SUDAN - Life sentence expands ministry
09/11/05 - Matta Boush talks about Jesus to his fellow prisoners
The military court sentence came down: 30 years in prison. For Matta Boush, who was already in his late forties, this was effectively a life sentence.
Matta had been arrested in March 1986 in his home village of Tabanya, South Kordofan, Sudan, and charged with “harbouring four Sudan People’s Liberation Army (SPLA) guerrillas in his home.” The SPLA is the most prominent of the insurgent groups in Sudan’s civil war. The men arrested in his home were later released, but Matta, an open and outspoken evangelist known for talking to anyone and everyone about Jesus, was detained and not considered for release. This led many to question the true reason for his arrest and imprisonment.
After Matta’s conviction in 1987, two lawyers, one Muslim and one Christian, tried to appeal the decision, but were stymied because of the military and political implications of the trial.
Tortured in prison
Matta was sent to a military prison not far from his hometown. During the first few weeks he was tortured. With his hands tied behind him, he was hoisted to the ceiling and interrogated in a hanging position. He was also given electric shocks to make him confess to 'the truth'.
Understandably, Matta sometimes became depressed. He didn’t know why he had been arrested. His judicial appeals were rejected. His wife and daughters did not visit him, and at one point he was told they were in SPLA-controlled territory and could not visit him. Occasionally, he saw people being executed around him. He had 30 years of the same to look forward to, if he lived that long.
Changed outlook
A visit from an Irish Catholic sister helped to change his outlook. There were others in prison, she said, whose cases were far worse than his. She told him never to ask himself why he was there, but instead to ask for what purpose he was there. From that point on, Matta began to minister to his fellow prisoners.
He asked prison authorities for permission to hold prayer meetings. At first they declined saying, “We already have a mosque; you should go there.” But Matta persisted and eventually the authorities relented.
For the first prayer meeting, six people showed up. The next week it was 70; the following week, 160. By then, more people were attending the prayer meeting than were going to the mosque.
Seeing the growth, the authorities intervened and insisted that Matta not allow Muslims to join in the meetings. Only Christians (more accurately, those who came from “Christian” regions, or who had never embraced Islam) went to the meetings; but afterwards, the Christians often shared what they had heard with Muslims.
Lives transformed
One event at the prison made an especially strong impact. One prisoner, just prior to his execution, rather than being fearful, was calm and gave his testimony. He said he was not afraid to die because he knew he would go to heaven. This made such an impression on some of the Muslim guards that they became Christians.
At the end of 1987, Matta was transferred to a prison in the city of Al-Ubeid. As he had in the first prison, he asked for, and received, permission to conduct prayer meetings. Again he was told to limit his work to non-Muslims.
Not everyone was happy with this arrangement. During his first year at Al-Ubeid, some Muslims objected to Matta’s work, and he was placed in solitary confinement for several months. Away from his God-given work and with too much time to think, depression overtook him again. But the encouragement of friends helped him through that dark time.
When he rejoined the general prison population, he was commanded not to preach to Muslims, yet as he continued to minister to non-Muslims, they, in turn would talk to Muslims. The result was that during his five years of ministry in Al-Ubeid prison, he helped lead between 150 and 200 people to Christ.
In November 1992, Matta was transferred again, this time to Al-Khobar prison in Khartoum. There he was able to help build a prison chapel as well as to continue his ministry.
A difficult temptation
At Al-Khobar, Matta faced his most difficult temptation. He had been there for several months when prison officials told him that he did not really belong in prison, so he was given the freedom to leave the prison by day and return by night. Matta was glad to get out and meet with friends he had in Khartoum, but soon he realised that he could not effectively witness to his fellow prisoners if he had freedoms they were denied. He told the prison officials he would no longer go out. He knew it was not God’s time.
Later, he was offered private, air-cooled sleeping quarters (very desirable in Khartoum, where summer temperatures exceed 100º F). But Matta’s most productive time for witnessing was at night, so he declined the offer. He saw fruit for denying his own comfort to do what he felt God was calling him to do. In the 10 months between November 1992 and September 1993, 200 people at Al-Khobar came to the Lord. Several of those who were later released from prison went back as members of prison evangelism teams.
Without warning, at 10:00am on 19 September 1993, Matta was told he would be released from prison that day. An hour later, he was free. No reason was given, but the speed with which his release was processed indicated that the person ordering it had great authority.
Suddenly free, Matta needed time to adjust to life 'on the outside'. He contacted churches and visited Nuba refugee camps. He visited friends to let them know he was out of prison and reunited with his three daughters. His wife however, who never visited him in prison, had married a Muslim man.
Current ministry
The Lord was far from finished using Matta. By 2001, at age 60, he was providing pastoral care for nine churches in a town South-West of Khartoum called Wad Medani. According to sources, he is doing well today. As he rarely visits Khartoum, updates are infrequent.
The church wanted to appoint him pastor over some churches in the Nuba Mountains, but due to the war and instability in that area, he was not transferred there.
Matta’s enemies had hoped to steal his life from him by throwing him into prison, but God had given him a true 'life' sentence: to share the hope of eternal life that comes only through Jesus Christ.
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Ends. 1,191 words.
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