Back in Juba

Getting behind with your blog is not one of those sins you come across specifically referred to in the Bible! But apologies to all those of you looking for news. One of the reasons for the delay is that I wanted to wait until I was back in Juba so that the news could be fresh and true. What a joy to get back here at last.

The students are happy and working well. The staff new and old are applyinng themselves with energy. The environment is slightly better. At least the water is flowing readily on the new site.

BGC is in good heart, but we still lack enough buildings. As new men and women are coming for interview and to sit the entrance exam this month we are acutely conscious of the need for more accommodation. Please pray about this. Buildings are not cheap, but thank God we have the land.

In coming back I have refused to work after evening meal. I have done so much evening work in the course of my ministry that now I rejoice in the time to use that period to reflect, write and study what I want to, basically just to have fun. Not that preparing for others and being with others cannot be fun. It often is, but clergy are under so much pressure. Deadlines, debates and constantly dealing with disgruntled folk can damage the quality of what is done – especially if it doesn't allow the Spirit to flow.

Rudyard Kipling urged us to work in the garden rather than spend out time sitting in the shade and singing 'Oh, how beautiful', but what's the point of 'doing' all the time without noticing the depths of the beauty that comes from meditating on it? We need a balance.

And it is very humbling also to find the place you worked in not only doing well but in better shape than you left it. Sometimes more can be done by leaving it to others more able than oneself, whilst continuing to offer the support and encouragement and doing little bits here and there to help. It has become clear that the most important job I can do is to keeping working on our brothers and sisters in the West to contribute and invest their funds, their prayer and their love.

New avenues of support for BGC

The following is a letter to friends of Bishop Gwynne College we sent out recently.  We are happy that the college is prospering under its new principal and is being well supported by a band of prayer partners in five continents, but we are very keen to expand the work.  So this is an appeal for new avenues of support to help the college expand and build on its recent successes.
If anyone reading this would like more information about BGC, or to get on the list for updates and information, and/or become a prayer partner then sign up at or go to our website.

We have not been able to get back to Juba personally since June last year because of family commitments, but more especially Tina's broken ankle sustained on the eve of our departure in October. We are pleased to say it is getting on fine, but Trevor will be travelling to Juba alone on 20th February.

Dear Friend,
As an international consultant for Bishop Gwynne College, Juba, I am seeking further sources of income for the college.  If you have given in the past, or are giving now, you will already know the vital role the college plays in the life of the Episcopal Church of the Sudan and the new nation of South Sudan. We have alumni from north of the new border and hope that, when the political situation permits, we can once again welcome students from the whole of Sudan.

Bishop Gwynne College provides much needed training and formation for able students from the ECS and other churches. These are all serving pastors and lay workers from many corners of South Sudan.  We are affiliated to St Paul's University, Limuru, Kenya and run their diploma course, augmenting it with courses relevant to the needs of South Sudan such as agriculture, conflict resolution, church administration and leadership etc. The course is very demanding for the students, most of whom have not had proper schooling in the past.  They are very dedicated and hard-working.  However, the college runs on a shoestring.

• The accommodation is in dormitories with little space for more than a bed. The college teaching facilities consist of two rooms, one of which also houses the library and one of which is used for eating and worship as well.

• Food is very basic indeed. In contrast to the past, we do provide three meals a day but they are not large or varied enough to satisfy most appetites. Less basic food would mean students are happier, healthier and learn better, but the current budget doesn't allow for more.

• All the students have health needs.  Although we do our best we cannot prevent repeated bouts of malaria and typhoid (as well as other debilitating but treatable illnesses many of which have contracted before the students arrive). We have to take responsibility for all the health needs of the students and staff - there is no state health scheme of course.

• None of the students have any personal income. They are frequently unpaid pastors and they and their families rely on what they can grow. While they are in college they are away from home, leaving the food production to spouses and relatives. Sometimes they have been the breadwinners for not only their own families, but parents and other relatives who cannot work themselves.

• The dioceses are technically responsible for the student fees and the cost of getting to and from the college from their homes which often constitute more than one day's travelling.  The fees are currently US$800 which does not cover the cost of maintaining the student in board, lodging and medicine, and certainly does not extend to what it costs to pay and accommodate staff, cooks, security guards etc.  We have students who come with debt.  While we work hard at trying to ensure the bishops are responsible for seeing to the needs of their students, rarely are they in a position to do so without outside help. (We frequently point out that the means for maintaining the students is there if the land and cattle are used to raise cash - but the communities are not culturally inclined to do that, yet. The next generation will probably begin to accept this, but, for the present, we are working, through our students and elsewhere, to help educate the people and invest in it. We are just beginning - we have a long way to go.)

• We have a need to provide more accommodation and teaching so that the college can expand.  This will require another dormitory and shower/toilet block, a multi-purpose chapel for worship, teaching and administration, houses for staff and other ancillary buildings. It will require funds for salaries, food and medicine.  We would also like to to continue to expand the library and provide a generator so that students can study in the evenings when the town power is down (which is more often than not, given the present political situation).

Therefore we are looking for more grants and donations for the expansion of the college.  We are enormously grateful to all our past and present supporters who have helped us get the college back in business since its suspension in 2009, but we want to build on this.  

So I would be delighted for any suggestions of people who would like to invest in the important work of our college - whether it be for students, members of staff or building projects.  If you can help in any way please contact me on
Thank you.
Yours in hope,

Revd. Canon Trevor Stubbs MA, AKC.
International consultant
(One time Interim Administrator)
Bishop Gwynne College, PO Box 110, JUBA, South Sudan

Dear Prayer Partners,

Thank you for all your continued prayers for Bishop Gwynne College and the Episcopal Church of the Sudan. We hope 2012 finds you well and happy.

Bishop Gwynne College starts up again on Monday 6th.Feb. The exams at the end the last semester seem to have gone well, but of course the reults will not be out until the end of March as they have to marked at Limuru and ratified by the senate.

The students are working well. We have a new American member of staff called Dr Ellen Hankel. Daniela Rapisarda will be giving a couple of weeks in late February. I shall be there for a month from 20th Feb. Tina will remain the UK to complete her recovery from a broken ankle. Sadly for family reasons we can no longer work permanently in South Sudan.

 

We give thanks for the tremendous work of the principal, Joseph Taban, and the staff at BGC and the commitment and hard work of the students. Please pray for the staff as they seek to provide quality education in very basic and primitive circumstances.

We are very keen to get more investment in infrastructure for BGC. We have plans for a new multi-purpose chapel. This is a big project but it will provide much needed teaching as well as worship and admin facilities for the college. We also need another student dormitory and toilet/shower block. A generator in a small generator house would be a real blessing. If you can help us with any suggestions for money raising, possible charitable trusts or other sources of funding we would be very grateful. Visitors to the college are all aware of the shortcomings in the facilities we have for the work we undertake. We lag behind the standards of the local secondary schools and have a fraction of the facilities offered by other tertiary institutions. The quality of the work is high, but the facilities are pitiful. We desperately need to address this situation.

Please pray for the continued funding of the college expansion. Pray for an increase in the support to enable the college to fulfil its crucial role in the life of the new nation, both now and in the years to come.

National Concerns
2012 has not begun well for South Sudan or Sudan. There are the continued military struggles going on in South Kordofan and Blue Nile States, as well as Darfur and the refusal of the Khartoum government to allow in any humanitarian aid. The most recent news is that they have cut the road to South Sudan from the Nuba mountains to prevent refugees crossing into the south.

There is an alarming development in the dispute over the transportation of oil from South Sudan through Sudan. No agreement has been reached in the talks on the fees to Sudan for the service. Sudan has appropriated oil. In response Government of South Sudan has shut down production entirely. Both south and north are almost entirely dependent on oil (over 90% of their budgets). This means that two of the poorest countries in the world now has no prospect of development other than what comes in through investment from elsewhere.

Please pray for the governments of both Sudan and South Sudan and international efforts to bring both countries to work for peace and mutual prosperity. Pray for the UN and African Union negotiators. Pray that the agreements made may be implemented on the ground (such as in Abyei). Please pray for the oil companies and the countries from which they come (mainly China) that they will be provide avenues for future peace and co-operation.

Tribal Conflict
In Jonglei State and elsewhere in South Sudan there are very severe tribal conflicts that are resulting in many killings and much displacement.

Please pray for the Murle and Nuer Lou communities and all the other tribes drawn into this. Pray for the determination on the part of the tribal chiefs to make traditional tribal rivalry a thing of the past. We give thanks for the enormous work of the church in this field, especially Archbishop Daniel Deng and the RC Bishop Taban. Pray for the continued efforts of the Sudan Council of Churches and the continued flow of resources for this work. Pray that Bishop Gwynne College and other church training institutions and schemes will receive the needed funds to equip people for work on the ground.

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.

Trevor writes from London

After a long absence, this blog was meant to come to you from Juba. However, we are in London. Last Monday, on the eve of our planned departure, we were blown backwards by a freak gust of wind down steps on London's Victoria Embankment. Tina fell to the bottom and fractured her ankle, collected a variety of other cuts and bruises and spent the night in hospital. There was no way we could travel. Our visit is therefore postponed to sometime yet to be fixed.

This is very frustrating as we are anxious to get to BGC to support Joseph and his team in the current semester. But it is just another time when we need patience. This is something we have had to learn many times over in the last three years.

We have also learned the importance of prayer. We are very grateful for those who are praying for us at this time. Tina is making the progress expected of her, and we appreciate all that people are doing for us. But we would ask that the main focus of prayer be for the college staff and students.

Principal Joseph Taban is under enormous pressure. He is quite capable of doing the job, but from experience we know that it is not an easy one. It means long hours in uncomfortable conditions with very basic facilities. We believe the water situation is a bit better than last semester. But in Juba this depends on fuel for power. We are told, owing to the shortage of fuel that traditionally came up the Nile from Khartoum and no longer does, the city has had no electricity for several weeks now. When it is a struggle to pay wages and buy food and water for the staff and students, teaching and learning become very hard.

Nevertheless, it is gratifying to note that all the first year second semester exams sat in June were passed. These are marked in Limuru, Kenya, so they have to be of a higher standard. We congratulate those young men. We pray for the new students in the first year.

As South Sudan gets established, conditions must improve, but it is not going to happen overnight.

The conflicts in the North all along the border are getting no better. Although the Khartoum government is denying it, report after report of civilians being attacked by Antanovs from the air and other atrocities keep coming out. No humanitarian aid is being allowed into South Kordofan or Blue Nile. People are displaced and starving and have access to little or no medical care. Reporting is not allowed either. Sadly this last is very effective because little is getting on the TV around the world. Please keep praying, and should occasion permit, give generously to relief aid.

Prayers and Thanksgivings

Dear Prayer Partners

Thank you all again for your wonderful prayers for everything that has been happening, and the things we want to happen in these historic times. Since my last prayer request the Sudan has divided into two parts with a new independent South Sudan. This has been a time of exhilaration for some and dread for others, depending on which part of the Sudan (south or north) you find yourself or your family and friends in. The ECS is in both of course.

Tina and I were in London for 9th July and went to some celebrations there. The mood was summed up by one lady who arrived draped in the new South Sudan flag ready to celebrate, and then promptly burst into tears as she clutched a framed photo of the son she lost in the war. The speeches all spoke of the suffering that they will never forget. There was genuine joy that South Sudan is now free of the oppression that has beset them for centuries, and especially since 1956 when the nation of Sudan became independent. You can see our photos and videos here: http://www.picasweb.google.com/nbgc.juba . Let us not forget that the civil war was not so much about independence for the south as freedom from oppression – an oppression that continues in the north.

There is still the disputed territory of Abyei to resolve which the Sudan Armed Forces took by force in May, and from which many Dinka people have been forced to flee. Sadly for them, their homeland contains oil.

In the north, the agony has been multiplied in the last two months. The people of South Kordofan have suffered a military campaign in which civilians have been targeted. Churches and mosques, schools and hospitals, offices and houses have been burned and property destroyed. Church personnel have been arrested and presumably executed, along with community leaders and people of influence suspected of sympathizing with the northern branch of the Sudan People's Liberation Movement (SPLMN). This includes people belonging to Arab tribes as well as Nubans. There is a huge refugee problem as people have fled the area. The government have refused to allow in humanitarian aid and UN personnel have been prevented from doing anything either. It is reported that the UN have also suffered casualties and have been deliberately isolated and badly treated.

In Khartoum, those regarded as originally from the south have all been dismissed from government paid employment with no other source of income. Moving to the south has become logistically very difficult and expensive. For those who make it to South Sudan there are few jobs for them in the towns. Many have never lived in country villages and, even if welcomed there, would not know how to look after themselves in rural environment.

BGC does not reconvene until the end of August but this week they have been hosting the ECS Theological Education Commission. Special Entrance Exams have taken place for those invited to resit for the Limuru Diploma course. We are expecting 18 students in the new first year.

Security is an issue as violent crime increases in Juba. The neighbouring Juba Diocesan Model Secondary School remains in our prayers following their break-in.

My visit to the USA has been a success. I was extremely well received everywhere I went, meeting people who genuinely care for the Sudan and its churches. The timing of my arrival immediately before southern independence was apposite. In just over three weeks I spoke, preached and met people in five States (North Carolina, Virginia, Connecticut, Rhode Island and Michigan), two cities (Washington DC and New York) and three theological colleges and universities (Virginia Theological Seminary, Berkeley Divinity School, Yale, and Duke University, Durham, North Carolina). I was impressed with the real interest the people I met had in what was happening in the Sudan and their keen desire to help the work of the ECS and BGC in particular. These people are frequently not understood by their neighbours because they live in a world where concern for other people, especially overseas, is often discouraged. We should be aware that it can cost our friends as much in terms of social rejection as financial giving. We thank you for all this, and pray for you as you pray for us.

 At American Friends of the ECS (AFRECS) conference. 

Left to right: Me, Prof Ellen Davis (Duke University, NC); Rick Houghton (who organised my tour); and Prof Stephen Cook (Virginia Theological Seminary)

Thank you for keeping Tina and I in your prayers.

Trevor

The Politics

Give thanks for Independence Day on 9^th July for South Sudan. Please pray for the new nation of the Republic of South Sudan, its institutions and civil structures.

Pray for those involved in the border negotiations, especially those concerned with Abyei taking place in Addis Ababa.

Pray for the Khartoum government. Pray for those who can make a difference in South Kordofan and Dafur. Please pray for the people who are bereaved and displaced and those living in abject poverty, deprived of any income, with nowhere to go and no-one to look after them. Pray that humanitarian aid will be allowed in. Pray for the UN and its people on the ground as they struggle to survive and operate.

The ECS, Christian Churches, and those of any religion who seek God's peace and presence.

We give thanks for the resilience of the Church in the most testing circumstances. We rejoice in the unbelievable courage that they have shown through persecution, displacement, deprivation and isolation. May they know the compassion of God and somehow know just how much support there is for them from around the world even if people can't get in to help.

Please pray for the five ECS northern dioceses, El Obeid (includes Dafur), Kadugli (South Kordofan), Khartoum, Wed Medani (Blue Nile), and Port Sudan.

Please pray for the Archbishop, Daniel Deng Bul and the provincial office staff.

Please also pray for the many Muslims who are also suffering in the north, and give thanks that both Christians and Muslims play a full part in the Republic of South Sudan.

Give thanks that staff from different theological colleges have come together for mutual support and encouragement. Pray for all the ECS colleges and teachers and the Theological Education by Extension programme.

Bishop Gwynne College

We give thanks for those who re-sat the Special Entrance Exam by invitation on 16^th July. We pray for them as they await the results. We pray for all 18 of the students preparing to begin a new first year in August. We continue to pray for those who will now form the second year that they will all be able to return happily to the college to continue their studies.

We pray for Joseph Taban in his new role as principal with all the work that is before him as he prepares the college for opening in August. We pray for those who will be involved in teaching in the next semester, especially new members of staff currently being recruited by Joseph.

We continue to pray for the financial situation where the budget is very tight and doesn't allow for much flexibility.

We thank God for my successful tour of America, and pray that the growing friendship, prayer and financial contributions will enable growth and development of the college. We thank God for those who are looking at the possibility of future contributions to the college as we put together formal application forms for consideration by various committees. We pray for our friends in the West, who give us their hearts in true friendship.

Independence for South Sudan - 9th July 2011

What a privilege to be around at the birth of a new nation! South Sudan became the world's 193^rd independent country on 9^th July 2011 – six months after the referendum in which a 95% turnout voted almost 99% in favour of independence.

Sadly we were not able to be there in person, but we celebrated with the diaspora in London NW6. It was a moving occasion at which we were made very welcome. It began with prayers led by Mark, an ECS pastor who works in London, and the meeting was addressed by a representative of the Government of South Sudan's mission in London.

Trevor has spent most of the past month spreading the good news of BGC in the USA. The welcome was fantastic. The Episcopal Church has some very gracious, generous, kind and compassionate people. Although you don't get much information on the ordinary US news about Sudan, many of those Trevor met were pretty well informed and were anxious to hear more. States visited were Rhode Island, Connecticut, New York, Virginia, North Carolina, Michigan as well as the District of Columbia. This included visits to Virginia Theological Seminary, Berkeley Divinity School at Yale and Duke University, Durham. The students and staff at BGC need not feel on their own but understood and on the hearts of so many.

Tina managed to get to see our old friends in Bridport from where two people were ordained priest on 2^nd July – Ann Ayling and Margaret Preuss-Higham. It is good to see the Bridport Team going from strength to strength. The local newspaper, The Bridport News, also had a substantial article on the Sudan based on our call for prayer.

Yesterday we had a phone call from Simon Lual, a lecturer at the college. He seemed upbeat about things. This is good news. It is amazing how quickly you can feel cut off from the action! And things move so fast in Juba.

Our hearts now go out to the people in the north. Things are very bad indeed for the people of South Kordofan (the Nuba Mountains). Those associated with the southern states that are now part of South Sudan, have been told they have to obtain visas to remain and work in the north. Most of these are in Khartoum and have been there many years. The churches there are going to find it especially hard, but it is by no means only the Christians that are suffering. Please pray for all the Sudanese people wherever they are, in the new independent South Sudan, in the north or in the diaspora across the world cut off from their relatives and friends back home.