Independence at Last! Thank God!

A little over a week ago we celebrated the birth of our nation.  235 years ago our forbearers fought for independence and freedom.  About 4,400 people sacrificed their lives for the cause in the fighting that took place.  Today, we enjoy the fruits of their decade long struggle.  As we look back, we see the hand of God at work in the midst of the pain and despair, bringing freedom to many people who had not known it before! 

This past Saturday, I had the honor of celebrating the birth of another new nation: The Republic of South Sudan.  In my work with new ministries that I do for Bishop Usgaard I spend a lot of time with Sudanese refugees.  These men and women have taught me much about the struggles that they faced in the civil war that raged since 1983.  They talk about being machine gunned while worshipping.  They talk about children eaten by alligators as they fled the fighting.  The talk about the staggering death toll: over 2.5 million people died in the conflict.  To put that in perspective, if you add together all of the war-time deaths from every war that America fought in our history, from the Revolution to the Civil War to World War II to the Gulf War…less than 1 million Americans who have died.  When you hear of the horrific deaths in Darfur (another part of Sudan), somewhere around 300,000 have died.  Against that perspective, 2.5 million deaths is hard to even imagine.  Few in South Sudan have not been touched by the pain.  Entire villages were wiped out.  Families were shattered.  People starved.  Despite all the pain, people fought on.  People prayed that a new day would dawn: a day of peace and hope.

On Saturday, July 9^th, God answered their prayers!  Following a peace agreement in 2005 and a referendum in January of this year, the Republic of South Sudan joined the nations of the world.  No longer will the Africans be second class citizens to the Arabs who controlled Sudan for decades.  No longer will the Sudanese government be able to send troops into the villages of the south, killing people with abandon.  The South Sudanese have the opportunity to choose their own leaders and their own freedoms.  God worked to bring peace!

Last Saturday I was honored to be invited to a gathering in Rochester where the people of South Sudan who live in southern Minnesota got together to celebrate! Tears flowed as the flag of South Sudan was raised.  Some elderly women slowly walked to the front and then burst into dancing with their canes held high.  I couldn’t help but get caught up in the moment!  After years of amazing hardships, God had acted to bring peace and independence.

We proclaim a God who works in the world…but we also proclaim a God who gives humans the freedom to make choices.  The Sudanese government made choices that led to 2.5 million deaths.  Choice has consequences.

After decades of pain, despair, and death, God has worked through imperfect people like Omar Bashir and John Garang to bring peace.  May God continue to use imperfect people to bring about peace in places like Iraq, Palestine, Syria, Libya, and Afghanistan.