Attack in the Sudan

At 4 am on New Year’s Eve one of the SIM bases in Southern Sudan was attacked by a neighboring tribal group. The mission base was burned, and although it appears the attack was aimed at the mission, all the missionaries escaped with their lives but lost all their possessions. Two of them sustained burns and are now being treated in the Kijabe Hospital in Kenya. The six missionaries and five children on the base are from Nigeria and Ethiopia and have been serving in Southern Sudan for a number of years. We praise the Lord that they are now all safe in Nairobi.

Pray for them as they recover from the trauma and the loss of their belongings.

Below is the account of what happened. If you would like to see some pictures of the village after the burning feel free to check out the link.
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Good morning, Kenya time.

That there is trouble in South Sudan won’t be a surprise to you. But when that trouble hits close to home, when friends and co-workers are attacked, the reality of it is sobering.

One of the villages along the Nile where SIM has a base, a place known as Atar, was attacked in an inter-tribal conflict on New Year’s Eve. Half the village was burned, including the local Sudan Interior Church and Presbyterian church buildings, and SIM’s base was decimated. The three missionary families - two
from Ethiopia and one from Nigeria - escaped in the dark of night with minor burns when their thatched-roof houses were torched. The Lord protected them from a hail of bullets. They lost all their possessions.

They have been evacuated to Nairobi and are receiving care. Please pray for them. They are six adults and five sweet little children, and as you can imagine are very shaken by the experience. Please pray for the Sudanese villagers as well. More than 150 houses were burned to the ground, and some families lost loved ones. Please pray for the attackers, too.

As one of our teammates wrote: “This is a reminder of the realities of tribal unrest in South Sudan – let’s lift them up to our Father and pray for peace and reconciliation in Christ.”

Also pray for ____, who is spending long hours with the families in her member care role. She needs special wisdom dealing with each unique family, each child, each situation.

We’ll attach some pictures of the base, taken at the time our fellow missionary pilots from AIM Air flew to Atar to evacuate the missionaries.

You will be wondering about Doro, which is about 150 miles away from Atar. Our team of nurses including are there, along with two other families and two small children. They’ve had very peaceful, enjoyable Christmas and New Year’s celebrations with the Mabaan community, and we’re thankful that the sort of conflict which has plagued the countryside along the Nile River has not come to our area. Thanks for praying from them as they fly to Nairobi tomorrow for our annual conference gathering. _____ and I will host the Doro health team at Kijabe next Tuesday for a day of fun, reminiscing, and looking ahead to plans for 2010. Thank you! Love to you from all of us

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