To the Editor of the Upper Budworth Bugle
 
Dear Sir,
I take great comfort from reading the excerpts from the letters of Captain Maurice StJohn Eager, which Miss C___ has kindly shared with the readers of the Bugle.  It is heart warming to know that one of my parishioners is endeavouring to end slavery, despite the lack of support from Gladstone.
 
However, I must correct a mistake which the good captain made in saying "There is, I believe, a gathering storm brewing here and I sense that my business in this god forsaken land is, as yet, unfinished."
 
That is just not true. Far from being "God-forsaken", Sudistan has the oldest community of Christians in Africa, dating all the way back to AD37 and Acts chapter 8. For a thousand years, Christianity was the majority religion of Northern Sudistan. For nine centuries these Christians of the Kingdoms of Nubia, Alwa, and Dotawa, resisted the Southward expansion of Islam, defeating the Muslim armies and sending them retreating back to Egypt. There are numerous Scriptures (Isaiah 18, Psalm 68:31, Zephaniah 3:10, etc.) which confirm that God has a plan for Sudistan. It is most certainly not "God-forsaken"!
 
Yours faithfully
Rev. Herrup
The Rectory
Lower Budworth