Prayers for Africa from the ECLA

These prayers can be used in worship or personal devotion.

Sudan - Prayer Ventures

For the church
Merciful God, we thank you for the church in Sudan. Protect the church in the midst of persecution and challenges, that it may continue to spread the Good News about your love and compassion.

For current needs
Gracious God, we pray for everyone in Sudan as they continue to strive for peace and justice. Strengthen them in their efforts and help them find ways toward reconciliation. Give comfort to those who have been displaced from homes. Give strength to those who are caught in the midst of famine and drought.

For those serving
Great and Loving God, we ask for your continuing support of the work done by relief workers, especially those representing church organizations. Help them in their work as they share the Good News of your everlasting love and forgiveness. Guide them as they work amidst difficult conditions.

For global relationships
God of compassion, we give thanks for your children all across the earth and for the opportunities we have to develop more personal relationships with our global Christian neighbors. We are grateful for the opportunity to reach out to our Sudanese brothers and sisters through prayer and communication, that we might find new meaning in these global connections. Strengthen us in that ministry and help us reach out in a mission of peace.

For church leadership
God of Wisdom, your insight and guidance fill our lives. Show us new ways to understand your power and presence within us. Thank you for the church in Sudan and for those who continue to share your message. Help those preaching and ministering to the members of the church, that they might understand and share the Holy Gospel in order to strengthen your ministry in Sudan.

For open hearts
God our Creator, you make all people part of your family. You make all that is good in our lives and fill us with your everlasting love. Bless us as we learn more about our sisters and brothers in South Africa. Help us to embrace our common blessing in serving you. Open our eyes to the gifts you give us in each other. Guide us to build bridges between our cultures and our churches. We ask these things in the name we name together, your precious Son, Jesus Christ.

UMCOR News: Sudan: Hope for Survival - Harvest and Hope Mark UMCOR’s First Year in Sudan

Long before the convoy of visitors arrived at El Ferdous, the sounds of drums, chants, and singing reached across the woodland savanna. These were the sounds of welcome in South Darfur, Sudan.

United Methodist Committee on Relief workers and representatives of Ginghamsburg United Methodist Church, Tipp City, Ohio—the congregation that has partnered with UMCOR to fund a tools and seeds program for camp residents and their hosts—were in South Darfur to meet camp and village leaders, see one of the 5,200 farms in production, and talk with residents about their experiences.

A Look-Back, One Year Later
From Jan. 26—Feb. 9, during the first anniversary of the program, UMCOR presents a series of stories about the work that United Methodists are funding in Sudan. Two stories will be featured each week.

You’ll meet Jane Ohuma, head of mission; Saba, a woman who remembers life before the war; Angelina, one of the women farming at Julha. You’ll see an innovation in camp hospitality and the bounty of the harvest.

Two stories and a photo gallery are available now:

• Harvest and Hope Mark UMCOR’s First Year in Sudan
• Harvest for the Future
• Photo Gallery
• UMCOR Sudan
  

UMCOR is working on assisting displaced people in Sudan to find their way home, to return to peaceful farming or work. United Methodists can get involved in these ministries through giving to UMCOR Advance #184385, Sudan Emergency. United Methodist Committee on Relief is a 501(c)(3) charity and all contributions are fully tax deductible. Checks may be mailed to UMCOR, PO Box 9068, New York, NY 10187-9068. Donors using a credit card may call toll free 800-554-8583.

Ohio church, UMCOR, collaborate on Sudan project

UMNS photo by Paul Jeffrey, UMCOR
Feb. 2, 2006

A UMNS Report
By Linda Bloom

What started as a Christmas offering from a United Methodist congregation to help displaced people in Sudan has turned into a five-year, multimillion-dollar project.

For the past year, Ginghamsburg United Methodist Church in Tipp City, Ohio, has been working with the United Methodist Committee on Relief to address needs in that African nation.

Since February 2003, the conflict in Darfur, Sudan, has resulted in more than 200,000 deaths and left some 3 million people homeless. The New York Times reported Jan. 28 that efforts by the United States, United Nations and European Union to end the conflict seemed to be collapsing with reports of renewed violence.

The Sudan Project began at the end of 2004, when the Rev. Mike Slaughter, senior pastor, challenged his 4,000-member congregation to contribute half of what they would normally spend on Christmas gifts to the "miracle offering" for Sudan.

With the $317,000 raised from that offering, Ginghamsburg and UMCOR established a self-sustaining agriculture program in Darfur. Through its efforts, 5,208 families have been able to start farming again, and 26,000 people in the camps are benefiting from the harvest.

Read more: here

UMCOR's farm program in Sudan is 'people-driven'

A UMNS photo by Paul Jeffrey, UMCOR

Feb. 2, 2006
By Linda Beher

KHARTOUM, Sudan (UMNS) - On an August morning, Jane Ohuma points to a large map of Sudan in the Khartoum office of United Methodist Committee on Relief.

Ohuma's arm sweeps from west to east as she explains to a visitor the plight of displaced people out in Darfur, seven hundred miles from the capital city. She is head of mission for UMCOR's operations in Sudan, which began in February 2005.

Funded by a large gift from Ginghamsburg United Methodist Church in Tipp City, Ohio, and other grants, the agriculture program based in the Al Daein region of South Darfur already has crops in the ground. Some 5,200 families are working the 4-hectare farms. At an average five per family, that adds up to more than 25,000 beneficiaries.

Such a program is a bit like a puzzle. Needs and resources at a variety of levels, like interlocking puzzle pieces, must be fit together. Most importantly, Ohuma stresses, solutions to hunger and livelihoods "must address people's need and be people driven."

For example, to strengthen the local economy, UMCOR contracted with local blacksmiths to make hoes and other handheld tools for the displaced farmers, rather than purchasing them from a factory. Displaced people have no land of their own, so area landowners offered parcels of land in exchange for a portion of the sorghum, millet, cowpeas, melon, okra and peanuts.

Read more here