Where Stu will be Going

Next month, around November 16th, Stu will leave for Chad, Africa for a very important video shoot.
The Chadian Christians, through TEAM Ministries, have asked him to come over and shoot what amounts to a short feature film. 45 Chadian actors have been conducting acting workshops and rehearsing the script for almost two years now. The subject of the film is very heavy, and exposing the vile custom of, initiation.

Many tribal cultures have a rite of passage for their young people, some rather benign and some unimaginably cruel. The initiation that young Chadians “participate” in (they have no choice in it) is done at the urging of the chief and tribal elders. In some tribes the initiation is done yearly, in other smaller tribes, initiation is performed or perpetrated about every three years.

Although it varies slightly from tribe to tribe in its execution, this is basically how it works.

I’ll warn you the thought of it is graphic in the extreme.

The chief will approach the family of kids who are in the 12-17 age range. He’ll declare to the father it is time for the initiation, and to pay up for the privilege to have his children initiated into the tribe as adults. It can cost a family dearly, up to half of their family’s yearly income, doled out to the chief in chickens or goats, cattle or grain and flour.

The initiates (boys and girls are initiated separately) are led into the woods for what amounts to a week of abuse. The boys are beaten and intimidated by the elders, forced to sleep on the ground and are often deprived food, water and sleep. Some of the abuse is very sexual in nature, some of it is simply horrifying. At night, elders scream from the woods as incarnate long dead ancestors, yelling curses on the initiates to obey the chief and elders. If they do not, they will come back to repeatedly haunt them. The goal is to break the spirits of these young men and to make them absolutely subservient to the chief and elders. Torture, trauma and brain-washing is a better word for this process. Once the young men are initiated (broken really) they are beholden to the elders for direction and their place in the tribe.

For the young woman, the process is the most profane thing imaginable. They are exposed to the same rituals as the young men, but on usually separate nights, the father of one of the girls will join the elders around the fire away from the girls and get drunk. Then his daughter is pulled away from the other girls and the father goes and has sex with her. If that isn’t bad enough, then the rest of the elders have sex with her that same night sometimes beating and choking the girl. In a small tribe that could be as few as 8 elders or in the larger tribes that could be as many as 40 or more men in one night. The message is, you are no more than property, a thing to be used, and to do the bidding of the men in the tribe. These young women will have no real will of their own their entire lives.

The sad part of this is that way too many Christian families are caught up in forcing their kids into initiation, as unbelievable as this sounds. The reason: to resist initiation is to be ostracized from the tribe, friends and extended family.

The video we produce will follow a Christian and non-Christian family as they wrestle with sending their kids to initiation. It will depict the initiation process (inferring rather than showing the more graphic elements) and the voices of the dead ancestors (elders), and uncover the lies, deceit, greed and evil that is initiation. Having once been initiated, you are forbidden to ever mention the process to anyone, even other initiates, or risk the wrath of the ancestor’s spirits and the wrath of the chief.

This is such a huge and sensitive cultural issue in Chad, that the script had to be approved by all of the major evangelical organizations in Chad. Some were even reluctant at first to be involved (the Catholic Church decided not to sign onto the script). Biblically though, these evangelicals realized they had to take a stand against this great sin that was keeping both Christians and non-Christians in darkness and bondage.

Mary Stone is a dear friend and missionary to Chad, and she recruited me to produce this project. Along with Richard Hunt, a friend and director from Houston, and Rob Barrett, a soundman from Minneapolis, we will spend about 10 days in actual production of the project. The national language of this exceedingly arid and poor country with 9 million people, and 3 times the size of California, is French. The script is in French (with English in sidebars), and no, I don’t speak a lick of French. Richard speaks a little, but we will rely on translators and the script to keep us from getting lost.

I have not produced a project where I have felt so much darkness and oppression in the air. Obviously we are stepping on ‘someone’s’ turf in this undertaking. In the past two years many obstacles have come up to end this project before it begins. One of the main actors, a Christian, took on a 2nd wife several months ago. I am being told of other issues regarding some “temptations” among the actors that would keep this project from being produced. I sense some of those temptations as well on the crew end, especially with fear. We need to be covered in prayer for direction, health, safety, unity, gear that will not break down and Christ’s heart for our Chadian brothers and sisters.

When this project is completed, it will be used by the Chadian Christians only (this is their project) with portable battery powered DVD players and even small gas-powered video projectors they will take into the villages. I know the opposition they will face when they do this has all the potential to be met with a very violent response.

Although the budget for this project has come in at $32,000, (and which all has been raised) covers a huge variety of expenses including transporting, feeding and housing 45 actors for over a week, and our plane fare and transportation, the cost of mastering and duplicating DVDs; Yet still, it is still a shoe string budget.

A few productions costs have come up though that I didn’t anticipate, that leave us about $1800 short, with less than a month till we depart for Chad. Most of these costs are for very specialized pieces of video gear, some unforeseen travel expenses and a few expendables (props and objects that will be used or destroyed in the process of production) and that we will need, to shoot a realistic story in this very hostile environment. (I was told how to spot a poisonous snake in Chad. “They’re all poisonous, so get away quickly.”)

Any funds you feel led to give can be mailed to or dropped off at Sisters Community Church (the address is below). Please note, “Chad Video Project” on the memo line if it is a check.

I have never felt this more than with this project, but we will need your ongoing prayer for this project. This last spring one of the TEAM missionaries was kidnapped in Northern Chad (far from where we will be), and after 6 months, thankfully released. In July, 3 TEAM missionaries were killed on the highway where we will be traveling, in a horrific bus-car accident. So the dangers are real, both in a physical and spiritual way. I would really like to be assured that people here in the USA are praying for us. Mary Stone’s house which is where we will be staying in, in Mondou (pronounced Moon-do), has some sort of a dial-up internet connection, that at 12k transmission speeds (think 1985) won’t break any records, but will get the email in and out.

I’m looking forward to having you be a part of the team and praying for us. You are integral to the success of this project. Thank you for your prayers.


Stuart Ehr