If you do not already know, Sunday January 9th the people of Southern Sudan will go to the voting booths to either vote for reunification with Northern Sudan or vote for independence. Here in New Mexico, which is a ten hour difference, it will be late Saturday night (around 11pm) for us when the southern Sudanese people make their way to the voting areas. We are asking for prayers for the people of Southern Sudan and I personally would like to see them independent of the North, whatever the outcome is, that it be peaceful and without conflict.
You see there are a band of advocates here in the States, I being one of them, that have a vested interest in Southern Sudan. That interest is the welfare of 100+ children and staff of a children's home called St. Batholomew's. They live a distance from that imaginary dividing line, but back before 1995 that wasn't the case. The spot they now call home was once the front line of a war that lasted over 20 years and cost the lives of over four million Sudanese. The reminders of that war still exist all around them in destroyed villages, hidden mines and bombs and the graves of their loved ones.
This weekend, we will gather together, small and large groups of us to pray for the safety of the Southern Sudanese people, the safety of the children and staff of St. Batholomew's and the safety of our Christian brothers and sisters. Join us in asking God, our holy creator to maintain peace in such a troubled land. Let us not see a repeat of years past.
Chappy
