Dear friends of South Sudan,
we would like to send you the next newsletter with new information from
the youngest country on the planet.
What’s new in South Sudan
The most recent news in
South Sudan can be read on the front pages of almost any media coverage. The country has officially declared famine.
According to the information that we are receiving mainly from the Internet,
the South Sudan radio Tamazuj and from BBC and CTK, the situation in the
country is still not clearing up, but rather, getting worse. Fights between the army of president S. Kiira and SPLM-Sudan People’s Liberation Movement,
which supports the previous vice president Machar still keep breaking out.
Machar fled from the country, the African union is trying to help calm the
situation by facilitating negotiations and also by sending additional troops
from Africa “the blue helmets”. The president’s arrangement of the peace troops
stalls the process and even
the other steps he takes are rather unintelligible. Efforts to deploliticise the army (recruitment not by tribal
association) hasn’t been very successful.
We present you with an example of the most recent not very
encouraging news from the past few days.
South Sudan is facing a
famine. More than 100,000 inhabitants of 2 districts are being affected by the
famine. The problem could spread, the famine threatens millions of people. The
country has been distraught with a 3-year conflict and related economic crisis.
The government of President Salva Kiira is blocking the supply of food to some
areas, announced the UN representatives. “The famine was caused by the people”
said the director of the World Food Program (WFP) in South Sudan, Joyce Luma.
“Our worst fears have come true” said the director of the UN Organization for
food and agriculture (FAO) in South Sudan, Serge Tissot. Over half of the
population, around 11 million people, can face serious food shortages and the
risk of death in the coming months. Over 250,000 children are malnourished and
at the risk of death. (According to CTK on 20.2.17)
UN Representative is shocked
by the systematic violations of human rights.
Assistant Secretary
General for human rights of the UN, Andrew Gilmour, summarizes his 4 day visit
to the country by saying that he is shocked by the fact that violations of the
human rights and torture, including sexual abuse has become systematic in South
Sudan. The only way to end the violence is to have the perpetrators suffer the
consequences of their actions. He said this after meeting with several
governmental, church and humanitarian organizations and eye-witnesses. (According to the radio
Tamazuj).
According to our
understanding, now it’s more about the overall chaos in a disrupted country
rather than a clearly comprehensive and solvable political or tribal conflict.
The government in Juba apparently doesn’t have their country under control and
they aren’t able to ensure the compliance of the law or the safety of the
residents. Armed rebels plunder the streets and terrorize the residents. The
members of the army don't behave much differently. The president is trying to
prevent the violence perpetrated by the soldiers, stating that those who commit
rape will be shot.
In this situation a lot
depends on the local governments and how they manage to ensure peace in their
regions. Without financial resources (no taxes are withheld) it seems almost
impossible to solve. The country is very dependent on humanitarian aid which
greatly facilitates corruption. In the ranking of corruption is South Sudan,
along with Somalia and North Korea are among the most corrupt countries.
Local authorities from
many places have announced hunger, epidemics, lack of health care and
insufficient education etc. Churches in these given conditions are trying to do
all they can to mediate the conficts and encourage peace.
How our friends are doing
Here is an email from
Bernard dated 20.2.17
Dear all,
Greetings. I am writing to update
you on the situation. We are doing well except that many people have left the
country and only few of us are left. Many schools have very few pupils and this
is worrying to the orphans because in some schools one may find only four
pupils in a class. Most of the teachers have also left the country. We have a
recent change in government leadership. A new Governor is appointed. He may
bring some hope for peace in the state. We need to continue to pray. The hunger
situation is escalating with very high inflation in the market. We are
still struggling for existence and hope that this new governor may create hope
in the people. Some people are beginning to return from the refugee camps.
Roads are still unsafe. All travels are by military convoy.
Regards,
Bernard
The situation in the
cities of Torit, Magwi, Nimule and Capoeta is calm. In Ofirika it's also calm.
The orphanage in Torit isn’t agriculturaly self sufficient, what the fields
produce is not enough to live on so they have to buy more food, so as Bernard
wrote, they are always on the verge of hunger. The amount of children in the
orphanage is up to 30 now. One of the girls, Vicky, was seriously ill but she
got better. Also, some of the other children have health problems (Alima is
recovering from a kidney infection, Amito had to go through an operation, Dhieu
hads hepatitis B and she needs treatment). This is why we sent 1000 USD to the
orphanage for food.
Jonah and Joan v Ofirika
planted their own crops and had their first harvest so their situation has
improved. Traveling from Ofirika to Torit is possible but dangerous.
Bishop Bernard, who has
been financially supporting the orphanage from his own pocket by renting his
home in the capital city, lost the tenant and that complicated the situation. So now we’ve
decided to support him in this area as well. The Bishop sometimes travels by
small, local and used airplanes, which is also expensive. To help you imagine
the costs-one flight from Torit to Nimule costs 200 USD.
They say that on the
black market the dollar can be sold for 109 south Sudanese pounds. To help you
understand, during our visit a year ago, a dollar had the value of 20 SSP and 2
years ago it was worth 5 SSP. Inflation therefore has increased 500 percent.
Ofiriha
Brother Jonah (teacher
and missionary) and his wife (nurse) from Uganda continue their missionary work
in a group of villages of the tribe Ofiriha (about 8,000 people). They serve on
a missionary station in the village of Tabwor and in 2 other villages they managed
to establish a church where people gather to hear God’s word, sing and pray.
Previously in the year 2014 the Christians in this area didn’t meet. Jonah got
new drums and is trying to attract young people to the church. In the village
of Tabwor, Francis Jumma helps him. In the village of Ramorok Jacob Dada helps
him and in Hisiha Joseph Wani.
Jonah has established a
good relationship with pastor Jacok Haki, who had already started evangelizing
in the south in the area of Losurak. Together they organized some events such
as all night prayer event on the 30th of December. Jonah intends to motivate
young people to set up their own fields and start the process of breeding
animals. He would like a church to be established in each of the 5 villages to
be orga
Now this young married
couple has flown home on vacation and they will return at the end of February.
They really needed to have this time of rest. Their family worries about them a
lot. We gave them 500 dollars to fly to Uganda on a small plane and 500 for the
visa back and also for food and spare parts for their motor bike. The diases
Ocaya Rolex from Torit is looking after the churches while they are gone.
We are in regular contact
with Jonah and Joan via email. Sometimes they even give us a phone call (which
for them isn’t as expensive as it is for us. From CZ it can cost up to 100kc a
minute), but unfortunately the phone calls aren’t very productive because it’s
hard to understand their accents.
Brother Solomon
Brother Solomon is still
taking care of the orphans. He lives with them and does homework with them and
takes care of them overall. Below is an email that we received from his
recently:
Dear Dr. Vite and Rosta,
Receive New year greetings in Jesus, here comes appreciation for your positive response towards my request about projector, small bibles and some T. shirts for the children in the orphans i herd when i was in the hospital that what you have sent has reach well thank you very much can you write to bisho and Aruho Yonah about projector partaaining my request to you last that you sent projector and bible forb the ministry both in Ofiriha and in all part torit Diocese now I have open a church in Barack in torit and attached is the photos of the church that i need to renovate because the number of believers are increasing i have esterblished now is growing this comes as a result of your teaching and support your and all churches in Czech we need your support to help us extend the temporary building as per communication given to you pertaining me i had an accident on the 28th January 2017 and am referred to Juba for farther treatment even now am still feeling pain in the chest, left ribs and left hips but am planning to go back to torit on Monday next month am visiting ofiriha center to share some teaching and discipleship teachings them thanks in advance for your positive response.
Receive New year greetings in Jesus, here comes appreciation for your positive response towards my request about projector, small bibles and some T. shirts for the children in the orphans i herd when i was in the hospital that what you have sent has reach well thank you very much can you write to bisho and Aruho Yonah about projector partaaining my request to you last that you sent projector and bible forb the ministry both in Ofiriha and in all part torit Diocese now I have open a church in Barack in torit and attached is the photos of the church that i need to renovate because the number of believers are increasing i have esterblished now is growing this comes as a result of your teaching and support your and all churches in Czech we need your support to help us extend the temporary building as per communication given to you pertaining me i had an accident on the 28th January 2017 and am referred to Juba for farther treatment even now am still feeling pain in the chest, left ribs and left hips but am planning to go back to torit on Monday next month am visiting ofiriha center to share some teaching and discipleship teachings them thanks in advance for your positive response.
What went well in the
project
As you know, our
scheduled trip in January had to be cancelled due to security reasons. We are
trying to support them from a distance but we keep facing various problems. The
packages with materials are only able to be sent through Uganda and every
package sent from Uganda to Torit is at risk.
Also, we aren’t able to
send money directly to South Sudan. Instead, we send the money to a church in
Uganda (the transfer over a month, because our bank takes a long time to verify
the transaction), then Bernard waits for the money to transfer to a bank in
Nimule from the bank and then he has to
personally fly to get the money. One time we sent money to Jonah through the
service Gram (in CZ it’s facilitated through Fortuna) and once through Western
Union.
In Fall we sent an 80
kilo package of medical supplies, food and gifts. In December, we sent another
150kg in 9 packages. In addition to medications, medical supplies and non
parishable food we sent football jerseys
as gifts for the orphans, bibles, a projector for screening of Christian films,
a number of books, etc. When it arrived some things were missing but most of
the things were there.
Then we sent our
missionaries their salaries for the first half year of 2017, plus another 1,000
dollars for medications that we weren't able to send by post (against malaria),
plus another 1,000 dollars for food for the orphans. Starting this year we are
supporting 4 helpers in the mission in Ofiriha (25 USD monthly) and we also
decided to support Bishop Bernard with 500 dollars when he lost his source of
income.
Vita Smajstrla and team
Ministry through text messaging
Here we continue with the
text messaging to our friends and students from our last trip. We are able to
do this with a Polish SIM card. So far we've sent 400 text messages. The
messages include bible verses, and short devotions or teachings. Through this,
we try to encourage our brothers and sisters and remind them that people in the
Czech Republic are thinking of them. Below you can see the answers we received
from them.
Dear
brothers, Vít, Rosťa and people of Czech Republic. Thanks for been with
us. I am John Mayom Bul from Torit. Now
I am in Kenya with my family and we need help that my 3 children can go to
primary school.
Thanks
brothers Vít, Rosťa for your prayers about us. We are in bad situation in fact.
Now we are destroying what we just started building with the help of other
countries. Anyway our hope is only in Jesus. Great church members in Czech!
Thanks
a lot! I received your message. I hope
God will hear your prayers and South Sudan will go back to normal situation.
May almighty God be with you all. Thanks, Jacob Dit Garang
Thank you for your
concern about us in this difficult time. May God bless you and hear your
Prayer!
Dear brothers, I’m
interested in continuing to teach God’s word.
Dear
brothers and sisters, I am very glad to receive your message. I am now in Uganda
doing some work for God (Mathew 28:16-20).
Dear
brothers, we made the Christmas well, but my message to you is to keep praying
because that our country is not peaceful.
Continue
praying for South Sudan and we are praying for you. Thank you brothers and
sisters in Christ.
Happy
New Year 2017. A year of our Lord Jesus.
Let`s pray to him to make it as year of peace to the whole world.
Thanks
brothers Vít, Rosťa for your prayers. Happy New Year to you all! We are fine although hungry. Continue to pray
for us for peace.
Dear
brothers and sisters! Have wonderful day
for the Lord. The Lord give us this day as it is stated in (Rom 14:8-10). That
we don´t live for ourselves or die for ourselves. So if he keeps us alive let
us do his work. Let work according to what he gives to each of us (1
Corinthians 12:7). A spiritual gift is given to each of us so we can help each
other. Continue with the work of God and he will bless you all. Your brother in
Christ, Jacob
Greetings
to all of you in Jesus name, Amen. Thank you brothers for your prayers and your
encouragement. Our situation is still going from bad to worse. Our hope is only
in Jesus. My greetings to you all there in Czech Republic.
The church in the village
of Hesiha
Now we know His Son
On a missionary
expedition to the tribe in Ofiriha in the year 2014, we arrived with Franta
Kastil to the village of Hesiha. They said that we were the first white men who
had visited them. Chief Sebit introduced an old woman to us. She was Shamon's
widow, they called her the rainmaker.
I asked her if there are
still ceremonies to call on the rain.
“Not anymore” replied the
chief.
“And why,” I wonder.
“does it rain regularly now?”
“No, we still have long
droughts when the rain is supposed to come but it doesn't….but now a lot of
people pray to Jesus.”
That surprised me, so I
continued to ask questions. “So now you pray to a different God?”
“No, No” said Sebit “It’s
the same God who created everything and sends the rain. But now we know his
Son”.
The people in the tribe
in Ofiriha confirm what the apostle Pauk had written to the Christians in
Roman. “For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown
it to them. For his invisible attributes, mainly his eternal power and divine
nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in
the things that have been made. So they are without excuse.” Romans 1:19-20.
This realization of the creator God, without a Bible, is generally what happens
in African tribes. For example, in Uganda there is a tribe named Buganda, and
in their language, Luganda, God is called “Katonda”, the creation is called
“Kutonda”. Can you hear the similarity? Katonda-Kutonda. God is actually
creator. Or Zulus in southern Africa before being exposed to Christianity
believed in Inkosi Yezulu-the chief of the heavens who they associate creation
with.
But back to Ofiriha, Through questioning I
found out how they got to know about Jesus. During the civil war, some of them
fled to Uganda where in refugee camps they heard evangelization. After the war
they returned to the village as believers in Christ.
Sebit also showed us the
place where all of the tribes from the villages met to call on the rain. Now
the area had been neglected and deserted. During the next missionary expedition
in 2016, I didn’t meet the rainmaker again, she had passed away. But her a
church is rising up in the village of Hesiha.
Association of Souther Sudan
The Association for South Sudan is a voluntary,
non-governmental, non-profit association for spiritual and humanitarian help to
people in South Sudan. We do this through following the biblical principles,
and the perfect example, the life and teachings of Jesus Christ. Our goals
include notable educational and humanitarian activities, community development,
family support and cultivation of interpersonal relationships and work with
youth.
Invite our team to
present our project to you. We will be happy to come and explain our project to
you, answer any questions you have and establish some cooperation with you.
Ways to support our
mission
Intercessory prayer
Lectures and discussions
about the work in South Sudan in your churches, schools and libraries
Collecting English bibles
and biblical literature, study materials and materials for Sunday school
Help with sending packages
to support the orphanage in Torit and or for the medical clinic in Ofiriha.
Help with text message
communication with students, help manage the web sites
Take part in the next
missionary expedition (as of now, we don’t have a date, but nevertheless we
believe in the re-establishment of peace and we are preparing and educating the
leaders of the church, and youth and presenting a film about Jesus)
Finding and contacting
potential doners and sponsers
Get involved in the work
of the Association of South Sudan
001-General project costs
102- study materials and
English bibles
404- the salary of
William, the assistant Bishop
501- the general holistic
mission in Ofirika
502- Joan, the nurse
503- Jonas, her husband,
a teacher and Evangelist
601- services of Bishop
Bernard
602- food and clothing
for the orphans in Torit and the poor members of the church