A letter from Debbie Blane in the U.S., awaiting return to South Sudan
September 2014 - In Limbo
Greetings.
The civil war in South Sudan continues to rage. The Nile Theological College in South Sudan is not functioning at this time. Malakal, the town in which the college was located, has been destroyed. The only people still living there are in the United Nations Protection of Civilians Camp.
Millions of lives have been changed forever as people have become either internally displaced people or refugees in countries that surround South Sudan. Thousands upon thousands of lives have been lost; women, children and the elderly are a huge proportion. Famine threatens the country.
I have been in the United States since May 20, 2014. I had expected to be back in Juba by now, the 19th of September. About two weeks before I had planned to depart from the United States word came from the Presbyterian Church of South Sudan that they did not want anyone returning at this time because of security issues. My desire is to finish the three semesters with the students who were seniors at this time last year. We had one semester together and then life as we knew it disintegrated.
I am in limbo. Limbo is a devastating place to be. It overtakes one’s life and becomes what life is about. Nothing else really matters anymore except the uncertainty of what I am facing. Everything is uncertain. Will I be able to return to South Sudan? Will the Nile Theological College reopen? Are my students still alive? My colleagues? Even if we come together again, we have all undergone a life-changing experience. We are not the same and we will not fit together in the same way ever again.
Please continue to pray for South Sudan and its people, for the church, for my students, colleagues, and the staff of the college. Please continue to pray that the educational system, which has been brought to its knees in this time of war, will recover. South Sudan needs people who are literate to pick up the pieces of the country and be a part of the healing and reconciliation that must come. Just recently the literacy rate in South Sudan was put at 27 percent.
Presbyterian World Mission is working to combat the educational statistics for South Sudan. An invitation has been extended for Presbyterians to make a difference in God’s world through pioneering education and working for reconciliation. We have had more than a century of work in South Sudan and are continuing this work.
Please pray for me that God will make my pathways straight. Thank you for those prayers and for your continued financial support in this time of uncertainty for both myself and South Sudan.
Blessings,
Debbie
The 2014 Presbyterian Mission Yearbook for Prayer & Study, p. 129
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