wfn.org | Marc Nikkel, 'Apostle' to Sudan's oppressed, loses battle with cancer

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2000-133

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Marc Nikkel, 'Apostle' to Sudan's oppressed, loses battle with cancer

by Jerry Hames

     (Episcopal Life) The Rev. Marc Nikkel, the Episcopal Church's first 
missionary to Sudan in 1981, died September 3 in Reedley, California, at the home 
of his sister, Mavis, after a long battle with stomach cancer. His 94-year-old 
father, Reuben, visited him the day before he died.

     Nicknamed thon akon, or "bull elephant," by thousands of refugees throughout 
the Episcopal Church in Sudan because of his hulking frame, Nikkel, who died at 
the age of 50, was a one-man seminary who trained hundreds of Sudanese pastors 
and evangelists, several of whom are now bishops.

     "Hard work, isolation, physical suffering--challenges which mission 
candidates find daunting and debilitating--were integral to Marc's sense of 
call," said the Rev. Canon Patrick Mauney, director of Anglican and global 
relations at the Episcopal Church Center. "Marc served the church as teacher and 
poet, translator, scholar and theologian."

     Mauney credited photographs of murals painted by Nikkel at Bishop Gwynne 
College in Mundri for bringing to life the rich traditions and spirituality of 
Sudanese believers for many Episcopalians in the U.S. Throughout his ministry, 
Nikkel held up the hymnody, poetry, and visual arts of the people to whom he had 
dedicated his life.

Return to Sudan

     In 1998, he underwent surgery at London's Royal Marsden Hospital for 
advanced cancer, after which doctors gave him only a few weeks to live. A trip to 
see his father in California was interrupted in New York, where he received blood 
transfusions and received hospital treatment for pneumonia. A front-page story in 
Episcopal Life in November 1998 said he had "left [Sudan] forever."

     But in California, where he constructed and painted his own coffin, his 
health improved with chemotherapy and prayer and he insisted upon returning to 
Sudan, where a crowd of thousands greeted his arrival.

     During his absence, he was told, the people of the Kakuma refugee camp had 
crammed into his mud brick house, laying hands on his bed, praying that he would 
return to sleep there once again. The women of Kakuma gathered in the early 
mornings and prayed: "God of widows and orphans, the God of the weak, the 
suffering and dying, heal Marc Nikkel."

     "He found himself suddenly transformed in those days into a symbol of 
resurrection for the marginalized people," said the Rev. Canon Patrick Augustine 
of the Diocese of Southwestern Virginia, Nikkel's home diocese. He visited 
Nikkel's ministry in the refugee camp for 54,000 people and inside the war zone 
in southern Sudan.

     In February 1999, Nikkel was instrumental in bringing together 2,000 Dinka 
and Nuer tribal leaders for a peace conference in an attempt to end decades of 
war.

     He recorded on his laptop computer every conversation regarding the peace 
conference and, at the end of several weeks of sharing their stories of pain and 
suffering, the 400 tribal leaders signed a peace accord.

Apostle to the oppressed

     "Marc was an apostle to the oppressed and persecuted church," said 
Augustine, chair of the diocesan Companions for World Mission. "He understood his 
mission to Sudan through the eyes of Jesus. The theme of God's liberation of the 
poor and oppressed was always heard in his messages."

     Nikkel's ministry was a shared appointment between the Episcopal Church and 
the Church Mission Society (CMS) of England.

     "Marc's ministry was one of complete dedication to the Sudanese people whom 
he loved," said Timothy Dakin, CMS general secretary. "He was a man of deep faith 
and many gifts."

     In 1987, Nikkel was one of four expatriates abducted while trekking 150 
miles, often mingling with the destitute and displaced. He was held captive for 
two months by the Sudanese People's Liberation Army.

     "During those traumatic months ... Marc's ability to transform suffering 
into compassion and even joy was unmatched," said Mauney. "He was compelled by a 
quiet passion that proved itself, both in his time as hostage and during his long 
illness, to be fired by a deep love of God and unshakable confidence in the 
Resurrection."

     Nikkel surprised many people when, despite his weakness, he appeared at 
General Convention in Denver this past July. During a presentation by overseas 
guests, he held up for the audience a cross he wore over his heart--a piece of 
metal transformed by a Dinka artist from a weapon of war into the preeminent 
symbol of self-giving and new life.

     Nikkel played a major role behind the scenes as the Episcopal Church 
developed a strong partnership with the Sudanese church. Through the United Thank 
Offering, Episcopal Relief and Development and Episcopal Migration Ministries, 
churches have been built, land and communities developed, and refugees aided.

--Jerry Hames is editor of Episcopal Life, the Episcopal Church's national 
newspaper.