On Thursday, Nov. 23, as most Americans were sitting down to Thanksgiving dinner, the people of Sudan were experiencing an intensification of the long-running conflict between the Sudan Armed Forces (SAF) and a paramilitary insurgency known as the Rapid Support Forces (RSF).
“We as Christians should stand in solidarity and pray for one another, but we also need to confront the people in government and not allow conflicting parties to use church venues and religious places in their fighting.”
This was the message Dr. Aida Weran wanted to convey to Presbyterians as she detailed what life is like in Sudan as a near-civil war continues to plague her native country.
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.).
Trinity Presbytery recently announced that Rev. William Anderson passed away peacefully on March 22 at the Clinton Presbyterian Community in Clinton, South Carolina. He and wife Lois, who preceded him in death, served as mission co-workers in Africa for 49 years (1951-2000), 37 of those years in Sudan and South Sudan. The couple also served for brief stints in Kenya and Uganda.
Mission co-workers the Rev. Bob and Kristi Rice firmly believe that God has a reason for them to be in the United States at this time.
Forced to leave South Sudan during the early stages of the pandemic, they have used the time not only to continue their work, but to also reflect more deeply on the challenges the U.S. faces around systemic racism, continued brutality against people of color and the need for restoration, reconciliation and peace.
A few weeks ago, before coronavirus took over our thoughts in South Sudan, I joined a meeting of women to talk about community development. Women gathered in a circle after the church service, many of them holding young children on their laps. I started the discussion by reflecting on John 10:10, where Jesus expressed his intention to give us “life, and have it abundantly.”
What does that mean?
Just as one country became two with South Sudan’s independence in 2011, Nile Theological College, offering both Arabic and English curriculum tracks, also split into two campuses in two countries the same year.
“Pray for a new Sudan to come” was the heartfelt plea given by Dr. Aida Weran to the members of the South Sudan/Sudan Mission Network that recently met at the New Wilmington Mission Conference at Westminster College in New Wilmington, Pa. Weran is an instructor at Nile Theological College in Khartoum, Sudan, an institution that Weran described as being at the “crossroads of the violence.”
