Prayer Answers, Thanksgivings and Petitions

Dear Prayer Partners,

Very many thanks for all your prayers. There is so much to thank God for, and therefore to thank you for because of the way things have been coming together for us. Life is not exactly problem free in the Sudan - but things have moved much better than they could have done. The elections begin on Sunday, 11th April and extend up to the Wednesday.

Keeping praying. We are being blessed!

Thank you

Trevor and Tina

1. Theological Education

Give thanks for the growing student body. We now have four full time and one part-time student on the English course led by Tina. We have all the 2nd year students except one (who has been made a bishop) now learning well and growing in all sorts of ways.

Praise God for the blessings brought to us by our enthusiastic visitors - Bishop David of Salisbury, Prof. Joseph Britton, Dean of Berkeley Divinity School, Yale, and assessors from Limuru University, Kenya. We thank God for looking after us so well in these people.

We pray for those on their way from Trinity College, Bristol sadly held up at Heathrow with the cancellation of their flight. We thank God for them and their deep interest in us.

We pray for those involved in the teaching at NBGC. Simon Lual, Daniela Rapisarda, Robin Denney, Trevor and Tina Stubbs. May God bless the students as they come to their exams at the end of the term, and bless the exam process.

We pray for those seeking employment at the college, including those made redundant last year. There are numbers of people who have been associated with teaching and feel themselves qualified that do not fit into the present vision of the NBGC in Juba.

Pray for the other provincial theological colleges of the ECS - Shokai in Khartoum, Renk Theological College, Ngalamu College in Mundri and Bishop Alison College moving back to Yei who are struggling to find committed qualified staff despite the surplus in Juba.

We pray for those preparing to teach in the Michaelmas Semester at NBGC. We include those coming to us on a visiting basis, Andy Wheeler and his Team from St Saviour's, Guildford, Bishop Francis Loyo, Canon Francis Paul and a team to teach us about HIV/AIDS.

Please pray for the students returning to their homes in order to vote. Pray for safe journeys for them.

NBGC New Site

We thank God for the giving that is taking place in Salisbury Diocese to help us fund the development.

Thank God for the interest of Anglican International Development who have undertaken to seek investors for an outrageously ambitious Conference Centre on the roadside of the new site.

We need urgent prayer for those who currently occupy the site to be prepared to move in the very near future so we can commence work to upgrade the buildings.

Pray for competitive tenders for the work of building the boundaries and the new staff houses.

New Students

Pray for the right kind of students to apply. We need able people who are ambitious for the Gospel and committed men and women. Pray that there will be as many women as men. We thank God for the enormous impact of women's ministry in the ECS and pray for more of them and for opportunities for them to take positions of responsibility.

Primary Schools

Please pray for the ECS primary schools in Juba. The government education department has removed many of the teachers in their own employ and reassigned them to government schools, with just three weeks notice of the beginning of the new term. This has left most of the church schools very short staffed. Some schools have even lost their headteachers. Church schools will now find it hard to make ends meet and maintain the higher standards with which they have been associated. If the policy is not reversed, some schools will inevitably close. For the Church education committees it means going back to the drawing board.

In one case the government have even claimed the land on which the school premises stand as well as half the teachers.

This is a sad affair because some of the best education has been offered by the ECS and other churches and the children will miss out in the short, if not the long term. It has often been the church ethos of the schools that have produced the comparative success.

Pray for the staff, schools and children involved.

Please pray for the provincial and diocesan staff, especially Emmanuel Lomoro, and successful negotiations with the government department.

The Nation

We thank God that we have got to the week before the election with relatively little trouble, despite the SPLM pull out in the northern constituencies by way of protest against suspected rigging. We ask God's blessings on the process - for free, fair and efficient polling and for accurate counting. Above all we pray for the peaceful acceptance of the outcome.

Happy Easter!

Alleluia, Christ is Risen!
So much is happening that it is difficult to find time to keep up with this blog! However, I hope you have caught on to our college website and the separate photo site which have some more up to date stuff. See the links to the right.
Two days after Bishop David left us we were visited by yet another distinguished guest. This time Professor Joseph Britton, the Dean of Berkeley Divinity School, Yale, New Haven in the USA came and spent several days in the college and lecturing in Juba Cathedral on celebrating Holy Week and Easter. The students were fascinated by all he had to tell about Berkeley, and the Anglican Church in America in general - and so we were we. It was a joy to host him.
Last week the visitors were from closer to - St Paul's University in Limuru. Professor Zablon Mutongu and a librarian, Judy Syombua came to inspect us to ascertain whether we meet their standards for affiliation. The students were more subdued, probably feeling the importance of this for the future of the college. But even if we don't make it this time we will next if we have the new site in operation. We will hear in a week or two.
And on Tuesday of this week six people from Trinity College Bristol, UK will arrive to be with us for a week. They are coming to learn from us and we from them. This is especially interesting for the students because while distinguished international bishops and academics have an amazing "wow", ordinary students doing theology like them will have their own special impact. We'll report on that when they've come.
Easter here is special in its own extraordinary way. Maundy Thursday was a fascinating combination of African and European music that followed some kind of order after everybody's feet had been washed. A team of priests washed about 60 pairs of feet. Half-way through the service the power went and we finished the service in candle light which was kind of appropriate.
Easter Eve had the celebration of the new fire and the lighting of the Easter but in an unusual order. The service was advertised to begin at 6 pm. However, here no-one comes on time for evening events, and we did not expect it to begin before 6.30 pm. When we turned up there were very few there. We were early. But then one of the cathedral priests came and asked if he could Have a word with me in the vestry. There had been a slip up and no-one had been asked to preach. Could I do it?! Well, how can you say no? So I had a very short time in which to prepare to preach at one of the most significant services in the year! Most of the time was spent in rushing home for my robes. But we had done quite a bit of work on Easter in the college. I told the story of the Early Church's celebrating in an age of persecution. Stepping out into the darkness carrying the Light would not have been easy for them.
Easter Day was a huge scrum. It was survival of the fittest. When we got in the main door there wasn't a seat to be had. Tina found a ledge on a window between the atrium and the nave. However two lady sidespersons somehow "magicked" some chairs and squeezed them in in front of the atrium partition. So we sat there looking at a wall three feet away. It was a really joyous occasion nonetheless.
The picture above was taken on Easter Eve when the cathedral was not quite so full.
The picture below is of our "family" outside the cathedral on Easter Eve with our candles. Tina, Trevor, Robin and Rebecca who joined us this year. Rebecca is from West London but for some unaccountable reason supports Man U.