Here is a more in
depth look at the work we did in South Sudan. Hopefully this gives a broader
picture of what Empower Sudan is doing and how I am a part of it.
T H E J O U R N E Y
Getting
from Dallas, TX to Torit, South Sudan takes a little bit of time. Just to give you some idea we left
Dallas Friday afternoon and flew overnight to Amsterdam. We spent our Saturday on the 8 hour
flight from Amsterdam to Nairobi, Kenya where we stayed overnight. We were at the airport by 8am Sunday
morning to take a short flight to Juba, the capital of South Sudan. From there is took 5 hours to travel
the 80 miles of unpaved road to Torit where we arrived safely Sunday
Evening. It’s a long journey but
thankfully every flight was on time and there were no logistical issues, which
makes such a long trip much easier.
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| The journey is long but the scenery is great! |
W H A T ’ S I T L I K E O V E R T H E R E ?
Upon
arriving back in the US last week the passport control officer asked me where
I’d been. “South Sudan” I said. He
then asked me “What’s it like over there?”. It’s not an easy question to answer in such a brief
interaction but I’ll try to give you a little better an answer than I gave him.
South
Sudan became independent from Sudan in 2011 after 5 decades of civil war. The government is still getting on its
feet and is dominated by one party, the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement. There is very little infrastructure
although it’s improving. It’s also
not uncommon to see military personnel anywhere you go although their presence
is not intimidating.
The
terrain is typical of what you think of in Africa: tall grass, trees and some
small black, rocky mountains. Some
locals claim there are still lions lurking around but all I saw were goats,
chickens, stray dogs and some cows.
Juba,
the capital, is busy. It has most
of the paved roads in the country and it’s full of motorbikes and cars (all 4
wheel drive). There are no tall
buildings and most of the construction is new but the city is still dusty and
dirty. If you imagine what the
Wild West would look like today then that’s probably an accurate picture of
Juba.
Torit
is a small town by our standards and most of the town lies off of the main
road. Even here the majority of
people live in tukols, which are mud and brick houses with dried grass roofs
and dirt floors. As you drive
outside of Torit on the dirt road you can see a far off mountain range that
leads to Uganda. Along this road
are villages, like Helieu, spread out and hidden behind tall grass. The people in the village grow most of
their own food, live in tukols, and have no electricity. Water comes from wells or from the
nearby river and people only focus on what they need to do that day to get
by.
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| Pastor Dominic Augustin Africa has a lot to smile about |
The
people in South Sudan are welcoming and soft-spoken and it’s easy to forget the
years of war and what they do to get by on a daily basis. When you remember these things you are
struck by how tough they are. Most
people would say they are Christians but this more accurately means they are
not Muslim. The Sudanese
government in Khartoum pushed Islam on them for so long that Christian and
Muslim refer more to culture than faith.
This makes it an easy place to talk about Jesus but a difficult place to
follow Him.
As
I looked for the words to sum all of this up to the passport control officer
the first reply that came to mind was “it’s rough”. “Rough” serves as a good summary of South Sudan compared to a
lot of other parts of the world but as I thought about the work that we were
doing and the progress we’ve seen I had to add “but its getting better.”
So
what's it like in South Sudan? It’s
rough but its getting better.
T H E D I F F E R E N C E A Y E A R M A K E S
Last
year was my first trip to Torit.
There I met Dominic, the young pastor who leads a small church in the
village of Helieu outside of Torit.
Dominic is young and passionate and a very gifted teacher. Last year we were there to help Dominic
develop a vision for planting more churches and finding tangible ways to serve
the community. I was very blessed
to see a lot of growth in Dominic’s ministry.
In
the last year Dominic and other church leaders started a primary school in the
village as a means of serving the people there. The school was started initially with funds from Empower
Sudan supporters but is on its way to being self-sufficient.
Dominic
has also planted two new churches.
One in a nearby village called Africa, and the other about 2 hours from
Torit in the village of Kormush.
Dominic travels to these villages regularly to teach and mentor young
Christians.
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| Dominic rides his motor bike to other villages to teach about Jesus |
T H I S Y E A R ’S G O A L S
Empower
Sudan takes roughly 4 short-term trips to Torit each year led by Brian Bain,
the Regional Strategy Coordinator for the Torit area. Each trip has a few training objectives for the church
leaders there. One principle we
follow in our trainings is that we not only want the people we train to have
new knowledge but we want them to be able to go and teach others everything
that we teach them. This makes
them less dependent on us and allows more people to be affected by the
knowledge we share.
This
trip consisted of two trainings:
1. Community
Development Training for Church leaders.
2. Bible teaching
through storytelling.
D E V E L O P M E N T
I N T H E
N E W E S T C O U N T R Y
O N T H E P L A N E T
South
Sudan has a lot of challenges and no one understands the problems of South
Sudan better than the South Sudanese.
This is why the focus of our community development training is to teach
them a process for identifying problems and coming up with solutions using
resources they have in country.
Our approach is to ask a lot of questions and let them do most of the
talking.
The
model we taught has 5 simple steps.
1.
Build a
Coalition- Who can help you create positive change?
2.
Dream a Better
Future- What good things do you want for your community?
3.
Find the bright
spots- What resources do you have in your community?
4.
Develop a Plan-
What are the steps you need to take?
5.
Reproduce what
works- How can you do this again?
D R E A M I N G A B E T T E R F U T U R E
In
order to identify a better future we had to start with the challenges the
people face today. We had the
trainees list problems they see in their community. The challenges ranged from societal to physical to spiritual
and I was struck by how many of these challenges we face in the United
States. Some of the challenges
mentioned were hopelessness, illiteracy, language barriers, alcoholism,
poverty, and idleness.
A
common theme we noticed is that many people in South Sudan do not think ahead
or plan for the future. That is
why trainings like this are so important. If we teach a few people in the
village how to create a plan for solving problems they will be able to teach
those critical thinking skills to others and slowly the culture will
change.
F I N D I N G
T H E B R I G H T S P O T S
One
of our major goals is to not create dependence on outsiders and outside
resources. Instead we want to help
the church leaders identify the resources, or bright spots, they have right
there in their village. The
members of the training were asked to identify six types of resources: natural,
human, physical, economical, spiritual, and institutional.
As
I reflected on which of these types of resources is the most important I came
to the conclusion that it is human resources. These include the skills, knowledge and drive that people in
a community possess. People with the passion to do something
positive are the starting point for creating lasting change in any environment. You can have all the physical and
economic resources in the world but if the people don’t use them well they are
useless.
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| Dominic, Johnson, James, Okello, Joseph, John, Jacob, Dominic |
We
had nine leaders from two of the churches participating in our training. These nine are valuable resources for
their villages. They have a
passion for creating positive change in their villages and now we have given
them a process to follow to create that change. We were very encouraged as they
sat together and discussed the next steps they will take to create hope in
their communities. They have a
long road ahead of them and can use your prayers so be thinking about them.
They are the bright spots.
S T O R Y T I M E
O N T H E O T H E R S I D E
O F
T H E W O R L D
In
the late afternoons we would gather the children in the village and teach Bible
stories. There are New Testament
Bibles written in Lotuko, the local language, but they are scarce and literacy
is low so storytelling is a great way to teach scripture. As a visual aid we used a scarf with 21
pictures that represented different stories from the Bible.
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| Ryan and I teach as the other Dominic translates |
Each
day we would teach about five stories with the help of a translator and as with
everything we did the hope was that those listening would be able to go and
teach the stories. By the end of
the week we were thrilled to hear some of the kids reciting stories back to
us. We left some of the scarves
with the church so they can use them to teach others in the village. The Torit county commissioner told us that
a lot of the hope for South Sudan lies with the next generation so it’s
important that they grow up knowing Jesus. Pray that these young ones continue to grow and share the
love of Jesus with their friends.
W H A T ’S N E X T ?
I
am now officially on staff with Empower Sudan as an Area Strategy
Coordinator. This is a part-time,
non-paid position that includes me leading a trip to Torit once a year and
being a part of the American team here in Dallas. While I will only go once a year I’m making a long-term
commitment to be a part of the work in Torit. I will be raising support solely for my yearly trip and
recruiting people to go with me so think about how you might want to be
involved. It’s really fun to tell
you about South Sudan but it would be more fun for me to show you. I will be sending out more information
on how you can be involved in the coming months.
I
have to end this letter with a BIG THANK YOU to all the people who funded this
trip, prayed for me, and who were excited and worried for me. I don't take it for granted that I am
blessed to do this kind of work and I want YOU to know I couldn’t have done it
without you. You are a part of
this work and a bright spot for me and for the people of South Sudan. THANK YOU
