The fighting in South Sudan has entered its second year, but despite peace talks between government and rebel troops, neither side shows willingness to lay down their arms. The fighting between opposition forces (led by the former VP) and government has resulted in widespread atrocities: massacres, gang rapes and child soldier recruitment.  An estimated 1.5 million persons have fled their homes and currently reside in IDP (refugee) settlements.    Much of our work these past 14 months has focused on providing health care in these less than idyllic settings.

In partnership with IMA World Health we are providing critical health services to those displaced, operating 11 field clinics located among the tens of thousands in the camps.                     

We recruited over 80 health care workers (doctors, nurses, lab techs) from among the refugees, then equipped and trained them to provide health services to their own communities. Utilization of local and qualified health personnel instills confidence,  is cost-effective,  and more sustainable than importing foreign health care workers such as ‘Doctors Without Borders’.

Not all are willing to live in a refugee camp setting.  Chief among these are the Dinka cattle herders who fled from the fighting into the grasslands bordering the Nile River with their extended families during this war.   Each clan (up to 200 persons) roams the vast plains where grasslands transition into Sahel to seek safety and grazing areas for their cattle.  These, too, are the people we serve in war-torn South Sudan.  Mobile teams go out for weeks at a time providing essential health services:  vaccination, malaria prevention, and pre-natal care.   

I have been in the field this past month, traveling by plane, jeep, boat, and foot to some fairly remote areas assessing health needs.  I spent time amongst the Dinka cattle herders.  Each morning the men, armed with AK-47 machine guns, lead the cattle out to pasture.  Others stay behind to guard family members and the cows too young (or old) to make the daily trek to pasture.  Cattle raiding and child abduction are very common occurrences in these isolated plains of South Sudan.   While the herders venture out for the day, those behind prepare the camp for that evening. Cattle dung from the night before is swept up and placed in large piles to be mixed with charcoal and burned to deter mosquitos when the cows sleep.  Children collect buckets of ash from the previous evening’s fires to brush the cows to remove sweat and dirt. When the herders return at sunset there is great rejoicing in the camp; the cows (who are all named) go to their individual wooden stakes, are tied, brushed, and even sung to.   A contingent of older boys and girls with guns keep watch during the night over their families… and their cows.

One of the Dinka elders asked me if Americans love their cows as much as they do.  I grew up in coastal New England and the only cows I saw were in cellophane-wrapped containers in a supermarket… but I don’t tell him that. 

In the early years of missions, church workers set up stations in the interior of Africa and Asia and built schools, wells, clinics, and hospitals and the population came to them.  Most of these facilities now sit behind high cement walls capped with razor wire.  Missionaries and church workers are in the middle serving those who come.  This was the case for us in Haiti and DR Congo where we spent nearly 20 years.   Those were times when we had children on the field, when we had a mission-assigned home with helpers and familiar surroundings.  

We no longer live in such places. Our children are in the U.S. beginning their own lives.  Familial concerns about personal safety, protection from viral outbreaks, venomous snakes, and herders with AK-47s don’t seem as worrisome.  During the past four years in South Sudan Ann and I have lived in tents, pre-fab containers, and single room dwellings, yet we have had all our needs met and much more.

 We miss the familiarity of permanent staff, proximal friends, available equipment, and comfortable surroundings. However, we like the concept of being mobile and able to go out to where those we serve make their lives. 

To understand the culture and surroundings of those we serve is to know their needs, their concerns, their problems... and ultimately their beliefs.  Through compassion, care, and proximity we seek to introduce them to One who loves them even more than they love their cattle and who will lead them to  the refuge of green pastures and still waters … and provide treasures that will not spoil, will not run out, and will not be taken away in the middle of the night.

We share that joy, because you are the ones who surround us with your prayers, enabling us to traverse these ‘long & treacherous’ dark valleys and emerge … with cups overflowing and souls restored.

The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want. He maketh me to lie down in green pastures: he leadeth me beside the still waters.  He restoreth my soul: he leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his name's sake. Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me.  (Psalm 23)