South Sudan is the kind of
place where a sermon anecdote about gunfire draws hearty laughter. The
sound of a firearm is such an everyday occurrence that South Sudanese
only question whether it came from a pistol, an AK-47, or an M-16. “Many
people right now are praying, ‘Thank you God for not making me South
Sudanese,’ ” says the pastor.
Listening near the back of the sanctuary in Juba is Richard Stearns,
the president of World Vision. He is visiting the world’s newest and
most fragile state in his quest to revive the compassion American
Christians had for Sudan years ago. The South gained independence from
the Muslim-dominated North in 2011 with the solid backing of
evangelicals. But two years later, a political power struggle engulfed
the Christian-majority nation in bloody conflict.
“It’s a hard sales pitch,” he told Christianity Today as he
stood among 50 mothers with malnourished children at a clinic. He said
South Sudan is a perfect example of how enormously difficult it is to
fulfill both the Great Commission and Great Commandment amid chronic
conflict and violence.
CT joined Stearns as he toured World Vision projects in South Sudan to
gather evidence to make his case. His appeal—for US churches to focus
their aid on where poverty is worst, not where it is almost gone—is
counterintuitive. But perhaps the best argument for it are the successes
South Sudanese Christians are already achieving, far from the war- and
poverty-focused eyes of the international media.
Africa’s Broken Breadbasket
The view flying into Juba is peaceful. Many metal rooftops are painted
welcoming shades of blue, red, and green—the national colors. But once
the plane lands, it’s clear not all is well. Parked near the terminal
are cargo aircraft bearing logos of several well-known relief and crisis
intervention groups, including the United Nations World Food Programme
and the International Red Cross.
South Sudan is now considered the world’s No. 1 “fragile state,”
according to World Vision’s own algorithm of 50 variables of human
suffering. Half of South Sudanese children are malnourished. A
15-year-old girl is more likely to die while giving birth than to finish
school.
The landlocked nation slightly smaller than Texas has long been one of
the UN’s most expensive missions ($1 billion per year). Its rainy season
renders roads impassable and requires all aid to be delivered by plane.
It’s now also one of the most unstable, after a rift between the
president and vice president in 2013 led to armed conflict along ethnic
lines.
The problems are easy to see. But what’s difficult is raising direct
aid from Christians. Only a sliver of World Vision’s $64 million
emergency-response budget in South Sudan comes from private donors. It
is much harder to raise relief money for manmade disasters (wars, riots,
or civil conflict) than for natural disasters, explains Stearns. Donors
have more empathy after crises that could happen to them than after
crises that are someone’s fault.
The numbers betray the empathy gap. After Haiti’s earthquake, World
Vision raised $68 million in 6 weeks. After Nepal’s earthquake, the
ministry raised $8 million in 2 weeks. After 4 years of civil war in
Syria, World Vision has raised only $2.7 million. After 4 years of
independence in South Sudan, it has raised only $1.4 million.
US evangelicals are widely credited with motivating George W. Bush’s
administration to help secure the historic peace agreement that led to
South Sudan’s 2011 independence. Four years later, those evangelicals
are largely absent.
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first-week digital single in gospel sales history. Franklin premiered
the song on the Steve Harvey Morning Show as well as closing out the
season finale of the ever popular BET Sunday Best singing competition.
