Author: AmerFriendSudan

Expanding the School for Orphans and Unaccompanied Minors

As we go to press, we are excited to share with you that the children in the School for Orphans and Unaccompanied Minors are back in class!

When the Government of South Sudan ordered all schools to close in March 2020 to help prevent the spread of Covid-19 to children and teachers, Bishop John Gatteck decided to turn the situation into an opportunity to grow the School for Orphans and Unaccompanied Minors at the UN Protection of Civilians (POC3) camp near Juba.  Until now, the eight grades were taught together in two classrooms. Together with the teachers and staff, and with the financial support of AFRECS, Bishop Gatteck organized the refurbishment of the existing school facilities and the construction of new classrooms in order to enable the School to grow from its current 150 students to over 350 students.

The School opened in January 2017 to provide education to girls and boys in the UN POC3 camp who had lost one or both parents during the civil strife that had caused tens of thousands to flee their homes.  The children are taught English, Math, Social Studies and Science, and each child receives a meal a day. Over 90% of the children pass their annual final exams, and the School recently ranked near the top among schools in the area for students’ scores on standardized exams. There is great demand in the POC3 camp for more children to be able to attend the School, but without building additional classrooms and feeding facilities, there was little room to grow.  Upon completion of the five buildings under construction, the School will be able to increase the number of children it teaches and feeds.

In the current environment, it is also important to address the health challenge of Covid-19, particularly in the UN camps where thousands live close together.  The School teachers have been working with UN authorities to teach children and others about proper health practices to try to avoid Covid-19.  Thus far, POC3 has largely avoided major outbreaks of the disease. With gatherings prohibited, classes are being taught by radio, but few students have access to radio receivers.

One person affected by the School is Mary Nyabil, a 42 year-old single parent of three young boys.  Like many other women in South Sudan, she lost her husband and her home, and has no means of financial support. Unable to walk since birth, she was transported to POC3 by the International Committee of the Red Cross.  Her three children have been integrated into the School, where they are being taught and receive a daily meal.  Mary recently shared with us that, despite her difficulties, her “only hope always was for my children to be in school knowing that education is important them. I’m very delighted for AFRECS for they’re helping children get education.”

AFRECS has been privileged to serve as the primary financial supporter for the School, and to support the dedicated efforts of Bishop Gatteck and other leaders of the Episcopal Church of South Sudan, including the Primate Archbishop Justin Badi Arama, to grow the School.

Please consider a generous gift to help us complete the new school buildings.  Your donation now will enable us to expand our Education and Meals Ministry to an ever-growing number of girls and boys who hunger to be part of it.  Please indicate on your check, or your donation on the AFRECS website, if you would like your contribution to be designated to the “POC3 School”.  And thank you for your support!

Killing and Rape of Civilians Necessitates Work of Education and Trauma Healing

The Episcopal Church of South Sudan continues its work of education and trauma healing against a backdrop of tragic events. An American military historian and ethnographer is questioning why there has so far been no investigation of the crime of genocide occurring in South Sudan over the five years beginning December 2013.

Clémence Pinaud, of the University of Indiana’s Department of International Studies, has interviewed 215 Nuer women in Unity State and 110 women in Central Equatoria State who witnessed gang rapes of civilians by combatants. Her interviewees included 28 survivors of rape. Their detailed testimony to the killing of husbands and children, as well as the raping and killing of women, leads Pinaud to conclude that the perpetrators’ persistent intent is to destroy a feared or hated ethnic group – a key provision of the1948 United Nations Convention on the Crime of Genocide. (“Genocidal Rape in South Sudan: Organization, Function, and Effects,” Human Rights Quarterly, Vol. 42, August 2020.)

South Sudanese Woman Receives Peace Prize

The U.S. Institute of Peace, an independent US Government agency, last month awarded its Women Building Peace Award 2020 to Rita M. Lopidia, a South Sudanese civil society leader.  Lopidia is Executive Director and Co-founder of Eve Organization for Women Development. She will use the $10,000 prize money to invest in her “incubator” project to encourage young women leaders, as well as providing some funds to orphans and street children in Juba.  Rita Lopidia has participated in peace talks in Addis Ababa and Khartoum.  She signed the 2018 Revitalized Agreement on the Resolution of Conflict in South Sudan (R/ARCSS) on behalf of the South Sudanese Women Coalition for Peace, a group of 50 women’s organizations.

South Sudan Struggles with COVID School Closings
From The Rev. Frederick L. Houghton, AFRECS Board Member

 The School in Protection of Civilians Camp #3 in better times – preparing for COVID-19.  
From AFRECS photo archives

While the US debates rage on whether to reopen schools, an even more painful choice faces our sisters and brothers in South Sudan. Emerging from decades of civil war and ethnic unrest, South Sudan has one of the lowest literacy rates in the world– 27%. (Niger is the lowest, at 19%.)  Primitive as many of them are, South Sudanese schools were making a heroic effort to improve this situation. One of the most promising has been the school for refugee children in Juba which AFRECS supports. All of this came to a halt with COVID-19.

Now NGOs such as Save the Children, UNICEF, and UNESCO are calling for gradual reopening of schools, pointing out that other sectors are already reopening. The SS Ministry of Health has chosen a more cautious approach: “According to Undersecretary Kuyok Akol Kuyok, it is not safe to reopen schools, especially after the Ministry of Health and WHO released a statement saying that the spread of COVID-19 will increase by next week.”  UNICEF and UNESCO are worried: “The long-term impact of extending the school lockdown risks ever greater harm to children, their future, and their communities. Sadly, on these fronts, the evidence is overwhelming.”

We ask your prayers for the South Sudanese as they face choices even more painful than our own. In addition, I expect that when schools can reopen there will be a sudden demand for aid to fund reorganizing, repairs, and restarting. I am going to write a check to AFRECS with the designation “school reopening”; perhaps other readers will be moved to do likewise.

News and Notes

From the Darfur Women Action Group

Darfur Women Action Group (DWAG) announced August 14 that heavy rain and flash floods had severely damaged homes and displaced people in areas including Khartoum, Blue Nile, and Darfur. Floods have killed at least 6 people, destroyed over 3,000 houses, and damaged property on an unimaginable level.

In Kabkabiya, over 500 homes have been destroyed by the rain with almost another 5,000 severely damaged. Those who have escaped the flooding are now taking shelter in schools and other people’s intact homes. Many more people are still missing, and their relatives are still searching for them. The five camps for internally displaced people (IDP’s) have been especially hard-hit by the disaster, with another 2,600 IDP shelters destroyed and over 13,000 damaged across all camps. All are in urgent need for assistance.

The UN Office for Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) released an update last Tuesday highlighting the severity of the damage caused by the flash floods.

Arrival of Sarah Cleto Rial in Wau, first Woman Governor of a State in South Sudan
From The Rev. Kwathi Akol Ajawin in Annandale VA

The Honorable Sarah Cleto Rial, Governor of Western Bahr el Ghazal state, arrived from Juba in Wau Nar on August 11 to assume her new duties. She was accompanied by a delegation from the Sudan Peoples Liberation Movement in Opposition (SPLM-IO) Political Bureau including D/Chairman and current Minister of Mining Hon. Henry Dilang Odwar and Chairperson of the National Students League Cde. Gai Mayen Luk, together with other senior members from the SPLM-IO.

According to a report on Facebook, they were received in big numbers by citizens of Western Bahr el Ghazal state in Wau town, demonstrating their support in achieving peace among the communities of Wau and their neighbors.  The Facebook report concluded, “Thank you citizens of Wau Nar, for your great support. Your party SPLM-IO will deliver anything at its disposal to make sure citizens are living in peaceful coexistence. Viva!”

Kwathi Akol Ajawin, pastor of the African Sudanese Fellowship in Annandale, Virginia, commented, “We wish her well.”  Sara Cleto Rial was the Co-Convenor of the South Sudanese Network for Peace and Reconciliation (SSDNRP) prior to last month, while living and working in Boston, Massachusetts, USA.

Publication of the Autobiography of Dr. Oliver Meru Duku:
Physician and Priest – (1935– 2013)
By The Rev. Richard Jones

The self-effacing portrait of a man who made his way from a traditional polygamous family in southern Sudan through British Colonial schools, followed by medical education at Tübingen University, to help build up the public health service of a fledgling African state and the theological schools of a church multiplying exuberantly during fifty years of devastating war.

Duku resisted government officials bent on Islamization but made friends with a traditional Muslim healer. He candidly recalls the internal struggles of a multiethnic group of first- and second-generation believers in Jesus as paramount chief over all tribes of the earth. As a Bible teacher, he ponders how the homelessness of civilian Sudanese populations in his lifetime seems to repeat the ancient pattern of God’s punishing his disloyal Chosen People by exile in Babylon.

“This autobiography shows how God calls and uses individuals in the most resistant milieu of ministry. I am convinced it can be useful for the Pastoral Dimension course taught at any Bible school or seminary”. The Very Rev. Samuel Galuak Marial, Principal, Bishop Gwynne College, Juba, South Sudan

“Oliver Duku’s autobiography will contribute to our goal: to collect, preserve, and make freely accessible biographical accounts and church histories – from oral and written sources – integral to a scholarly understanding of African Christianity.” Dr. Jonathan J. Bonk, Director, Dictionary of African Christian Biography, Boston University, USA

“This publication will contribute to the limited written record of the history of the church in Sudan and South Sudan.”
Rt. Rev. Anthony Dagasuk Poggo, Advisor to the Archbishop of Canterbury on Anglican Communion Affairs

To order, contact richard.j.jones@comcast.net
Soft cover, US$10 plus postage. Hardcover: US$40 plus postage
69 pages
ISBN 978-1-7923-2944-9

From Churchtimes
Gunmen kill dean and set fire to cathedral in South Sudan
by Rebecca Paveley , 14 August 2020

St Luke’s Cathedral, Makol Chuei, in Athooch diocese, before the attack on 27 July

The Dean of St Luke’s Cathedral, Makol Chuei, in South Sudan, the Very Revd Daniel Garang Ayuen, has been shot dead, together with 32 others, in an attack in which the cathedral and the entire village were set ablaze.

Gunmen stormed the cathedral compound in Makol Chuei, in the diocese of Athooch, in an attack two weeks ago. At least 14 women and children who had sought refuge in the church’s compound were killed. Six children were abducted by the attackers and later killed. In a later attack in a different village, Jalle, an archdeacon, the Ven. Jacob Amanjok, was killed, along with three pastors.

The All Africa Conference of Churches called on regional and international bodies to “take this attack as an assault on world peace, and demand for the full implementation of the long delayed peace agreement in South Sudan [News, 20 December 2019], to bring to a stop the intercommunal violence.”

The interim general secretary of the World Council of Churches, the Revd Professor Ioan Sauca, said: “After years of insecurity and instability, it should be clear that violence is not the solution to the challenges in South Sudan.”

https://www.churchtimes.co.uk/articles/2020/14-august/news/world/gunmen-kill-dean-and-set-fire-to-cathedral-in-south-sudan

From Al-Jazeera Live
Death toll from South Sudan soldiers, civilians clashes hits 127

The death toll from clashes between South Sudan security forces and armed civilians in the north-central Warrap state has risen to 127 [as of August 12]. At least 32 others were injured over the weekend when soldiers clashed with civilians refusing to be disarmed as part of a peace agreement.

Clashes erupted on Sunday when soldiers of the South Sudan People’s Defense Force tried to disarm civilians in the town of Tonj as part of a recent peace agreement, according to James Mabior, the town’s councilor. Some civilians refused to hand over their guns at a market, with a number of bystanders joining the fight that ensued, Mabior said. The fighting quickly spread to nearby villages, with armed civilians attacking an army base in the nearby town of Romic on Monday morning, Koang said.

The disarmament of civilians is part of a peace agreement signed between South Sudanese President Salva Kiir and opposition leader Riek Machar in February after many months of negotiations.

So far, a partial unity government has been formed and state governors have been appointed but parliament has yet to be reconstituted.

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2020/08/death-toll-south-sudan-soldiers-civilians-clashes-hits-127-200812094926256.html

from the New Humanitarian 08/15/20
Flooding and fighting in South Sudan

President Salva Kiir declared a state of emergency [August 12] in central Jonglei and Pibor regions following flooding and communal violence. More than 200,000 people have been forced from their homes as water levels rose by 1.5 meters in some areas after heavy rains. Flooding has also affected neighboring Upper Nile and Unity states. The government has called on humanitarian agencies to provide immediate aid, but inter-communal unrest in Jonglei and Pibor – in which aid workers have been killed – will complicate operations. The conflict has displaced 100,000 people since the beginning of the year. They will miss the current planting season – deepening their food insecurity. Pre-positioned food stocks were also looted in the violence. South Sudan is in the lean period before the November harvest, and emergency levels of food needs are widespread. The US-funded famine monitor FEWS NET is anticipating the highest “catastrophe” level in some areas of Jonglei affected by fighting, and says “urgent and sustained food assistance” will be needed even after the harvest.

Reflection on the time of Coronavirus
By the Reverend Samuel G. Marial, Principal of Bishop Gwynne College 14th April 2020

Sudanese refugees observe physical distancing during a food and soap distribution at Ajuong Thok camp in South Sudan, April 2020. ©UNHCR/Elizabeth Marie Stuart

Coronavirus has shaken the whole world to its core. Science seems to have failed. People are dying in thousands even in countries where advancement in science is at its peak. Some plagues in the past used to be tied to a particular country or region. Now, as one can travel from New York to Capetown in a few hours, disease too travels far and wide.

South Sudan is a part of “global village” and has recorded a few cases of COVID-19. The leadership of the land has proactively put in place measures in forfending COVID-19. These measures include closing down learning institutions, churches, other places of worship, and other places of gatherings.

This order has sparked a loud uproar within Christian spheres. Some do not like the idea of halting prayer services on Sundays. In their view, it looks like the Devil has got an upper hand over the situation. Some question the appropriateness of the order. Some church members do not understand that the order is made as a way to eradicate this deadly plague through social distancing. That is a way available and affordable to save lives.

Social distancing is even more bearable if people keep in their homes and worship God with their loved ones.

COVID-19 is a global threat. The government of South Sudan is not a threat to faith. That is why the Primate of Episcopal Church of South Sudan, the Most Revd Dr. Justin Badi Arama, has instructed the adherents of ECSS to worship at their homesteads.

This is something that has never happened before. Praying at home is a new phenomenon, in the sense that Christians have not clearly learned that the real church is in the home.

However, there is a fear entailing that Christians may backslide or regress from their faith. It is an undeniable reality, in fact people may get used to this social distancing and some may likely say, “These days, I prefer praying at home.” It is a common language used by those who slowly glide away from their faith. As most of us in the country are pastoralists, it is our duty to look after the flocks. Who does not search his/her flocks when they get lost?

Church is a common worship space where members of a particular parish or cathedral normally congregate on Sunday. Home is a place for private or family worship, and that is where Christian faith is fully practiced.

Call for Prayers and Support

©UNICEF South Sudan/2020/Ongoro

Please keep the people of South Sudan and Sudan in your prayers, as the pandemic further complicates their already very difficult existence. We urge you to reach out to individuals and families you are already connected with through email, WhatsApp and other social media.

Please consider making a contribution to AFRECS, including the response to COVID-19.  To do so click here. Meanwhile stay safe where you are in the United States.

Under the Mango and Under the Beech

Archbishop Samuel Peni conducting the business of the Diocese under a mango tree in Yei.

In the agricultural town of Yei in Central Equatoria, Archbishop Samuel Peni sits under a mango tree to receive visitors and make phone calls to care for Christians who refrain from gathering in buildings for worship in order to help slow the spread of COVID-19. To broadcast a sermon or instructions on public health, he goes to the studio of Radio Yambio.

Parishioners in Bedford, Virginia worshipping under a beech tree.

In the county seat of Bedford County, in the Diocese of Southwestern Virginia, Episcopalians refrain for the same reason from gathering to receive Holy Communion, but beginning on June 14th at 9 AM parishioners resumed meeting under a huge beech tree for Morning Prayer.

From plague, pestilence, and famine, both groups pray, “Good Lord, deliver us.” With all green trees upon the earth, both glorify the Lord.

Notes and News

A South Sudanese Political Dissident Seeks Asylum
By David Mayen Dengdit

I came to the United States in March 2018,.When I  left South Sudan in February. I had two thoughts: either swallow my pride and return to South Sudan after a short trip to East Africa and the US or follow my heart and leave the country permanently.

What made my first choice somewhat enticing was my prestigious job as an aide to the country’s Vice-President-James Wani Igga, which availed me certain privileges and opportunities that few of my countrymen/women could enjoy. The second choice of leaving, which I ultimately took, was important for me to be at peace with my conscience.

Some weeks after arriving in the US, I explained the reasons for my resignation in an interview on Voice of America’s Focus on South Sudan. I cited the atrocious human rights violations and appalling war crimes I witnessed and that continued to be committed by a government I had served for five years.

A couple of months later, I decided to seek asylum in the US. I had hoped that my earlier brief stay with my wife and kids in Denver (2010-12) and (2006-7), in addition to having my mother and sisters in the US, would make my asylum process somewhat easier than what an average asylum seeker faces. I was wrong. Over the past two years, I have pursued my application for asylum through the Immigration Court to plead against removal proceedings.

To prove my worth and possible usefulness, I received admission at the University of Denver Sturm College of Law. As a candidate for an LLM in Environmental and Natural Resources Law and Policy, I could apply and take the Bar examination. I hope that my education would be persuasive in the eyes of the immigration judge. However, the chances of my asylum request being granted remain very slim.

American friends have helped with the legal fees, which have been significant. Many of these friends are involved with AFRECS, and I have attended AFRECS meetings over the years. The situation regarding asylum seekers has been especially difficult in recent years in the US. All this is challenging, but I am thankful to have been given employment authorization to earn a living for my family. I ask for your prayers, as my next hearing is August 13th in Denver, CO.

[The author can be reached at mayen.ayarbior@gmail.com. His mother is Helen Achol Abyei, author of the plays Tribalism No More and Cultural Clash. Ed.]

A REMINDER . . . . and breaking news!

Breaking News: AFRECS has received a matching grant of $2,000 for COVID-19 relief in Sudan, so the first $2,000 of contributions will be matched, doubling the value to the people of Sudan.  Please give today!

Reminder: AFRECS has long sought to help the Episcopal Church of South Sudan to build its capacity and raise its voice for peace and healing in South Sudan, and the current COVID-19 crisis raises an especially poignant call for our help in this regard.  Rev. Dr. Joseph Bilal chairs a Task Force to mobilize all levels of the church in the campaign to address COVID-19. Our support will be vital in helping raise their collective voices. AFRECS is financing the purchase of MEGAPHONES for rural churches, a primary request of the Task Force, as well as support for radio broadcasts and the printing and distribution of educational materials. Please join members of the AFRECS Board and other friends who have already committed support for the ECS COVID-19 Task Force. Checks made out to AFRECS can be marked “Task Force.” You may also give online through the AFRECS website.

HELP US SUPPLY MEGAPHONES FOR RAISING VOICES!!!

Dinkas in Syracuse NY join with an aging Episcopal congregation
 

Members of Diangdit Chapel attend the Diocese of Central New York’s diocesan convention in November 2019, during which the congregation became a mission chapel of the diocese. Photo: Diocese of Central New York

[Condensed from Episcopal News Service]

A group of South Sudanese Anglicans has found a home in the Episcopal Diocese of Central New York. With the help of the diocese and a local nonprofit, they are putting down roots in the Syracuse area, connecting with their neighbors and breathing new life into the diocese.

Refugees who settled in Syracuse formed the congregation now known as Diangdit – a Dinka word that translates to “trinity” – about 15 years ago. They initially worshipped as a solitary outpost of their home church, the Episcopal Church of Sudan.

In 2018, Diangdit and the diocese began a period of canonical transition into The Episcopal Church, and at the diocesan convention in November 2019, Diangdit officially became a mission chapel of the diocese.

“There was hardly a dry eye that day”, Bishop Duncan-Probe told Episcopal News Service. “They’re beloved in this diocese and it was very moving … Some of them have been on a 15 – 20-year journey, trying to find home, and for them to finally come home in a real way in this diocese was just palpable.”
The congregation is served by the Rev. Amuor Mac Garang. “She was a spiritual, maternal leader – a cultural leader – in refugee camps,” Duncan-Probe said, “and then a bishop in the Sudan ordained her to be their spiritual leader.”

The congregation moved to Emmanuel Episcopal Church in East Syracuse in the fall of 2018. As an aging parish with about 25 congregants, Emmanuel has been especially welcoming to Diangdit, appreciating the energy they bring to the church, said Beth Broadway, president and CEO of InterFaith Works. Diangdit had been holding its own services at Emmanuel for about a year when Broadway started bringing the two congregations together for more joint activities.

The Sudanese-Americans are also shaping the future of their new hometown. Chol Majok, a lay leader at Diangdit and one of the former “Lost Boys of Sudan,” became the first refugee elected to the Syracuse city council in December 2019. He arrived in Syracuse in 2001, and despite the violence and hardships he endured as a child, he was appalled at the city’s widespread poverty. Determined to do something about it, he began working in the mayor’s office and launched a successful career in politics and community development.

https://www.episcopalnewsservice.org/2020/07/15/with-help-from-diocese-of-central-new-york-south-sudanese-refugee-congregation-thrives-amid-adversity/

News and Notes

From Radio Tamazuj

Displaced people fleeing violence in Jonglei

Almost half a million residents in Jonglei flee increased violence

Radio Tamazuj reports that Gabriel Ajak Deng, Jonglei state director for relief and rehabilitation, had registered for assistance by July 13 about 477,000 residents who have fled their homes since April due to inter-communal violence.

https://radiotamazuj.org/en/news/article/thousands-of-displaced-need-assistance-in-jonglei-official

In recent weeks, small groups of Lou Nuer, Murle and Dinka (Bor, Twic East, and Duk Counties) community leaders, church leaders, and politicians inside South Sudan have been meeting by teleconference and Zoom with concerned members of the Diaspora in North America to address this violence in Southern Jonglei.

Before AFRECS in 2016 responded to an appeal from Peter Gai, Chairman of the South Sudan Council of Churches in Juba, to help address the role of North American Diaspora groups in promoting or obstructing reconciliation between factions and ethnic groups inside South Sudan, another network with Presbyterian roots was at work in the United States and Canada.

This group, the Coalition of Advocates for South Sudan (CASS) continues under the leadership of Reuben Gerang, President (Canada); Aludel Pony Mayen (U.S.) and Henry Y. Lejukole (U.S.), Board members; and Bill Andress (South Carolina), Secretary.  Meeting in Des Moines in 2014 with Gai, some 300 South Sudanese subscribed to a vision which still guides CASS:

“South Sudan is a reconciled, unified and stable country, proud of its diversity as represented by its 64 tribes and enjoying equality, peace and harmony.

The government of South Sudan is a democratic federal government whose powers are vested by a permanent citizen-informed constitution and whose leaders are qualified and committed to serving the people of South Sudan and whose systems are efficient, transparent and free of corruption.

The people of South Sudan are educated and healthy and they enjoy all freedoms, protection through justice, accountability and the rule of law, and prosperity through the effective management of the country’s resources and the empowerment of its people to realize their unlimited potential.  South Sudan is an example for the continent and it is respected by the nations.”

In remarks at a CASS commemoration of the 9^th anniversary of independence of South Sudan, Henry Y. Lejukole concluded his remarks by saying:

• If we want to move our country (South Sudan) forward, regardless of our diversity, we should develop the courage to recognize evil for evil and good for good.
• We should be a people that do not compromise our moral integrity for tribal affinity because we are all one people which is the measure of our creation. 
• As citizens, sons, and daughters of South Sudan, we must develop the courage to speak up without fear or favor.
• The people of South Sudan regardless of its diversity should be our measuring stick of what is good and not party or tribe. If it is not good for the people or country, it is not good for anybody.

Quarantine-Time Home Video Starting Production

A Stay-Home amateur film team is seeking extroverts and smartphone videographers to film dialogue among young Southern Sudanese living in the U.S. and Canada. Mrs. Helen Achol Abyei St. Louis, Missouri, author of the play Tribalism No More which was performed August 2019 in Lexington VA, is inviting creative youth to film brief speeches from her second play, Cultural Shock. The play involves a youth who rebels against family rules but returns home broken by his attempt to live on his own. Mr. Maurice Rial, a videographer in Salem, Massachusetts, has offered to edit videos filmed in various homes into a coherent and enjoyable viewing experience. Those selected to perform or record will be rewarded with a gift card. Leaders of the South Sudanese Diaspora Network for Reconciliation and Peace (SSDNRP) currently recruiting participants are:

Mr. Noel Kulang, Warrenton, Virginia (n.kulang@gmail.com)

Deacon Francis Nyawello, Des Moines, Iowa (nyalam05@gmail.com)

Rev. Robert Lobung, Boulder, Colorado (rev.lobung@gmail.com)

For a copy of the script, prospective actors may contact Mrs. Abyei at achol.abyei@yahoo.com  or telephone 720-209-2591. Details on required production values are available at:  https://www.facebook.com/morrisrial/videos/2792842307437965/

Sudanese Christians Welcomed in Richmond, Virginia

Sudanese worshippers at St. Bartholomew’s Richmond

From Dinka Lost Boys to immigrants educated in South Sudan, Sudanese Christians arriving over the past 20 years in Richmond have known hospitality from Episcopal parishes including St Bartholomew’s, Patterson Ave; Epiphany, Hermitage Road; and Christ Church, Glen Allen, whose rector, Shirley Smith Graham, briefly taught Hebrew and Old Testament at Renk Theological College in South Sudan.

St. Bartholomew’s is the meeting place for the South Sudanese Christian Fellowship, which began with four young Dinka men who arrived from the U.N. refugee camp in Kakuma, Kenya in 1999. After agreeing with the parish on ground rules, this group elected its own governing body and established a liturgy based on what was familiar to them. The English-speaking and Dinka-speaking congregations, varying from 20 to 100, join for special events–most notably, an Easter Vigil celebrating the baptism of six Sudanese young people. Each Sunday the English-speaking congregation proudly processes at the offertory a cross given by women of Kakuma Refugee Camp. The cross includes carvings and metal salvaged from crashed airplanes and missile shells from their homeland.

Timon Kenyi, a Kuku from Kajo-Keji, is the sexton at Epiphany Episcopal Church. He mows the grass and keeps the church building open for use by Alcoholics Anonymous, during this time when the Sunday morning English-speaking congregation can meet only remotely because of the pandemic. A Sudanese fellowship of some 8 households meets by Zoom on Sunday evenings. Kenyi’s wife Mary Guo leads singing in English, Arabic, and sometimes Swahili, along with Mary Pita. Their young daughter Kiden Joye, a future piano accompanist, currently pounds away on a piano while her father talks on the phone.  Christine Morbe, trained in Petersburg VA, has assisted as a lay pastor.

The Rev. Joseph Elionai, a Moru-speaking missionary priest, from the ECSS Diocese of Mundri in South Sudan, has been a member of Episcopal Church of the Epiphany in Richmond, Virginia since 2000. He has over the period of twenty years in Richmond, Virginia, been leading the Non-Denominational Sudan Christian Fellowship, together with the Rev. Rose Maraga (ordained by visiting Episcopal Church of South Sudan bishops) and Pastor Joram Kiromo of the Africa Inland Church who is affiliated with the West End Presbyterian Church. The Team has provided Sunday afternoon worship space to the Sudan Christian Fellowship for many years, and welcomed Bishop Bismark Monday Avokaya of Mundri Diocese during a three-month sabbatical leave in Richmond.

A Reminder

AFRECS has long sought to help the Episcopal Church of South Sudan to build its capacity and raise its voice for peace and healing in South Sudan, and the current COVID-19 crisis raises an especially poignant call for our help in this regard.  Rev. Dr. Joseph Bilal chairs a Task Force to mobilize all levels of the church in the campaign to address COVID-19. Our support will be vital in helping raise their collective voices. AFRECS is financing the purchase of megaphones for rural churches, a primary request of the Task Force, as well as support for radio broadcasts and the printing and distribution of educational materials. Please join members of the AFRECS Board and other friends who have already committed support for the ECS COVID-19 Task Force. Checks made out to AFRECS can be marked “Task Force.” You may also give online through the AFRECS website.

HELP US SUPPLY MEGAPHONES FOR RAISING VOICES!!!

Dane Smith Becomes Executive Director of AFRECS Dane F. Smith, Jr. became our Executive Director in June 2020 after serving as the Interim Executive Director since October 2019.  In assuming the role of Executive Director, Smith outlined his vision of the mission of AFRECS: AFRECS collaborates with the Episcopal churches of South Sudan and Sudan in the promotion of a peaceful and just society through expansion of the beloved community. Toward that goal AFRECS facilitates expansion of the network of cooperation between Episcopal congregations in the United States, including the South Sudanese diaspora, and Episcopal clergy and laity in South Sudan and Sudan. AFRECS expands its financial support for discrete programs of the Episcopal Church of South Sudan, focusing on trauma healing and education for civil war victims. AFRECS strengthens its relationship with the Episcopal Church of Sudan, focusing on education of pastors and laity. An AFRECS Board member since 2016, Dane Smith has been a consultant and lecturer on international peacebuilding, with a recent focus on faith-inspired peacebuilding. He visited South Sudan for AFRECS in 2018 and both South Sudan and Sudan in early 2020.  In 2014 and 2016 he was visiting professor at the Martin Luther King Jr. Evangelical University of Nicaragua, where he taught courses on “Christian Models of Peacebuilding.” In 2011 and 2012 he was Senior Advisor on Darfur in the Office of the U.S. Special Envoy to Sudan. From 2006 through 2009 he was a Senior Associate at the Center for Strategic & International Studies, Washington D.C., where he authored U.S. Peacefare: Organizing American Peace-Building Operations. From 1999 to 2003, he served as President of the National Peace Corps Association, the alumni group for former U.S. Peace Corps Volunteers. He was US Ambassador to Guinea 1990-1993 and to Senegal 1996-1999. Between those assignments he served as Special Presidential Envoy to Liberia 1995-1996. He was Deputy Chief of Mission at the US Embassy in Khartoum, Sudan, 1986-1989. Dane and his wife Judy were Peace Corps Volunteers in Eritrea 1963-1965. He holds an A.B. from Harvard College and a PhD in international relations from the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy. He has studied at the Union Theological Seminary in New York and is a lay preacher in the United Methodist Church. He and Judy have three children and seven grandchildren. Sarah Cleto Rial, friend of AFRECS, announced as Governor of Western Bahr al Ghazal State JUBA, SOUTH SUDAN – South Sudan President Salva Kiir issued a decree June 29 appointing governors for eight of the 10 states and chief administrators for the areas of Pibor, Ruweng and Abyei. Juba-based Sudd Institute analyst Augusting Tiing Mayay said,“Governors and administrators should immediately start managing their areas and play a major role in implementing the peace deal’s objectives of restoring peace and stability, especially in areas where inter-communal fighting has been raging for more than a month”. Sarah Cleto Hassan, the sole woman among the eight state governors announced by President Salva Kiir, is known among the South Sudanese diaspora in North America as Sarah Cleto Rial, a resident of Salem, Massachusetts. Sarah was a leader at the August 2019 meeting in Lexington VA of the South Sudanese Diaspora Network for Reconciliation and Peace (SSDNRP). NEWS NOTES COVID-19 in South Sudan At a Zoom meeting of the Anglican Alliance on July 1, Rev Joseph Bilal, Chair of Archbishop Justin Badi Arama’s COVID Task Force, summarized the situation.  Two-thirds of SS is peaceful, with violence still in Equatoria, especially the Kajo Keji area, involving the army and opposition groups not signatory to the ARCSS Agreement, and in Unity State.  Eight of the state governors have now been named.  There is freedom of movement related to COVID, except for worship which is shut down.  There have been 2,007 COVID-19 cases, with 47 recorded deaths and 251 recoveries.  There is a severe lack of hospital facilities and extraordinarily little Personal Protective Equipment. South Sudanese culture tends to dismiss practices required by COVID, requiring enormous persistence.  For example, failure to shake hands is interpreted as animosity.  In response to a question about what was most needed, Joseph Bilal said their priorities were to promote awareness of safety precautions through expanded use of social media and radio talk shows, to acquire sanitizing equipment, and to obtain megaphones for non-radio promotion of coronavirus safety.  They also need medicine, but he was not specific. AFRECS has long sought to help the Episcopal Church of South Sudan to build its capacity and raise its voice for peace and healing in South Sudan, and the current COVIS-19 crisis raises an especially poignant call for our help in this regard.  Recognizing that the ECSS is a trusted voice of truth and the public interest in South Sudan, Archbishop Justin Badi Arama has formed a task force to respond to the crisis and raise public awareness.  As Task Force Chair Rev. Dr. Joseph Bilal put it: “The church leadership and its congregation members; bishops, clergy, lay-readers, evangelists, youth, Mothers’ Union and faithful laity have an important role to play in raising awareness of the danger and threat of the pandemic and in promoting prevention measures by hand hygiene and social distancing.”  The Task Force is mobilizing all levels of the church in this campaign, and our support will be vital in helping raise their collective voices, not only quite literally in the purchase of megaphones for rural churches, but also for radio broadcasts and the printing and distribution of educational materials. Please join members of the AFRECS Board and other friends who have already committed support for the ECS COVID-19 Task Force. Checks can be marked “Task Force”, and designated online giving is also an option through the AFRECS website. From Voice of America South Sudan Focus What Is Causing South Sudan’s Inter-Communal Fighting?  By Waakhe Simon Wudu June 24, 2020 (Summary) JUBA , SOUTH SUDAN – Hundreds of people have been killed in inter-communal violence raging in South Sudan’s Jonglei state in recent weeks, and the cycle of attacks and revenge attacks is only going to continue if the national government fails to establish a rule of law that holds cattle raiders and other criminals accountable, according to one Juba-based analyst. On Tuesday, President Salva Kiir issued a presidential decree forming a committee to resolve ongoing inter-communal violence involving the Dinka Bor, the Lou Nuer and Murle tribes in Greater Jonglei. In his decree, Kiir said he expects the panel to ensure that stability is restored in the area within the next 21 days. https://www.voanews.com/africa/south-sudan-focus/what-causing-south-sudans-inter-communal-fighting From The New Humanitarian News, an independent non-profit news organization, which covers sub-Saharan Africa Return Pressure Builds as COVID-19 Hits South Sudan Displacement Camps By Joshua Craze & Naomi Pendle June 1, 2020 (Summary) Confirmed cases of coronavirus in two of the six UN-protected Protection of Civilian (POC) camps in South Sudan have led to renewed calls for the 190,000 residents to return to their homes, despite safety concerns as new waves of violence grip the country. [Bishop John Gattek, founder of the orphan school which AFRECS supports in POC 3, reports that there have not been any cases among South Sudanese there.] The UN’s peacekeeping mission in South Sudan, UNMISS, “strongly encouraged” residents in March to leave the overcrowded sites – a call repeated last month after two cases of the virus emerged in a camp in the capital, Juba. UN police officers have withdrawn from the camps to protect themselves from COVID-19, while government security forces have intermittently blocked entry to some sites, ostensibly to stop the spread of the disease. Calls for residents to leave the camps – both from the UN and the South Sudanese authorities – predate the coronavirus pandemic and have increased since the formation of a power-sharing unity government in February. But conflict around the country – clashes left at least 200 people dead last month in eastern Jonglei state – means many residents don’t feel safe going home, while others face returns to occupied properties or towns and villages still in ruins. Since the UN police officers (UNPOL), who manage crime in the POCs, effectively stopped patrolling the sites on 16 May, additional security issues have been reported in some camps. Interruptions to international travel and supply chains have also significantly impeded the ability of aid agencies to get both staff and medical resources into the camps. This puts many more people at risk as a host of other diseases are common in the POCs, including malaria, measles, and acute diarrhea. The government’s hostility towards the camps is deep-rooted. Since winning military victories in major urban centres in mid-2014, sending people fleeing into UN bases, it has accused the sites of housing rebels, and pressed for them to be closed. The mission has long complained that the sites use up too many resources, preventing UNMISS from fulfilling its mandate to protect civilians elsewhere in the country. One UN report in 2019 described the situation in the camps as “untenable” – citing communal tensions, the lack of economic opportunities, and social problems of crime and alcohol abuse. Despite the formation of a transitional government in February, there is ongoing conflict in South Sudan that has left many POC residents worried about leaving. Those who do want to leave the camps often have no home to return to, either in the towns or in rural areas. In Juba, many PoC dwellers have had their homes occupied by others, and it’s unclear if they will be able to get them back. https://www.thenewhumanitarian.org/analysis/2020/06/01/South-Sudan-coronavirus-UNMISS-conflict-peace Please keep the people of South Sudan and Sudan in your prayers, as the pandemic further complicates their already very difficult existence. We urge you to reach out to individuals and families you are already connected with through email, WhatsApp and other social media. Please consider making a contribution to AFRECS, including the response to COVID-19.  To do so click here. Meanwhile stay safe where you are in the United States. REQUEST FROM A LEADER OF THE SOUTH SUDANESE DIASPORA NETWORK FOR RECONCILIATION AND PEACE Dear reader, I hope you are doing well and staying safe and healthy. My name is Sandra Tombe and I am a doctoral candidate at the School for Conflict Analysis and Resolution at George Mason University in Virginia. I am reaching out to you to recruit participants in a survey that I am conducting for my dissertation project. My research looks at the relationship between political opposition groups and diaspora communities. I study these relations in the cases of South Sudan and Cameroon comparatively. I am writing with regards to my South Sudan case.  I would like to solicit the participation of individuals who meet all the following criteria: those who identify as part of the South Sudanese diaspora, who are currently based in the United States, and who are, at minimum, 18 years old. Would you consider participating if you meet the above criteria? My study has been approved by George Mason University. Participation is voluntary and anonymous, and all the information you provide will be used only for this research. The consent form, included in the link below, offers more details about my project and provides you instructions on how to proceed with the survey. You will need about 25-30 minutes to complete the survey. Please find the link to the survey below: https://gmu.az1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_6kQB1nl4QiIvIEd For those of you who do not meet the criteria to participate or do not wish to participate, would you consider sharing the link with others in your network who may qualify or be interested in participating? Thank you very much for taking the time to read this note. I appreciate your help by participating or by sharing the survey with others in your network. Best, Sandra Sandra Tombe Doctoral Candidate | Graduate Instructor School for Conflict Analysis and Resolution, George Mason University

Vice-President Machar Tests Positive for COVID-19

Riek Machar, South Sudan’s former rebel leader and now its first vice president, has tested positive for COVID-19, the disease caused by the novel coronavirus.  Machar’s wife, Minister of Defense Angelina Teny, and “a number of his office staff and bodyguards” have also been infected, according to a statement posted May 16 on the office’s Facebook page and attributed to Press Secretary James Gatdek Dak.

Children assisted by AFRECS with food and school supplies have lived in this United Nations temporary Protection of Civilians camp #3, Juba, South Sudan since 2013.

COVID-19 Epidemic Reaches Yambio 

Samuel Peni, Archbishop of Western Equatoria and Bishop of Yambio, reported on May 21: “We have now 481 confirmed cases, yesterday was the highest (134 in a day). We have no proper health facilities and people may be dying without any medications. May God help us. I am doing a lot of awareness in Yambio on Yambio FM radio.”

On April 23 the World Health Organization announced it was supporting the South Sudan Ministry of Health by prepositioning viral transport medium and personal protective equipment for collecting samples in twenty cities, including Yambio, Renk, Rumbek, Wau, Bor, and Kajo-Keji, and transporting them for testing in Juba.
(Read the entire WHO announcement here.)

Health and Mental Health 

South Sudan ranks No. 3 on the world’s list of “most fragile” states, behind only Yemen and Somalia. “Sadly,” comments Dr. Kenneth Scott, an investigator for the United Nations Human Rights Commission, “many of the adjacent or nearby states are also in the top 15.”

Civil war from 2013 through 2018 in South Sudan not only killed almost 400,000 people. It also left a nation of traumatized survivors in their wake. Millions live in camps or squalid conditions that add to the mental and emotional strain.

The entire mental health program for this country of more than 10 million people relies on one hospital ward equipped with eight beds and served by one psychologist. Less than two percent of nationwide funding is put towards the health sector, and no money is specifically allocated for mental health services, according to Dr. Felix Lado Johnson, the state minister of health in Juba.
(Source: Sam Mednick, TheNewHumanitarian.org, Jan. 1, 2019)

Nzara is Praying for Iowa 

Bishop Richard Aquilla, Diocese of Nzara, reports that so far they are free from COVID-19, but there is no movement within the country.  He expressed his sorrow for the situation of their companion diocese of Iowa, asking Nzara parishes to pray and fast for Iowa, and asking Iowa to join them in the Spirit and lift up Iowa’s voice to the risen Lord for His mercy.

This photo was sent to Ray Gaebler April 14 by Bishop Aquilla with thanks to God for peanut seed and tools for 1,000 families, purchased with funds from Iowa. Near the end of the dry season in February, a wildfire in Nzara spread to twenty-five square miles.  Thousands were left with no homes, food, or seed for a new peanut crop.  The rainy season for planting was coming soon.

“I Forgive Them”: Trauma Healing and Peacemaking

Concluding a 5-day trauma-healing training for 52 South Sudan military chaplains, held in July 2018 at the ECSS guesthouse in Juba, a chaplain named Hassan revealed the pain he had felt over the war in Darfur: “The cows ate all the crops, the people were beaten.  In camps outside South Sudan, we lacked food. I was bitter. Now I have forgiven.” A priest name Benjamin, despite having been beaten, arrested, and had his house demolished, said, “I forgive them.” A third chaplain testified, “I forgive brothers who are killing brothers on the roads. I pray that our country will be free.”

Archbishop Justin Badi Arama thanked trainers from Flame International (UK) and the ECSS Justice, Peace and Reconciliation Commission (JPRC), led by the Rev. Steven M. Mou, for their intense work with these police and army chaplains.

The Archbishop was asked by Dr. John Garang during the 1983-2005 civil war to serve as chaplain in the Sudan People’s Liberation Army barracks in Maridi. Now the Archbishop urged all chaplains to stand with people who are suffering and be truthtellers — wherever and at all times. “You need to work extra hard to change the thinking of our people in the Army and other organized forces,” he said. “Change the lack of nationalism in our hearts, and bring peace in the whole country.”

The Justice, Peace, and Reconciliation Commission, according to Mou, facilitated two similar trauma healing and reconciliation sessions in 2019. One took place in Wau, with support of University of Winnipeg Global College, Canada, the other in Renk Diocese, supported by Five Talents and AFRECS.
(Source: James Atem Tuor, Stephen Mayuen Mou.)

The Episcopal University of South Sudan and Sudan 

Archbishop Justin Badi Arama, the University’s Chancellor, is looking for a Vice Chancellor –. someone who can put together a strategy and implement it. He seeks the skills of ‘can do’ project management: finance, setting up an organizational structure (governance and staffing), bringing together the administrations of the participating colleges, and setting up systems for human resources, fundraising etc. A commitment of a minimum of three years is needed.

Support for details of academic infrastructure and administration is being sought both within South Sudan (through colleagues at Juba University, for instance), in neighboring countries (St Paul’s University, Kenya and Uganda Christian University, for example) and through The Episcopal University of South Sudan and Sudan Project in the UK or Colleges and Universities of the Anglican Communion in New York City.

Currently TEU is 100% dependent on funding from ECSSSUP, which mainly pays salaries of the staff, including Project Director Dr. Joseph Bilal at $700 per month. One of the first jobs of the new VC would be to get the finance reporting systems in order so that TEU is in a position to be able to apply for institutional grant funding.
(Source: Dr. Eeva John, Episcopal University Sudan Project, UK)

Appeal for Appointment of Governors, from a Voice in the South Sudanese Diaspora 

On behalf of the Coalition of Advocates for South Sudan and People of South Sudan (CASS), Reuben Garang on May 6 sent a message to the Government of South Sudan. Garang argued:

“Lawlessness is contributing to the starvation and food insecurity for over half the population.  We recognize that the COVID-19 disease, price of oil, general economy, poor crops yield and major floods of late 2019 all are serious concerns as well as lawlessness.  However, lawlessness can be addressed quickly by appointing the State and Administrative Area leaders with direction to take immediate action to curb crime.  Please give this your immediate attention.”

Bill Andress, a Presbyterian friend of the Sudans living in North Carolina, stated: “The Government of South Sudan has the responsibility to protect the people from massive criminal violence now.”

CASS followed up with a panel discussion on May 17 watched by 902 people. (See www.facebook.com/CoalitionofAdvocatesforSouthSudan)

National Government and the Reconstituted Joint Monitoring and Evaluation Commission (R-JMEC)

South Sudan’s fragile government and the peace agreement that formed it are in jeopardy after the country’s president and vice president disagreed on how to share regional states between them. A communiqué dated May 7, 2020, signed by President Salva Kiir, indicates that consensus has been reached on the allocation of states. However, First Vice President Riek Machar and a coalition of political parties distanced themselves from the document.

According to the communiqué, President Kiir’s former administration, the SPLM-IG, will steer leadership of six states (Central Equatoria, Eastern Equatoria, Lakes State, Warrap State, Northern Bahr El Ghazal State and Unity State); the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement-in Opposition (SPLM-IO) under Dr Machar will lead three states (Jonglei, Western Bahr El Ghazal and Western Equatoria); while the South Sudan Opposition Alliance (SSOA) will head one state (Upper Nile). The OPP did not obtain a state.  (The rule of the power-sharing ratio at the state level provides that the SPLM-IG gets 55%, SPLM-IO 27%, SSOA 10% and OPP 08%.)

“The allocation of the states … is that of the president and not a decision taken by consensus,” Machar said in a statement. “It does not take into consideration the relative prominence each party has in each of the respective states or counties.”

Alan Boswell, a senior analyst with the Brussels-based think tank International Crisis Group, said the disagreement between Kiir and Machar endangered the gains made so far toward a lasting peace. “South Sudan’s new unity government is facing its biggest crisis yet. Despite the attention of South Sudan’s international partners on the COVID-19 pandemic, quick action from regional leaders will be key so that this latest power squabbling doesn’t escalate.”

Ting Mayai, a researcher at Sudd Institute in Juba, commented, “Apart from the delayed appointment of governors, we still have not reconstituted Parliament…We have intercommunal clashes, threats of Covid-19, and floods. Those issues would have been addressed by state governments.”

South Sudan ended five years of civil war in 2018, but conflict between President Salva Kiir and Vice President Riek Machar — who led the opposing sides in the war — have been major obstacles to completing the peace process. The two disagree over who will run South Sudan’s states and how to integrate different fighting forces. The civil war, often fought along ethnic lines, claimed an estimated 400,000 lives, triggered a famine, and created Africa’s biggest refugee crisis since the 1994 genocide in Rwanda. Previous South Sudan peace deals have held for only a matter of months before fighting resumed.

Please keep the South Sudanese people in your prayers, as the pandemic further complicates their already very difficult existence. We urge you to reach out to individuals and families you are already connected with through email, WhatsApp and other social media. If you would care to make a contribution to AFRECS, including the response to COVID-19, please click here. Meanwhile stay safe where you are in the United States.

An Update from AFRECS amidst the Coronavirus

On March 23 the Government of South Sudan closed all airports and land border crossings in hopes of preventing the spread of the coronavirus. Only cargo aircraft and trucks carrying food supplies, medical and humanitarian relief supplies, and fuel will be allowed to enter the country. It also closed schools and banned all religious gatherings. All South Sudanese were urged to take preventive measures to minimize the spread of the disease. Although the country has yet to register its first case of COVID 19, a number of cases have been reported in Uganda, Kenya, Rwanda and Sudan.

Religious leaders have responded positively to these measures. The South Sudan Council of Churches endorsed the prohibition on church services and fellowship gatherings. Episcopal Primate Archbishop Justin Badi Arama issued a directive the same day that on Sundays “all Christians should remain at home and pray from home with their own families.” He instructed that bishops, pastors, lay readers and evangelists should continue to “keep the light of prayers burning daily in the Churches to intercede for God’s mercy and protection upon the people of South Sudan.” He urged Christians to continue to speak words of encouragement and prayer to each other through phone calls. He also called for a posture of repentance.

As we know, the health infrastructure of South Sudan is extremely weak — and in some parts of the country non-existent. It’s easy to imagine that rapid spread of the virus could have a devastating effect, since limited facilities will be quickly overwhelmed and medical personnel will often not have the materials needed to protect themselves — a phenomenon already evident in Europe and the United States. It is unclear whether the South Sudan Government’s prohibition of foreign visitors would include foreign medical personnel prepared to offer assistance.

Program Work Continues

Despite the new restrictions, and with the help of faithful supporters like you, we expect AFRECS programs to continue to move forward to the extent possible. We recently transferred funds to Bishop John Gattek to support the Orphans’ School at Protection of Civilians Camp 3 outside Juba during the first quarter of the year. However, the closing of universities and colleges to include the Episcopal University of South Sudan, including Bishop Gwynne College, will mean that students will be unable to make use of scholarship funds until classes resume. And in Renk the savings groups for which we are providing support for trauma healing — in cooperation with Five Talents and the Mothers Union will likely be paused. However, we believe that they will be able to renew their activities when the pandemic eases.

Please keep the South Sudanese people in your prayers, as the pandemic further complicates their already very difficult existence. We urge you to reach out to individuals and families you are already connected with through email, WhatsApp and other social media. If you would care to make a contribution to that effort, please click here. Meanwhile stay safe where you are in the United States.

God bless you.

Dane Smith
Executive Director ad interim