Prayer Answers, Thanksgivings and Petitions

May - June 2010

Prayer Answers, Thanksgivings and Petitions

Dear Prayer Partners,

We have had a lively month. We concluded the semester last week and now we turn our attention to the new semester due to open on 14th August. Our current students will be returning for a new and third year. We also hope to have a fresh cohort to begin a first year. We will require the new site to be all ready for us and for this we will need your prayers...

Thank you,

Trevor and Tina

1. Theological Education

Give thanks for the success of the first semester of New Bishop Gwynne College. It went remarkable well without mishap.

Give thanks for the very successful visit from Trinity College Bristol,and pray for God's guidance for the future of this link. Pray for the student in Berkley Divinity School at Yale who is preparing to come and live and work in the college in September.

Pray for the right new students to come and form a new first year in August.

Give thanks that, despite some difficult moments, we always managed to pay everyone on time and pay another slice off the remaining debt. Pray that we can continue to do in the future.

When we return in August there will be an extra demand as we will have have a larger wage bill and more hungry mouths to feed. Pray that every single student will pay their full fee and come equipped with the money to get them back at the end of term.

We praise God for the extra house that has come available to us. Pray for God's guidance as we try and find the resources to restore it, or indeed demolish and rebuild if that is required. We pray we can let this house for added future income. Pray that the Bishop of Salisbury's appeal, or giving elsewhere, is sufficient to enable us to build a new house on the new site.

Pray that we can find the right new Sudanese lecturer for our our new term.

2. New Site

Give thanks that things are coming together to get onto the new site in the next few weeks.

Pray that those who seem to have moved into the building uninvited and are squatting there will be successfully moved on. Pray for the provincial and diocesan staff responsible for this will be given strength and guidance to carry through this uncomfortable task.

Pray that the buildings will be able to be renovated without too much expensive despite the terrible exterior appearance they currently have.

Give thanks for the money coming to us from the Diocese of Salisbury, the Parish of Bridport and the Anglican Communion Fund and pray that even more funds will be made available to us. The more we have, the faster we can proceed with the programme of developing the new site.

We are still hoping to hear from some people who have encouraged us to look for investment in the form of a new convention centre on the new site. This will be a huge enhancement to the area and provide income in the future. Pray that these people might find the right people to invest in us.

3. The Schools

There has been a major set back for church primary schools here in Juba because the government has redeployed many of those they paid themselves into state schools. This happened with just three weeks to go before the beginning of term without warning. The diocese found itself with many schools without head teachers and some with less than half the staff.

Pray that the necessary income can be found to employ the teachers they need, and pray that they can find teachers of the right quality.

We thank God for the letters, prayers and contributions of schools in the Diocese of Salisbury that have now found their way to all the linked schools in Juba. We rejoice in the encouragement this gives to people who educational expectations are very different. We thank God for friends.

4. The ECS

We rejoice in the continuing enthusiasm of the people for worship, the wonderful celebrations of Easter with even greater numbers than usual and the hard work of the new bishops and the new dioceses.

We pray for our archbishop who has been delayed in Adelaide following a desire by an optician for him to visit an eye hospital. We pray that that goes well and that he is soon here among us.

We pray for the diocese of Twic East and bishop elect Ezekiel whose enthronement has had to be further delayed. We pray that ECS initiative to bring peace and stability to that area will be a success.

Pray for Larry, who has just arrived from the Diocese of Virginia, to begin to help sort a way forward for the provincial office to deal with similar albatrosses to those BGC that suffered from until this year.

5. The Nation

Give thanks for the elections that, despite a number of accusations of rigging and some dissatisfaction with the result in some areas, went off remarkably peacefully. Give thanks that people through themselves into the exercise with enthusiasm.

Pray for the elected government as they now work towards the promised referendum of independence for the south due in January 2011.

End of Term!

Last week we came to the end of our first full semester. It went remarkably well with some memorable high points.
The low points were all about getting in enough money to pay wages at the end of each month, and when we did get some money, seeing it claimed by those who are still owed from the past. Yes, we had to find around 500,000 SDG (Sudanese pounds = around $200,000) to pay off the debts. We have now just 20,000 SDG to go but this is still a lot when you consider our monthly food bill for all the students seven days a week is budgeted at 3,600 SDG, and our total wage bill is restricted to 5,500 SDG. Nevertheless the albatross is getting lighter month by month.
The main high point was the arrival of the students that had left the previous year disappointed and down because the college had had to be closed. That was a hard time for them. They probably felt that the college was not going to recover despite all the talk of reopening the following year. How absolutely delighted they were to be coming back to a new Bishop Gwynne College under new management. The opening was a memorable day.
The other special days were when we received our visitors - Bishop David and Ian Woodward from Salisbury, Prof. Joseph Britton from Berkeley Divinity School at Yale and, just after Easter during the election period, a party of students and staff from Trinity College, Bristol. This perhaps was the time when the students enjoyed themselves the most - especially as we all had a bit more time as lectures were suspended for the elections as so many were away.
On one occasion, Daniela Rapisarda, a volunteer lecturer, invited us all into her home to watch a film on her TV. She also gave us food and cold drinks from her fridge which was a real treat! On the last week-end of term, she invited again us to a leaving party there. We watched another film, A Little Princes. Then after that we each did a party piece. The students threw themselves into some wonderful Christian songs in local languages with dances to go with them. Neha (a local friend of Indian descent) tried Chinese whispers, but the concept was so completely new that the message was nothing like what it started out to be! We'll have to try it again sometime. There are some pictures of this event on our picasa picture site, but here is one of the whole group.



Thanks to Dave Lewis we now feature on You Tube too. Find the link from our website on the right.
The next stage is to get onto the new site with a new first year. We need you prayers for that. Pray that the site will soon be vacated and we can get on with getting quotations to begin the renovations. We will be contacting our prayer partners within the next few days.
Our personal plans are to be in the UK in June and early July (ash clouds permitting of course). We will travelling from south to north visiting friends and churches, thanking people for their support and prayers. So watch the blog for news.