By Sharon Brugger Norton
My first international trip as executive director of Global Mission for the Church of the Brethren was to South Sudan from Feb. 1-15. I was fortunate to travel with a group led by Carolyn and Roger Schrock. We were hosted by South Sudan mission staff Athanasus Ungang. Here are excerpts from my daily journal of the trip (only first names are shared here, for the safety of those individuals):
Monday, Feb. 2: The Women Just Did It
We visited the Africa Inland Church (AIC) Juba regional bishop, James, today. He shared a story about women deciding that they would plant a church in a place that is totally off the beaten track west of Juba. They didn’t ask anyone and no one asked them to do it. They just understood it as a call from God. They started very simply and they were able to get a water pump, which the community desperately needed, and that attracted more people to come to that place, and that’s how they shared the gospel. They were able to get a simple roofed building, and now the men of the denomination came and blessed them and they installed a male pastor. The women continue to evangelize.
Friday, Feb. 7: Farmer Rose
Today we met Rose, the president of the women’s association of her state and a farmer in Magwi County. She donated land to Brethren Global Services to grow crops and tells me she loves being out in the field and sleeping out there in her traditional hut because of the peaceful surroundings. She has another home in town. It is fertile around Magwi and so most people have subsistence farms.
Before we went to her farm, we stopped at a new Internally Displaced People (IDP) camp in Magwi. A week ago, the Dinka Bor, who live far away, brought 100,000 cattle to this area without permission or advance notice because they were having trouble finding enough grass for their cattle due to flooding made worse by climate change. The Dinka are traditional herdsman and have been in conflict with competing communities since ancient times. But now people have guns, so more people die when there is conflict. They had stolen some cattle from the Murley people in Jongelei State, who had stolen from them, because they had stolen from them before that–and on and on in a cycle of revenge and retribution. So the Murley sent spies to watch for opportunities to take back their cattle, and then some.
Meanwhile, in Magwi, people were living their lives, sending their children to school, and farming their crops. Right now sorghum and maize are ripe. Goats roam freely and occasionally you see someone selling fruit, beans, and cassava on the roadside. Today we saw two legs of wild game being sold.
Back to the story: When the Dinka Bor and their cattle got to Magwi they raided the farms, killed some 10 people, and their cattle destroyed all the crops. When they were forced by local authorities to leave, they set fire to the people’s homes of mud bricks and thatch out of anger. Because of turbulence, the Murley took most of their cattle, so that cycle of violence will likely continue. Now around 25,000 people are homeless, with some 18,000 sheltering at a school smaller than my local elementary school. The well pump broke the first day from overuse and they have no food and not enough shelter for everyone. The lactating mothers are having real problems. The local school children cannot go to school, and so the issues compound.
The Global Mission staff in South Sudan, Athanasus Ungang, and I were talking with the Relief and Rehabilitation Coordinator about the dire situation. He took me aside briefly to ask what I would like to do and if we could make any small gift to help. I had $500 in my purse and said I would offer this to the coordinator to use as he best saw fit. We were both weeping at this point, but for different reasons. I was overwhelmed; he was saying to himself, how can people who call themselves Christians (Dinka Bor) do this to other Christians? Next week, Athanasus will travel to Juba to get $10,000 out of the bank account that has already been allocated for disaster and relief.
To make things even sadder, we found out later that this same thing happened in 2022. The estimate is that it will take at least a year to get enough NGO support to rebuild the houses and farms. And in the meantime, how many people will die? How many children will not be able to go to school? How will they recover from PTSD? How many times will they have to start over?
Saturday, Feb. 8: Saturdays
Farmer Rose graced us with her presence unexpectedly. She told us about her NGO, working with women in gender-based violence, micro loans, and small groups for education and awareness raising. She will help us buy $10,000 worth of food and supplies for the IDPs. She has women in Magwi who belong to the women’s association who know where to buy and are trusted not to pocket the money for themselves. The South Sudanese men in our conversation agreed that women are more trustworthy with money than men.
Sunday, Feb. 9: Khor English Church of the Brethren
At Khor English church about 1.5 hours from Torit I preached in front of 70 people today, mostly women, children, and young men. The fathers are missing. The building was made of mud bricks that they made themselves, had a packed dirt floor and a tin roof. Three windows and two doors let the breeze in to cool us down the smallest bit as the sun and worship heated up the place. This is a church which is becoming Church of the Brethren, originally AIC. We experienced vivacious singing and prayer, testimonies, prayer requests, special songs from the children and youth, and my sermon on John 3:16-17.
As special guests, we all sat on the stage. We received a special welcome, of course. I told of our Anabaptist fathers and mothers hiding to escape trouble and used a contextual analogy to talk about the Greek word pisteuo (believe/trust): how a baby trusts its mother for milk as if its life depends on it. That is what we do when we trust Jesus–for our life, our salvation, everything we need.
The executive committee met with us after worship. I was thrilled to see three women and a few men. The women were counting the offering, which confirmed what Rose told me yesterday about trust.
This church has several prayer stations where their young evangelists go to tell people about Jesus and pray with them. It is exciting to see their passion for the gospel!
Tuesday, Feb. 11: Upuo Village
About 1.5 hours on a two-track path off the Juba road we came to Upuo, a village of around 8,700 people. It’s the largest village I’ve seen so far. Brethren Disaster Ministries sent emergency funds there last year after flooding ruined their crops. There were hundreds of smiling children’s faces surrounding us at every turn. They were quite shy and very curious. A few little ones had distended stomached and several had reddish hair, both of which are a result of malnutrition.
Taban, a local forester and Christian radio station manager, and Athanasus brought them fruit trees three years ago which are producing already and supplementing meals well.
This emerging Church of the Brethren church plant has an evangelist and an assistant, who have no formal training except a little bit that Athanasus has provided and he plans to do a three-day training with them in March. A remaining question—how to provide theological training in the values and theology of the Brethren in an oral society when our resources are books?
Thursday, Feb. 13: Living Tragedy, Living Hope
We went to Mangateen IDP camp today in Juba, built in 2018 for people fleeing violence in Mayom, Unity State. They were in another IDP camp, but had intercommunal violence and so needed to be separated. This IDP camp was built on a dump. Swarms of children gathered around us again and this time I didn’t see a single one with normal black hair. It was all discolored from malnutrition. The sheer tragedy of the situation is overwhelming.
But then hope and joy came alive in so many people who came to see the legendary Roger and Carolyn. They are truly legendary to these people. Person after person stood up to greet them in the camp, who remembered them or heard stories about them and what they did to help their community. One man stood up to say that his mother told him to become a veterinarian like Roger. Roger isn’t a vet but having grown up on a cattle and dairy farm, he knew a lot about cattle and many other things you learn on a farm. He said growing up on a farm was the best training he had for the work in South Sudan, not his academic degrees.
Then this fireball of a young woman named Nyakuol began to speak. She said it was because of Roger and Carolyn that she was allowed to study. Roger and Carolyn told the men back in the ’80s to let their children go to school and especially the girls. For that reason, the lives of generations were transformed. She is studying international relations and hopes to represent her country someday.
Two scriptures came to mind. One was the story of Peter and John praying in the Temple, the lame man asking for money, and Peter saying, “Silver and gold have I none, but what I have I will give, in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, rise up and walk.” And the man went walking and leaping and praising God.
Secondly, we came here to join them in praying for workers for the harvest. The fields are ripe. We talked with Kerubino and Nyakanitha, both of whom are on our Mayom team, about what it means to be a peace church. They could identify all the different ways that the church can support and help and meet basic needs as part of living out the gospel.
And then Nyakanitha, who is a trained midwife, asked me what our churches in the US are doing to help people. I had to preface my comments with the fact that we live in a wealthy country where people’s basic needs are met through employment and some government services, but that the church does disaster ministries, and children’s disaster counseling, and we have universities, seminaries, do various kinds of peace work and creation care. I also shared that the Church of the Brethren just sued the Trump administration about the safe location provision.
I don’t want to forget something another village boy, turned Member of Parliament, told me this morning: “We don’t want your food. We don’t like it. The two things we need are the word of God and education.” These two things will transform South Sudan, in his opinion.
— Find out more about the Church of the Brethren mission in South Sudan at www.brethren.org/global/south-sudan. Find a full photo album from South Sudan with photos by Donna Parcell at https://churchofthebrethren.smugmug.com/South-Sudan-delegation-Feb-2025
#MissionAndMinistryBoard #StrategicPlan #RacialJustice #LoveOurNeighbors #Discipleship #NewTestamentGiving
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