Thursday, December 19, 2013

Please pray...

Dear St. Thomas' family:

My brother Ken currently serves as a missionary in South Sudan. He is in charge of maintenance on the compound of a Bible translation organization in the city of Juba.

If you have been hearing international news, you probably know that military conflict has broken out in South Sudan. A few days ago, the fighting was in Juba. It has moved into the distance, but the situation is not good. The map below, which I got from the BBC online, shows you what the fighting is about. No surprise there!

The organization he works for has decided to evacuate all of its people except Ken and four others. Here is his latest update and prayer request:

"Last night the rebels in a town called Bor were able to capture an ammo dump that had tanks, trucks, and a lot of heavy artillery. It breathed new life in them and now we don't know what's going to happen. If they head for Juba we will all have to go, but if they go another direction we'll stay. The reason we want to stay is because with someone here we can better assess when it's safe for others to return. If we all have to go it might be years before anyone can come back. If this blows over they could be back within a month or two. It is my opinion that the work here is worth the risk and I want to do all I can to support it. Please be in prayer for S. Sudan, all those that left, and those of us who are still here. This is very painful for everyone. A very sad aspect of this is that this latest development could very well just be an exercise in a lot of blood letting that doesn't accomplish anything. So very sad!

I would love to hear from anyone who wants to write, it is suddenly very lonely here.

In Him, Ken"