Thanksgivings and Prayers Requests

A very happy Easter to you all! Holy Week has taken an inordinately long to time to come this year but it has at last arrived. Wednesday in Holy Week, was a day of prayer and fasting in the college. We followed the theme of the proclamation of repentance and forgiveness (Luke 24:44) and used the biblical Stations of the Cross, beginning at Gethsemane, from the C of E Common Worship material. This led into the Eucharist (Eucharistic Prayer H) and the renewal of our commitment to ministry (taken from Maundy Thursday). The students spend the triduum itself in parishes around Juba. Some will be at Juba cathedral where the college is helping introduce a bit of liturgy.

We are grateful for your prayers. Please keep up the good work. Zephaniah (the owner) has moved four of the twelve containers from the site. Please keep up the prayers that he may remove the eight that remain!

A very happy Easter,

Trevor and Tina

Students

We give thanks for the results of the first semester exams for the first year which have turned out better than any of us dared hope. Out of twelve students who sat the exam taking five subjects each (a total of 60 exams) only 3 papers were failed. This is not a bad result for the firsts attempt.

We give thanks that 33 people sat a Special Entrance Exam in March, a very difficult exam set by St Paul's Limuru in English, General and Bible Knowledge. The results of this exam will be announced after Easter but we are confident that we will have a new first year with competent students at a starting level higher than this year.

This semester's exams will soon be upon us. We pray for all the students as they prepare for them.

Staff

We give thanks for the appointment of Joseph Taban as the new Principal of the college. He will take over officially at the end of the semester on 4^th June. His position was officially ratified by the new chairman of governors, the Bishop of Maridi, Justin Badi. They are both very competent and experienced. Please keep them and their families very much in your prayers.

Please pray for Joseph as he puts together a set of people for staffing the college in August.

Development.

The second staff house remains half built as we await the grant from the Anglican Communion Fund. Pray that the money may soon arrive and that we can finish the house for Simon Lual.

We are also anxious to be able to get the roadside development under way. For this we need those who are using it to leave as agreed. Please pray for the developer as he comes onto the site and those who are slow to move. Pray for the removal of the last 8 containers.

We pray that we can find the money to erect a fence around the rest of the site to give us proper security. Some of this depends on the roadside development.

Finance

Please pray that those who still have rents to pay will come up with the money quickly to ensure we have enough money for the month of May.

We give thanks that we have got this far and made a relatively little go such a long way.

Pray for us as we draft new policies on financial management for the coming years. We have to hone the policies for fees, salaries. medical care, housing and so forth.

University Feasibility Study

We praise God that after some difficulties and delays, two experienced academics from the UK, Dr vision of a university to be set up by the ECS. This study will enable us to get a bit nearer to realising the vision. We pray for God's continued guidance for these two ladies as they put together their report. We also give thanks for the realism so many of our bishops and others have to this and other questions about the future. The challenges are enormous. We thank God for the willingness and courage of brave and sacrificial people to tackle it, and we pray for them and their families.

Rapid Change

We thank God that so much is changing so fast in the development of South Sudan for the better. But a building site is a difficult and dangerous place to live in, physically, mentally, psychologically and spiritually. Pray for us as we encounter daily changes, some expected but most not, some planned, and some unwelcome (like the imported crime from neighbouring countries). Pray for the hospitals and the doctors severely stretched. Pray for our schools, many with insufficient staff and buildings, furniture or equipment. Pray for our pastors mostly unpaid and barely trained. Pray for our politicians, army, and police as they gain experience on the job with minimal training in a country in which new rules are having to be formulated as we go along. Pray for those who poverty means they no access to basic services. Pray for expats who come to help – some (especially through the churches) receiving no financial support. Thank God for the patience and understanding of their families elsewhere in the world.

Thank God that in the midst of all this, things are as good as they are and that things are much, much better than they were.

Independence for South Sudan

We give thanks for the opportunities that will come to the south following independence scheduled for 9^th July. We pray that all we be peaceful at that time.

We pray for the northern provinces of the Sudan continuing without the south and the government in Khartoum.

We pray for the people from the south who still live in the north. We give thanks and pray for the work of the churches in the way they continue to support the Christians there, despite so many people moving south.

Pray for peace.