Betty Cridland with some of her students at the Girl's School in Chali (SIM Archives photo)

Seventy years ago, when our missionaries were driven out of Ethiopia following the Italian invasion and occupation, some of them went to Sudan to begin a new work there among several unevangelized tribes. One was the Uduk tribe. Among the early missionaries there was the Forsberg family, who spent several years starting Bible translation and leading the first Uduks to faith in Christ.

Mary Beam and Betty Cridland joined them in 1943. A few years later the Forsbergs were called away to other duties. From that time these two, and a number of other women, “manned” this work with amazing results. There isn’t room to name all who served there and to tell of the school, orphanage and clinic they started at a place called Chali. Mary and Betty were there for 21 years, probably longer than any of our other missionaries. They only left because the government expelled all missionaries in South Sudan in 1964.

The Uduks Today

Where are the Uduks today? They basically vanished in 1987 when they were driven from their villages by the civil war in Sudan. In time, they wandered across the border into Ethiopia where the UN developed a refugee camp for them. When I went with another missionary to visit them, they had already established 15 churches, organized according to the villages they had come from.

	Uduk refugees returning in a UN truck (Chris Crowder photo)

Eventually SIM was able to establish a new ministry among the Uduks in Ethiopia. Several missionaries have worked faithfully among them, mostly in Bible teaching, literacy and basiceducation. Enid Forsberg was able to visit in her old age. Mary and Betty also were able to go and participate in a Bible conference there before they died.

Now that the war has ended, the Uduks are free to return to Chali and their other villages in Sudan. Approximately 6,000 of them are back in their home territory, while about 10,000 remain in Ethiopia, expecting to return home over the next year.

Rebuilding Southern Sudan

	Sudan Interior Church members help to build the teacher training classroom in Abwong, South Sudan (Emmanuel Mshelizah photo)

But opportunities for their children to have education back home are almost non-existent. There is no high school in their area with a population of about a million. There are almost no trained schoolteachers, even at the primary level. So a charter plane is carrying the beginnings of a Christian boarding high school and a teacher-training institute to Yabus. A part of that effort will be giving church leaders further training in Bible, evangelism and discipleship.

But why go to Yabus rather than Chali, the center for the Uduk tribe? Because Yabus has a river, a year-round water supply. It has an all-weather airstrip and old SIM buildings that can still be used with a minimum of repairs. It is centrally located, not far from the Uduk and Mabaan tribes, both with growing church movements. Also it is central for several unreached tribes. Mary and Betty, and others who served with them, are rejoicing in their heavenly home along with many Uduks, who first heard the Good News from them.

We are building on their legacy with a huge SIM program to strengthen people, churches, and communities for God's glory in a most needy part of post-war Sudan. We call it Rebuilding Southern Sudan: Church and Nation.