Pray for Gambela

(This post was first published on the Faith & Chelsen: Tackling Tough Topics in Church and Culture blog on Patheos Evangelical Channel and is republished here with permission.)

Every day, usually many times a day, I check with my friend Johann’s Facebook page to see what is happening in Gambela.

Gambela is a city in western Ethiopia, near the South Sudan border. Because of the violent conflict that has been going on in that nation since the December 2013 coup attempt by former vice-president Riek Machar, (who, just today, has once again beenrestored into the bosom of the South Sudan government) close to 300,000 of mostly Nuer South Sudanese refugees have crammed into Gambela.

Johann Vanderbijl, who is the Dean and Principal at St. Frumentius’ Anglican Theological College in Gambela, keeps his friends and prayer partners aware of the changing conditions in the region. A day of peace can be destroyed and the community descend into chaos by either accidental or intentional violence. The former was the case on Thursday, April 21, when a “highlander,” a local term for an Ethiopian resident of Gambela who is not Nuer or Anuak, accidentally hit and killed two South Sudanese Nuer refugees while he was bringing water to the refugee camp.

“The driver and some innocent bystanders were immediately beaten to death,” was Johann’s tragic report. Later it was discovered that the driver had fled into the woods and escaped. But others were not so lucky.

Gambela media added that local witnesses said two women and eight men were killed by the refugees, but Voice of America reported fourteen killed. But this attack was considered “minor,” when compared to one that took place in the region just days before.

On Friday, April 15, in what news reports called a “massive, coordinated attack” upwards of 200 Ethiopian Nuer people (not refugees from South Sudan) were killed, 75 wounded, and over 100 children abducted by Murle gunmen from South Sudan. The Murle and Nuer ethnic groups have a long history of conflict.

There has also been violent conflict between the Anuak and Nuer ethnic groups, such so that St. Frumentius, whose student body is comprised of Christians from both these tribes, is forced to have two separate campuses — one in Nuer land and one in Anuak land. Johann is swift to explain that it is not the students’ desire. These young people consider themselves brothers and sisters in Christ. It is because of the larger community.

But there are witnesses of unity and peace in the larger community, as well. One heartening evidence of this was in a photo that Johann posted of a “highlander” and a Nuer having coffee together in Newland (the Nuer land). Such moments keep hope alive that all of the people groups of Gambela might one day be able to repent, forgive, reconcile, and restore.

Earlier this month I was at New Wineskins for Global Missions 2016, a triennial Anglican mission conference, where I had the opportunity to meet Johann and his wife Louise in person for the first time. Also there were my old friends the Rt. Rev. Dr. Grant LeMarquand and his wife, Dr. Wendy LeMarquand. Bishop Grant is the area bishop of the Horn of Africa. He and Wendy also live in Gambela where Wendy is working to improve the health, particularly the nutrition and sanitation, for the refugees and other residents.

At New Wineskins, Grant and Wendy were evening plenary speakers and spoke about the many amazing ways in which God is moving in Gambela, as well as about the heartaches and challenges they face every day. Because of this, the thousand or so people who attended New Wineskins have no excuse to not pray for that troubled region. Grant even gave me a great and simple memory device to put Ethiopia on my morning prayer list:

Morning coffee→Coffee beans→Ethiopia→Pray

And since more often than not my morning brew is Yiracheffee Ethiopian coffee from The Mission Cup, I have even more of a reminder to pray not only for Gambela, but for friends in the Oromia Region, where oppression and land-grabbing are taking place.

(The rest of the article is here)