Prayer Alert
Two years ago, the Mission to Children stepped in at the request of partnering ministries to help approximately 170 youngsters in South Sudan who had suddenly and violently lost their parents in a surprise attack on their village by a neighboring tribe. Many of those children witnessed their parents and other family members shot or hacked to death. It was a vicious, needless, hateful, evil scene. The attack and atrocities left those innocent kids traumatized and homeless.
Mission to Children came alongside those children and the adults who shepherded them, helping to provide critically-needed emergency relief and temporary shelter. Later, we helped relocate them to a safer and more permanent home in Bor Town. When I was with them a year ago, they were slowly but surely recovering from the anguish and loss they had experienced.
This week it happened to them again. On Sunday, 16 December, an attempted coup erupted in South Sudan. It is a complex political/military/tribal situation. Approximately 500 have died to date. Despite public statements to the contrary, the private truth is that security is still not good. The US and UK embassies have removed many personnel and discourage the presence of any US or UK citizens. Thousands of South Sudanese have taken refuge at the UN facility in Juba—but have no food, shelter, or water.
Our key South Sudanese partner escaped with his laptop and a few clothes from his home near the area of greatest conflict. His house was later looted and anything of any value was taken. “The situation is horrible here,” he reports. Yet, he and other church leaders risk their lives by calling publicly for calm and dialogue.
He and others in charge of “our” 170 children evacuated them to the UN compound in Bor Town. There, too, no food, shelter, or water is yet available.
Will you please pray for South Sudan, its church, the church’s leaders—and those 170 children? God’s family often gets stronger and larger during times of tribulation. Yet, the pain and anguish of such times is awful. Our hearts cry out again to God on behalf of these orphans who are forced to endure another round of trauma, uncertainty, and disruption. The good news in this bad news is that many of those children now have placed their faith in Jesus Christ. They know He is Immanuel—God with us.
As God leads us to understand better how to help in practical ways, we will tell you so you can participate if you wish. Meanwhile, fervent prayer is our most powerful weapon against Satan’s evil and for God’s goodness.
Skip Garmo, President
