Bad Guys Killing Bad Guys While We Scroll Through Our News Feeds
Photo credit: Jeanne Menjoulet on Visualhunt
In the span of ten days I have received updates from friends in two areas of the world that caused me to stop, pray, and wonder what is next. One update comes from Sudan and the other from Haiti. The stories are not connected, nor interrelated other than through the clear depravity of man on display. They connect with me and the church I pastor due to long-term mission work, orphan care, and partnerships with missionaries and leaders in both areas.
I read the updates in the comfort of my office, while drinking another cup of coffee, adjusting the air conditioning, and working through the next item in preparation for meetings throughout the week. The overwhelming comfort I experience, not unlike most of us in the west, brought the tragic reality of persecution and violence impacting very real people. I know that these types of stories always impact real people, but as sound bites and news stories scroll perpetually on my devices while talking heads give updates on world events online and on television, it is easy to hear “Sudanese people are being killed” or “Haitians face crime and gang violence” and not see the impacted as actual image-bearers of God, but just as faceless, nameless crowds, not unlike extras in the background scenes of movies.
This is a personal confession, and it is tragic. Loving God and loving people should be more than the hashtag and phrases posted on church signs. I am confronted with the reality that I all too often do not live out these truths as scripture reveals.
I repent of hearing stories and not pausing to pray for peace, resolutions, safety, and rescue… especially when I actually know some by name in Sudan and Haiti who are impacted personally and are much more than extras in a global crowd scene.
Perpetual violence in areas of the world that can be categorized as “over there” often leave many desensitized to the actual reality of depravity on display. Until…the faces impacted have names and those names are recognized.
For those who may not be aware of the what has recently been revealed in the nations of Sudan and Haiti, here are just some snapshots of what we have been told.
Sudan
Here is an update from our International Mission Board regarding Sudan. No names are shared as this is for the safety of friends and missionaries, but this portion is public on the IMB site.
Intense fighting and violence erupted in Sudan on April 15, with the Dar Fur area and the capital city of Khartoum being the hardest hit. The Sudanese are now living amid gunfire, explosions, and looting. As the conflict rages between the military and paramilitary groups, both considered part of the government, the Sudanese people hunker down in their homes. Food supplies, water, electricity, and medicines are either running low or completely depleted. This majority Muslim nation recently finished fasting for the month of Ramadan, when many people look for a special revelation from God. May local believers be strengthened to shine the light of Jesus among those who don’t yet know Him. Pray for the 45 million people suffering in Sudan. May they come to understand that God offers them an inheritance in His unshakable kingdom. Pray for God’s church within Sudan. (IMB.org)
News reports have shared of the almost one-hundred American staff members of the US embassy in Khartoum were evacuated by US military forces. Some allied diplomats were also evacutated. Troops have been deployed in nearby Djibouti as concerns regarding the increase in violence and civil war continue.
The assistant secretary of defense for special operations and low-intensity warfare, Christopher Maier shared that there remain American citizens in Sudan. Maier says, “In the coming days, we will continue to work with the State Department to help American citizens who may want to leave Sudan," Maier said. "One of those ways is to potentially make the overland routes out of Sudan potentially more viable. So, DOD is at present considering actions that may include use of intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance capabilities to be able to observe routes and detect threats.” (https://www.defense.gov/News/News-Stories/Article/Article/3371442/us-forces-evacuate-americans-from-khartoum-embassy/)
This is significant and for any who remember the failed rescue attempt of American hostages from Iran in the late 1970s, this is great news.
This is American news and as an American, it is news I am very interested in hearing. Yet, there are many more people in Sudan who remain in harm’s way. Millions who call Sudan home, who are seeing their nation once more terrorized by those with motivations that are culturally, religiously, militarily, personally, greedily, or any combination of these, motivated. Groups fighting one another with no clear indicator of who may be the “good guys” and who may be the “bad guys.” In fact, it seems that the category of “good guys” just doesn’t exist int his conflict. Victims do exist, and they are caught in the crossfire.
Reports from friends and those serving the Lord in the nation have come in. Concerns have increased. Updates of escapes, evacuations, friends leaving their homes with their children and abandoning all their goods…just to get to safety. These stories continue to come.
Photo credit: Cosmo - SJM on VisualHunt
Haiti
Closer to our home here, on the western portion of the island known as Hispaniola, the reports from the nation of Haiti continue to compound. Our connections here are numerous. We have for years joined other churches in our region in the supply and support of the Cabaret Haiti Mission in Bercy. This mission provides care for orphans living at the compound, education for the schools at the main location and up the mountain in a more remote area, as well as religious teaching and Christian evangelism and worship for the residents and neighbors of the mission.
Being located outside the nation’s capital has been good for our friends, missionaries, and the children. For years, as governments of the nation were toppled, rebuilt, overtaken, and militarized, the normative updates have reminded us of the corruption in the land. Yet, following the assassination of President Jovenal Moise in July 2021, gang violence has increased.
Our church has been unable to send teams of missionaries to the nation in recent years. In the past we would have groups go annually, if not more, along with numerous other churches in support of the mission. Our inability to travel due to safety concerns has moved our support to be prayerful and through the electronic transfer of funds to a bank in Port-au-Prince. Thankfully, this has allowed our mission to continue serving well.
Yet, now we are hearing updates that heretofore were not given. The latest being that the children of our orphanage along with employees have been evacuated to an undisclosed location due to fears of local gangs. In other words, the violence is not simply within the capital city any longer. Factions fighting factions and children and uninvolved being impacted.
The Rotary Club of Orange Park, of which I am a member, also supports humanitarian work in Haiti. Our club funds a nurse with the group Mission Possible in Saint Marc. This is further north from the capital, but even there, evacuations have occurred.
The update from Mission Possible to supporters states:
There are more than 300 gangs in Haiti
There is a grave protection crisis with sexual violence reaching alarming levels
Half the population is suffering from severe food insecurity
Access to health services is compromised
A quarter of the households in Haiti use unimproved water sources for drinking
Violence has forced thousands of people to flee their homes
desperation is driving more and more people to leave Haiti
A nine-fold increase in violence against schools has occurred in one year
This tracks with what we are hearing from Cabaret.
The Cabaret Haiti Mission Facebook posts give an indicator of what has been expected and how they have responded. On April 25, they shared…
Today seems a little better. Yesterday we moved the children to an undisclosed location. The fall of Cabaret was imminent as approximately 5,000 people fled north. It didn’t happen. There are still brave men fighting to save their town. Our leadership in Haiti has been incredibly strong. The children are doing well, but resources are limited, and prices are soaring.
What To Do?
Typically, when stories like these become personal and real, we want to immediately jump into action and help. As one missionary stated in a conversation I heard earlier, “Most Americans just jump immediately to throwing money at situations as if that is the fix.” I confess, that is what I think all too often. It is what many think, even those who are not followers of Christ, as evidenced by the ever-present GoFundMe accounts and pushes for relief with financial donations.
That missionary went on to say that giving money is not bad. I agree. In fact, there are times, when that is needed and the best immediate response. Of course, it leads to the many questions about legitimate funding streams, organizations that are reputable, groups that do not take a huge percentage of donations for overhead and other items, etc.
The Haitian and Sudanese people and advocates for those in Haiti and Sudan are publicly wondering where the United Nations relief efforts are? Some are asking for the United States to come to the rescue, as our nation has done numerous times in the past. One, very frustrated poster, asked “How long will the international community ignore the atrocities being perpetrated? Innocent people are being murdered daily by violent terrorists who have take control of large parts of the country. This is a war zone and no one is helping! Where are you UN? Do these lives not matter because they are poor?”
A cry for help. A lament of the hurting. Honest questions with no easy answers.
As stated earlier, there are no “white hats” in either of these unrelated national stories of Sudan and Haiti. It seems there is no group of “good guys” facing the wrath of “bad guys.” So, without getting into histories of state, defense, and even CIA connections with other nations, we are seemingly at a standstill. At least publicly.
And the war continues.
Pray…No Really
When we ask for people to “Pray for the people of ________” as we have for years and most evidently through social media posts and hashtags recently, it sometimes comes across as the tepid “thoughts and prayers” tags that infuriate so many because they seem empty.
Perhaps it is the addition of “thoughts and” to the call for prayer that turns our prayers into self-focused feel-good mantras? In other words, so often our “thoughts and prayers” are neither.
Truly, our “thoughts” sent to Sudan and Haiti are useless. At no point is anyone served well or loved deeply by a momentary thought “sent” their way from someone reading an update.
Prayers, sadly can be as useless. Unless, of course, they are truly prayers. As followers of Christ, we know (at least we say we know) that prayer is not designed to make us feel better about ourselves, but is a gift of God that allows us access to the Creator of all. Through Christ and in the power of the Holy Spirit, we have access to the Father.
Some of course respond with “If God is good then why is all this happening?” Legitimate question and one that has been asked for millennia. I won’t get into the depths of the answer here, but will save that for another article. Suffice to say, God is sovereign, in control, loving, and is not absent. We, his children, bought with the blood of the Son, have a powerful and privileged opportunity to come before him with our requests and needs.
Our Father, who art in heaven…hallowed be thy name.
And thus, the petitions to our Father are heard and received because the Father is love and loves.
So, while we see the news updates and doubtless will be appalled at descriptive stories told, may we confess the sin of scrolling on the news feed and not pausing to pray.
There are numerous other issues globally and locally that are tragic, horrendous, painful, and hurting image-bearers. Sudan and Haiti are not the only places and the Sudanese and Haitians are not the only people in need of prayer. But…they are in need of our prayer and as God provides insight and opportunity, he will open doors for action that are fueled by prayers, and led by his Spirit so that we may respond well.
In the meantime, abandon the “thoughts and prayers” and pray. Without ceasing. For the peace of these places and people. To God be the glory.
