South Sudan Survey Trip

A team from Bethlehem left this week for a survey trip to Sudan. Below is a letter that was written about their trip by one of the members of the team.

"South Sudan is the newest country in the world. Spending forty out of the last fifty years consumed in a terrible civil war. More than 2.5 million people were killed, and twice that many were forced to flee.

One of the victims of this conflict, one of the “Lost Boys” of Sudan, is a young man named David. After fleeing his home town of Nasir in the Upper Nile state in 1988 at the age of 16, David walked across Sudan and Ethiopia to find a physical refuge in Kenya. Later, having already found a spiritual refuge in Jesus Christ, he would make his way to the United States, then Minnesota and then a home church at Bethlehem Baptist in Minneapolis.

David has a heart filled with a longing to return and do what he might to bless the home he fled over 20 years ago. He began sharing his heart with folks at Bethlehem and found some kindred spirits. A team has been formed to go and see how or when or in what way we might partner with these South Sudanese brothers.

So we are a team made up of a businessman, a logistics expert with experience in Sudan, an MK from Africa with a heart to return and labor there, a radio guy and a doc from HCJB, and one Lost Boy returning home.

There are no shortcuts to Nasir and it will be a long trip taking us through Minnesota, Amsterdam, Addis Ababa Ethiopia, an internal flight to Gambela near the border with South Sudan, then by truck to the border and a river boat on to Nasir. Nasir was a town reportedly of 200,000 at one time but abandoned during the war and now has no electricity. It is completely unreachable by road in the rainy season because it is situated on the Sobat river, a tributary of the White Nile.

We leave Wednesday the 5th of October and return the 21st of October, hoping to get a glimpse in those short two-plus weeks of how God might lead us to participate in a God glorifying future for South Sudan. Please be praying that we keep our eyes wide open and our ears and hearts tuned to whatever God wants to show us on this trip and how it might turn into a partnership between HCJB, Bethlehem and Nasir South Sudan.

Again, please be praying for this trip and for the next steps following the trip. Thank you!"

Luke