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  Blackmore Vale Link with Lui Diocese, Southern Sudan:Second Visit 2 Nov - 13 Dec 2010

 Rev Shirley Smith, Jeannie Stevens and Anne Powell

 Our Mission

Our visit took place as part of a joint group of 8 people from Missouri Diocese, USA, Lund Diocese, Sweden and Blackmore Vale Deanery and our group included people with skills and experience in ministry, education, healthcare, building, economics and administration.  We spent 9 days in Lui; the remainder of the time being taken up with travel.  Our hosts, the staff of Lui Diocese had asked us to conduct ‘Conferences’, ie workshops, for various groups of ministers and leaders and to undertake computer training with Diocesan Staff.

Lui Diocese and Town 

Please ask for a copy of last year’s visit report if you wish to read an overview of the Diocese and Town of Lui.  Last year’s group, however, reported that there was no secondary school in Lui. There is, in fact a secondary school that takes girl day pupils and boarders and boy day pupils.

Youth Leaders’ Conference

Rev Emily Bloemker from Missouri and Shirley worked with the Youth Pastors to explore ways in which young people could contribute to the life of the church. The Parishes are isolated and it was an opportunity for the Youth Pastors to share their experiences and learn from each other.  They shared their joys in teaching young people to care for others.  One example being the care of bereaved families by young people fetching water for them and collecting firewood.  Literacy was a problem because they were unable to read the bible.  The Pastors saw their task as equipping and teaching young people to live the Christian life and they themselves were hungry for knowledge.  There are many young people who were orphaned by the war now growing into adulthood.  We explored with them short, medium and long term aims in their ministry.  One objective was to teach that being a Christian involved living a radically new life.  It involved values such as respect for people and for themselves by not abusing alcohol and not smoking.  Most of them had large numbers of young people who they found difficult to control at times.  On a positive note some spoke of the joy of worship and singing together.  Fluctuating numbers for special events were challenging for them and we shared that we experienced the same challenges.  In most parishes the young people met for bible study on Saturday afternoon.  Some made handicrafts or dug gardens to raise money for the church.  There is a decline in church attendance between the ages of 18-30 because some go to Juba looking for work and some are married with two wives. We set the Youth Pastors the task of putting together a programme of teaching on a subject of their choice and divided them into three groups.  We then listened to their presentations.  They chose to teach on HIV/ Aids which is almost a taboo subject in Lui Diocese.  Rick, one of our American colleague,s and Göran and Marie, the two Swedish missioners, joined us at this stage pretending to be the young people and ask difficult questions.  Shirley was the so-called ‘Health Care Professional!’ sitting in to evaluate the knowledge.  The Youth Pastors gave excellent teaching linking it with the old life and the new.  For example: In tribal communities a man is esteemed if he has more than one wife and tribal marks are made with a knife from person to person spreading the virus in the process. Christianity really is counter cultural in Southern Sudan.  (SAS)

 Sunday School Leaders’ Conference

Rev Noel Night Morroson is a priest in charge of many parishes but he is also the Sunday School Co-ordinator for the whole diocese. Six other Sunday School Leaders joined us for the Sunday School Teachers’ Conference and they were keen for knowledge to disseminate to the young people who actually taught the children in Sunday School.  Their concerns were that they had great numbers of children, and it was difficult to control them, especially small children who had a short concentration span; the outside attractions, eg football, and the fact that there was no planned curriculum.  Over two days we worked on practical activities, using only the resources available to them – rubbish, grass, sand, stones etc, and breaking activities into small time sections to keep the children’s attention.  We suggested that action songs and acting of bible stories would move the children about and reduce the sitting time.

Noel is faced with the task of planning the curriculum for the whole of the Diocese’s Sunday Schools and was overwhelmed by this.  I suggested that he should use and adapt one already planned, and I will endeavour to get one to him.  The distance between the Archdeaconries are great and Noel only has a bicycle.  I consider that a motorcycle is an essential for any person who is charge of the whole Sunday School system in Lui. (JS)

Pastors’ Conference

Shirley and Anne, with Rev Emily Bloemker from Missouri, led a 2-day workshop for 14 pastors, interpreted by one of the few pastors who has education outside Sudan.  The participants ranged from an Archdeacon through experienced clergy to deacons who had been ordained only a few weeks.  In a society that respects elders, we had to work hard to draw contributions from the deacons and to try to convince them that as mature men they had other life experience to contribute to the discussions.  The focus of the workshop was ‘How can a parish become self-sustaining?’  We asked the participants to express their aspirations for their parishes and their main difficulties.  Recurring themes were how to raise money to further church plans, particularly church building; and the immense difficulties of travelling.  For example, five of those present had walked between 20 and 35 miles (one way) to attend the workshop, whilst the Diocese is trying for to supervise and co-ordinate activity in seven archdeaconries over an area of approx 2400 sq miles.  We asked the pastors to outline their parish organisation and support structures.  They have a model almost identical to our own and can call on members of a church council to help them, but are hampered by the low level of literacy and skills amongst their congregations, for example many parish treasurers are not literate, but merely count and keep such money as there is.  We left simple accounts templates for the Diocese to distribute.  The pastors themselves are all unpaid.  We asked each pastor to develop a brief plan for a fund-raising venture and then explored these with the whole group so that everyone could learn from one another.  Ideas ranged through cutting roofing grass and selling it by the road; planting ½ or 1 feddan (approx acre) of teak or lemon trees; establishing a photographic studio; to simply finding a western partner who will donate money. The photo studio project was particularly interesting and well-founded.  Those whose parishes are not close to the only main road are at a great disadvantage as they cannot transport their produce to sell.  (AP)

Mothers’ Union Conference

The Mothers’ Union is a uniformed organization in Lui, and all the women who are influential in the church belong. 

The first half of our conference was a review of the ‘chicken project’. This was a venture funded by Missouri to breed chickens in the Western way, which failed because the chickens did not thrive without very expensive feed which had to be transported from Juba.  The chicken building has since been transformed into a sort of guest house and it was here that pastors were housed while attending our conferences.  Following on from this investment, Debra Morris Smith outlined the possibility of micro-investment and explained that money was available for this.  The women discussed this among themselves overnight but came to the conclusion that with their very heavy personal workloads (the women do all the work in Southern Sudan) they would prefer to have a table-sized grinder for the workshop at the Cathedral to make their everyday life easier and free them up to work for the church.  Money should be available for this from Missouri in the New Year.

On the following day the discussion turned to marriage customs in England and America and the Sudan, when Debra and I were asked if our husbands had paid bride price for us.  It caused great hilarity when we explained that we chose which men we married and certainly wouldn’t marry any man who wouldn’t agree to discuss family planning and work balance.  This gave rise to discussion on HIV/AIDS.  The women know how HIV is spread but they find it impossible to control their men.  If the men go away to work or to war and then come back their wives do not know who they have slept with.  Birth control is very scarce (condoms are £1 Sudanese each in the market), and the idea that they could make their husbands use them, again sent them into peals of laughter.   Babies are born in the bush, in the compound assisted by grandmothers unless something is very wrong and then they come to the hospital.  If they come to the hospital they are tested for HIV but if they are found to be positive they can be ostracized; they are treated like lepers used to be.  Mothers from the bush can have 1,2 or 3 babies who dies of AIDS.  Then the husband takes another wife and so it continues to spread.  Hannah the midwife at the hospital was an inspiration to us all.  She is a quiet, graceful woman who serves her God, her community and her family without seeking any recognition, although she is highly qualified. She is a younger leader of the Mothers’ Union. (JS)

Computer Training

The computer training that had been planned was limited because the Diocese’s new internet link, recently installed by Episcopal Church of Sudan, was not functioning properly.  Anne was able to give some useful training in Excel, Word, Photo Editor and Email to various members of the Diocesan Staff, but would have liked to do more one-to-one or small group training.  She handed over some basic computer instructions that she had prepared.  (AP)

Education - Lunjini Primary School, previously Lunjini Girls Academy

The Headteacher is Rev Eboul Pilari Fraser and the age range 5 – 13 years.  The School has 500 children and 7 teachers (the children say that they have 10, but I only saw 7).  They have some classrooms – I saw 5 which were useful, which are built of wattle and daub walls and tin roofs. It is too hot by 11am so they are taken outside and taught under trees.  The older children have chairs and the oldest have desks, and they must tolerate the heat in their classrooms. 

All children are taught in large groups by a teacher with a blackboard at the front. They are taught in Moru and English as English is the official language of Southern Sudan.   They have very few resources and do no practical work at all, but the standard is high and great value is placed on education, by all classes of people.  They have a garden where they grow mangos, hibiscus, sugar and cassava to sell to buy things for the school. 

Some children walk 5 Km to school, starting out early in the morning. All pay fees and all wear uniform but some children who are really poor and have no uniform or payment do get taught, but on the edge of classes.  Some children come to school with no food or water. The school has limited water, a ‘jerry can’ type container in the Headteacher’s office, and individual children come and ask for a drink. There is no means of feeding the children so by midday they are very hungry and some of them just walk home.  Three schoolchildren died last year: two from malaria and one with breathing difficulties.  Nodding sickness is a problem.  It is limited to the Moru people in Moruland and its cause is not known.  It involves the affected child or adult nodding as in a trance and they can fall into the fire.  Epileptic fits are not common but when they do occur, the people are frightened and treat the sufferer with suspicion.

Before the war, 21 years long, there were qualified teachers, but since the war there is no teacher training.  Qualified graduates in theology, like the Headteacher, are brought in and there are some older people qualified before the war.  They would like to start nursery schools and year 1 & 2 classes in the villages and I suggested that pupil teachers, trained within the town school, could be an answer to the immediate problem, maybe followed by formal training when possible.  Teachers are paid in two ways. Those paid by the state are on a rising scale, depending on experience and effectiveness. They start at £200 Sudanese per month and can rise to £700.  Those funded by the church are paid £280 Sudanese and this does not change.

The children are very polite.  They stand when an adult enters the room and usually sing songs to welcome a stranger. 

The Headteacher was very aware of the political situation and they are expecting returnees from the North of Sudan before and after the referendum.  He is proposing to use the partly-built chapel as classrooms, but he would like partitions. They will do their best to fulfil the needs of all the children who come into their care.  (JS)

Healthcare

We visited the hospital soon after we arrived.  There are no trained nurses on the children’s wards because there is no money to pay their salaries.  On average there are 35 children admitted daily, mainly with malaria and dysentery.  Many die.  There are cleaners who are called ‘ night watchmen’, and relatives attend their loved ones .  As a trained nurse it was a difficult experience.  We also made two visits to the midwifery department. Hannah the senior midwife was inspiring.  Conditions for me were indescribable.  Most mothers have their babies at home assisted by family women and traditional birth attendants.  I think one would have to live in Lui a long time before one was allowed into that family experience.  Women only go to the hospital for delay in labour and for many any intervention is too late.  We were allowed into the delivery room where a young woman had given birth to her first baby which was stillborn.  The death of a baby or a child here is such a common experience it is hard for us to understand how what is almost the norm in one culture is a tragedy in ours.  The visit which stands out is the time we had with Dr Fabio and his wife Katya.  Dr Fabio works for ‘Doctors with Africa’.  He has a good understanding of the culture and spoke to us with enormous Italian gestures and an even larger sense of humour.  He is working on a structure to help the hospital function.  The first step is to pay regular salaries to the staff.  Pastor Peter Knight is the administrator of Lui hospital and there is a Board who are working to develop some kind of administration and budget. Dr Fabio spoke of the need for an ambulance (Land Cruiser), a driver and fuel, salaries for the workers, drugs, light and water.  There is a need for health education in the villages to prevent the diseases resulting from the lack of hygiene and sanitation.  He felt clinics were needed in the remote areas rather than expecting people to walk in to the hospital from miles away.  Dr Fabio and Katya were bright lights in a very dark place.  (SAS)

 Worship

On Sunday our group divided to attend four churches and each of the ordained members preached – Rev Marie Körner at two services at Fraser Cathedral with Anne in attendance; Rev Emily Bloemker at Lui Parish Church; Rev Shirley Smith at Lanyi Parish together with Rick Kuhn; and Rev Göran Rossman at Doro Parish together with Jeannie.  This provided an invaluable opportunity to visit two villages and meet the congregations of small parishes.

The current Situation in Sudan

On 9^th January 2011 a referendum will take place to determine whether Southern Sudan will become an independent nation. The Southern Sudanese consider themselves to have been consistently mistreated by the North over centuries, and have been very concerned by the Northern Islamic government’s moves towards Sharia law,  They fully expect that there will be an overwhelming vote for independence.   If the Northern government does not accept this, the South will secede.  The Northern government has issued threats to deprive the large numbers of Southern Sudanese living in the North of their employment and property and as a result the South is expecting a huge influx of displaced people returning to their tribal homelands and their relatives.  Lui Diocese clearly feels a strong obligation to support these people and is preparing plans to use its very limited resources to provide housing, food and education.  It was very touching for us to hear people who live with so little planning to provide charity to others in need.  We were also moved by the warm thanks we received for coming to visit at a time when most westerners have stopped because they consider it dangerous. 

Bishop Bullen Dolli

At the time of our visit Bishop Bullen was ill and recovering from surgery. We visited him at the hospital and prayed with him.  He asked to be remembered to everyone he knows in Salisbury Diocese.  Very sadly, since that time, Bishop Bullen’s condition deteriorated and he died in early December.

Recommendations for the Blackmore Vale Deanery

Short-term

•    Support projects to provide transport

•    Motorbike for Sunday School Co-ordinator (approx £1100 for TVS, £2900 for more powerful, robust Honda)

•    Bicycles for Pastors and church workers     (approx £100)

•    Be willing to divert money raised to support Diocese’s welfare provision in the event of displaced people moving from north to south post referendum

•    Identify participants for future missions ? May 2011, Nov 2011

•    Disseminate information about the link – arrange talks to parishes in Deanery

Long Term

•    Look at possibility of hosting one or more people from Lui and/or Missouri Dioceses