Praying with Refugees

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Praying with Refugees

Thoughts of peace and a future of hope

Reflection

“I fled from Kajo Keji several years ago. It is there that my awareness – my real awareness – of God began. I was traveling alone; my family had been killed. I believe that God led me to safety. I do not understand why I was not killed or why I did not starve to death; I only know at some point I turned to God and told him that I trusted him and that I was in his hands.

During my exile in Uganda, I experienced God in people as they lived the gospel. What I mean is that people love each other and stay together at a time when things are very difficult: lack of words, sickness, insufficient food, the loss of close loved ones. The community helps me believe. And I know God is present by the moral support that people give to us. It is like God saying through them, “I did not abandon you when you came away from your homeland; now I will not abandon you in exile. I will send others to love you and teach you of my concern.”

Charles, 32

(Adapted from They Come Back Singing: Finding God with the Refugees, by Gary Smith)

Many Southern Sudanese share Charles’ experience, they have fled their country and spent years in exile. Since the signing of the peace agreement in 2005 hundreds of thousands have returned to their homeland, hoping for a lasting peace in the war torn country.

They are starting from scratch, making an effort to rebuild their country while at the same time facing threats of inter-ethnic violence, food shortages and landmines. It seems the challenges on the road to peace are endless. But the Sudanese people keep reconstructing their country and believing in a better future, a future of well-being and peace.

Their reflections show their deep faith, a faith preserved through years of exile, against the loss of families and the uncertainty ahead of them. As we contemplate the situation of the people of South Sudan let us join them in prayer for a lasting peace and for a future undisturbed by conflict or violence. May their hopes be fulfilled and may they be safe in God’s hands, whatever happens.

Suggestion for Prayer

God had a compassionate ability to reunite with man
He protects us when we are in danger
He provides us with food when we are in hunger
God heals us when we become sick
God provides us with what is impossible for us to get

God comforts us when we are in sorrow
God gives us hope when we are frustrated
God saves us when we are in captivity
God guides us in our work to do the right things

We gain our privileges through God when we are in war
God intervenes with peace when we are enslaved
God delivers us from bondage
God intervenes when catastrophe entangles us, and the calamities pass
We have been born of sin, but God forgives us our sin through
His only son Jesus Christ

Even though we have been in captivity for decades,
God has his light over us
We are hopeful for a time to come
When we shall be residents of a land
When we shall be the owners of the land
When we shall overcome the enemies of our lands
We shall be set free from the bondage of slavery

Ev. Daniel Deng Ajang Kuer

Scripture reading for prayer:

Leviticus: 26:3-6

If you follow my statutes and keep my commandments and observe them faithfully, I will give you your rains in their season, and the land shall yield its produce, and the trees of the field shall yield their fruit. Your threshing shall overtake the vintage, and the vintage shall overtake the sowing; you shall eat your bread to the full, and live securely in your land. And I will grant peace in the land, and you shall lie down, and no one shall make you afraid; I will remove dangerous animals from the land, and no sword shall go through your land.

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