A letter from Ingrid Reneau in South Sudan
June 2012
Dear Friends,
"My thoughts," says the LORD, "are not yours, and my ways are different from yours, As high as the heavens are above the earth, so high are my ways and thoughts above yours" (Isaiah 55:8, 9).
Just arrived at ACROSS compound from the tiring experience of Juba airport
About a week ago I had booked to travel into South Sudan to begin research in what I’d hoped would become a significant contribution to an Across Research & Documentation Desk, but there were some official hold-ups that needed to be clarified. One primary question put to me was this: “Why do cattle camp research, Ingrid, when so much research has already been done? Couldn’t you just take what’s there (and there’s much being done right now, given the recent conference held in Nairobi on the conflicts in Jonglei) and unpack that for our consumption, to make implementing our programs and achieving success in the Across vision of Christ-centered transformation of South Sudan communities?”
My answer is twofold: to the latter, I say: There is no way to do “new” research without going through the old; to explore what I see would necessarily require unpacking what’s already been done to harness insights for my own journey of discovery and creating knowledge that may assist in cooperating with Jah’s [Yahweh's] mission of Christ-centered transformation. As to why do cattle camp research, well, as far as I can see, what informs the worldviews of the pastoralists and semi-pastoralists of South Sudan (and indeed, I’d go so far to say the worldviews of all people groups in South Sudan) is crucial to effect Christ-centered transformation. By this I do not mean people becoming nominal Christians or becoming Sunday Christians and Monday–Saturday traditional worshippers to varying degrees. I also do not mean becoming Christianized in a way that one’s cultural identity becomes subsumed in a Western Christian identity, again to varying degrees. Rather, I’m advocating for conversion to Christ Jesus that is complete, where the cultural moorings of the professing Christian, in both an individual and collective sense, come under the Lordship of Lord Jesus, the Christ. For what informs worldviews in South Sudan communities are the traditional or primal religions of varying people groups. An aspect of this primal worldview is captured in this brief exchange between a young Nuer and a recent Dutch researcher in Jonglei State:
"Are you ready to die?"
"No, I don’t think so."
"I see, you cannot possibly be ready to die as you are not yet married and have no children. Without children you will not be remembered when you die."*
Dinka Spearmaster, Machar, in front of his Luak, explaining a peace ritual.
It is for this reason that I seek to explore the philosophical/spiritual underpinnings of all the social systems and structures of these people groups, that we may indeed make the gospel of Jesus, the Christ, welcomed and at home to the point where Jesus becomes the answer to ALL the problems of these groups—till he becomes the person that these warring, cattle-raiding tribes embrace as their identity of peace, reconciliation, development, politics, education, and so on.
This exploration thus must center on those rituals, ceremonies, stories, proverbs and folklore of the traditional religions, for it is in and through these that the worldview is transmitted and inculcated. It is here, also, that the models for being, culturally in all respects, even whilst being tampered with by the years of civil war and its lingering effects, are still evident and are still being transformed to adapt or not in coping with present-day realities. Research will reveal to what degree these models are still viable, as well as what remains that can yet prove useful as a meeting ground for the transmission of a Christianity that is culturally relevant and thus claimed by the people and is liberating and empowering. In any case, one cannot deny that there are still traditional ceremonies being held in Christian communities that are vitally relevant to tribal identity. It would be interesting to discover the ways, if any, these ceremonies could become Christ-centered, and in being so, be transformed to formulate and inculcate national identity as well, given Christianity, as the bridge over which they may pass to become so.
Moreover, if Yahweh is indeed the same yesterday, today and forever, then I don’t see why, as the great King he is, whose grace and power are such that no petitions could ever be too much, he will not be able to disciple the generations in South Sudan into becoming a nation whose national identity is founded in the way, the truth, and the life of our risen Lord Jesus, whose resurrection life we celebrated this past Easter Sunday morning.
With Lou, Dinak female Spearmaster, and Deng, my Across colleague n translator. Lou was discussing her role as a female Spearmaster in the community.
So, once more I was here in Juba, where the heat is suffocating at times, and where the airport is still so utterly disorganized that one can only groan-laugh as she bumps into huge discarded luggage all over the floor; goes into the entry room with that same one large opened window, where we all congregate like goldfish at the top of an aquarium, awaiting sight of our luggage, that we too may haul-pull our bags to the ever-shortening counter top to have one of the inspectors lift the first few piece of clothes up in the air and then re-zip the bag and write a $ clearance sign on the top so that we may then struggle to get our bag off the counter even as the ones behind us rush to take over the counter space we’ll soon vacate; then once the bag is down, the struggle continues some more to take it to the exit door into the other little room, where I’m stopped at the exit door by another military-looking policeman who demands, "Why no $ sign there?" as he points to my backpack and large cloth bag and tells me, “Go back…get sign!” And I look at him as if he’s my worse enemy, surely, to send me back to that hellish room when he sees me already awash in sweat and tiredness. But this is Juba town, where sweat and tiredness are the norm…and like a well-handled-with-a-stick cow, I return to get my $ clearance signs so I may leave the airport once and for all, and enter Juba town, where the fuel shortage abounds and lines of land cruisers and motorcycles round the street corners, and where there is a shortage of $s at the bank—and where I’ve returned again to engage this culture of deep survivors, called culture of violence by some, given the survival effects of the latest 22 years of civil war, and where I know I see Yahweh at work to save lives in ways we may not have imagined he could, does, and is doing, for his utmost glory in the soon-to-be Christ-centered transformed communities of South Sudan.
---------------------------------------------
With Adol colleagues, Lianne and Nancy McGhaughey
Then I was in Adol for about four weeks and during that time interviewed four Spear Masters, of which one was female and two were the foremost traditional spiritual leaders of the Rubmbek area. I also interviewed several of my Dinka colleagues, whose fathers and uncles had been Spear Masters. While these interviews are a start in what I foresee as a much longer, involved project, they have already proved to be invaluable, especially where bridging the gap between traditional and Christian ways of seeking and pursuing lasting peace is concerned. It is not as if we have nothing to learn from each other; indeed, these authentic Speak Masters remind me of Old Testament seers who in their calling are being faithful to the ways they believe have been given to them by Almighty God. Moreover, they are fully aware of and willingly accept their responsibility to create and maintain peace between their tribe and others. In addition, the symbolism of their peace rituals, I believe, would perhaps enable us, as 21st century Christians, to reappropriate and reapply the efficacy of the blood of Jesus to our lives and do likewise with the reality of the Holy Spirit in our day-to-day existence.
As ever, I thrive with/in your prayers. I am more at one with our Father’s mission with/in the communities of South Sudan because you continue to uphold me in the power of his Word, and because you continue to support me with your loving cards, gifts of the Jesus films in many local languages to be shared with many, and because you continue to give of your financial resources. For all the ways in which you walk together with me here, in the wonder of this new Republic of South Sudan, I praise, give thanks and worship with all my life our most beloved Father God Almighty, Yahweh, and Lord Jesus, our most beloved Risen Savior, and our indwelling, ever-empowering, comforting, abounding-in-oneness-intimacy Holy Spirit.
In the Great Love of Christ Jesus,
Ingrid
* In January 2012 Janneke Vreugdenhil of Disaster Studies, Wageningen University, completed her M.A. thesis in International Development Studies entitled, Hunger for Cattle is Killing, a case study of conflicts along migration routes in Jonglei State, South Sudan, Introduction (p. ix). Vreugedenhil had initially contacted Across with the hope of completing this research under its auspices; this did not happen, however, and she ended up completing this work with the assistance of the Lutheran World Federation.
The 2012 Presbyterian Mission Yearbook for Prayer & Study, p. 94
Write to Ingrid Reneau
Give to Ingrid Reneau's sending and support
