Food is a weapon - a very effective weapon. People don't cultivate, don't farm, you cut the road off, then you subjugate them very easily.
Tom Catena
I don't think I've had any adversity. I mean, yeah, I studied hard in school, but that's not adversity. Everyone in the Nuba Mountains has faced incredible adversity, every single one of them. Just to finish primary school is an incredible challenge.
My parents have been married 50-some years, and I've never heard them fight. I got the chance to attend great universities and medical school.
The Sudanese army has retaken some towns. The people there are all living in caves because the Sudanese army is shelling their villages.
I realized mechanical engineering doesn't much lend itself to missionary work.
Probably 99 percent of Nuba are subsistence farmers. They have maybe two or three cattle, a few goats. Now there are food shortages, so they're very thin. But traditionally, they are very strong and muscular. They grow sorghum, okra, a bit of corn, some peanuts. If they need money, they'll sell one of their animals or sell some sorghum.
My father and mother are Muslims. But from the moment I started talking, I decided I was a Christian. They let me.
I was influenced very much by St. Francis of Assisi, whose idea was to radically live the gospel. He was not a priest, or even a brother. He was a layperson. His whole concept was to emulate Christ through the gospels, and to live it in a radical way.
I was with a Navy F-18 squadron, and I know a single squadron could finish off the entire Sudanese air force in a day.
I've been given benefits from the day I was born. A loving family. A great education. So I see it as an obligation, as a Christian and as a human being, to help.
