Advocacy Action for Southern Sudan ... please take 60 seconds and act now!

Friends,

this alert just came from the Episcopal Public Policy Network. Please take a minute and take this simple action, which is so critical for our sisters and brothers in Southern Sudan.

We here in Missouri have had a companion relationship with the Diocese of Lui in Southern Sudan for several years now. Over the past few weeks we have heard increasing reports of violence in the neighboring diocese of Mundri with refugees streaming into Lui. This is a critical action at a critical time ... and it takes no more than 60 seconds.

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During his campaign, President Obama spoke of the need to stop he so-called "Lord's Resistance Army (LRA)," a Uganda-based rebel group that has been active in South Sudan and other parts of the region for more than two decades Over the past six weeks, the people of South Sudan, already living precariously with their northern neighbors, have been terrorized by an unremitting campaign of LRA militia attacks on civilians.

Christianity is the majority religion in South Sudan and the violence has had a particular effect on the Episcopal Church of the Sudan,. Some of the earliest attacks – which included killings, child abductions, decapitation, and other unspeakable crimes at the hands of the LRA – were directed at parishes and villages in the Dioceses of Mundri and Ezo. Tragically, the violence appears to be spreading, with reports from bishops and others in Sudan that LRA activity has reached across southern Sudan to Torit, Kajokeji, Lainya, Yei, Yambio, Ibba, Maridi, and Lui.

Last week, Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori urged Americans to learn more about the situation, advocate for a U.S. government response, give to the work of Episcopal Relief and Development in the region, and pray for peace. To read the Presiding Bishop's statement, click here.

WHAT ONE CAN DO:

Click here to send a message to the White House, asking President Obama to take urgent action with other international leaders to stop the violence.

Ask him now to work to ensure:

(1) a viable strategy to arrest LRA leaders and bring them to justice;

(2) robust protection for civilians as the governments of Southern Sudan, Uganda, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo continue a joint effort to apprehend LRA leaders;

(3) a negotiated end to the LRA's activity in the region; and

(4) an adequate deployment to the region of UN peacekeepers.

"Prayers and intervention needed in Southern Sudan" -- by Mama Daria Kwaje

I was supposed to send my EGR writing on the 1st of February, but also I was out in Rokon dioceses conducting a conference for the women. In Rokon there is no access of communication only satellite phone.

Maybe this will be the only information that I want the readers to know and pray upon it. Our dioceses in Western Equatoria (South Sudan) has a very big and critical issue of attacks by the Ugandans Rebels so-called Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) since the whole of December last year entering to January this year up to this present day. Beginning from Lui, Mundri, Maridi, Yambio and Ezzo diocese. The LRA has made a lot of damages to the people in these areas, killing and looting their properties. Many people died, some were injured and some were scattered in the bush and many others ran to the town whereby food and accommodation became a problem, no shelters, no medicines.

We are unable to help the situation, we need your support in prayers so that God can intervene to calm the situation, This year will be the year of hunger if the LRA remains there because people will not be able to cultivate, the children were scattered from their schools and many of the small children will be affected with malnourishment due to lack of food.

Mama Daria Kwaje is a Mother's Union Provincial Worker, Episcopal Church of Sudan.

For more on the LRA attacks in Southern Sudan, read this ENS article.

"Trickle-down Hell" -- by the Rev. Lauren Stanley

By the Rev. Lauren R. Stanley

“The Dow Jones fell 5 percent today …”
“Markets in Asia plummeted on news of …”
“Foreclosures hit a new high in …”

The credit crisis dominates our lives right now. Every day, there is more bad economic news, so much of which can be traced straight back to pure greed.

The subprime mortgage crisis set off much of the trouble here in the United States, both the selling of these mortgages to people who were not qualified financially, and the subsequent bundling and selling of these risky loans as investments.

One thing led to another, and voila! We have a recession that is spreading around the world in record time, threatening another Great Depression.

The crime in all this is the greed behind all of it. Not the greed of those who wanted to own their own homes; for the most part, many of the people who took these loans simply wanted a shot at the American Dream, and far too many of them were misled by those giving the loans. No, the greed here lies with those who made the loans knowing that they were predatory, and who then bundled them into investments wherein the investors were, seemingly cavalierly, gambling wildly with people’s lives.

Talking with some friends about this recently, I pointed out the worst tragedy of all:

Those who will suffer the most are those who are in the most need.

How so, my friends asked.

Well, if everyone in this country, the richest in the world, is worried about their money, never mind losing it hand over fist, if they fear for their jobs and their homes, they won’t be able to help those most in need. So the people with whom I serve in Sudan are going to be hurt the hardest.

How can I continue to buy medicine for people, for the women and children, with malaria and typhoid and diarrhea, the three biggest killers in Africa, if people in the United States aren’t able to help? I don’t buy medicine in Renk with my own money – I don’t have it. As a missionary of the Episcopal Church, I don’t receive much in the way of salary; in fact, what I receive actually doesn’t cover my expenses over there, never mind expenses in this country when I am here.

I receive money for medicine from generous churches, friends, family and strangers in this country. I take that money with me and invest it – yes, invest it – in the lives of those who aren’t even on the economic ladder, who have no way to buy desperately needed medicines to save the lives of their families.

All of that money comes from donations.

But … if in these dire economic times people here are worried, are scared, about their own futures, they won’t be able to help secure the future of those far away.

And that’s the real crime of this economic mess.

Those at the top of the economic ladder are suffering losses in their portfolios. Suddenly, they are worth a whole lot less than they were before. Whether that qualifies as suffering, I don’t know. I’ve never been that high on the ladder, and while I understand their anxieties, having that much money, never mind losing a huge chunk of it, is beyond my ken.

Those standing on the middle rungs are clinging to them tightly, knowing that one small misstep will hurt them dramatically. They worry about paying off bills, education for their children, mortgages, jobs … and they are the ones who are retrenching, cutting back on eating out, on Christmas gifts, on anything they can. They are the ones who normally give to those in need … and that giving is already plummeting as they strive to protect their own. Their needs and fears I understand completely, since I used to belong to that class myself. And I don’t like asking for money from folks who need it for themselves.

And then there are those who are already on the bottom rung, the ones who could barely make things work even in the best of times, the ones who each month have to balance paying bills vs. buying food for their children. They don’t have health care and live in true fear of illness. They also are the ones who give most generously – always, it is the poor who share the most – but now, they are in desperate, desperate shape, and I absolutely refuse to take money from them. No, they can’t really fall farther down the ladder, but they are close to falling off the ladder, and I will not jeopardize them.

All of which means that the people who need help most desperately, the poor all over the world who aren’t even on the economic ladder and who have no ability to make it on their own because there is no stability where they live, well … they are literally out of luck. What little help they’ve been getting probably will dry up. New donors will be hard to find. And so these people will continue to suffer, and their suffering will get worse, and there’s not going to be much that can be done about it.

All because someone somewhere decided to gamble, not with his or her own money, but with the money and lives of others, not thinking about the trickle-down hell into which so many would be thrown.

In the old days, most of those who invested funds did so by combining their own money with that of investors big and small. So the men in charge of all this investing actually had a stake in what they were doing. That made them, it seems, more conservative and a whole lot more caring. Now, the money managers get their fees and their exorbitant salaries and go before Congress crying about how they have been hurt by the losses and how they absolutely deserve every cent of their enormous paychecks and benefits … and not once – not once – do they talk about the hardest-hit, the ones suffering from their flawed policies of greed.

There’s very little justice in trickle-down economics.

There is no justice in trickle-down hell.

The Rev. Lauren R. Stanley is an Appointed Missionary of the Episcopal Church serving in the Diocese of Renk, Sudan. She is a lecturer at the Renk Theological College, teaching Theology, Liturgy, Biblical Greek and English, and serves as chaplain for the students.

"In a forgotten corner of the world..." -- by the Rev. Lauren Stanley

RENK, Sudan – In 1922, the Soviet Union was born.

In 1948, three years after my parents got married and long before I was even a twinkle in their eyes, apartheid became the official policy of the Republic of South Africa.

In 1961, mere months after I was born, the Berlin Wall went up.

By 1968, the “Troubles” were well under way in Northern Ireland.

These were facts of life with which I grew up; I didn’t like any of them, but presumed that this simply was the way the world was, and I’d have to deal with them.

And then in 1989, the Wall came down in Berlin and I thought: My God, there is hope.

In 1991, the Soviet Union collapsed and the whole world was realigned, and hope grew. Then apartheid came to an end in South Africa, something I never thought would happen, and the hope grew some more. When Nelson Mandela was elected president of South Africa a few years later, I cried with joy.

And in April 1998, with the signing of the Good Friday Agreement in Northern Ireland, I knew that all things were possible.

But I still didn’t believe – not with my whole heart – that my country would elect a black man president.

Oh, I hoped. I believed – I knew – it would happen some day.

But I have to admit, I wasn’t confident that day would come in my lifetime. After all, I grew up in a country that didn’t even confirm the voting rights of African-Americans until I was 5 years old.

In January 2006, when Sen. Barack Obama of Illinois announced his candidacy for president, I thought there was a chance that once again, I would be wrong, and that that which I thought wouldn’t happen actually could happen. On that day, when Obama spoke with such power and clarity of restoring hope and seeking redemption, I knew, with all my heart, that I would have to support him.

After all, I’m a priest. I preach hope and redemption from the pulpit. I live in hope. I believe in hope. How could I not support someone who based his leadership on that same ideal? But even with all that hope, his and mine, I wasn’t sure it would happen. Not now. Not yet.

So when I woke up on that Wednesday morning here in Sudan, clutching my radio and trying to find a clear signal from the BBC, I was filled with hope, but still not quite believing.

Sudan is eight hours ahead of the East Coast, so waking up at 4:30 in the morning was a little silly. The polls were still open in the United States, and there would be no announcements for hours yet. Still, I woke again and again, seeking a radio signal, hoping to get some clue.

Finally, the BBC announced that the polls would close in California in “30 seconds,” and moments later, declared Obama’s victory. I let out a whispered shout of “YES!” (many of my neighbors were still sleeping), and felt a huge surge of joy.

My country had done something absolutely momentous: We had elected a black man president.

Within minutes, I received the first of many phone calls from Sudanese friends celebrating with me. “Mobruk! Mobruk! Congratulations! Congratulations!”

An hour later, when I heard Obama’s speech, I stood frozen in one spot, not daring to risk losing the signal, and cried … with joy, with some shame that it took so long for something so simple to happen, with pride because that simple thing had happened.

And when Obama spoke directly to those of us “huddled around our radios in forgotten corners of the world,” the tears flowed even more freely. For half the year, I live and move and have my being in one of those forgotten corners, and to be remembered at the moment of his greatest victory spoke to my heart, and to the hearts of so many people here. To hear the new president-elect remember those of us who live so far away in such different and difficult circumstances means more to us here than he will ever imagine.

You see, for the past six months or so, most of the Sudanese I know actually have supported Sen. John McCain. For a variety of reasons, they thought Obama would never win, and thus decided he shouldn’t win.

But today, the day after Obama’s election, those same Sudanese are celebrating. For in Obama, they see hope, and hope is something they most definitely understand. Sudan is a land that has been torn apart by war for most of the past five decades. Death still stalks the people daily. There is not enough food or clean water or health care or education. Malaria and typhoid kill people here daily. It’s hot and dirty and dirt-poor to boot.

The only thing most Sudanese have, really, is hope. Hope that their lives one day will improve and their children will live to adulthood. Hope that the fragile peace we have here will grow and expand into a real, lasting peace.

So they’ve been calling to tell me, “Mobruk! Mobruk! Congratulations! Congratulations!” Not just because Obama’s election is historic and almost unbelievable, but also because his election gives them hope as well.

The Rev. Lauren R. Stanley is an Appointed Missionary of the Episcopal Church serving in the Diocese of Renk, Sudan. She is a lecturer at the Renk Theological College, teaching Theology, Liturgy and English, and serves as chaplain for the students.

"A Uniting Tongue" -- by the Rev. Lauren R. Stanley

RENK, Sudan – “Please, I want English.”

“You will help me English.”

“You teach me English.”

“English very important. You help.”

Every day, I am asked to teach English to someone here in Sudan. Even though I spend at least half of my days speaking passable Arabic, along with a smattering of tribal languages, everyone here, it seems, want to speak, read and write English. Clergy colleagues ask me to help them learn advanced English. The women want to read and write it. And the children … well, all day long, from early morning to late evening, the children yell out at me, “Good morning, teacher!”

Now that the semester is finished at the Renk Theological College, where I teach, among other things, English, I have three new English classes that I am teaching, one for colleagues who actually understand quite a bit of English but are afraid to speak it; one for my advanced English students from college, who want to prepare for TOEFL exams (if they are ever blessed to take one); and one for the women (sorry, no men allowed here) who work for the College, the Cathedral and the Guesthouse and who know very little English.

It’s a fascinating thing to work with these friends, most of whom I have known for three or more years, who during that time have urged me to learn Arabic and their own tribal languages, but who now are desperate to learn my mother tongue.

South Sudan in particular has always wanted to have English as its uniting language. The further south you travel in this, Africa’s largest nation, the more English you hear. But here in Renk, on the border between North and South, only 250 miles south of the capital of Khartoum, Arabic is the lingua franca. It’s not classical Arabic, not even Modern Standard Arabic. Linguists classify most of the Arabic spoken here as “Sudanese Creole.” Until the Comprehensive Peace Agreement was signed three-plus years ago, the entire curriculum in the schools was taught in Arabic.

Now, though, that is beginning to change. Now our curriculum is shifting to English, with Arabic as a second language that is still required, but not the main focus. Our children are learning more and more English. In addition to hearing “Good morning, teacher!” now I hear, “What is your name?” and “How are you?” (with a nice lilt on the final word) more often.

The conversational English class has been the most fun to teach thus far. The other day, the students broke into groups of four with assignments to use several tenses in their conversation. I stepped outside and lingered by the windows to listen.

And what did I hear but a cacophony of voices raised in questions and answers, with corrections quickly interspersed.

“Yesterday, I am going …”

“No, yesterday I was going …”

“Today I will be coming to class.”

“No, today I am in class.

“Tomorrow, I will go to Kosti.”

“Yesterday, I went to a wedding.”

It was a truly delightful sound … 12 adults, all leaders of the Diocese of Renk in the Episcopal Church of Sudan, trying their hardest to make sense of this language they have heard for years but never quite understood and never felt comfortable speaking.

Occasionally, they falter and don’t want to speak. “No,” they say. “I don’t know.”

That’s when I whip out my Arabic and tell them tales of things that have happened to me in Sudan in the last three years. I get them laughing and asking questions and commenting, and then I remind them: If I can speak Arabic with you, and make all the mistakes I do, and still am willing to use this language, you can do the same. I promise not to laugh at you, just as you never laugh at me.”

Sometimes, we sing songs in English. The Church here has many English songs translated into tribal languages as well as Arabic, so they are familiar with them. Learning the songs in a new language, and learning what the words mean, is probably the most fun for the students, especially when we sing something rousing, like I Have Decided to Follow Jesus. They love that song in their own languages; adding the English version is a bonus.

In my TOEFL class, I spend as much time explaining idioms and colloquialisms and American culture as I do teaching English. The students are fascinated to learn about Girl Scout cookies – in our practice book, there really is a question dealing with ordering cookies – and being “short” one class for graduation, and what an area code is, and the difference between “purchased” and “bought” (you have to match the verb used in the conversation). They love to hear about going to restaurants (and what that word means) and “putting an ad in a newspaper,” and struggle to deal with me speaking English at what would be a “normal” American speed, as opposed to what I use to teach their other classes, which is an African-accented, slower version of American and British English.

These students listen closely, staring straight at me, and do their best to answer questions based on the “conversations” I have had to create because we are missing the TOEFL cassette tapes they are supposed to be using. They guess at answers, sometimes ask me to repeat the conversations, ask about subtle differences and grin hugely when they finally understand.

And the women? Well, they have their own special requests about what they want to learn: How to say, “I am going home now.” “I am cooking breakfast.” “I want to go to the market.” They struggle to write the alphabet and giggle when they can recite it from memory, especially when they remember one of the alphabet songs we use here. Some of the women have had to be taught how to hold a pencil before they can begin classes; all of them try so very hard to learn any little thing they can.

South Sudan is changing rapidly. Soon, perhaps sooner than we think, this will be a place where English is the lingua franca.

The Rev. Lauren R. Stanley is an Appointed Missionary of the Episcopal Church serving in the Diocese of Renk, Sudan. She is a lecturer at the Renk Theological College, teaching Theology, Liturgy and English, and serves as chaplain for the students.

"If only that were true..." -- by the Rev. Lauren Stanley

By Lauren R. Stanley
McClatchy-Tribune News Service

RENK, Sudan – So what would you do if someone told you that something you believed to be a true and accurate fact, something you held near and dear to your heart, wasn’t true?

Would you believe this new version of truth? Or would you fight it and be upset?

Nearly every day as a lecturer at the Renk Theological College in Sudan, I have to deal with the varied reactions of my students to “new” truths.

The first time I told the students, most of whom are already ordained as priests and deacons of the Episcopal Church of Sudan, that Matthew’s Gospel was not the first one written, that Paul’s Letter to the Romans was not his first letter, that scholars don’t know for sure who wrote the Epistle to the Hebrews, that Moses did not write the Pentateuch, the first five books of the Bible, and that David is not the author of all the psalms was an eye-opener for both the students and myself.

The students sat there in disbelief. No one had told them anything about how the Bible was put together, just that this was the Bible, the holy word of God. No one had explained that numerous authors were involved in writing the Scriptures, and that there were many things we did not know about authorship or the timing of the writings.

Me? As a lecturer in a theological college, I was stunned to find out that the students had no background in biblical studies. Most of the students were already ordained; most had been preaching to and teaching their congregations for years. How could they not know?

And then I realized that in Sudan, which has been torn apart by war for decades, education was a rare and precious commodity, and that these men and women had not been able to go to school. They were ordained because they knew the story, the Good News of God in Christ Jesus, and they could tell that story, sometimes very well indeed.

Finding out that all they held near and dear wasn’t quite true was hard.

Some of them were curious and immediately wanted to know more. But some were absolutely aghast – how could this be true? And still others refused to believe, no matter what I said that day.

Even after a year and a half, they are still surprised when I give them new information. Recently, we had a long, lively discussion about whether John the Baptist actually baptized Jesus in Luke’s Gospel. In Matthew and Mark, there is no doubt: John baptizes Jesus. In Luke’s Gospel, that’s not the case. The Scriptures clearly say that John was arrested in prison, then tell of Jesus’ baptism. I pointed this out to the students in class, and for over an hour, we debated on this.

Because Matthew and Mark have John baptizing Jesus, they said, it must be true of Luke. Then they said that since Luke was writing for the Gentiles, it was obvious he didn’t know. The debate went all over the place. I kept pointing out what that they had to read what Luke said, not what they wanted Luke to say. In the end, the students agreed – I think – to accept that in Luke’s Gospel (as well as in John’s), it’s not clear who baptized Jesus, and furthermore, it’s not important.

The hardest part about being the person who gives out new information is realizing that sometimes, the people getting that information don’t want it. It’s not that they don’t want to learn – these students wouldn’t have traveled here to live in less-than-stunning conditions, many without their families, if they were desperate to learn more.

What’s hard for them is that new information, especially about things they thought they already knew, means change. It means changing basic beliefs sometimes. It means looking at the world in a new way. It means allowing yourself to be transformed.

And transformation … well, that’s just hard. There aren’t many of us who want to go through that, fewer still who are willing to set aside long-held beliefs to accept new ones. No one likes being told that the truth he holds isn’t true. No one likes finding out that she has been wrong all along.

But if we aren’t willing to be transformed, both as teachers and as students, then we won’t even be able to hear new things, much less accept them. And if we aren’t able to hear new things, how can we grow in Christ? How can we tell the good news of God’s love for us if hearing about that love is too frightening?

So we walk a tightrope, my students and I, between wanting to hear in new ways the love of God, and wanting to stick with what we’ve always known, whether it’s true or not. On our worst days, we reject anything the new and pretend the old is good enough. But on our best and bravest days, we accept the new and go forth from there, changed and transformed for the better.

The Rev. Lauren R. Stanley is an appointed missionary serving in the Diocese of Renk in the Episcopal Church of Sudan, where she is a lecturer and chaplain at the Renk Theological College.

"Prayers for Abeyei" -- by Mama Daria Kwaje

This time I want you to share with me the prayers for our poor people of Abeyei.

I was shocked when I saw their pictures. They stayed under the sun in a great heat. They made shelters without any plastic sheet or grass that they can cover on it. The sun goes directly over them, and if it is raining also it goes directly to them. The poor women with their babies managing to stay in that poor situation, no food. People are eating the leaves of the trees. There is not enough water, the type of water they drank was all muddy. No medicine for their children.

When I read the letter sent to me by the Mothers Union members in Abeyei, I cried because I was not able to fulfill their needs.

My request to you all is to pray for Abeyei people and specially the children and their mothers, also if God can make it possible for me to go and see them practically in the ground.

Recently there was a team from the Provincial office went to Abeyei taking some plastic sheets, which was not even enough but just for the families who have small babies at least, and we are going to come out with a project to collect some clothes from our members so that we should send it to our sisters in Abeyei to support them.

God bless you all for listenig to this short information.

Mama Daria Kwaje is a Mother's Union Provincial Worker for the Episcopal Church of Sudan.

"More Conflict in Sudan Predicted" -- BBC Radio News

The carnage in Sudan, which began in 1983, left two million people dead and four million people homeless. Since then the peace agreement that ended the war has been threatening to unravel. In the first of his series, Mike Thomson reports from Sudan on Africa's longest running civil war.

Click here to listen to streaming audio of the story.

Click here to listen to streaming audio of an interview with the Catholic Archbishop of Juba.

This series will run daily all week. Keep checking back HERE for the newest installments.

"Dean Martha heralds new day for women in Sudan" -- by the Rev. Lauren Stanley

RENK, Sudan – We made history in Sudan the other day, installing the Very Rev. Martha Deng Nhial as the first dean of the Cathedral of St. Matthew, Diocese of Renk, Episcopal Church of Sudan.

But being the first was not how the real history was made.

No, the real history was making a woman priest dean of a cathedral in Sudan. Dean Martha is the first to hold that office, just eight years after the Episcopal Church of Sudan decided to begin ordaining women as deacons and priest, just five years after Dean Martha was ordained a deacon, and only three years after she was ordained a priest.

Dean Martha is also one of the first African women to be dean of an African cathedral in the history of Christianity.

We’re feeling pretty good about ourselves right now. And not just about the history-making. We are looking around and seeing women being educated and starting businesses and taking leadership positions all over the country. In the Diocese of Renk, our schools are filled with girls, who make up close to 50 percent of the school population in some cases. Girls are taking and passing their Sudan Junior Certificates at the end of eighth grade, and taking and passing their Sudan Certificates at the end of senior secondary school. They are becoming teachers and in some cases, head teachers. They are learning to speak, read and write English and Arabic and their tribal languages, many of them from the Mothers’ Union, a powerful force in Sudan.

Women may not yet rule in Sudan, but some days, it sure seems that way.

A week after Dean Martha was installed, special prayers were offered at her home. Fifty women gathered to praise her, to praise the Church, and to thank God and the Church for lifting her up, and for her ability to lift all of us up in our lives.

Even before she became dean, Martha was a force to be reckoned with in Renk. She was a nurse, as well as a member and then leader of the Mothers Union here. When she walked through town, with a purposeful stride, everyone could see that she was a woman of strength. (I once was compared to her because of the speed with which I walk, as well as my long stride. It was quite the compliment.) When Martha spoke, everyone listened, because they knew she was a woman of faith. When she became one of the first women priests ordained in Sudan, all applauded her for her courage.

Culturally, Sudan is still a land where women are expected to do certain kinds of work, none of which involve leadership. In the countryside, it is still not unusual to see the boys being educated while the girls are kept at home. In Renk, boys can pretty much roam the streets at will; girls, on the other hand, are kept under tighter supervision. (All of my young playmates, who come to hang out with me, play games, teach me Arabic, learn English from me and just keep me company, are boys. The girls are not allowed by their families to come play with me.)

So to see Dean Martha being installed – to see her daughters weep at her service – to hear the women in town sing her praises and encourage her to greater heights for herself and beg her to lead them to greater heights – was awe-inspiring.

Forget the history.

This was about women being shown that they, too, can lead, they, too, have something great to offer, they, too, deserve to be honored.

The Rev. Lauren R. Stanley is an Appointed Missionary of the Episcopal Church serving in the Diocese of Renk, Sudan. She is a lecturer at the Renk Theological College, teaching Theology, Liturgy and English, and serves as chaplain for the students.

Photo: The Very Rev. Martha Deng Nhial, the new Dean of St. Matthew Cathedral, Diocese of Renk, Episcopal Church of Sudan, addressed the congregation after being installed on 17 August 2008 in Renk, Sudan. (Photo by Moses Anuur Ayom.)

"Chicago Parish launches 'Club 157' to retire Sudanese church debt" -- by Joe Bjordal (ENS)

[Episcopal News Service] When the Most Rev. Daniel Deng Bul spoke to the annual conference of the American Friends of the Episcopal Church of Sudan (AFRECS) in May 2008, he described the immediate challenges he was facing as the new archbishop of a church with 24 dioceses spread throughout Africa's largest geographical country. At the time of the conference, Deng has been archbishop barely a month.

He reported that upon taking office he discovered that the Episcopal Church of Sudan, at the provincial level, was deeply in debt and that some church officials had not been compensated for as long as three years. The amount of the debt was equal to approximately $157,000.

"This is affecting my work as archbishop," he said, "and I strongly need your support to carry out my duty. I want you to send me home with a promise that you will help me clear these arrears to the staff, to roll away the stone and remove the hindrances to our work as the church in Sudan."

That need was discussed in a small, private meeting between Deng and members of St. Michael's Episcopal Church, Barrington, Illinois, a congregation well-known to the new archbishop. For 10 years, St. Michael's has spearheaded the companion relationship between the Diocese of Chicago and the Diocese of Renk in Sudan, where Deng served as bishop prior to his election as primate.

Jackie Kraus, a member of St. Michael's who first suggested the companion relationship after a trip to Sudan in 1998, said that a possible strategy to erase the debt was introduced at the meeting: simply find 157 individuals or families who will give $1,000 each.

The idea has been met with strong support and in September, St. Michael's will formally launch a fundraising campaign called "Club 157" seeking to raise $157,000 to meet Deng's immediate need. Even prior to the official start of the effort, the Club has 12 members.

A history of generosity for Sudan
This kind of effort in support of the Episcopal Church of Sudan is nothing new for St. Michael's. Only this time they seek to tap the generosity of people beyond their own congregation.

Early on in the companion relationship, Episcopalians in Chicago began to focus on the needs of what is now known as Renk Theological College. Initially, two members of St. Michael's provided funds to a small school building of mud and grass where priests could study the Bible. When that building was taken by the government in order to build a road over the site, the people of St. Michael's raised $50,000 to build a new school of brick with a tin roof.

St. Michael's has just concluded another successful fundraising effort with the goal of providing $150,000 to support the college over a five-year period. Kraus reports that the congregation exceeded it goal.

Club 157 will be chaired by Robin and Philip Darrow of St. Michael's, who became involved in Chicago's Sudan relationship two years ago.

Kraus, who said she "carried the torch for Sudan alone" for many years in her congregation and the diocese, says the Darrows "are some of the people that God has risen up in his own time" to lead the effort.

Phil Darrow represented St. Michael's and the Diocese of Chicago at Deng's enthronement in April in Juba. Both Robin and Phil represented their church and diocese in Salisbury, England in July, where nearly all the Sudanese bishops gathered just prior to the Lambeth Conference to celebrate the 35th anniversary of a companion relationship between the Diocese of Salisbury and the Episcopal Church of Sudan.

Phil Darrow says that Club 157 will be launched in September as an appeal letter is sent to people in the Diocese of Chicago and to members and friends of AFRECS.

Read the entire article here.
Photo of Archbishop Deng with Phil and Robin Darrow courtesy of St. Michael's Episcopal Church, Barrington, IL.

"Sudanese Bishops Statement to the Lambeth Conference" -- presented by the Most Revd. Dr. Daniel Deng Bul

There's been a lot of talk about one statement made by Sudanese Archbishop Daniel Deng Bul yesterday at Lambeth. What has been completely lost in that hubbub is the other statement made by the Archbishop on behalf of the Episcopal Church of Sudan. It is a critical statement and EGR commends it for your prayer and study.

The entire statement is below, but some key "asks" are:

*International pressure for peace in Darfur as part of a "whole Sudan approach" to conflict in Sudan, realizing that the conflicts in Darfur and in the South are inextricably linked.

*Continued education and political pressure around the Referendum of 2011, which would provide the opportunity for independence for Southern Sudan.

*Continued political pressure to abide by the Abyei protocol of the CPA.

*Support for the Church in the North in the face of religious persecution from the government.

*Continued pressure on peace talks with the Lord's Resistance Army and Ambororo.

*Support in terms of relief and development, to help communities provide clean water, security, health and education for returning refugees and internally displaced persons.

*Support from the Lambeth Conference and Anglican Communion to "stand in solidarity with the Sudanese Church and people."

*Prayers and fellowship to encourage and support the Church in its mission.

The Episcopal Diocese of Missouri, in consultation with the Episcopal Office of Government Relations, has developed a "Sudan Advocacy Action Guide" that addresses these points and has talking points and a letter template. You can download it here and substitute your own senators' and representative's contact information (as well as tweak the language to suit your situation).

Please spread the word about this "other statement" ... and don't let cries of the Sudanese people get drowned out.

Your Grace, the Most Revd and Rt Hon Dr Rowan Williams, Archbishop of Canterbury
Your Graces, the Archbishops of our beloved Anglican Communion,
Your Lordships, the Bishops of the Anglican Communion and the clergy,
Ladies and Gentlemen,

We greet you all in the precious name of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.

We, the Sudanese Bishops gathering at the Lambeth Conference, would like on behalf of the Episcopal Church of the Sudan (ECS) and the whole Sudanese people, to acknowledge and appreciate your prayers and support during the 21 years of war in Southern Sudan and in reaching the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) signed between the Government of Sudan and the Sudan People's Liberation Movement / Army (SPLM/A) on 9th January 2005. The CPA provides the basis for a just and sustainable peace in the Sudan. We give thanks to God for the agreement and express our support for all efforts to ensure its full and timely implementation.

After 21 years of war, in which more than 2 million people lost their lives and more than 4 million people have become refugees or internally displaced, we are greatly encouraged at thenew future offered by the CPA. However, we remain deeply concerned that the conflict in Darfur, in Western Sudan, continues unabated, and at the localized conflict in several places which threatens stability and the sustainability of peace. We therefore wish to share with you the following concerns:

1. Situation in Darfur

Despite the Government of Sudan's official estimate of not more than 10,000 people killed in the fighting in Darfur, the UN has estimated there to have been some 300,000 war-related deaths since the conflict escalated in 2003. Whatever the exact figures, this continuing loss of life is an affront to all people who value human life and to religious faith in the God of mercy. The finding of a political solution remains an urgent priority as well as the full deployment of an effective UN/AU joint mission. Continuing international pressure is needed on both the Government of Sudan and the now numerous armed groups to bring an end to the violence, to hold its perpetrators accountable, and to engage in constructive negotiations to address the grievances of the region.

Although Darfur is a predominantly Muslim region, the Church is playing a growing role in responding to the humanitarian needs and providing education to displaced communities as part of its practical witness to the Gospel. Substantial humanitarian assistance will continue to be needed for whole communities displaced with no early prospects of return.

We are concerned that the Darfur situation cannot be viewed in isolation. Continuing conflict in Darfur would undermine the prospects of peace in the South, while the going back on commitments made to achieve peace in the South would remove any credibility from the Government of Sudan in negotiations over Darfur. We therefore call for a whole Sudan approach, within which implementation of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement, plays an essential part.

2. Implementation of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA)

For the opportunity for a just and sustainable peace to be realized, full implementation of the CPA needs to be ensured. We recognize the holding of the Referendum in 2011 on the future political status of Southern Sudan as being of key significance in its implementation. We affirm the right of every human being to decide his or her destiny and accordingly we support the right of self-determination for the people of Southern Sudan to decide their future, whether for unity or separation. We have therefore committed ourselves to raise awareness of the Referendum, as well as the whole CPA, to ensure that the process is carried out with proper transparency

While progress has been made in several significant areas, including the establishment of the Government of National Unity and of the Government of Southern Sudan to look after the affairs of the South, we remain concerned at the delays or refusal to implement other elements, such as demarcation of the North-South border. This risks undermining confidence between the patties or in the wider communities.

3. Destruction of Abyei

The destruction of the town of Abyei and displacement of the area's population of over 90,000 people in May 2008 represents the most serious violation of the CPA to date. As an oil-rich area on the border between Northern and Southern Sudan, Abyei was accorded special administrative status under its own Protocol within the CPA. The Government of Sudan failed to honour these terms, declining to accept the binding recommendations of the Abyei Boundaries Commission and delaying in providing an administration for the area. Instead, a build-up in troops of both parties to the CPA resulted in fighting and the destruction of the town and displacement of its entire population, for many people the third time they have been displaced by their own government. They are now in urgent need of assistance and of support for re-building Abyei and resettling there.

The non-implementation to date of the Abyei Protocol constitutes a serious threat to the CPA. Vigilance will be needed from the international community to ensure that the parties' commitments are honoured.

4. Position of the Church in Northern Sudan

Although the country's new Constitution under the CPA provides for freedom of religion and the protection of non-Muslims in the national capital, the church continues to face pressure and discrimination in Northern Sudan. Leverage is needed for the repealing of discriminatory laws, such as those which restrict access to land for the building of churches. Constructive dialogue between Christians and Muslims is needed at all levels.

We are further concerned at the church's vulnerability in the North in any future political dispensation. We see the need for the unity of the church whatever the political boundaries and for efforts to consolidate the position of the church through capacity building and developing church links both inside and outside Sudan. The early church in Northern Sudan died through its isolation from the outside world amid the growing influence of Islam. The church there is now alive again and needs sustained support to safeguard its brighter future.

5. Atrocities of the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) and Ambororo

The Ugandan rebels known as the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) arc adversely affecting the stales of Western Equatoria, Central Equatoria and Eastern Equatoria, with their forces stationed in the borders of Sudan with Congo and Central African Republic. Despite efforts to mediate between the Ugandan Government and the LRA, attacks continue on villages, such as the attack on Nabanga in Ibba Diocese on 5th June 2008 in which 500 people were internally displaced and left dispossessed. The LRA presence, together with that of armed Arab nomads known as the Ambororo, is causing fear and instability in the region, disrupting cultivation and schooling. Continued pressure is needed to bring the LRA talks to a successful conclusion and to end these armed attacks.

6. Return of Refugees and Internally Displaced People

The return of refugees and those internally displaced is one of the fruits of the CPA but presents major practical challenges. Lack of support for repatriation is hindering their return, as is fear of insecurity in their areas. The Church is assisting with the re-integration of those returning, co-operating with local government to welcome them on their arrival and helping to prepare communities for the diverse cultures from which people are returning, whether from. Khartoum, East Africa or overseas. Much support will be needed, both in terms of relief and development, to help communities to provide clean water, security, health and education.

On all these issues which are key to the prospect of peace for Sudan, we appeal to those attending the Lambeth Conference, and the whole Anglican Communion, to continue to stand in solidarity with the Sudanese church and people. We request support in political advocacy to tackle the challenges before the country. We appeal for practical support to help respond to the many needs faced. But above all we request your continued prayers and fellowship to encourage and support the church in its mission. We believe that God has called us to preach the Good News in the Sudan, the land referred to in the Bible as the land of Cush, to reach the unreached so as to fulfill His great commission in Matthew 28.16. Our people are hungry for spiritual food and seek to grow to maturity so that they may propagate the culture of love, peace and justice which we have lost during the struggle. May God bless us all in this mission.

"A message from Sudan" -- by Mama Daria Kwaje

Dear readers,

Long time I did not participate in writing due to my being away to the areas where I could not have access to internet.

First thing I want from you is to pray for my country Sudan, last months I was in one of my state the Western Equatoria State for the Mothers Union training of entrepreneurship to give them skills of how to start a small business to support their needs, and the purpose is to fight poverty according to the MDGs.

I want to tell you what happened before the day of the training, somebody ran to the house of the Rev. where we were accommodated and said that the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) the rebels of Uganda, has entered to the town so we should be on stand by. And we found that all the neigbours ran and stayed for the whole night in and out side the compound of the Rev with and aim that, that was the house of the Rev. God will be available there to guide them, that was their belief, and nothing happened it was just a rumor. The whole population was staying in fear -- that was my concern. We need to pray for the community there because any rumors approach them, they took it into consideration with a lot of fear.

Thank God we were able to strenghten them with the word of God and lastly the government took that initiative to call all the community for a demonstration against LRA. And now the commnity is calm again.

Today the Mothers Union and the women in the community together with the students and all the men and our government, we celebrated the World Health Day Population, marching from Ministry of Health to the Culture Centre, It was organized by the Mininistry of Health.

The theme was the Family Planning, It was picked from MDG goal 5 because today the rate of maternal deaths was so high, even the mortality of the infants especially those under 5. Most of our people have not access to take care of the children due to economic factors. This affects even the education of our children and all the basic needs, so the challenge goes to the parents if they could decide for the number of children that they can produce due to their economic status. So still we need prayers for that because it greatly effects affects women and the children.

God bless you all.

Mama Daria

Mama Daria Kwaje is a Mother's Union Provincial Worker for the Episcopal Church of Sudan.

"Linguistic Disarmament" -- by the Rev. Lauren Stanley

The Rev. Jesse Jackson could probably stand a good visit from Cher right now. She could sing to him and if necessary, spend some time explaining what she meant when she sang If I Could Turn Back Time.

You remember the song, right? The lyrics from which Rev. Jackson could benefit?

“If I could find a way I’d take back those words that hurt you and you’d stay. I don’t know why I did the things I did. I don’t know why I said the things I said. Pride’s like a knife; it can cut deep inside. Words are like weapons; they wound sometimes.”

Perhaps if Rev. Jackson took those words to heart all the time, he wouldn’t have said that nasty thing he said about Sen. Barack Obama last week, and then he would not have had to apologize – before his statement was even aired – and then, of course, half the country would not be excoriating Rev. Jackson for saying such nasty things in the first place.

When we were children, our parents told us, “Sticks and stones may break your bones, but words will never hurt you.” But we all knew that wasn’t true. The first time anyone said anything nasty about us, we were hurt. And for some, if the words were strong enough and the tone harsh enough, they never left us. Their memory still burns in our hearts. Ask anyone who’s ever been denigrated by an ethnic or racial slur, anyone who has been told she or he is a lesser human being, anyone who has been called “stupid” or “useless.”

Words are weapons.

And we use them all the time.

Sometimes, we get caught using them, as Rev. Jackson did. All too often, we don’t get caught, or no one complains about what we’ve said, which is even worse, but that only serves to twist the knife deeper and make the wound more permanent.

Perhaps because I live part-time in Sudan, a country that has suffered greatly through three civil wars in the last five decades, where genocide continues at this very moment, where tribalism regrettably still reigns, and where hatred runs rampant, I am more attuned to how we use words to hurt and subjugate others all too frequently.

Perhaps living in that land has made me more sensitive to how we speak here in the United States, calling people names and making derogatory remarks about people. I hear this from children and adults alike, in public and in private, from people whom I know are hate-filled and people who I know even more are filled with love, as least in the general sense.

I don’t know why I’m more sensitive now, I only know that I am. And that it is more important than ever for me to not only pay attention to and control what I say, but to pay attention to and control what I think.

I do know this: Whenever we neglect to guard our hearts and minds as well as our tongues, we break the community in which we live, and for which we were created. Whenever we call someone a name, silently or aloud, whenever we denigrate someone as being lesser than ourselves in some way, shape or form, we break God’s love as well. And in doing so, we thus have broken the two Great Commandments, to love God and love our neighbor.

I may not like someone, I may not like what someone has done, but if I am to live in God’s love in God’s community, I have to control my impulses to lash out, and guide my heart and my mind and my mouth to at least try to love God’s beloved children.

Years ago, I lived with my brother and sister-in-law and their children while attending university. Because the children were young, the adults had to guard what we said, not only to protect the children from hearing bad language, but also to keep them from repeating it, usually at the most inopportune times. When it came to driving, all of us adults had the tendency to make, shall we say, less than kind remarks about other drivers. The problem was, the little ones repeated whatever we said, and often asked what certain words meant. So we invented words, one in particular that lasts to this day: “Dingeldoof”, “Dingeldoofen” for the plural. (We lived in Milwaukee; the Germanic culture must have influenced us.) “Dingeldoof,” we decided, was safe. Said in the right one of voice, it conveyed our meaning, our disgust with someone else, quite clearly. And if one of the children repeated it somewhere, we were, we figured, safe.

A decade later, working in Washington, D.C., I was still using this word to convey my, shall we say, dismay with certain people with whom I had to work – not in my office, but throughout my nationwide corporation. I never said it directly to anyone; I always waited until I had hung up the phone. One day, after working in this particular office for years, one of my co-workers, whom I had never heard curse, who had never in my hearing used a “bad” word for someone else in the corporation, in great frustration suddenly shouted, “Dingeldoof!”

At the time, it was funny. Finally, this co-worker had broken down and joined the rest of us crass human beings.

Now, I’m sorry I ever taught that co-worker that word. Because in doing so, I gave my co-worker the ability to denigrate another human being.

Which breaks God’s image of love and community.

We live in times when denigrating others is so common we often fail to even notice it. Somehow, our public discourse has become overloaded with these kinds of remarks; if you’re not with me, you must be somehow lesser than me, which makes me superior, which means I can say nasty things about you.

This has to stop. This does not please God, and is not why we were created.

Perhaps our discourse, public and private, would improve if we would take the time to curb our worst impulses, to do as Paul instructed, looking for whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is pleasing, whatever is commendable. As he wrote, if there is any excellence, anything worthy of praise, we should think of those things, even if it means we have to really work at it.

God would be much happier, don’t you think?

The Rev. Lauren R. Stanley is an Appointed Missionary of the Episcopal Church serving in the Diocese of Renk, Sudan. She is a lecturer at the Renk Theological College, teaching Theology, Liturgy and English, and serves as chaplain for the students.

"Much Work Left To Do In Sudan" -- by Reynolds Whalen

A few days ago, I had the pleasure of spending time with Archbishop Daniel Deng Bul Yak of Sudan. As he spoke to the Companion Diocese Committee of Missouri, he stressed the need to think on a large scale when approaching issues of development and reconciliation. He stressed the importance of the United States facilitating the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) between the North and South in Sudan three years ago, and used that as an example of how American citizens can have a profound global effect. He urged us to use our political agency as citizens of one of the most powerful nations in the world to help ensure peace in Sudan.

Over the past five years, there has been considerable media attention to the atrocities in Darfur. The conflict has left several hundred thousand people dead and several million displaced from their homes. Personal stories from people living in the area and the labeling of the situation as “genocide” have mobilized a significant activist movement around the world. However, recently, the Sudanese government has used this attention to further exploit the failing peace agreement in the South. Many provisions are not being met and returning refugees are finding their villages in shambles, no sign of the reconstruction promised by the government in the CPA.

When I was in Southern Sudan in 2005, shortly after the signing of the CPA, I conducted several interviews about the political situation and the relationship between conflicts in Sudan. Here were some reactions:

We know [Darfur] is affecting us here because now peace was signed, but now peace is not working. We know this is the problem on the Darfur: if there is no war in Darfur, maybe there is change in this peace, but now peace is not changing. We know that is the war in Darfur.

You see, if we still hear about war in Sudan, it is like still we are not free, we are still under war because the Darfur people are our people, you see? They are still in Sudan. So we don’t want to even hear a war in Sudan […] we are Sudanese and if the peace was there, you see for all the Sudanese, not only the one side, you see, still if you hear your brother is groaning because of something, you still feel pain, you see. So, in fact, it affects us badly...we are thinking we are still in war.

[Darfur] will affect the peace because it is the same Sudan government involved in that war and it is the same Sudan government we signed peace with from the Southern Sudan. So even though those of Darfur are far from here, we are still sympathizing with their situation because we have gone under the same situation and we know exactly how they are feeling.

Three years later, these issues continue to plague the country and all of the conflicts continue to be related. As those interviewed explained, the country needs to be addressed as a whole.

Recently, some positive steps have been taken in the direction of addressing issues of conflict in Sudan from a multi-faceted approach. The United States Congress passed House Resolution 1011, which calls on Chad, Sudan, and the Central African Republic to work together for stability throughout the entire region.

However, there is much to be done. This upcoming week will be crucial for our government as we decide on a Supplemental funding bill for Sudan in the FY2008 budget. As Christians living out our baptismal covenant, concerned for all of humanity, this is an issue on which we should speak loudly. How can we even begin to discuss the Millennium Development Goals in regions where constant armed conflict threatens all forms of infrastructure and livelihood?

Your members of Congress will listen. I have called Representatives and visited Senators’ offices many times, and am often contacted later and told that the information I offered became a great factor in decisions to sign or co-sponsor important bills. Do not let the size of our democratic system be daunting and stop you from letting your voice be heard. Educate yourself and use that education to think big and spread your knowledge to the places where it will have the most impact.

Reynolds Whalen is a graduating senior (ONE MORE WEEK!) at Washington University in St. Louis, has traveled extensively in Kenya, Uganda, and Sudan. He spent fall semester 2006 in Kenya working with AIDS orphans -- read his blog on it here and has produced a documentary film on that experience.

"Women join demining charge in south Sudan" -- by Skye Wheeler, Reuters

This excellent article from Reuters and the International Herald Tribune details just one aspect of everyday life in Southern Sudan -- women ... sometimes pregnant women ... working to remove mines from roads. As I traveled in southern Sudan you could see the places where mines had been removed from the road ... and then occasionally you would see a large crater (sometimes accompanied by the charred wreckage of a vehicle off the side of the road) near it.

Skye Wheeler of Reuters does a beautiful job reporting this horrific situation. For more excellent reporting on Africa, be sure and visit africa.reuters.com regularly.

MILE 38, Sudan: Seven months pregnant Opayi Mary stands half a metre away from a mine made expressly to blow anything over 3 kg to pieces. For her, it's just part of a day's work.

Mary leads an all-female team of deminers working for Norwegian People's Aid (NPA) in one of south Sudan's most dangerous areas: the civil war battlefield Mile 38.

The location, 38 miles (61 km) from the southern capital Juba, was on the frontline in a decades-long conflict between mainly Christian and animist southern rebels and the Islamist government in Khartoum.

The war, fought over ideology and ethnicity and fuelled by oil, killed 2 million people and displaced 4 million before a peace deal was signed in 2005.

Now, south Sudan's semi-autonomous government, which will hold a referendum on secession in 2011, is trying to rebuild a region where even the most basic infrastructure is lacking.

Clearing the thousands of mines is an important part of efforts to rebuild the devastated region, where mined roads have made travel and transport of goods difficult.

"I was so afraid of my first one," Mary admits. Two years later she is now in charge of her group's safety and for exploding the mines taken from this empty scrubland.

"Now I have taken more than 20. I can even hold them with my hand," Mary grins. She is short and seems all burgeoning bump but walks fast between cordoned off areas.

Under Mary's watch, Joanne Jenty slides a prong into a marked-out area in front of her that she has already wetted. In the hot silence of the bush and on her hands and knees, she is feeling for the side of a mine that she will then delicately unearth.

People used to live along this major trade route but have been slow to return since the war ended, deterred by a lack of infrastructure, worries of a return to fighting and the lines of hidden explosives buried just inches under the earth's surface.

The UN Mine Action Office, which coordinates demining projects run by dozens of groups, says more than 2,000 people have been killed or injured by mines since the end of the war. The cost for farmers and communities is incalculable, it says.

STILL A STRUGGLE

With a new administration and funds of between $1.5 - $1.7 billion a year from the region's share of oil revenues, many southerners were expecting dramatic peace dividends for communities long alienated from basic services by war.

They have been disappointed. The daily struggle for survival has not changed for most rural populations and returning refugees put more pressure on scant resources. A government study showed around 90 percent see corruption as a major problem.

And the peace is still shaky.

In December and January, Misseriya tribesmen fought southern soldiers in the Abyei area, an oil-rich region straddling northern and southern Sudan. The distribution of oil revenues and border demarcation remain contentious issues.

But Mary, who fled the war to neighbouring Uganda, believes passionately that peace will hold.

"My work is like a soldier," she explained.

"When we are in training we learn: your first mistake is your last," she said as she showed her simple bush tent that contained a fancy handbag and a bottle of nail polish.

So far, Mary's team and another NPA team have removed 205 antipersonnel mines and 96 anti-tank mines from around the main road that links neighbouring Uganda to Juba, the capital of a vast and wild region that still has no large commercial farming or factories.

For Mary, who feels her baby move as she works, the job just has to be done, inch by gruelling inch in prickling grass.

"We have to work hard to develop our country, even if it is hard," she said. "We have to clear. For my children and for others."

Mary initially wanted to be a doctor but could not afford the training. But her pragmatic mind has adapted well to clearing contaminated earth.

Read the rest of the story here.

(Writing by Skye Wheeler; Editing by Alastair Sharp)

"Using the broad stage of the Olympics to promote justice" - by Emily Bloemker

Some of my earliest memories involve watching the Olympics with my mom – in our household, during Olympics weeks, we would spend every evening and weekend watching events coverage. I remember, at age five, seeing Greg Louganis hit his head on a diving board. I remember, more clearly, the Magnificent Seven gymnasts of 1996 – at age thirteen, I cried when Kerri Strug (after spraining her ankle) stuck the landing on her second vault attempt and sealed the U.S. women’s gymnastics victory for that year. In our household, and across the world, Olympics have always meant high drama.

And so it continues, but on a broader stage, with more dire consequences. I recently read a post by Nicholas Kristof, entitled The Genocide Olympics. A latecomer to some human-rights issues, I only became aware a few years ago of China’s poor human rights record via the controversy surrounding “Bodies … the Exhibition” in which many worried about the origin of the displayed bodies, obtained from dubious Chinese sources. In his post, Kristof raises questions about the upcoming Beijing Olympics, especially in light of China’s unapologetic underwriting of the Sudanese genocide. In a later post, Kristof outlines his reasons for opposing a boycott, but gives few suggestions of how the average citizen can proceed.

I believe that the Beijing Olympics, and China’s support of the Sudanese genocide, are issues that Christians cannot ignore. So here are a few ideas:

We must educate ourselves, first thing, if we are not already informed. A good place to start is Amnesty International, which is tracking China’s progress in the leadup to the Olympics.

We must pay attention to see if there is one aspect of this very large injustice which catches us: is it the economic participation in entities that support the Sudanese genocide? Socially responsible investing in general? The location of the Olympics in China in the first place? If you are concerned about socially responsible investing, I would suggest visiting Amy Domini’s website – she received an honorary doctorate from Berkeley Divinity School last year, and is a powerful force for good in the investment world. If you would prefer to target investment that supports genocide in Sudan, I recommend visiting this Sudan divestment page, which gives a map of the United States and various divestment efforts happening in them. Finally, if you are opposed to the location of the Olympics in China in the first place, I encourage you to start up discussions with friends, to raise the question from your pulpits, to write about it on your blogs. I hope to preach about an aspect of this issue during my work as a camp chaplain this summer, and I also plan to raise the question of human rights in every conversation I have about the Olympics (and there will be many, since my love of the Olympic games has not waned since childhood).

What is the best way to use this Olympics to spur just action on behalf of the persecuted people of Sudan? How can we best raise awareness and respond to the needs of our brothers and sisters? Let us see this broad stage of controversy as an opportunity for advocacy and justice, and to not allow the opportunity to pass without our voices being heard.

Emily Bloemker is a middler at Berkeley Divinity School at Yale, Emily has traveled in Haiti and Sudan with the Roman Catholic and Episcopal Church.

"An Easter message from Sudan" -- by Mama Daria Kwaje

Dear readers,

It was wonderful for me to express my thanks to our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

I came to know my Lord Jesus in 1979 as my perfect savior when I became a born again Christian

My message today to all my friends that, let us be prepare to receive our lord Jesus as our personal Savior, let us be ready and confess our sins as we are always ready prepared for our activities and assignments that we use to do.

Let us see the gracious Love that He has shown us, when I think of all the miseries that he has carried on our behalf, this is the time for us to be concern to our fellow brothers and sisters burdens as Our Lord did.

I was so amazed when I heard announcements in Namirembe Cathedral during the Palm Sunday that, there are 150 children who has no families and has no parents, the church is looking for who to adopt this children to their homes to give them care and love.

Today in Sudan we have many children who are orphans of HIV/ AIDS and those who lost their parents during the war, we need to remember these children in our prayers during this Holy Week of Easter. We believe that Christ died because of the needy, the poor and all that in diversity.

May his death on the cross be a blessing to all his people in all the five continents of the world.

Happy Easter and Long live all the believers.

Mama Daria Kwaje is a Mother's Union Provincial Worker, Episcopal Church of Sudan.

"A Genocide Foretold" by Nicholas Kristof

A chilling editorial from Nick Kristof of the New York Times.

JUBA, Sudan - The Sudanese government started the first genocide of the 21st century in Darfur, and now it seems to be preparing to start the second here among the thatch-roof huts of southern Sudan.

South Sudan is rich in oil, but its people are among the poorest in the world, far poorer than those in Darfur. Only 1 percent of girls here finish elementary school, meaning that a young woman is more likely to die in pregnancy or childbirth than to become literate. Leprosy and Ebola linger here. South Sudan is the size of Texas, yet it has only 10 miles of paved road and almost no electricity; just about the only running water here is the Nile River.

The poverty is mostly the result of the civil war between North and South Sudan that raged across the southern part of the country for two decades and cost 2 million lives. For many impoverished villagers, their only exposure to modern technology has been to endure bombings by the Sudanese Air Force. The war finally ended, thanks in part to strong American pressure, in 2005 with a landmark peace agreement — but that peace is now fraying.

Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir is backing away from the peace agreement, and prodding Arab militias to revive the war with the South Sudan military forces. Small-scale armed clashes have broken out since late last year, and it looks increasingly likely that Darfur will become simply the prologue to a far bloodier conflict that engulfs all Sudan.

Even my presence here is a sign of the rising tensions and mistrust. The Sudanese government refuses me visas, but the authorities in the south let me enter from Kenya without a visa because they want the word to get out that war is again looming.

The authorities in disputed areas such as the Nuba Mountains and Blue Nile State also welcomed me, rather than arresting me, even though those areas technically are on the northern side of the dividing line. Local officials in both areas warned that President Bashir and his radical Arab political party are preparing to revive the war against non-Arab groups in the south and center of the country.

"If things go on as they are now, war will break out," said Sila Musa Kangi, the commissioner of Kormuk in Blue Nile. "And it can break out at any time."

Although people speak of renewed "war," the violence is more likely to resemble what happens in a stockyard. If it is like the last time, government-sponsored Arab militias will slaughter civilians so as to terrorize local populations and drive them far away from oil wells.

Read the entire piece here.

"Building Partnerships for Living Water" -- by Reynolds Whalen

In last week's gospel reading, Jesus meets a Samaritan woman at a well and asks for some water. In the ensuing conversation, he compares spiritual fulfillment to the satisfaction of quenching intense thirst with a long drink. The "living" water Christ describes will not run out in the same way as water on Earth.

We as Americans forget that easy access to clean water is a privilege. For us, fifty gallons of water for a ten-minute shower is as easy as turning a faucet and lifting a lever. For the woman at the well, fifty gallons of water was probably inconceivable to gather in a day. Even five gallons would be a full day of hard work, making the journey from her home to the well then making the return trip with a heavy bucket. It also may be easy for us to forget that millions of people still collect water this way and that much of that water does not meet basic sanitation requirements.

The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) estimates that unsafe drinking water kills over 1.5 million children each year. In addition, more than 1 billion people do not have access to drinking water from improved sources. In the Mathare slum of Nairobi, Kenya women collect water from a river that also operates as a communal toilet for nearly half a million people. During my time in the area, I saw babies bathing in filth and small children lugging water jugs almost as big as themselves. In Sudan, I saw hundreds of elderly women balancing 30 lbs jugs on their heads with two more hanging from both arms. These could be carried up to 20 or 30 miles in temperatures soaring over 100˚F.

So what can one do to address these problems?

While there are many ways to get involved (as described on other portions of this site), I would like to focus on one and tell a brief story of a modern day miracle.

Often it seems that MDG #8 gets overlooked when addressing global poverty, probably because the message seems so obvious: develop global partnerships for development. Clearly, we need to communicate with the people we are trying to help. But this absolutely must extend far beyond getting permission to impose our ideas of how to develop foreign communities. As the Church, one way for us to enter these partnerships fruitfully is by engaging our brothers and sisters in Christ through companion diocese relationships. By listening to each other and being open to the Holy Spirit, both sides can assess the needs of the other and grow together in God’s plan. Sometimes, God has amazing ways of acknowledging these partnerships.

In late 2006, the Diocese of Missouri officially entered into a companion diocese relationship with the Diocese of Lui in Southern Sudan. After prayerful discussion and several international trips from both ends, both parties recognized an urgent need for greater access to water in Lui. After fundraising on the Missouri end and logistical planning on the Lui end, drilling finally began in the early spring of 2007.

On Easter Day, 2007, I sat down at my computer and read the following words:

"Christian greetings in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. The drilling of bore hole in Cathedral compound has finished this afternoon and now the hydrologists moved to Lunjine School this evening. The bore in Cathedral Compound is 65 meters deep and it has lot of water, I hope the problem of cathedral concerning water is solved. And thanks yours sincerely in Christ Jesus."

We had struck water together on Easter Day, in the middle of an intense dry season. The day of celebrating Christ’s glorious ascension brought with it a spring of life-giving water to the people of Lui. Nearly one year later, I still remember the tears that filled my eyes.

As we complete our Lenten journeys over the next few weeks and prepare to enter Holy Week together, let us consider ways in which we can use our resources to make Easter the blessed season it should be…a time of new life and hope for all of God’s people.

Reynolds Whalen is a senior at Washington University in St. Louis, has traveled extensively in Kenya, Uganda, and Sudan. He spent fall semester 2006 in Kenya working with AIDS orphans -- read his blog on it here and is working on a documentary film on that experience.