Aid Worker Seeks Prayer for South Sudan

H.V. Thomas, World Renew’s country representative in South Sudan, is asking Christian Reformed Church congregations to keep South Sudan, which is now facing a “brutal” civil war, in their prayers.

The war broke out between the country’s two largest tribes late last year, killing thousands, putting 4 million people in jeopardy of starvation and forcing more than 1 million to flee to surrounding countries.

“The tribes are quarreling over political power, over oil and water and land. It has been very brutal,” says Thomas. 

South Sudanese President Salva Kiir’s Dinka tribe is locked in a bitter power struggle with his former vice-president Riek Machar’s Nuer tribal people.

“South Sudan is located in a difficult sub region of Africa,” says Thomas. “This current war is about greed.”

Thomas is based in the south part of the country in Yei, a community of about 30,000 people. So far, except for an isolated instance or two, they have avoided the conflict.

In conjunction with the Canadian Foodgrains Bank, says Thomas, World Renew provides tools, training, seeds and other resources to help farmers in and around Yei to implement sustainable agricultural practices.

“We work with about 1,200 families to produce more food and stability in their lives, and to recover from conflict,” says Thomas.

Thomas points out that South Sudan, after more than 20 years of war, separated itself from Sudan in 2005. This was followed by a lengthy peace process that was capped by a vote for independence in 2011.

“It was a genuinely free and massive election, monitored by countries from around the world,” says Thomas. “After the election, South Sudan became the newest country in the world.”

Hopes ran high as South Sudan went about building a new country. But then tensions rose and the fighting, fueled by political ambitions, erupted in December, says Thomas.

Many of the people with whom he works, he says, are no strangers to war, having been uprooted from their land in the past and forced to become refugees. They hope and pray that this doesn’t happen again, he says.

“I put my trust in a peaceful solution coming from the reality that people are sick and tired of war,” he says. “Only a small number want to fight. Most people want peace. They want their kids in school. They want food, home, work.”

Helping the people of South Sudan to find the way to peace and prosperity, Thomas believes, is one of the reasons why God has brought him back time and again to serve in various capacities as a Christian aid worker in South Sudan.

He has worked for various Christian organizations, occasionally as a freelance security consultant.

“I first went to Sudan in 1982 when it was relatively at peace and I was a young man,” says Thomas, who was in West Michigan recently to attend a World Renew training session.

“I fell in love with the place from the first moment I arrived. I can see God’s hand in this and somehow felt God called me to work in South Sudan.”

Except for where he is located in a hilly area in the south near the borders with Uganda and the Democratic Republic of Congo,  South Sudan is a flat country, bisected by the Nile River into which feed many rivers, marshes and swamps.

The country is predominantly Christian — a faith that dates back many centuries. Churches fill the countryside and many have played important roles in the country’s push for peace.

Even as the civil war continues, Thomas says he remains hopeful. “I see it as my duty as a Christian to stand with these people in their difficult time of crisis,” he says. “We know that God is doing great things here.

“It was a miracle that independence came in 2011. God always uses challenging situations in amazing ways, and we could see that 20 years from now.”