September 16, 2002
Midland 'Rock the Desert' educates about Sudanese
___By John Hall
___Texas Baptist Communications
___MIDLAND--Texas Baptists recently shared the plight of Sudanese Christians with more than 50,000 people at a "Rock the Desert" music festival.
___About 200 Sudanese Baptists from the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex, in cooperation with Brothers and Sisters in Christ Ministries, built a full-size model of a typical Sudanese village that was displayed on the concert grounds, near Midland.
___The Sudanese shared their experiences with the audience individually, and some testified on stage about the horrors they had seen.
___Muslims from the northern sector of the nation have exterminated more than 1.5 million Sudanese Christians and animists in the south and displaced many others, according to the CIA.
___Despite the overwhelming number of people who have been affected, the situation rarely receives news coverage in the United States, and knowledge of the region remains low.
___The devastation has brought Christians together in Sudan as they look for any help they can get, however. The northern forces reportedly level their homes and destroy everything the southerners work to build.
___"When the churches are leveled, the walls fall down in more ways than one," said Deborah Fikes, director of the project and a member of First Baptist Church in Midland.
___She hopes an increase in awareness will help the Christian church come together for the common good.
___"This is an issue that can serve as a catalyst for unity," she said. "Once you hear about the true persecution there, it is inspiring. There aren't the divisions between denominations you have here."
___While the northern forces have proposed a peace treaty between the two sides, many in the international community remain highly skeptical of the sudden change of spirit. Some believe the treaty, which would allow for religious freedom and an influx of missionaries, is simply a way for Muslims to access newfound oil deposits in the south. The skeptics believe the Muslims will then attempt to reinforce Islamic law in the south and again persecute the Christians.
___Although Fikes finds the political movements interesting, she spends more of her energy on the religious ramifications of the treaty. If the treaty is approved, missionaries will work to help the people and win people to their respective faiths, she believes.
___It is important that Christian missionaries move into Sudan in order to stop the radical Muslim movement there, she said. Sudan, she added, is "the only thing keeping radical Islamic forces out of the rest of Africa."
___"My interest has been more of a spiritual perspective," Fikes said. "It really disturbs me that the church in America has not done more to help the church in Sudan. They have basically been abandoned."
___The model village now is to be displayed in Washington, D.C. "We wanted to create awareness, but more than that, challenge the church to go in and make a difference," Fikes said.
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