A Presbyterian Bishop

Do you ever find yourself wondering where the days disappeared to? This last week must have been a pretty busy one because I haven't had any time to blog at all. (Well, that's my excuse at least.)
I promised that I would tell you a bit about a very interesting person I met last Thursday but somehow I never quite got round to it until now.
Unfortunately I didn't take my camera with me to the meeting in question so I have had to post here a picture taken by someone else. (I hope he doesn't mind.)
The man in the photograph is Rev. Elias Taban, a bishop in the Sudanese Presbyterian Church, President of the Sudan Evangelical Alliance, and a personal friend of the President of Sudan. For someone like me in the Church of Scotland, where the very idea of "bishops in the kirk" is anathema to most folk, it was especially interesting to meet a Presbyterian bishop!
But the man himself was much more fascinating and inspiring than his official title.
Here's what he has said elsewhere about himself:

"My name is Bishop Elias Taban. I was born in the southern Sudanese town of Yei in May of 1955. Two hours after I was born over 50 men from the Yei police station were paraded disarmed and gunned down by the order of a northern Sudanese police officer. My mother had to wrap me in a blanket, and we escaped to the bush, where I was hidden for three days. At age 13 I was a child soldier in the first Sudanese liberation movement known as Anyanya. In 1978 I accepted Christ when a team of evangelists from Kenya came to Juba, Sudan.
I received a Diploma in Civil Engineering. I also have an advanced Diploma in Theology. I speak five languages: English, Lingala, Arabic, Bari, and Swahili. In 1990 I founded the Presbyterian Church in my province. In 2003 our churches formed a new denomination called the Evangelical Presbyterian Church (EPC). I am currently the National Bishop of EPC. In 2003 I was voted President of SEA, the Sudan Evangelical Alliance. I will be President of SEA until April, 2007. I have also served as chairman of the Yei, Sudan Pastors Association. I am married with four adopted children who had been orphans. My wife supports me in my ministry. She is a trained theologian holding a Diploma in Theology. She heads the largest women’s church organization in the area known as the Christian Women’s Empowerment Program. My wife was previously a 1st Lieutenant in the current liberation movement of the SPLA/M. The SPLA/M leadership has released her to full time ministry with me."

The invitation to meet Bishop Taban had come from a small aid organisation called MAI (Medic-Assist International) and I felt privileged to be one of the four invited guests who had the opportunity to hear Elias tell us his story first-hand.
Part of the reason for his visit to the UK was to gather support (financial and otherwise) to develop a project established in South Sudan by Medic-Assist International and WorldShare to build, equip and run a Health Centre at Goli and clinics at Morobo and Kaguada. The health centre itself has already been built but requires to be properly equipped and staffed. (It was difficult to take in and comprehend some of the statistics that I learned during that meeting - such as the fact that in Southern Sudan there is one doctor for every 100,000 people!! or that 84% of pregnant women have absolutely no access to ante-natal care.)
As the health-centre/maternity clinic becomes fully operational it will require not only medical equipment but also trained staff. The organisers are hoping that this might include some short-term volunteer doctors, nurses etc. from this country. Having seen similar programmes operating in Kenya, it seems to me to be a very worthwhile idea.
One of the other people at the meeting actually volunteered his own services to go to Sudan to give training in basic dentistry to health workers there. Unfortunately I couldn't offer anything remotely like this. My only experience of anything like pulling teeth is preaching :-)
Also, since our congregation is already committed to supporting a number of projects in Kenya, there may be little that we can do to assist this worthwhile project in Sudan, but over the next few weeks I'll be giving some thought to it to see if there may be some way of being involved.
I'll keep you posted.
Meanwhile, you might want to check out a couple of videos that have been posted online about the work that Elias Taban and others are doing in Sudan.