A SUDANESE SEND-OFF
(Bert Ebben from Juja-Kalimoni, Kenya, 1 July 2010)
“Trust God, trust
yourself and trust your own ability to respond to the needs
of our people back home in Southern Sudan. God created each
one of us, God designed each one of us, equipping us with
skills desperately needed to rebuild our broken country.
Now let us go to use our training to create and design our
own future by serving our brothers and sisters who have
suffered far too long. We must be messengers of hope, not
only to Sudanese but to all Africans and to all peoples
everywhere.”
With these
encouraging words John Duot Duong yesterday rallied his 29
peers who had just completed two and a half years of
intensive training as carpenters, welders, plumbers,
electricians, masons and agriculturists. These young men,
refugees from Southern Sudan, many of whom fought as
enforced child-soldiers in a 30-year bloody civil/religious
war, crossed the border this morning to return to their
homeland to join their 175 trained brothers who preceded
them over the past seven years. Each carried a blanket and
5,000 Kenyan shillings ($62.50), eager to prepare for a free
and independent nation. In their long-awaited referendum in
January it is hoped that the predominantly Black
Christian/animist South will be able to separate peacefully
from an oppressive Arab /Muslim North under the regime of
Omar Hassan al-Bashir, who, despite having been indicted two
years ago by the International Criminal Court (ICC) in the
Hague for crimes against humanity, still wields presidential
power over the country.
In a simple but
impressive send-off ceremony, these enthusiastic young men
expressed appreciation for the years of support during
their primary education as refugee children and later, as
young adults, through vocational training. Sister Luise
Radlmeier, O.P. (“Mother of Southern Sudan”), with whom I’ve
been graced to collaborate over the past seven years,
exhorted them to work for the development of their homeland
as “servants of the people, even as Jesus came not to be
served but to serve “. I must admit that I was moved to
tears as I blessed these courageous young men, imploring
God for a new outpouring of the Spirit upon them as they
embarked on their perilous journey ahead.
