Sudan

A Vision for Darfur

Lee, a Presbyterian elder from Virginia spent the last six months of 2006 working with a German Christian relief organization in the Darfur region of the Sudan. When he was preparing to leave he visited a village where he had developed a good relationship with the Muslim sheiks (elders of the village) to say farewell. Unexpectedly they asked him to send a teacher for their village. Knowing that he was stepping across a line that he should have observed, he promised them that he would send a teacher.

Upon returning home he wondered how he could possibly keep his promise.  He met Bill, one of the leaders in the Sudan Mission Network, who encouraged him to contact Doug Welch in the World Mission Office in Louisville.  Doug told him that Shenango Presbytery had a partnership with the church partner in northern Sudan, so Lee contacted the presbytery and the Sudan Leadership Team agreed to raise the possibility with their church partner. Barry Almy, regional liaison in Khartoum, facilitated the conversation.

The church in the Sudan had already created a Darfur Mission Committee, which regularly visited the displacement camps, caring for the desperately poor people in them. The committee leaders agreed to explore the situation in the new village where Lee had made the promise. Doing so they found the sheiks receptive to them as representatives of a Christian Church and promised them protection while they were in the village.

Shenango Presbytery agreed to wire the money because it had a U.S. government permit which was not available to the Africa Office in Louisville. The work began with the building of two classrooms; two teachers were provided (the sheiks later added seven more volunteer teachers) and 287 students. The sheiks insisted that evening classes be held for them and other adults in the village.

Without all of the partners collaborating this effort in Darfur never could have happened.