International Peacemaker to share South Sudan’s hope for a better future

The Rev. Peter Yien will spread a message of peace and forgiveness while visiting the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)

by Darla Carter | Presbyterian News Service

The Rev. Peter Yien is pictured at Nile Theological College. (Photo courtesy of Bob and Kristi Rice)

LOUISVILLE — A pastor who has endured civil war and imprisonment in South Sudan will bring his message of peace and forgiveness to the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.).

The Rev. Peter Yien of the South Sudan Presbyterian Evangelical Church is one of up to 10 people who will serve as International Peacemakers later this year for the Presbyterian Peacemaking Program.

Peacemakers from around the world will be making in-person visits throughout the church to share their stories and provide insight into issues of peace and justice that are affecting their countries. They also will help the Church live into the Matthew 25 invitation.

“I am coming to let the international community know about South Sudan,” Yien said. “I also want to communicate with the churches in the United States that as the church in South Sudan, as followers of Jesus Christ, that despite all the many challenges we face, we still have hope for a better tomorrow, for a better future. We also carry within us resurrection hope, hope beyond the sufferings and tragedies of this world.”

South Sudan has been wracked by civil war, which began in 2013. Although a peace agreement is being implemented, strife continues and there are other issues to contend with, such as a lack of forgiveness and a scarcity of resources.

“Poverty plagues us, and people are displaced from their home regions due to war and continued communal fighting,” said Yien, academic dean of Nile Theological College in Juba. Also, some people are “doubting this peace agreement.”

His church has collaborated with PC(USA) in the past and helps to provide food relief and seminars on reconciliation and forgiveness. “We also help collect vulnerable children, bring them to church and help them to reconcile with their communities,” Yien said.

Yien looks forward to sharing his experiences with Presbyterians in the United States. “I will seek to (be) a bridge, so that people in the congregations will know how to pray for us in South Sudan.”

For more information about hosting an International Peacemaker, go here.

The Presbyterian Peacemaking Program is one of the Compassion, Peace & Justice ministries of the Presbyterian Mission Agency. The International Peacemakers Program is made possible by your generous gifts to the Peace & Global Witness Offering.