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At the end of an exhausting day of interviews, I met with the late Rev. Joseph Kenyi in South Sudan. Kenyi directed AIC outreach in the North, but had come to encourage fellow believers in the south.
We sweat in the church’s guest hut, where he’ll be staying for the next few nights. Looking at his single bed, tightly cornered by earthen walls under a yellow grass roof, I can’t help but wonder whether he’ll be kept awake by bed bugs tonight. Then I start asking questions.
The late Rev. Joseph Kenyi
I have a friend, a Sudanese pastor now working in Toronto. He was from the South.
“We [pastors working in the north] feel Sudan is the place God has called us to be,” he says. Kenyi adds that he did his theological training in Lebanon, but returned to ministry in the north.
Is Northern Sudan a tough place to be a Christian?
“During the war things were difficult,” he says. Once he was arrested by Khartoum’s secret police; one of the AIC youth groups was taken into custody for planning a day of evangelism; and one of the AIC’s churches in Khartoum was burned to the ground.Sudan's second civil war raged from 1983-2005
How did the war affect you?
“To me it gave me more strength to preach—I could see God’s presence in every [church] meeting…Persecution has helped the church to grow tremendously.” "Persecution has helped the church to grow tremendously"
“The church was praying, fasting, and people were seeking the face of God.”
And what is the church like today?
“In new Sudan [southern Sudan] there are 50 churches,” he says. In addition, he says, there are 14 churches in Khartoum, one church in violent Malakal and a church in Renk (on the dividing line between the North and South.)
 Is it dangerous to worship in the North today?
“To me, no I don’t think so. People in the north can be bad people. But once you get to know them they are not all that bad. They are lacking peace with God—though they are worshiping five times a day.” Kenyi lives in an Arab neighbourhood, but says he and his family are treated well.
What is the AIC-church make-up?
“We have southern displaced people, people from the Nuba mountains, we have some northerners," says Kenyi. "We have baptised some northerners; we have the burden in our hearts to reach them."
Tell me about AIC evangelism.
“We have two exhibitions a year in Khartoum,” says Kenyi. Recently they had a downtown crusade attended by 1500 people each day for three days. Though the events are directed towards southern blacks, these aren’t the only people listening. “I will be glad for people to have their freedom—but not by abandoning the north"“They [Arabs] come and dialogue and give their lives,” he says.
And the Muslim government doesn’t mind?
“They have a law in Islamic Sharia—” says Kenyi. “—The law of backsliding. If you [as an Arab] backslide, all your property is taken; your wife is taken away; your money is taken away. You are left a slave without dignity...”
So how does the AIC deal with Arab converts?
“We don’t know what to do with them,” he says. “They are monitored by relatives, by security…We had an Arab woman worshiping with us for two years and she just disappeared.” After the six-year peace agreement, the south will vote whether or not to separate from the north. Civil war is expected to resume if the south votes "yes."
Will you, like most southern pastors, vote to separate in 2011?
“If we separate we will be separate politically,” he says. “To me it is not a wise decision...I will be glad for people to have their freedom—but not by abandoning the north.”
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