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.

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.

Daily Life of Children

One of our link schools is investigating the daily life of children in south Sudan. We thought this information might be of general interest.
As in Britain children come from different backgrounds and different homes. A lot will still live in tukuls (small round thatched hut with mud walls), or houses a little bigger with more than one room, but built on the same lines. Life is mostly lived out of doors. People even bring their beds outside when it is especially hot. Young children will probably not have individual beds but share with siblings. People are being encouraged to sleep under mosquito nets but by no means all children do, and children under five are especially susceptible to malaria. Three is a small family - five or six is more common. A single child is very rare.
A lot would not have any electricity in their homes. They would use oil lamps and candles. A few would have more sophisticated homes with fridges and TV, but the majority of people in this income bracket send their children to school in Kenya and Uganda where they can buy a better education.
Many children don't go to school at all. Either because their family can't afford the fees, or because their parents have not gone to school themselves and don't value education. A big problem in the outlying areas is trying persuade parents that education is a good thing - especially for girls. Children of six or seven, or even younger, regularly take care of younger siblings and help with household jobs. Girls help with preparing food and cooking. Both boys and girls help to carry water. In Juba they would not have far to go for a communal pump, but in country areas they may have a longer walk. In country areas boys would also gather wood for fires, but this isn't possible in the town where they mostly cook using charcoal burners.
The flattened dusty earth around the outside of a house is normally swept daily to prevent vegetation that would harbour insects. Children help with this. You also see children sweeping the school grounds in the morning before school starts.
There are hardly any toys. Children play with old bicycle tires and sticks (as in the Victorian pictures of children with hoops). They tie string to cardboard boxes and pull them around as 'cars'. They do have footballs, but if they don't they have substitutes like a tightly rolled ball of cloth or a tin can. At lot follow English football teams. They have all heard of Man Utd, Arsenal, Liverpool or Chelsea and a football shirt is a prize possession. I have seen children skipping with a long rope in the playground. They make up their own chasing and hide and seek games much as children do anywhere.
Most people keep very clean despite the lack of facilities. They would bath in a bowl of cold water (of course this is not as cold as cold water in England, especially if it comes from a tank that has been standing in the sun). Washing of clothes is done outside and hung on any available fence to dry. Most children are well turned out and keep themselves remarkably clean despite the dust.
Very few homes would have books. (Most primary schools don't have books!). Mobile phones and radios are common. You can live in a tukul with no facilities but have a mobile phone. Not many primary school children would have their own though.
Children walk around and roam the streets in a way that would not be considered safe in England. "Health and Safety" is pretty much non existent.
Most children seem to enjoy singing. A lot of children attend Sunday School, where learning songs to perform in the church in front of the adults is a major activity. They do rhythmic dances to these songs.
There is not much entertainment. Children on the whole seem to be much more patient and do not expect to be entertained. It amazes me how quietly toddlers sit through a two hour service. It is quite disturbing really. They are used to not being stimulated. On the whole children appear happy. They laugh and smile a lot.
Incidentally there are no prams or buggies. Babies are carried on the mothers' backs tied by shawls.
Food in the Juba area consists of a lot of carbohydrate - cassava, sorghum, maize, sweet potato and rice. They keep goats and chickens so on special occasions there is meat to eat or milk to drink. They also grow green vegetables but these do not form a substantial part of the diet. Fruit is available and can be grown locally but it is not eaten very much. Traditionally food is eaten with the fingers and mostly still is, although cutlery is appearing in the better off families. To eat from a communal dish is also quite common.
Sweets are available but expensive and a rare treat. Chocolate is impractical because of the heat and I have never seen a packet of crisps here. Ask your children if they can imagine life without without chocolate of crisps!

March 2010

Prayer Answers, Thanksgivings and Petitions

There has been so much happening in the last two month's. Although we haven't sent a formal prayer letter, we have contacted you on various developments and we know you have not given up praying!

NBGC now has its own webpage. See the link on the right.

So we hope there is plenty to keep you going for your prayers.

Trevor and Tina

1. The Staff and Students

Praise God for the long awaited re-opening of the college. We have all but two of the 15 students who were here at the suspension of the college in February 2009. One of these will join us in August. At present he is very busy - he has been made a bishop! (All our students, of course, are already ordained).

Praise God for the four new students that have come to learn English full time.

Praise God for their enthusiasm and hard work. The industry and application of the people of this country when given an opportunity and sense of direction never ceases to amaze.

Praise God for the wonderful way the teachers have quickly settled in.

Please pray for all the students and staff as they grow and learn and meet the challenges of studying Scripture and tradition at some depth.

Pray for Robin Denney as she prepares to return to Juba on 11th March. Among her jobs is teaching agriculture at the college.

Pray for the bishops of the ECS as they discover new students for the new year. We are looking for at least 25 and we need you to "pray them in!". The applicants needs to be a certain level to ensure we can continue to aim for a high standard. The criteria are on the college website.

2. College Development

Pray for the forth-coming inspection from representatives of St Paul's, Limuru (23rd to 26th March) to ascertain whether or not we have reached the standards necessary for affiliation. We are praying that we will be able to begin offering Limuru Diplomas in August 2010 so that the new students will be on a path that can take them on to a degree and beyond.

3. The New Site

Give thanks for the support we have been awarded by the Anglican Communion Fund and the Appeal of the Bishop of Salisbury that began on Ash Wednesday. This has brought the development of the new site much closer. Pray for the success of the appeal, not just in terms of money but love and prayer.

Pray that those who are occupying the site as a lessee, on a short-term basis or informally may quickly find new places for their enterprises so that development can begin without causing too much difficulty for them. Pray for those being asked to tender for the work and design new buildings, the legal department of the ECS, and all the other professionals involved.

Pray for Anglican International Development who are working an idea for future development for supporting NBGC as well as other economic development through micro-finance in Juba and beyond.

4. Our Visitors

Pray for those planning visitors to our college this term. My they travel safely and without difficulty. Remember Bishop David and his party from Salisbury, Professor Joseph Britton from Berkeley College (Yale, USA), and Prof. Eeva John and students from Trinity College (Bristol, UK).

5. The ECS

We give thanks for the newly appointed bishops in Nzara and Wau and we pray for those dioceses as they continue the task of witnessing and caring for their communities.

We pray for the Diocese of Twic East and Bishop Ezekiel Diing as they face problems of local conflict. May the Church bring a real desire for peace in that vast area on the borders of Ethiopia.

We give thanks for the safe arrival of Rebecca Coleman to work as the Archbishop's International Coordinator in place of Nic Ramsden who is now working for the government of South Sudan. Pray that she settles into the job well.

6. The Nation

We praise God for the enthusiasm for the first elections in 26 years. We give thanks a real desire for democracy in the south of the country. We pray for those standing for election both locally and nationally. May there be a good turn out in April in polling week. We pray that the whole process - before, during and after - may pass peacefully.

New Bishop Gwynne College Up and Running

The college is open and running.
We had a grand opening service on Sunday afternoon last that was attended by no less than four bishops, the provincial secretary and other distinguished guests. We have managed to upload pictures on the Picasa NBGC website. See the links on the right. It is very difficult to upload pictures to this blog because of the restricted bandwidth we have here.
The wonderful tall man in the purple is our new lecturer Simon Lual Bang. His wife Martha has a matching dress that you can see in one of the photos. Simon's subjects are Old Testament and Sudan Church History.
The lady with the long black hair is Daniela Rapisarda. She is a volunteer lecturer in NT and Systematic Theology. Although she an Italian she is married to the Norwegian Political Consul here. Daniela was born into one of the rare Italian Protestant families in Sicily.
The lady with the short white hair (Tina!) is showing off the newly arranged library. Here she is teaching the students the library system. English teaching is taking up most of her day.
The man with increasingly less hair (Trevor!) as well as being technically "in charge" teaches Homiletics (Sermons) and Anglicanism - the subjects "what got left over". This, however, leaves enough time to get sorted out on the new site, which is at the "meeting standing on site" stage. Since the temperature is pushing 40C these days (we are in the height of the dry season and even the Africans are wilting in the sun) so our meetings are not going to be long! (The upside to the extra hot weather is that the mosquitoes have almost vanished - nowhere to breed, or died of heat-stroke!).
Today we are struggling with our electricity and water in our house. After a power surge two days ago the sockets in the kitchen and sitting room don't work - but the bath tap is live! The electrician is coming tomorrow. The whole place should have been rewired twenty years ago, but then TIA (this is Africa).
Thanks everyone for your prayers. They are working.

Preparing for Reopening

We are going through exciting times at New Bishop Gwynne College!
On 30th January the college is due to re-open. Lots of last minute construction and cleaning is happening. We still don't have the septic tank completed. This is taking a long time - it is about two and a half times as deep as the average man - all dug by hand! A phenomenal feat. When it is finished a water tank for fresh water will be erected to ensure a continual supply. The town electricity is due to be reinstated any day. This should make a difference given that town power is now much more consistent than it has been.
Tina is now shelving the books in the catalogued order but this is a never ending task. She is missing her kind volunteer from Save the Children whose husband has now been relocated to Addis Abba.
The returning students are due to arrive a week on Saturday, together with two who are starting an English course that Tina is running. Please pray for them and Simon Lual Bang (Old Testament and African Church History), Daniela Rapisarda (New Testament and Systematic Theology), Robin Denney (Agriculture), Trevor (Homiletics and Anglicanism) and Tina (English). Other subjects we will share as they come up.

We are delighted to report that the Archbishop of Canterbury has a awarded us £10,000 towards the first phase of the development of the new site. Together with the money in the Good Books Fund this will get us going. (Although the whole first phase will require £66,000!) We are also pleased to hear that things are afoot in the Diocese of Salisbury to support us - we will report more as we are able. So we are approaching the development of the new site with a confidence we did not have at the beginning of the year.

The three phases are currently planned as:
PHASE 1. Fencing and clearing, repairs to existing buildings, the introduction of water and the installation of toilets estimated to cost around £66,000. (This will make the site usable in combination with present college building).
PHASE 2. A multipurpose chapel, additional dormitories, and two staff houses - £160,000
PHASE 3. A three story block to house teaching suites, a separate library and two more staff houses - £137,000
However, now we are getting the finances sorted locally, we can certainly report that it would be unlikely, unless conditions change very radically (always a possibility here of course!), that the college will never have to seek running costs from overseas. All the giving from overseas will go into developing and expanding the college and ensuring a growing investment base.