I COULDN'T GET TO SLEEP LAST NIGHT

Caroline Cox tells Benedict Rogers
why she risks her life to help others.

Baroness Cox is a remarkable woman. She has been shot at by jihad warriors in Indonesia; sentenced in absentia to five years in prison in Sudan; has had a price on her head in Azerbaijan; dodged snipers, walked through landmine fields in Burma and Nagorno Karabakh. In Russia, she was instrumental in changing the system of childcare from state-run orphanages to family foster care and during the Cold War, travelled overland to deliver medical aid to Poland.

She is a bold advocate in political circles and has used her position as a Deputy Speaker in the House of Lords as a voice for the voiceless, initiating many debates on Sudan, Indonesia, Burma and Nigeria. She regards her appointment to the House of Lords in 1983 as "God's sense of humour", and describes herself as "a nurse and social scientist by intention and a politician by astonishment".

Her human rights work started 20 years ago when her son, a medical missionary at the time, told her of the desperate shortage of nurses in Sudan. A qualified nurse, she responded, and has since visited Sudan at least 27 times, including the 'no-go' areas, for which she has been tried, in absentia, on charges of illegal entry.

But eager to dispel any image of heroism, Lady Cox, admits to a "fit of faithless fearful dread" before going on her dangerous missions. "Home is comfortable, with clean water, electric light, warmth, clean clothes. To wrench yourself away and go voluntarily into a conflict zone, you recoil against it. I don't particularly want to go and get my guts blown out or to get malaria." She recalls preparing for a trip to the tiny Armenian enclave of Nagorno Karabakh, which she has now visited 53 times, at the height of the war, "feeling dark and not wanting to go". Then she heard the passage in Mark's Gospel which says that "no one who has left home or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children for me and the gospel will fail to receive a hundred times as much in this present age (homes, brothers, sisters, brothers, mothers, children and fields - and with them, persecution)." That keeps her going. "I just come back so humbled and inspired by their dignity, courage and faith. I have a deep commitment to those people. I come back receiving more than I have ever been able to give."

Her primary inspiration is from Scripture - "When one part of the Body of Christ suffers, we all suffer". But there is also a political motivation. "Those of us who have freedom should never take it for granted. We ought to use our freedoms on behalf of those who are denied them. We are privileged to be born into a democracy and a free society, but we need to remember that it is a privilege - for those to whom much is given, much is required".

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Lady Cox believes that the growing militant Islamism is a "real threat to our spiritual and cultural heritage. We have an obligation to act as a watchman, to warn the rest of Christendom and the rest of the world."

This threat is typified not only by the rise of al-Qaeda terrorists, but by evidence she has witnessed in Sudan, Nigeria and Indonesia. In all three places there is jihad taking place against Christians and moderate Muslims, and efforts are being made to introduce Sharia law. "That is really a death knell for Christianity." She urges the international community to think about an intelligent "moral, Christian, strategic response" to these threats. "Christians out there trying to hold a frontline of faith for freedom to practice Christianity often feel very beleaguered, very unsupported and very vulnerable."

Lady Cox argues that moderate Muslims are also targets for the extremists. In Indonesia, Muslim leaders who have signed peace agreements with Christians have found their homes bombed and cars stoned. It is therefore "incumbent" on Christians "to offer a real hand of friendship to the moderate Muslims who wish to promote reconciliation and reconstruction".

Lady Cox described one particular visit to Bahr-el-Gazal in Sudan as her worst experience "in terms of sheer scale of horror and depression". Just a few days earlier, the National Islamic Front regime's forces had swept through the area, slaughtering civilians and burning villages. "We went to an area of sheer carnage - human bodies, cattle corpses,

burned homes, scorched earth policy," she recalls. She felt most challenged by the words of a Christian whose brother and brother-in-law had been killed and whose sister had been captured as a slave. His church had been attacked, Bibles burned, crops destroyed. He told Lady Cox that while the Sudanese regime spends $1 million a day on the war, the Christians have nothing. "Worse than that," the Christian said. "We feel completely on our own. You're the only Christians who have even visited us for years." Then came the words which, Lady Cox says, "turned that knife in my heart". The catechist asked: "Doesn't the church want us anymore?"

"I sat under a tree and wept. It challenged my faith deeply. If we believe in a God of love, why such carnage? While the West keeps a comfortable Christmas, most of the time we choose to forget the massacre of the innocents. At the time when Mary was beginning to care for her son, the Christ child, the other mothers were weeping for the deaths of their sons. And why? The slaughter of innocents really challenges one's faith."

But amidst such suffering, Lady Cox has countless inspirational stories of faith. Take Ma Su, a Karen refugee from Burma. The Burmese army had shelled her camp in Thailand. "Everything was burned and destroyed. Her hut was burned and she had been shot by a Burmese soldier. I asked how she felt about the soldier who shot her, and her response: 'I love him. It says in the Bible we should love our neighbours, so of course I love him. He is my brother'".

Lady Cox shows no sign of retiring. "While God gives me strength, I hope to fulfill His call. I don't relish the thought of being shot out of the sky or put in prison in Khartoum, but I believe in praying 'Not my will, but yours be done' - and taking it a day at a time."

Lady Cox is the President of Christian Solidarity Worldwide, the international representative of Elam Ministries, and the recipient of the Wilberforce Award. Her biography "Baroness Cox; a voice for the Voiceless" by Andrew Boyd was published in 1998 by Lion Publishing.