Most Rev. Macram Gassis
Bishop of El Obeid Diocese, Sudan
Bishop Gassis Sudan Relief Fund

El Obeid Diocese, Sudan

Dear Friend,

My heart is heavy with news from Dr. Tom Catena at our Mother of Mercy Hospital in Gidel.

Dr. Tom tells me they are running out of food. He told me about a nurse whose only sustenance is the small bowl of porridge she receives each day at the hospital. Like most people in my diocese, she is hungry and weak and so very grateful for what little food she receives. Yet as she sips her porridge she weeps for her three hungry children. Her hunger is unbearable, but so too is the guilt she feels knowing that she has porridge when others do not.

Friend, famine has come to the doors of Mother of Mercy Hospital, making an already difficult situation even more grueling.

Dr. Tom and his small staff are accustomed to performing life-saving surgeries by the beam of a flashlight. They dress wounds, set limbs and tend to the sick in the sweltering African heat, day after day. They deliver babies and hold the hands of the dying. THEY FEED THE HUNGRY! BUT NOW THEY ARE HUNGRY, TOO!

Drought, famine and the return of war have brought down a curtain of darkness upon our little hospital.

You see, in June, North Sudan (radical Arab Muslims) began a new campaign of genocide against the people of the Nuba Mountains in the sate of South Kordofan. This, coupled with the worst drought and famine in more than 60 years, has resulted in mass starvation and the displacement of hundreds of thousands of my people.

These are desperate times. But I have not given up hope. God is with us. And so too are good people like you, friend.

Thanks be to God, this past week I learned that we are able to provide a $100,000 MATCHING GIFT CHALLENGE in support of Dr. Tom and our Mother of Mercy Hospital.

This is truly a blessing from God. It means your gift today will automatically DOUBLE if you give to my Sudan Relief Fund under the terms of this Matching Gift Challenge.

We desperately need these Matching Gift funds now. People are coming to Mother of Mercy Hospital by the hundreds and our pantries are bare. In fact, by the time you receive this letter, our food pantries may be empty!

Our patients are going hungry. Dr. Tom and his staff are growing thinner and weaker by the day and still they will not leave the hospital behind. Like Christ, they will not abandon their people.

This Catholic hospital—that you and other Bishop Gassis Sudan Relief Fund donors helped me build—has been a place of life and hope. Dr. Tom and our handful of nurses and orderlies have weathered many storms and hardships. They've made due with very little in the way of supplies and facilities. Each day they do their best to ease suffering and save lives in this seemingly Godforsaken region of the world.

In the last year, instead of completing muchneeded housing for nurses, they used what money they had to build more latrines for their patients. Moreover, instead of leaving the hospital when North Sudan forces crossed into the diocese and began burning villages, dropping bombs and raping the women, this incredibly brave doctor and his small staff stayed in the face of great hardship and danger.

People fleeing North Sudan's bombers and Arab militias are on the move in search of safety and shelter. And now with food supplies having run out in many communities, they are desperately searching for food—enough food to stay alive.

North Sudan has moved into the Nuba Mountains and is keeping many emergency supplies and aid groups out of the region. They are starving us; killing us and forcing us back into the bush.

As it was during the atrocities waged against the people of my diocese in the 80s and the 90s, the Holy Catholic Church is the only source of food, hope and life here.

Fortunately, at this time our Catholic schools, chapels and parish centers are still intact and able to provide some measure of shelter and refuge. Also, we have more than three hundred bore wells still in operation. We have some medicines, refugee kits and other supplies. But with renewed violence against innocent civilians has come malnourishment and starvation on an epic scale.

I know this is a part of the world you most likely will never see . . .

. . . You will never look into the eyes of a mother whose child is slowly dying of starvation . . .

. . . By the grace of God, you will never see a gaping machete wound, bloody gunshot wounds, or the wreckage of a Church or school after bombs have been dropped.

I know that my world—my diocese—is so vastly different from the world in which you live.

At Mother of Mercy Hospital and throughout the Nuba Mountains, we are seeing more and more severely malnourished children who will die if they are not adequately fed soon.

My precious people are starving!

And until I received the news of this $100,000 Matching Gift Challenge, I did not know how we were going to feed them.

But now, if we can raise $100,000 from donors like you and receive the $100,000 matching gift—we will have $200,000 with which to buy emergency food supplies like rice and other staples.

Dare I even hope . . . that we could raise $200,000 from donors like you and then add the $100,000 matching gift for a total of $300,000. In this time of life and death in the El Obeid Diocese, I pray that hope may be fulfilled.

At the age of 73, I have seen the worst and the best of mankind.

I have seen the evil of an Islamic-fueled genocide here in Sudan, as well as the strength of Sudan's Christians as they struggle to live their Faith and preserve their communities.

I know, of course, you have struggles of your own — perhaps financial worries, physical ailments or spiritual challenges. The global economic crisis has affected us all in some way or another.

I am aware that every dollar you give to help us here is a dollar given out of love and with some sacrifice on your part. As a result, I do not take your gifts lightly, nor do I cease to ask God to bless you for your extraordinary generosity.

Often I tell my flock in Sudan that this school, this hospital, this chapel, this water and this food are the result of your love for them and for the Faith we share.

I tell them you are proof God is at work in the world among His people. And when Dr. Tom and his staff and patients eat that bowl of porridge, they will thank God for you, too.

We have set up this $100,000 matching challenge in response to hearing about the hungry nurse at Mother of Mercy Hospital. Will YOU help?

Will you love my suffering people in Sudan and be the face of Christ and give hope to a people most of the world has chosen to ignore?

Friend, I can only ask and pray you will answer me by giving the most generous gift you can during this special Matching Gift Challenge.

Please, consider giving a generous gift of $25 or more today to this Matching Gift Challenge— when your gift of $25 will be DOUBLED to $50, your gift of $35 will be DOUBLED to $70, or your gift of $50 DOUBLED to $100.

My diocese is an isolated place, a land where Christians and black Africans are being attacked and starved by the radical Islamic government of North Sudan. However, with your ongoing support of my Sudan Relief Fund we can save lives and work miracles here.

With your support, we can reach out to Dr. Tom and the patients and staff of the Mother of Mercy Hospital. We can reach out to feed them, encourage them and give them hope in His Holy name. Thank you and God bless you for your faith, compassion and boundless generosity.

P.S. My friend, your gift in response to this Matching Gift Challenge of $25, $35 or $50 is tax-deductible and will be DOUBLED up to $100,000! So please, don’t delay in responding! For Dr. Tom and the staff and patients of the Mother of Mercy Hospital, please give as generously as you can. Thank you!

Sincerely yours in Christ,
Bishop Macram Max Gassis
El Obeid Diocese, Sudan

Bishop Gassis Sudan Relief Fund • P.O. Box 7084 • Merrifield, VA 22116

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