer ethnic group attacked the town, home to the Murle group.

A hospital was reportedly set alight.

UN troops and the South Sudanese army were unable to prevent the attack, which follows a wave of violence linked to cattle rustling.

MSF spokesman Parthesarathy Rajendran told the BBC they had only been able to get in touch with 13 members of staff, and believe the rest fled into the bush to escape the attack.

He urged both sides in the conflict to respect MSF facilities because the charity was the only health-care provider in the area.

Almost all the residents of Pibor had also already fled amid fears of an impending assault.

The UN had deployed more combat troops to defend the town following reports that the armed Lou Nuer men were approaching.

However, the 800 soldiers who were said to be present in the Pibor were completely outnumbered by the attackers.

The number of casualties is not yet known.

Power struggles

Fighters from the Lou Nuer ethnic group have been marching through Jonglei state in recent weeks setting fire to homes and seizing livestock.

The entire town of Lukangol was burnt to the ground last week. About 20,000 civilians managed to flee before the attack, but dozens were killed on both sides.

About 1,000 people have been killed in Jonglei in recent months, during inter-ethnic fighting, triggered by the cattle raids.

The governor of Jonglei state and the vice-president of South Sudan have been trying to mediate between the rival ethnic groups.

The BBC East Africa Correspondent, Will Ross, says the Lou Nuer and Murle communities are now basically at war with each other.

It is not clear what can be done to ensure that there is not massive loss of life, he says.

Tribal violence over cattle rustling has been going on for years in the region, but reprisal attacks are now at an alarming level, our correspondent adds.

South Sudan became independent on 9 July 2011 following decades of civil war with the north.

One legacy of the conflict is that the region is still flooded with weapons.

These are now being used in tribal power-struggles, which often focus on cattle because of the central role they play in many South Sudanese communities.

So far, the South Sudanese authorities appear unable to make any progress in tackling the problem.