Gift of Revelation Read Online Free PDF Page B

stand and give us your opinion of our effort?”
    Addie nudged me on the shoulder. “He means you.”
    I put on a brave face and rose to my full length. “As the apostle Matthew said, ‘Freely ye have received, freely give.’ Sometimes it’s our mandate not just to minister to those around us, but also to practice that ministry in the neediest places of the world. As Christians, we must see that those things that are out of balance in God’s Kingdom are set right. As Christians, our ministry says we must show compassion and appeal to our conscience when we come to know Christ. That ministry demands action and hard work sometimes. I commend each and every one of you for the fine and courageous work your organization is doing in Africa. May God bless your work.”
    Addie smiled at me. “Not bad. Not bad for words off the cuff.”
    While the group applauded me politely, Owen wrapped up the meeting, thanking the members and guests for their time. Addie couldn’t get out of there quick enough. We didn’t stay for the meal. Once we were outside, she complained that certain members were hypocrites, that they were not really concerned about the charitable work the organization was doing or about the African people.
    In the cab back uptown, Addie talked about how she wanted to see one of her old friends, Lester “The Human Mule” Moore, who was making an appearance soon over in Harlem’s Marcus Garvey Park. Lester, she told me, was from Anniston and was a pal of her mama’s from the old days. The old geezer, in his late eighties, was going to pull a small van with his teeth and a chain over in the park. I declined to go with her.
    But the other bombshell she dropped on me was that she planned to go to Sudan, which, according to the UN, was facing the worst humanitarian crisis in the world at that moment. She explained that she wanted to do some good over there, that we needed more time to make a commitment to each other, and that she didn’t want to lose any days as she waited for me to make up my mind whether I wanted her or not.

5
    INTO THE FIRE
    This was the first time I’d ever heard Addie mention Sudan or Darfur. I wondered how she first came to the conclusion that she needed to be in that accursed place. Everything was the Congo this, the Congo that. But she decided Sudan was the place to go. I went on the computer and researched Sudan, and what I read stunned me with fear. Sudan, the largest African country, had a bloody history of conflict and had been immersed in a violent civil war for over two decades. Since its independence from Britain in 1956, there had been bloodshed since 1983, with the northern Sudanese, largely Arab and Muslim tribes, clashing with the southern Sudanese, who were mostly Christian. I was shocked that this recent civil war had cost more than two million deaths, despite a supposed truce signed by Sudan and South Sudan a short time ago. Although I continued to research the crisis in Sudan, there was so much I did not know.
    â€œWhy would you want to go to Sudan when wholesale killing is going on there?” I asked Addie while we were walking two days after the meeting through Marcus Garvey Park in Harlem.
    â€œWhy?” She turned and made a face. “I want to go because there’s suffering there. I think I can make a difference.”
    I came to a halt and just stood there, looking at her incredulously. “There’s suffering here. There’s suffering here in Harlem. Why can’t you make a difference here in the States?”
    She put her hands on her hips, taking a defiant stance. “I saw your notes on the kitchen table. If you read all the Google entries about Sudan, then you read that the Sudanese have no money, no schools, no hospitals, nothing. Also, the war has driven more than four million people from their land. I’ve got to help out in some way.”
    â€œWhat can you do?” I asked