Bishop Elias Taban is the Senior Leader of the Evangelical Presbyterian Church in Sudan and Uganda with some 100 congregations.
He was born on 10th May 1955 on the very day that the first civil war began in his home town, Yei. Within minutes of his birth, his mother carried him to hide in the bush. Today, he sees his life as a grace from God.
During the two civil wars, Elias was forced to study at a Muslim school, became a child soldier and a refugee in Uganda. In the second war, he undertook logistics for the Sudan Peoples’ Liberation Movement, trained Army Chaplains and continued to preach. At one point, he was condemned to death for preaching against the Marxist drift of the SPLM but released through the intervention of a senior officer whom he had led to Christ.
Elias is a qualified building engineer as well as a church leader. The trucks of his building company are used to show the Jesus film in villages at night! He and his wife oversee a diverse, holistic ministry of evangelism, preaching and teaching, church planting, healthcare, orphanages and schools as well as women’s empowerment and well drilling.
He was recently awarded a Global Citizenship Award by the Clinton Foundation for his service to his country.
Elias and Anne Grace had one child who died of malaria and have adopted four orphans from different tribes as a sign of God’s Kingdom.
