News

Dangerous TEAM Work

Missionary’s ordeal shows country’s growing instability.

American missionary Cash Stephen Godbold was finally released by a rebel group on July 24 after nine months of captivity in northern Chad.

A missionary for the Evangelical Alliance Mission (TEAM), Godbold was delivering wellheads for a U.S. Department of Defense–funded project on October 10, 2007, when he was detained at a roadblock

by a rebel group, the Movement for Democracy and Justice in T’Chad (MDJT).

The MDJT said that they took Godbold because he had entered their territory without permission, said fellow TEAM missionary Keith Rasher. The rebels believed he was a spy for the Chadian government.

TEAM says Godbold ended up where he did because he had taken an alternative route to avoid land mines. The MDJT told TEAM they were going to release Godbold on 15 different occasions. TEAM sent a plane to pick him up at the end of April; it came back empty.

In spite of the stress, Godbold reports being treated well. He lost 35 pounds, but says he ate regularly, played cards and drank tea with the rebels, and had some freedom of movement.

TEAM says they made no deals with the MDJT to secure Godbold’s release. Rasher said Godbold was freed because of the relationship he built with his captors. Other aid workers in Chad have not been so lucky.

News reports say at least five have been killed in Chad in 2008, including the country director of Save the Children UK.

The MDJT is a band of fewer than 40 militants, Godbold said in debriefings. They are one of many small rebel bands that operate in Chad. According to Chadian Christian leader Padeu Dakouli, Chad has five major militant anti-government groups, but they have not yet joined forces.

All the same, they pose a threat to President Idriss Déby’s government, widely considered one of the most corrupt in the world. Though Déby has been elected twice, many Chadians remain deeply unhappy with him. Last February one group of rebels attacked the capital, N’Djamena; this summer, another group made a westward sweep across the country. Last winter, says Dakouli, “It was evident that [the rebels] had everything in hand [until] the French government intervened.” There are rumors that rebel groups are funded by the Sudanese government and even by Saudi Arabian Islamic groups.

Chad shares its longest border—and the accompanying problems—with Sudan. Over 200,000 displaced people from Darfur are in Chad; Janjaweed militias cross and recross the border at will.

Since Chad became an exporter of petroleum in 2003, the stakes for control of the country are much higher. Déby, who removed presidential term limits by referendum in 2005, is funding the army with oil money.

Oil’s increasing role in Chad has also created an “AIDS highway,” said World Vision program officer Alexandria Huerta. Itinerant workers contract the disease near the oil fields and take it home with them.

A former French colony, Chad still has a large Catholic population. Both Protestantism and Catholicism have been growing, said Torrey Olsen, senior director for World Vision programs, but Protestantism has been growing at a faster rate. The country’s population is now more than 30 percent Christian.

“Islam has been growing, but Christianity has been growing much faster, and both have been growing to the disadvantage of animism,” Olsen said. Dakouli sees this as increasing the likelihood of Muslim-Christian violence in the country. Although many identified as Muslim, they were only nominally religious; both Christianity and Saudi-style Islam are growing and cross-evangelizing in each other’s regions.

Copyright © 2008 Christianity Today. Click for reprint information.

Related Elsewhere:

TEAM has a page they kept updated during the process of freeing Godbold.

BBC’s country profile of Chad includes more on president Idriss Deby.

Fleeing from Chad, Waiting for Peace,” a slideshow, shows the daily lives of Chadian refugees who fled the country last winter.

Also in this issue

The CT archives are a rich treasure of biblical wisdom and insight from our past. Some things we would say differently today, and some stances we've changed. But overall, we're amazed at how relevant so much of this content is. We trust that you'll find it a helpful resource.

News

Preach and Reach

News

Faith and Hope in Ukraine

News

Signs of Faith

News

Loving Where it Hurts the Most

How Character Shapes Belief

Bookmarks

News

Can We Come to the Party?

Keeping the End in View

Five Ways to Pray the Psalms

Schooled by the Psalms

See No Evil

Wisdom for Living and Dying

Review

Coupling Therapy

News

Fire and Nice

News

Music to Raise the Dead

News

A Reverent Maverick

News

'I Wanted to Be a Foreigner'

Pushing Boundaries

The Only Hope for Monsters

Defending the Faith

News

Voting Like It Matters

Review

A Pilgrim's Progress

News

Life, Death, and Chicken Cages

News

McCain Talks the Walk

A Holy Longing

After the Aloha Shirts

Surprised by Disability

News

News Briefs: September 02, 2008

Q+A: David Stevens

News

Quotation Marks

News

Passages

News

Brighter Than Sundance

Barring <em>Yahweh</em>

News

Go Figure

News

Reading, Writing, and Rulings

Criswell Crisis

News

Continuing Harvest

Wire Story

From Bishop to President

News

Who Is Your Neighbor?

View issue

Our Latest

Join CT for a Live Book Awards Event

A conversation with Russell Moore, Book of the Year winner Gavin Ortlund, and Award of Merit winner Brad East.

Excerpt

There’s No Such Thing as a ‘Proper’ Christmas Carol

As we learn from the surprising journeys of several holiday classics, the term defies easy definition.

Advent Calls Us Out of Our Despair

Sitting in the dark helps us truly appreciate the light.

Glory to God in the Highest Calling

Motherhood is honorable, but being a disciple of Jesus is every woman’s primary biblical vocation.

Advent Doesn’t Have to Make Sense

As a curator, I love how contemporary art makes the world feel strange. So does the story of Jesus’ birth.

Public Theology Project

The Star of Bethlehem Is a Zodiac Killer

How Christmas upends everything that draws our culture to astrology.

News

As Malibu Burns, Pepperdine Withstands the Fire

University president praises the community’s “calm resilience” as students and staff shelter in place in fireproof buildings.

Apple PodcastsDown ArrowDown ArrowDown Arrowarrow_left_altLeft ArrowLeft ArrowRight ArrowRight ArrowRight Arrowarrow_up_altUp ArrowUp ArrowAvailable at Amazoncaret-downCloseCloseEmailEmailExpandExpandExternalExternalFacebookfacebook-squareGiftGiftGooglegoogleGoogle KeephamburgerInstagraminstagram-squareLinkLinklinkedin-squareListenListenListenChristianity TodayCT Creative Studio Logologo_orgMegaphoneMenuMenupausePinterestPlayPlayPocketPodcastRSSRSSSaveSaveSaveSearchSearchsearchSpotifyStitcherTelegramTable of ContentsTable of Contentstwitter-squareWhatsAppXYouTubeYouTube