Jon Arensen is as masterful a storyteller as he is a lecturer. As a freshman, I recall leaving his classroom and thinking, “I want to do what he does”. This is what his stories do: they inspire. In the pages of his most recent book, The Red Pelican, (the third of Arensen’s “Sudan Trilogy”) are the stories of Dick Lyth and his fifteen years spent in Sudan, a collection of tales that hold tragedy and thrill, faith and culture, peace and war. As the pages turn he’ll have you saying, “I want to do what he does”.
In 1939, Dick Lyth graduated from Oxford and moved to southern Sudan as a young man of 21 years, full of enthusiasm for mission and for adventure. Shortly after his arrival, WWII began. Lyth enlisted and was drafted into the Sudan Defense Force. He finished training as a Major and 120 local men were placed under his command. Posted to a remote and harsh corner of the country, Lyth was given a brief but serious task: to secure the Ethiopian border by holding the Italians at bay and thereby cutting off their access to the precious Nile. This assignment meant guerrilla warfare. In the ensuing months, Lyth and his small band of men, although outnumbered and pushed to every limit, were successful owing greatly to their strength, innovation, and luck. However this victory was not without loss—a loss you feel as you read as Lyth takes aim at his first human target. At the conclusion of the war, Lyth’s role and title changes from Major to District Commissioner, from defender to peace builder. As an overseer of an expansive Murle region, Lyth carried out his work in many ways; as a missionary, administrator, linguist, anthropologist, surveyor, husband, and father. The Murle people named him Kemerbong—Red Pelican; peacemaker. His coworkers endearingly called him the “Commissionary”—well-loved commissioner and missionary. He was an ever-adventurer, ever-seeker, and ever-learner with steadfast faith and commitment—characteristics attested to in his personal writing: “I am loving this life, so free and so essentially positive…I am out adventuring with God…I am His, absolutely and forever. His to use or not to use…I will laugh with Him and I will weep with Him. Above all and in all and through all I will delight to do His will forever and ever”.
Engrossing and engaging, The Red Pelican will draw you in and turn you out, outward to the longing for a life and story far bigger than the conventional, the safe, the mediocre, or the comfortable. Arensen, near the end of the book, describes Lyth’s evening ritual: swimming in the Akobo River. Dick would dive underwater and grab the village boys’ legs, pretending to be a crocodile—“the game was made even more exciting because of the real crocodiles in the river”. I want to live where the crocodiles nibble my toes; to choose a life of adventure and of learning, not only for myself and for my gain, but for a better and deeper understanding of the world; for the seeking, finding, and displaying of God’s glory… available for Him “to use or not to use”. Intercultural Majors, pick up this book and read it. Read and learn as Lyth navigates the territory of cross cultural sensitivity, immersion, and conflict. Heck, whatever your major—pick up this book and read it. Embark on Lyth’s adventure, then go and embark on your own.