“Passport through Darkness”
As it is written in the Law of Moses, all this calamity has come upon us; yet we have not entreated the favor of the LORD our God, turning from our iniquities and gaining insight by your truth. Therefore the LORD has kept ready the calamity and has brought it upon us, for the LORD our God is righteous in all the works that he has done, and we have not obeyed his voice. Daniel 9:13-14
Brutal, Godless, lawless, violent, and heartbreaking. Even the temperatures speak of Hell. Why do people have to live like this? Why are we so blessed and they seemingly so forsaken? These questions, and many more, ran through my mind as I read “Passport through Darkness” by Kimberly Smith.
Through the first several chapters of this book I was guilt ridden for the relative peace and abundance I live in when so many have so little. I was also a little envious of Kimberly Smith as she was so strong, such a dedicated follower of Jesus Christ, and so used by God to advance His kingdom and rescue helpless children.
I still really admire her faith, her guts, and her drive. I hear her frustration with the lack of compassion the American Church of Jesus Christ has for the lost in a culture that has known little of God over many generations. She was in Sudan, in the middle of a chaotic war, with not enough money and little protection from the culture, or the climate.
The book describes her journey to build an orphanage in a place with no infrastructure, no laws, and where the culture places little value on life. The horror stories that she hears from the wounded who live there, stories of beatings, burnings, and rapes as well as selling children into slavery, took my breath away. The book is recently released, this is current events, not old news.
Kimberly Smith is a Christian who felt a call from God to go into Sudan at a time when her husband could not go with her. Prior to this their ministry had been done together. She and her husband gained a reputation for demanding protection for orphans who were uncared for and abused by a system that paid no attention to them. Others came seeking their help.
An American woman alone in a place like Sudan is in for trouble and Kimberly finds it. She was not all alone as she had joined a man in his own quest to open an orphanage because he had grown up there, alone in the bush without help.
I wanted to put the book down several times but I was drawn back to reading it. These are circumstances that are so foreign to me that it was hard to understand all that she witnessed and the effects it all had on her faith and her emotions, as well as the physical toll. She has a way of bringing you right to her cot and hearing the stories the natives told her as if you were there.
Throughout the book I was haunted by the horror of it all, I kept asking God why people had to live like this when I lived in relative ease. Why these children were literally left for the dogs when children in my neighborhood have more protection and shelter than they need.
Though hearts are changed one person at a time and I am grateful for Kimberly Smith and all those like her who go around the world to share to the gospel, I also understand that God works in nations. Matthew 28:19 instructs us to “Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations.” Not just individuals but nations. Darfur and Sudan do not acknowledge God. They have turned their backs on anything Christian and in fact target Christians as one of the primary groups they attack. I do not know enough about the politics to know if this is their central government’s stance or the view of the militias that terrorize the area.
Compare this to our nation. Though we want to debate this issue today, we are a country founded by Christian men and the government was based on Biblical principles. I cannot help but think this is why I live in relative ease while they live in turmoil and want. God has blessed us because of the obedience of our ancestors. He has reason to curse Sudan as they turn their back on Him and terrorize His people. I do not know the mind of God but the Bible is clear that an enemy of the people of God is an enemy of God. And that’s why I’m scared by my conclusion. If God has so harshly judged Sudan, what are we in for?
I know the people of Sudan are in desperate need. The orphanages that Kimberly Smith and her ministry have helped build barely scrape the surface of the problems that need to be addressed. I will look into the different agencies, one of them not new to me, that are doing direct work in the places she writes about to see how I can help provide for them.
I will also try to get over this guilt I feel for having so much. I will replace my guilt with gratitude for those who have gone before me, those who were faithful to God and to His Word so that I now reap the blessings.
As a nation, we no longer recognize the Providence of God in the abundance we live in. Our thanksgiving has turned into a big “pat on the back” for whichever political party has our allegiance at the moment. We are failing to teach the next generation Who their gratitude should be going to.
Read the book, “Passport through Darkness”, pray for the orphans and the poor of that country, but also pray for our nation, look at what we, as a church, are leaving for the next generation and act to change things before we are left in a brutal, Godless nation of our own.