Pastors ordained for Church of the Brethren ministry in South Sudan

By Sharon Brugger Norton

Two pastors were ordained for pastoral ministry in the Mangateen IDP [Internally Displaced Person] camp in June: Daniel Mawer and Paul Makuar. Mawer was trained in the Presbyterian tradition but due to conflicts in the leadership of the Presbyterian Church in South Sudan, he asked if he could join the Church of the Brethren.

Matthew Gatluak, from the same background, also joined the Church of the Brethren and together with Mawer started the Church of the Brethren congregation in the Mangateen camp. While they do not live in the camp themselves, the two men were displaced by conflict in their home area of Unity State, South Sudan, and their wives and children are in a refugee camp in Gulu, Uganda.

The training for pastors and evangelists was held in Juba, the capital city of South Sudan, with leadership from founding pastor and bishop Expert Bukene and district executive Felicien Nkunzimana of the Church of the Brethren in Burundi. However, at the time Gatluak had to travel back to Mayom, Unity State, to be with his mother in her dying days, so he missed the opportunity to become ordained.

Currently, the plan is for both men to continue providing leadership in the Mangateen congregation, while Makuar will start a new church in Amadi, a community just outside Juba.

Athanasus Ungang, country director for South Sudan for Church of the Brethren Global Mission, shared that the current issue for the church in Mangateen is growth. They started the church last year with 50 people in a community center in the camp, and now they are bursting at the seams with 240 attendees. What a wonderful problem to have! Ideally the congregation would build its own church building, but with extremely limited resources as displaced people living in poverty, it will be a big challenge. Currently, pastors Mawer and Gatluak are set to begin learning a new skill to earn a living, since Global Mission does not pay pastor salaries, and they need a way to take care of their families.

In another update from South Sudan, community health services, especially for women and girls, are being offered by Brethren Global Services in the Mangateen camp under the leadership of women’s ministries coordinator Nyakanitha Magaw Khan. Kerubino Pow continues to manage all program logistics for Brethren Global Services.

— Sharon Brugger Norton is executive director of Global Mission for the Church of the Brethren. Find out more at www.brethren.org/global

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