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May 2000
Dear Family and Friends,
We greet each of you in the name of our Risen Lord and Savior.
We pray that all is well with each of your individual walks with
Him. We want to tell you about some changes in our home assignment,
but first we would like to catch you up on some other news.
Sudan
The situation here in Sudan constantly changes. The Ministry
of Social Planning, which is responsible for overseeing the churches,
has made several changes to some policies. The one that affected
us most limits all stay permits for church workers to six months
at a time. We now have to renew our stay permits every six months
instead of once a year, as we have been doing. Also, the Ministry
has changed some of its policies regarding church ownership of
land, making it more difficult for the churches to own land. The
government seems to do better at playing both ends against the
middle, that is, it shows one face to the international community
and another to the churches here on the ground in Sudan. For example,
the government recently allowed the Archbishop of Canterbury to
enter the country and go to Juba (a major town in the south controlled
by the government of Sudan) to celebrate the enthronement of a
new Sudanese archbishop for Sudan. They have also allowed evangelist
Reinhard Bonnke into the country to hold a revival for a week.
However, they still continue to destroy churches in the outlaying
areas of Khartoum, and they are still confiscating church properties
and arresting and harassing pastors and priests they claim are
preaching anti-Muslim doctrine. Pray for the international community
to have a spirit of discernment in seeing the true situation of
the Christians and other groups here in Sudan. Finally, the disagreement
between President Bashir and Omar Turabi (the religious head of
the fundamentalists) has been causing concern for the Sudanese
as to what will happen next.
Our Work
These are busy times. The semester ended on May 17. Betsy has
finished up her classes and is preparing to turn in the final
grades. Since Betsy will be here for the summer, she has been
given the job of preparing for next semester’s courses as
well. We are expecting to have Alan Rice from Shenango Presbytery
come at the end of July to open the school year with an intensive
course, and Betsy has been asked to help coordinate his time here.
Barry is still trying to determine the parameters of his new
position. We desire it to be more than just a financial advisor
to the churches in Sudan and Ethiopia, but exactly what he will
do is still unclear. In Sudan, correcting the poor financial situation
in the churches will take precedence. Barry has recently returned
from a fact-finding trip to see several agricultural, income-generating
projects in Renk and Wada Kona (two towns in the government-controlled
area of the South). The informative trip revealed both the strengths
and weaknesses of these projects. It was good to see local churches
doing things without depending on the support of outside donors.
However, the lack of proper training causes many problems. Barry
is currently researching the possibility of training for churches
in developing human resources. Please pray for this new possibility,
since current thought is to train pastors and evangelists but
not much thought is given to training lay people in management,
agricultural or other types of skills that could improve the lives
of the people. Barry is planning another trip to Ethiopia early
next month to hold a seminar on management for the officers of
the Bethel presbyteries of the Ethiopian Evangelical Church Mekane
Yesus. He’ll also take several hundred copies of the newly
completed Nuer Bible for distribution to the EECMY’s Nuer-speaking
congregations along the border with Sudan. Please pray that these
Bibles will be available and can be taken in without difficulty.
Home Assignment
Due to the recent change in the Sudanese policy regarding visas,
we had to change the dates of our home assignment. We now plan
to be home from November 2000 through March 2001. During that
time we will travel to different areas of the country to visit
family and speak in churches. We would love to visit with all
of you, but that won’t not be possible due to the time constraints.
However, we would like to visit with as many of you as we can.
We are available to do either a Sunday morning program, which
could include a Sunday-school presentation, preaching, or a "minute
for mission." We could also schedule a Sunday evening or
a mid-week program. We could meet with the mission committee or
session or other interested groups. And it doesn’t have to
be on a Sunday. We are flexible and will try and fit our program
to suit your needs. The only things that your congregation would
be responsible for (besides letting us know your suggested dates)
would be to defray the cost of travel and accommodations. We plan
to meet with several churches in an area to keep these costs at
a minimum. If you are interested in our visiting your congregation,
please contact us via e-mail, if possible, or by fax. It will
help if you could schedule as soon as you are able. The proposed
schedule looks like this:
- November: Pennsylvania-New Jersey (No Sunday mornings available,
but Sunday evenings and mid-week still open.)
- December: Southern U.S. (December 24 and 31 not available.)
- January: Midwest and Western U.S.
- February: Northwest U.S. ( Sunday mornings Feb 18 and 25 not
available—all other times open.)
- March: Northwest U.S.-Pennsylvania (Sunday March 4, Wednesday
March 7 not available; Sunday morning March 11 and 18 also not
available—all other times open)
We are looking forward to hearing from you and seeing you this
fall.
LOVE in Christ,
Barry Almy and Rev. Dr. Elizabeth A. McCormick
The 2000 Mission Yearbook for Prayer & Study, p. 51
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