BGC Prayer Partners update 28-3-2018

Dear BGC Prayer Partners

May your Easter be blessed and peaceful. May you know the deep presence of God wherever you are in the world and in your own challenges. Thank you for your continued prayers for Bishop Gwynne College.

Like the story of God in Christ, the news is bitter-sweet. There are things that hurt and things to set our hearts rejoicing; in the midst of the pain and suffering of South Sudan, there is the determination of the dedicated young men and women who seek to come to our college, despite the challenges, in order to train for a ministry proclaiming peace and the love of the living God. (John 20:21).

Yours in Christ,

Trevor Stubbs

BGC International Consultant.

Challenges.

As our principal reports:

• Food. Much of the gifts from at home and abroad is spent on obtaining sufficient food for the 90+ students currently at the college. To help with this problem, the college delayed reassembling until March instead of February this year, thus reducing the numbers of days food was needed. To compensate, the students have worked extra hard – the expectations and standards have not diminished.
• Salaries. With inflation, the value of salaries is always shrinking. The college needs to constantly increase what it pays its staff to give them enough for them to provide for their families.

Blessings.

• Water. The new bore hole is proving a resounding success. It is fitted with an automatic pump powered by solar energy that keeps the tanks on the library roof topped up at
  all times.
• Our principal. We are very well blessed with our dedicated, focused and committed principal, Samuel Galuak. A man of vision, he has recently embarked on a PhD programme (based in South Africa and the UK) that will not take him away from his post.
• Our students and former students. BGC students and Alumni are working in all parts of the country, including the refugee camps and war zones, sharing God’s love and preaching the Gospel.
• Our South Sudanese and overseas supporters. The students pay fees which they and their bishops strive to provide but they do come anywhere near covering the costs. We rejoice in the foreign gifts that come from supporters, chiefly in the UK and the US.
• The Episcopal University. In the last year the Episcopal Church of South Sudan has registered a new university of which BGC is a part. http://www.ecsssup.org/. Please pray for this infant institution.

Also:

• Our Archbishop. Please give thanks for and pray for our departing Archbishop, Daniel, and pray for his successor, Justin, who will be inducted in late April. Bishop Justin comes from Maridi but has long been the chair of BGC governors so is no stranger to the college. We rejoice in his appointment and his willingness to take on this massive challenge.

• In response to a recent foreign donation our principal writes:

Thanks so much for this wonderful news of your support to BGC. I am so grateful for what God is doing through you. It is by the grace of God that this noble college is striving hard in training the future leaders of our church in a such a hard circumstance.

The most pressing needs at the college are two basic things: first the food for students. A big portion of anything we raise both locally and oversea like your donation now goes on purchasing food. Prices are ever increasing in the market and there are times we feel exhausted but God's grace is sufficient to sustain us through. Your warm shoulder of partnership and friendship makes difference each time you step in.

At the end of April, I am intending to go to Uganda and will use that money to buy enough food items for college students and put them on the bus as we have been doing.

Secondly, salaries for college staff remain a dilemma. I shared with Canon Trevor, when I was in Keynsham, UK, to considering applying for a grant which would only go on salaries. It is a prayer of faith to God.

Please, pray with us on that aspect. It makes me feel bad seeing my dear colleagues struggling to raise their families with something that is less than $30 per a month. I believe that the good Lord will show up and bless his servants.

Blessings
Samuel Galuak.