February 2008

Liberation is the execution of justice

Friends,

It was my second visit to the large green-and-yellow building that was the Presbyterian Church (Presbyterian Church of Sudan, or PCOS)) in Leer. A week earlier, I’d arrived well before 8:15 a.m., as I’d been told the worship started then. After wiping off the super-dusty plastic chair with my newly washed scarf, I had set it up front. Soon, people began to arrive and the crowd spilled outside around the door so they could hear the preacher speaking though the bull-horn. What I didn’t know as I’d place my chair up from was that those rows were taken; when I realized I was surrounded by men, I got a clue. After a few men stood beside where I was sitting, possibly waiting for me to give them my seat, I realized the enormity of my action.

Pastor John Rell preaching in the Presbyterian Church of Sudan in Leer.

I didn’t get up then, and even arriving late this time, I was again in the second row, surrounded by towering Nuer men. They’d even invited me to sit there, no doubt because they knew who I was. I recognized them too: teachers from my intensive English class. They knew Dr. Ingrid, (or Nyar Kwar, as “Ingrid” is in Nuer), a teacher from the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), who was teaching intensive English and challenging their vision of leadership as they were the “educated” ones in their villages and in the New Sudan. Inspired by Pastor John Rell’s message at the training’s opening on Ebed-Melech, the Cushite who had helped Jeremiah out of the pit, I had numerous discussions with the teachers on the kind of twenty-first century Cushite leaders they would be.

Guest choir in Presbyterian Church of Sudan in Leer, southern Sudan.

Now, Pastor John was preaching, and I looked forward to it. As the congregation sang hymns from their Across (Ax)— Nuer hymnals translated by the Sudan Literature Center—I sang along in English to the tunes I recognized. I couldn’t help wondering, as I’d wondered while worshipping with Kenyans in Kenya, Murle in Boma, and Dinkas in Adol, whether this was how we’d sound around our Father’s throne as depicted in Revelations.

Thankfully, Pastor John translated his own sermon. From our first meeting on the Leer Ax base, I was struck by the gentle strength of this preacher. He’d come out from his tukul, behind the dilapidated building that was the boarding house for some of the 13 theological students of the Western Upper Nile Bible College, where he was one of the teachers and administrator. He’d greeted me briefly, promising to speak at length later. That evening, when he and Pastor David Dach came to the Ax Base (the Bible college and the base share the same compound, separated by a gate. To reach the Ax training/teaching classroom, I went through that gate every morning), they discussed the effects of the then split in PCOS, especially its effect on the survival of the Bible College. (Thankfully, since the recent PCOS General Assembly held in Malakal, that split is now healed. We give all praise and honor to Almighty God for that, amen).

Presbyterian Church of Sudan in Leer, southern Sudan.

What I was not prepared for was Pastor’s John question: “Why had it taken the PC(USA) so long to send someone to work in Leer and in Southern Sudan?” What could I say? I think I said that God’s answers to our prayers seem so long, only because sometimes He’s actually waiting on us, His church, to catch His vision and comply with how He wants to answer our prayers. Surely, though, we could and both did rejoice that I was finally there, and would be back again, as God enabled, to conduct other teacher trainings. I was there in mid-February for two weeks intensive English training of 40 Nuer teachers, of which only two were women. In time, there will be more women, and maybe next time, funding permitting, I’d be back for a month’s training, and after that, maybe even for a longer period.

A dormitory of the Presbyterian Church of Sudan’s Western Upper Nile Bible College.

Pastor John preached from Isaiah 42: 1-7 and Mathew 12:18-21. He spoke about the restoration of God’s people and their land “through following justice and justice alone.” He called for God’s people to be a light to those living in darkness by following justice and only justice, that captives may be set free. When he finally said, “Liberation is the execution of justice,” I wrote it down because it reverberated within.

A few mornings later, when I saw him on my way to the training classroom, I said, “Pastor John, I have this really great definition of justice; you want like to hear it? Still looking somber, he shook his head, yes. I said, “Liberation is the execution of justice. Isn’t that one of the best definitions you’ve ever heard of justice?” I saw the recognition coming into his eyes and the laughter too, as he threw back his head and laughed, the corners of his eyes crinkling. Then he said, as soberly as ever, “Thank you,” and I replied, “You’re welcome, and thank you so much.” I walked off to face those teachers, knowing it was going to be another day in which John Rell’s words would inspire our discussions on leadership and learning English in southern Sudan.

Thank you so much for your prayers for Pastors John Rell and David Dach, and for the Western Upper Nile Bible College, PCOS. Thank you also for praying and thanking Almighty God, our provider, for additional funding for the Ax Leer Education Program, that we may return to Leer for additional teacher trainings that are desperately needed. Please pray and thank God also for another partner and donor for Ax Leer Base, as the contract from the donor we now have expires this year. Without a new donor, our base in Leer will close, and teacher trainings, accelerated learning (ALP) classes and future collaborations with the Bible College will not transpire.

For His utmost glory,

The 2008 Mission Yearbook for Prayer & Study, p. 10