PRESENT SITUATION IN SOUTHERN SUDAN

LENGTH OF WAR
The civil war had been ongoing since 1955 with only a period of 10 years from 1972 to 1982 when South Sudan had a regional autonomy from the Muslim and Arab Northern Sudan. The most recent war broke out again in 1983 and has continued until January of 2005.

IMPORTANT PEACE AGREEMENT The Peace Agreement was just signed January 9, 2005. They had been operating under a 2 year cease fire. The Darfur conflict that you hear about on the news is another war in another region of Sudan and is Arab Moslem against Black Moslem. This is not covered by the treaty, however it is hoped with the addition of the Sudan Peoples Liberation Movement (SPLM) to the Government of Sudan (GOS) this will provide a pattern and push for another similar agreement though fighting and distress remains fierce. The peace agreement calls for a coalition government for six years with semi-autonomy for the South and then a referendum to determine if the South wants its own nation.

DEATH OF SPLA FOUNDER, DR. JOHN GARANG
Sadly Dr. Garang was killed recently in a helicopter crash after just having been inaugurated as First Vice President of Sudan through the peace agreement. Salva Kiir, a close-aid and long time general in the SPLA/M has been installed in his place. Dr. John was a visionary who inspired hope in his people and is sorely missed. There were episodes of unrest in Khartoum and Juba upon announcement of his death. Now the country is remaining calm, the movement of refugees and development work has been somewhat on hold to see if the peace agreement will continue.

REFUGEES There are approximately 600,000 southern Sudanese in neighboring countries ready to go home plus a million internal refugees in camps that will resettle. There is no infrastructure; roads, schools, local governments, and business to handle this influx is currently nonexistent. The returning refugees offer a great opportunity for the Gospel but will face difficult conditions in this transition back home. The return will most likely start in earnest after the rainy season. There is little help to greet these returning victims and they will be very vulnerable until they have built their homes and harvested their first crops.

CAUSES OF WAR Sudan is the largest land mass country in Africa with a diverse population. There is mistrust between the Arab northerners and the black African people of the south because of cultural and religious differences. The British colonial government failed to take into consideration tribal boundaries when they drew up national borders. Oil wealth was discovered but not shared proportionally. All Southern leaders were dismissed leaving them with no voice. Finally the dismantling of the Addis Ababa Agreement, which had given the South some regional government and the imposition of Islamic laws over the entire country, were major causes for the situation of civil war.

PERSECUTION
There has been open persecution of the Christian church. The south fought for freedom of religion. There are untold stories of Christians being burned alive in their churches, and of imprisonments, torture and harassment. In the Nuba Mountains there are accounts of Christians being crucified for not renouncing their faith in Christ. Major groups watching the Sudan report many human rights violations each year.

MASSIVE DISPLACEMENTS
The GOS forces routinely used displacement as a weapon of war. Entire population areas were kept on the move so that village life could not continue. This disrupted farming prevented families from being self-supporting. Displacement also disrupts civil functions, education, healthcare, the care of the elderly and entrepreneurial activity. As many as 4 million southern Sudanese are said to be displaced either internally or internationally as refugees.

FAMINE AND FLOODS
There have been a series of national disasters such as floods and droughts leading to famine. Because of the war no infrastructure is in place to deal with disasters. The displaced feel the brunt of these things more than others. There are many areas affected by flood, famine and warfare because of deliberate polices of the GOS forces.

FEAR AND INSECURITY
The people of the south continue to fear for their safety after the death of their legendary leader, Dr. John Garang. All parties to the peace and foreign powers such as the US are doing much to assure the people the peace will continue and aid will come. There is a roving paramilitary gang called the LRA (Lord’s Resistance Army) that has terrorized northern Uganda and southern Sudan for several years, purportedly with the help of the Government of Sudan. Now all sides are tired of this scourge and are chasing them out. We cannot forget to encourage the embattled believers of southern Sudan who have been through so much!

CHRISTIAN EDUCATION DEVELOPMENT
The SPLM leaders are calling for ‘peace through development’. The training of teachers and opening of schools is a prime concern. In the recent past a whole generation of young southern Sudanese has been lost to illiteracy due to the war and the resultant closure of schools. In the area Safe Harbor missions work, Friends In the West opened a primary teachers’ training college. It is the first and only such school in the South in the last 20 years! The SPLM and village leaders are calling for Christian teachers and Christian schools like those the missionaries first started many years ago before the war years.

RETURN TO VILLAGE LIFE
The communities of southern Sudan are being resettled by villagers returning to their home areas... Schools are starting and churches are being built up again. These villages are very open to the Gospel and offer a wonderful opportunity to rebuild village life around the Church. Also life in displacement camps has caused several tribes to be much more open to the Gospel. For instance in a Dinka Camp of 17,000 people in Mangalatore, the Church of Sudan has over 2000 people and they’ve recently opened 2 new churches of 500 each. Previously very few Dinkas had been reached. They are now eager to go back to their home region of Bor and evangelize.

OPENNESS OF SPLA/SPLM LEADERSHIP TO THE CHURCH
There are many true Christian believers among the army, their SPLM leaders and the South Sudanese. Excellent contacts have already been forged to further ministry efforts with leaders in the South. The opportunity is wide open. Many areas have seen no Western ministries (only aid workers) since 1986! We must not forget them.

NATION BUILDING OPPORTUNITIES Though there has been a degree of danger because of the war, there is also a golden opportunity for the Foursquare church to make friends with those building a nation. This is the time to move ahead in evangelism, church planting, and developing the country’s future leaders. Someone will recognize this opportunity and come in to take advantage of it. Many have been scared off by the war but there are vast areas of the country that are safe to do the work now. Those willing to make pioneering efforts now will reap the benefits of their courage in the future. For the past 10 years we have been encouraging those who were left behind and suffering as radical Islam ravaged their land. Foursquare now has a reputation for caring for the people in their troubles and will have many open doors for ministry because of the last number of years.

RELIEF There is little commerce and no funds available to villagers; it is a subsistence economy. Local markets are beginning to open but there has been nothing to buy in the South and at this stage the southerners are quite dependent on relief aid. Education is a great need along with health care and agricultural development.

OUTPOURING OF THE HOLY SPIRIT Because of the suffering and grief brought on by prolonged years of war, their spiritual hunger seems great and we are seeing a multiplying of churches and believers springing up in the newly repopulated villages. The local Christians are calling the meetings we have presented as “The Awakening”. They are saying that they now do not feel ‘forgotten’ and have a renewed desire for ministry and are excited to go “with the Spirit”. These include Pentecostal, Church of Sudan (Episcopal), and Catholic ministers!

OPEN CALL Help build a new nation! Everywhere we go in the Sudan we here the call to keep coming and bring more people with you. Many people in the West cringe when they hear about a war-but now that the peace has come and more areas are being reopened there is great potential. There is the potential to influence the country’s top leaders, the youth, and the children of this newly emerging nation. We must remember them in their adversity, visit them, and encourage their faith! Now we have the opportunity to travel throughout the South and help rebuild and reestablish the church!


SUDAN PROJECT
November 2005-October 2006
The project will impact a crucial area in southern Sudan with 14 villages and primary schools for one year starting November 2005. It combines the efforts of our full time field representative and Safe Harbor teams. This includes short term saturation events, i.e. leadership conferences in conjunction with community evangelistic outreaches, literature distribution, Jesus Film showings, Children’s evangelism, trauma care, and medical care. These will be followed by new convert foundational training events and Children’s ministry training events. We will plant a Foursquare church, and establish a ministry institute in the strategic village of Liwolo, home of the south’s only primary school Teachers Training College, two secondary schools and a cooperating local NGO. Based on past experiences we expect a minimum of 2,300 immediate salvations, and impacting 650 potential student leaders. We will explore repeating this effort in Juba. This will at least triple our impact.

PROJECT LEADER
Louise Short is Missions Pastor at Safe Harbor and has worked fulltime in management for the African Children’s Choir, an NGO helping children crisis in Africa for 18 years. For 10 years she was the East Africa field coordinator, and liaison between the ACC and its partner African NGOs. Because of her passion for the opportunity in Sudan, she now focuses her efforts fully on Sudan. She and her husband Gary have been leading teams to Sudan since 1998. Safe Harbor supports a full time field person in south Sudan, Mark Warkentin, the first licensed US Foursquare minister in Sudan. Louise’s experience has given her wisdom in working in the African cultures, in long term ministry to war traumatized children, in the needs of the persecuted, in relief and development, and in church planting.

FOLLOW UP AND DISCIPLESHIP

Our follow up and discipleship is founded on encouraging and training experienced and emerging leaders. This is an expansion of work that has been ongoing since 1998. We will plant a Foursquare church in a strategic village where there is a teachers Training college two secondary schools and an effective local NGO. In this same location we will establish a Ministry Institute to train students from these schools as well as local leaders. We will expand our reading program for leaders that will strengthen them in the basics of Christian belief and leadership. We will conduct a series of Leadership conferences with teams made up of international, regional and local and emerging leaders. Our field representative will train local emerging leaders to follow up on new converts with a Foundations course which we have already developed. He will also Train church leaders to minister to children. Through this whole process we will be mentoring emerging leaders.

LEADERSHIP DEVELOPMENT Emerging leaders are already involved in our Sudan ministry. Our training is based on the “teach it, demonstrate it, do it together, observe it, turn it over” model. Our field representative Mark will use this method in training emerging leaders to develop children’s workers in all the local churches in the County. We always include emerging leaders on our conference teams. We have been including young adults from Uganda who have grown up through the African Children’s Choir program on international teams, training them to minister cross-culturally and in evangelistic outreaches in Sudan. The emerging Sudanese leaders will also have the opportunity to be involved in the Ministry Institute and be on the church planting team.

OUR PROJECT BEST PRACTICES
We partner with NGOs with complimentary missions sharing resources and personnel. We include US and African emerging leaders on our teams to help develop cultural sensitivity early in the evangelism process in new areas. We preach the gospel along with meeting felt community needs. We also pray with every willing individual and group with whom we come in contact. We invite western pastors on teams to instill vision and support for future development in Sudan. We offer discipleship booklets to pastors and leaders to disseminate to the larger community as well as new believers. Our teams concentrate on going to the same places and working with the same people for several years. We coordinate the work of our teams with that of our field representatives. We combine leadership conferences with community evangelistic meetings. Our teams multi-task doing leaders conferences, evangelistic outreach, medical relief and children’s ministry on the same teams maximizing community impact.

If you would like more information or to support the Sudan project send your gift to Safe Harbor Foursquare, 2415 37th St., Anacortes, WA 98221. 360-293-8044.