Further updates for BGC Prayer Partners

Dear Prayer Partners,

Thank you for your prayers which continue to bear fruit for BGC.

• The college remains among the poorest among colleges of tertiary education in Africa. But we have come a long long way from 2008 and the trend is still upwards despite all the problems in South Sudan. We give thanks for all of this.

• Give thanks for the arrival of computers for the students at the college. The first we have had since the college re-opened in 2010. Pray that we can now get connected in some way. Internet connectivity is important but very expensive.
  

• All went well for the final exams which finished earlier this month. All the students have now gone home - or at least to wherever they can find to be. We await the results which will not be published until the end of September. The graduation for those who have completed there three year diploma will be on 25th October 2014. Some of these students began in a foundation year in 2010 and have been at BGC four years. We give thanks for their commitment though tough times and their generous sponsors.

• The Principal, Samuel, has just had a two week holiday with his wife in Uganda and is now back at the college overseeing ...

• The completion of the library and foundation works to hold back the variable river that is constantly breaking down the bank. 
  
  
  
  
  
  
  

• The neighbouring hotel has given a substantial sum which has been allocated to building a guest house for visiting lecturers and college supporters. Here is Samuel's email:

Dear Canon Trevor,

Greetings to you once again in Christ's name. I hope this email finds you well with Tina and your mother.

We are also doing well.

By God's grace, I came back from Uganda through Kenya as I mentioned it to you in my last email.

School is closed [for the recess] and we still have final touches on the library work but we are done with more basic stuffs. As you can see on the photos attached; the shelves are already in their places including the counter at the library reception. The white stripe you can see from the bases of shelves are aluminum fixed there to protect them from the water or moisture. You will see the details of these when you come to us. All these works including the labour has cost us $9,300. We thank God to find such skillful carpenter who did this great job.

Secondly, the river behind us has been causing us trouble for a couple of years now. There has been an erosion and that has taken off almost two metres from our land. In consultation with our chairman of BGC council, we released 54, 000 SSP ($11,134) from guest house project to make gabion or dyke to protect our land from this fast moving erosion. The work is still underway but I took these photos for you at least to have an idea of what we are doing here. We are going to anchor metal fence on the dyke to keep strangers off from the college.

Third, I have asked John Jal, one of the students who finished this semester to help our librarian. The purpose of this is that, I did not want him to go back to UNMISS' harsh living.

Thanks so much and God's blessings

Rev. Samuel G. Marial, BA, MAR, STM.
Principal,
Bishop Gwynne College

• The next event scheduled for the college is a short course for the training of pastors in peace and reconciliation work. Please pray for this.
  

• New applicants are due to sit the entrance exam in the middle to July. Your are prayers needed. May they be able to travel, do well and then get the money to come.

Thank you all so much for your prayers,
Trevor

Prayer Partners Update

Dear BGC Prayer Partners

There are a number of things in addition to the huge challenges to South Sudan that you could pray for at this moment. Thank you for all you do. Your prayers are keeping BGC working and effect amid much chaos.

Students

• We give thanks for the students sitting their exams. We pray for them as they try to return home.
• Sadly Juba is not safe for people of the Nuer tribe and some of the other tribes from Jonglei. Most of them have retreated to safe havens and that includes our staff and students. I have just learned that Wal Geng (a very industrious and enterprising student) is now in Kakuma camp in Kenya. I am sure he will be working there with Bishop Moses to minister to the people of all tribes.

Staff

• Simon Lual is also a Nuer. I can report that he is completing his studies safely in Nairobi. He has the opportunity of a second year at Africa Inernational University if anyone can come up with $5000 for him.
• Pray for our principal Samuel as he has a two week holiday with his wife in Uganda.

Associates

Please pray for:

• Bishop Justin Badi of Maridi our chairman of governors. Bishop Justin hopes to study for an MA in September.
• Revd. Moses Kose (Juba Diocesan Secretary) who was very instrumental in getting BGC back up and running in 2009 and 2010. Moses is currently in South Africa studying as a guest of the Archbishop of Cape Town. He has asked for our prayers as he takes his exams 16^th-20^th June. Sadly he has no money to go home to see his family before he recommences his studies in September.

Blessings to you all,

Trevor

BGC Prayer Partners Update

Dear BGC Prayer Partners

Nothing stands still in South Sudan. There are daily developments on the political scene, yet the college continues on as we approach the end of the semester and the academic year.

The presiding bishop of The Episcopal Church (in the USA, etc.) has issued a special call for prayer to which we can all heed wherever we are in the world. http://publicaffairs.cmail3.com/t/ViewEmail/r/06957364C8DF2BAA2540EF23F30FEDED/6DB46F76DA8470C884E5AAD5A6C37FC6

Thank you all for your devoted service.

Blessings,

Trevor

The Politics and Hostilities

• Please pray for the leaders of the nation and those who have power. We give thanks for the signing of a treaty to cease hostilities and to set up an interim government (attached). There is much to resolve in the detail. Please pray that this will hold on the ground.
• We pray for the people of South Kordofan – in particular the patients and staff of the RC mission hospital there has been bombed by the SAF.

The Church

• We give thanks that the Sudan Council of Churches – especially Archbishop Daniel and his Roman Catholic colleague – are working effectively in the peace process.
• We pray for the bishops and the their diocese throughout South Sudan – especially those in Malakal, Renk, Twic East and Bor.

The College

• We pray for God's blessing on the students as they come up to their exams. Some to their finals.
• We give thanks for the ten new computers recently delivered to the new library and the equipping of that library with the shelving and furniture required for a final transfer.
• We pray for the prospect of a short course in reconciliation studies during the vacation.
• We pray for the process of new applicants for the new semester in September.

Dear Prayer Partners,

Many, many thanks for your continued prayer over the past few months. You have served us well during a difficult period. I now right with much positive news an several fronts.

We give thanks for the successful BGC Board of Governors meeting at the beginning of this month which has worked to address the well-being and future needs of the college.

First they have appointed Samuel Galuak as the Principal of the college. He has been working as acting principal since January and now, with the sad parting of Joseph Taban, after due consideration it has been decided to appoint him as the college principal. Samuel has shown excellent qualities that will forward the vision that he shared with Joseph since September 2011. His experience, combined with his academic ability, make him the ideal candidate for the post. We praise God that we have found such a person for BGC when suitable people are so hard to find in South Sudan.

Secondly, the governors have appointed Revd. John Malesh as Academic Dean. John has MAs in two subjects and has been a visiting lecturer at the college since he returned to Juba in 2011. Before that he was the ECS liaison officer in Kampala where many of us expatriates first met him. John has also worked with Joseph and shared the BGC planning.

Thirdly, after 18 months of searching for the right person for the post of Administrative Secretary, the Board have appointed Mrs Esparanza Emil, Joseph Taban's widow. She is eminently qualified having the right kind of skills and a lot of experience in teaching in a primary school. She is also intimately connected to BGC of course.

Offering Esparanza this post also solves the problem of her future. She can continue in the college accommodation and it gives her a reasonable income to buy food and medicine and sufficient to pay the school fees of her three children at present.

These appointments means that Samuel has the support of two new full-time people in the college to add to the very experienced Benjamin Disi as logistic officer.

Eight new students have succeeded in passing the Special Entrance Exam and are ready to begin at the end of this month. Sadly a lot more failed than passed – we were hoping for a bigger intake this year. But the standard of English required is high and it is difficult for students in the remoter centres to get the tuition and practice in English they need.

The national government reshuffle last month seems to have gone off without any trouble. Although it took some people by surprise (especially the scale of it) it has met with fairly broad approval in the country. There is amicability on all sides and all have agreed that the President acted within his constitutional powers. The army in South Sudan, unlike Egypt and elsewhere, appears to keep well out of these kind of politics. The general impression is that South Sudan, despite its being such a young republic, is so far proving to be remarkably democratic despite its history of tribal differences. The churches and Christian message so widely heard in South Sudan is definitely impacting on the mood of the country.

Thank you.

Trevor

The College

1. Staff. Give thanks for the appointment of Samuel Galuak as the new principal and the new full-time appointments among the college staff. Pray for them all including those who continue in full-time positions as logistic officer Benjamin, and his assistant Boniface, librarian Abraham, our cleaner Esther, our cooks Dina, Margaret and Mackeline, and our site management and security staff Lako, Wani, Moses and Frazer. We pray for Simon as he prepares himself to do a one year full-time course in Nairobi at Africa International University.

2. Students. Thank God for eight new students who are to begin their first year at the end of August. Pray for those who were not successful in the SEE exam this time round and pray that they may find it possible to obtain the level of English required and can apply again.

We give thanks for a successful short-term course for potential female ordinands and ask God's blessing those the Archbishop has in mind to study at the college in the future.

We give thanks for those who have completed their three years and return to the college for their graduation in October. We pray for them as they sort out their immediate and longer term futures.

3. We thank God for our Board of Governors under the leadership of chairman Bishop Justin Badi, and we pray for the College Council which meets to help the principal implement the policy of the Board.

4. We thank God for the new two-storey library building erected by the local developers to replace the former dormitory now too close to the enormous hotel under whose shadow the college now finds itself.

The Nation

We praise God for calm and industry at the political level of South Sudan. We pray for the new ministers and their departments. We pray for the continued flow of oil.

We pray for the army and those who lead it.

We continue to pray for an early settlement of the Abyei question.

We earnestly pray for the people of Blue Nile, the Nuba Mountains and Darfur who still suffer so heavily in the Republic of Sudan. May God bless the UN and AU peacekeepers deployed in both countries.

We pray also for Christians who live in Khartoum, Port Sudan and the cities of Sudan.

BGC Prayer Partners

At BGC and in South Sudan we are very grateful indeed for your continued prayers. Despite the many sadnesses associated with South Sudan, we still have much to give thanks for.

Monday, 9^th July 2012 is the first anniversary of the independence of South Sudan.  We pray for the government and people of this new country specially on this day. 
If you are in the area, you would be most welcome to come to our new house in the UK for a BBQ meal and celebration.  We live at 15, Cleeve Grove, Keynsham, Bristol, BS31 2HF. (Keynsham is on the A4 half way between Bristol and Bath.  Ring us on +44 117 986 9664 for more details.)

May God continue to bless you as he has us.

Trevor Stubbs,  BGC International Consultant

The College

Our Students.

We have been enormously blessed by a group of able, well motivated and hard-working students at BGC coming from tribes across South Sudan.

We give thanks to God for their dedication and devotion to his work.

We pray for them as they now enjoy home leave with their families in their home parishes, dioceses and villages.

We pray that they will be able to use their time to plant and tend crops and find other ways to help provide for their families.

We pray for their health. With malaria and typhoid a frequent and debilitating occurrence, as well as other things that beset people living in basic conditions, we pray that they will be able to get the right medicines at an affordable price.

We give thanks for organisations that are working with the ECS to provide health care in all corners of the country. We pray that the transport, weather and political conditions will all come together to facilitate greater potential for good health.

We pray for those new students preparing to join a new first year in August.

Our Staff.

We give thanks for a good first year under our principal Joseph Taban, and we pray for him and his family as they seek teaching staff to cover the curriculum from August. This is especially challenging this year as we shall have students in all three years of the diploma course.

Please pray that the right staff can be found.

College Finances.

We praise God for the many people in Britain, America and Australia who have responded to the challenge of supporting BGC in different ways.

We thank God for those who have contributed to the 500*500 Appeal for the development of the college, those who have been raising money for a generator, those who have given towards the cost of employing staff, and those who have sponsored individual students.

We thank God that local income has kept up and that there has been such an increase in local giving. We pray that this will be sustained in the coming year.

We pray for a continued international interest in the college.

Sudan and South Sudan

North- South Conflict.

We rejoice that the temperature of the tensions and border encounters between Sudan and South Sudan have cooled and that full-scale war has been averted.

We thank God that both sides are now talking with each other again, and we pray that these Addis Ababa negotiations on the border demarcation, oil production and other areas of dispute will bear fruit.

Abyei

The Sudan Armed Forces have withdrawn from most of Abyei and the area is now policed by Ethiopians under the auspices of the UN. Many people have returned to both the countryside and Abyei Town.

We give thanks that people can return to their homes and now we pray that they can begin food production with the help of the UN and other agencies. In the meantime we pray that they can get the food and other aid they need to live stable healthy lives.

We pray that the children can soon start school again.

Nuba Mountains, Blue Nile and Darfur.

The people in these regions of Sudan are in open rebellion to the Khartoum with many of them displaced to South Sudan, Ethiopia and elsewhere.

Please pray for the refugees in the refugee camps as well as those who remain in the areas of dispute.

We ask God's blessing on the churches and the NGOs working to bring them immediate relief.

Uprisings in Khartoum

In the city of Khartoum the government crack-down has been severe, but despite this the deteriorating economic situation has made life very difficult for ordinary people and many have taken to the streets in open protest of the Al-Bashir regime. This is resulting in multiple arrests and torture but the discontent is increasing.

Please pray that the ordinary people in the city, as well as the black and Christian minorities, will not suffer any more than they already do.

Economy of South Sudan

It has recently emerged that there has been a large amount of embezzlement of government funds by ministers and officials of the Republic of South Sudan. The size of the alleged thefts is more surprising than that it exists. The President has appealed to those involved to return the billions of dollars they have and no more will be said, but he has not moved to dismiss anyone. This is an indication of the delicate balance that has to be struck between powerful tribal influences, and just how fragile the South Sudanese inter-tribal coalition is.

Meanwhile the lack of oil revenue has meant that many government workers are not getting paid at all. Schools and even Juba University have closed for lack funding.

Please pray that those who have the power to act will seek to reduce the corruption.

Please pray that the people of all tribes in South Sudan will move to re-establish the self-giving Christian values that have succeeded in bringing genuine unity between different peoples.

Pray for all those suffering for the austerity measures, especially those who are no longer able to feed and care for their families in the towns and the city of South Sudan.

We give thanks for the continued foreign investment, but we pray that the wealth it generates will not all be exported abroad.

The ECS

Archbishop Daniel and the ECS as a whole is in the fore-front of negotiating peace to those inside South Sudan who have engaged in tribal conflict. They are also channelling relief supplies and facilitating many improvements on the ground.

We give thanks for the improved situation in Jonglei and ask God's blessing on the efforts being made to prevent the region from once again descending into conflict.

We thank God for the wonderful witness of hope and love that comes from much of the leadership of the ECS and other churches.

We pray for the bishops and clergy who work hard and often sacrificially for their individual dioceses and communities.

Prayers and Thanksgivings

Dear Prayer Partners,

As we are currently in the UK, I am passing on to you the prayer requests as they have come to us. For those who know us, Tina is making a good recovery, but a broken ankle does not mend in a fortnight. She is currently on two sticks inside the house with the next visit to the hospital planned for 19th December.

The situation in the Sudan and South Sudan is not good. There are many new instances of horrors being committed against unarmed people, including the very old and the very young. And, in the north, humanitarian aid is not being permitted to reach the very many refugees. In South Sudan planes (from the Sudan) have recently bombed a refugee camp in Upper Nile causing the UN and other NGOs to withdraw. Negotiations over Abyei continue, but although agreements have been reached in negotiations in Addis Ababa, the SAF have not withdrawn on the ground, and arrangements have been broken almost as soon as they have been agreed to. For those who are interested, I give links to a report from an Amnesty International director and an Al Jazeera report from the bombed refugee camp below.

The economic situation has deteriorated because of the conflicts, most noticeably in the north where the failure to come to a settlement on the amount South Sudan should pay the north for conveying the oil to the port, has meant that they have lost around three quarters of their national income.

New initiatives have been taken to address the problem of the LRA with the decision by the USA to send advisory and support soldiers into the region.

The bitter violent quarrels in Jonglei State have not abated it seems, and the ECS is very concerned to do what it can to heal all tribal differences in the country.

Trevor Stubbs

Bishop Gwynne College

Please pray for the staff and especially the principal, Joseph Taban as we near the end of this semester.

Pray for those preparing to teach in the next semester, including Dr Ellen Hanckel from the USA.

Pray also for the five students who sat the Special Entrance Exam at the beginning of November and who are now awaiting the results.

Pray for all the students as they prepare to sit the first semester exams. Pray that the second year may be encouraged by their past experiences and prepare themselves properly. Pray the the first year will learn from the example of those who have gone before.

The Episcopal Church of the Sudan

We give thanks that a successful synod involving all 31 diocese in the province took place successfully in Juba over the past few weeks. We thank God that it was attended by representatives of the government, the UN and international community as well as the Anglican Communion.

We pray that the resolutions they have passed and the people they have elected to office will serve the church well as we move forward surrounded by so many obstacles.

We pray for a renewed vision and energy amount the bishops and church leaders across the province, and the necessary resources will follow them as the step out in faith to do God's work.

The Politics

We pray for the leaders of both Sudan and South Sudan and all those engaged in the process of reconciliation and peace. We pray for those who oppose the leadership - especially those willing to use force, that all the actions they take will be for the good of all the peoples irrespective of tribe or religion.

We pray for those in government who are seeking to improve the access to health care and education as well as security for the two nations.

We pray that a speedy resolution to the impasse on the division of the oil revenues will be reached so that more resources will flow for the prosperity of everyone.

The Refugees and Beleaguered

We pray especially for those who are suffering directly from the violence and conflict. Pray for those who are injured and sick, particularly for those who cannot access the right medical care. We pray for mothers giving birth to children in the bush or in camps where little care is possible.

Please pray for old people and children separated from their families.

Pray for those seeking to bring aid to the people, not only the UN and Aid Agencies, but the churches and mosques served by the local people.