Castle's Creating Refuge

CASTLES

CREATING REFUGE FOR
WOMEN & CHILDREN

BY DAVID AIKMAN

Wes
Bentley

FOUNDER AND CEO
FAR REACHING MINISTRIES

GSM Team: David Aikman, Jake Gleim, Bart Hiltsley, Christina Gleim, Deborah Flook, and Jeremy Lamont

Missionaries from all over the world have seldom been strangers to danger, hunger, discomfort, peril, and war. But a handful seems to have been selected by God for such challenging missions that they need to be called front-line ministers. One of them, unquestionably, is Wes Bentley, founder and currently CEO of Far Reaching Ministries in South Sudan.

Wes, who’s now 62, received his initial frontline training as a US marine. A sense of calling led him to work for five years among inmates of Russian prisons. But in 1996, the Lord brought him to Africa for the first time.

Civil war had raged in Sudan since 1983 when the Muslim and Arab governments of Sudan began bombing and raiding their Christian and animist compatriots in the Southern half of the country.

Wes saw that what was going on was close to genocide.

Holding in mind a vision that the Lord gave him of reaching the whole of Africa with the Gospel, Wes in 1998 founded Far Reaching Ministries, an organization which trains people as evangelists, and, importantly, as chaplains for and from the Sudan People’s Liberation Army (SPLA), the official armed forces of the Republic of South Sudan.

Wes has put his US marine experience to good use, leading his chaplain recruits in a brutal early morning nine-mile run but then requiring them to spend hours every day studying the Bible. Wes recently sat down with Godspeed Magazine publisher, Jeremy Lamont, and spoke about his calling.

Women and children are slaughtered amidst brutal battles like this one in the Nuba Mountains of South Sudan

WHERE IT BEGAN

His original host missionary organization, he explains, “dropped me into the bush and I went in with another Sudanese brother by the name of Michael. But one day we had a man come into my camp and before I could ever say anything, I knew the guy was a killer. I could see it in his eyes.” Soon afterward the man confessed to having killed a pregnant Muslim woman, along with her two unborn children.

“As we began to share,” Wes continued, describing his first outing with potential recruits,

“you could see men’s heads go down and tears begin to roll from their eyes. They knew they had sinned, but they didn’t know how to deal with it. And when we gave the altar call, the first man to stand was the man who had killed the woman. He told me, ‘I want to be forgiven for my sin. I want to give my life to Christ.’ Then all 150 men came forward and we prayed with them that day to give their lives to Christ."

Then God laid it on my heart to start a chaplaincy for the military. This country (South Sudan) has no moral compass and my missionary organization at the time said, if you want to start a chaplaincy, you have to leave our organization because we are not going to work with the military. And we left on good terms.”

Even though South Sudan was a new country in 2011, there was now also an internal civil war, in addition to a vicious Ugandan force called the Lord’s Resistance Army which was raping, mutilating, enslaving, and murdering Sudanese, Kenyans and Ugandans alike.

“Many were committing suicide,” Wes reports of that period. “But with the training of Frontline chaplains, it changed that course. And I just believe it was a work of God‘s Holy Spirit.”

Far Reaching Ministries works not only in Sudan but in several African countries. Chaplains are deployed to front line combat zones and they also promote human rights, ensure the well-being of

Children blessed by Far Reaching Ministries "Feeding 6000" program (which quickly became 14,000) enjoy their meals in South Sudan

prisoners of war, serve as clergy to wounded or dying soldiers, evangelize, disciple Christian soldiers, teach bible studies, conduct church services, as well as serve as spiritual mentors and counselors. Chaplains are responsible for advising commanders, when called upon, for religious and ethical issues.

Asked about a potential contradiction between being a missionary and serving as a soldier, Wes explains,
“There is a great misconception in the body of Christ. People always come up to say,

“What was that about turning the other cheek?"

I tell them turning the other cheek means taking offense for the gospel. It never meant to let them murder your wives, your children, to sell them into sexual slavery, to rape them and torture them.”

Today Far Reaching Ministries is in many countries around the world. Far Reaching Ministries Aviation is helping missionaries and supplies reach targeted remote destinations, as well as conduct emergency flights. And the new department within Far Reaching Ministries, International Ghost Operations, is an invisible arm reaching closed nations. What began as training for chaplains, teachers and administrators throughout Sudan, Kenya, and other African countries has blossomed around the world in Christ.

THE STORY IS NOT OVER

Click to choose how you're interested in joining them on the frontlines:

FAR REACHING MINISTRIES

FAR REACHING MINISTRIES AVIATION

GHOST OPERATIONS

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Did God Give the Increase App His Miraculous Answers

The Love of God

How a Baptismal Took Over DC's National Mall

BB Poetry

The Love of God

Godspeed

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