As pastors of African descendent serving churches in the Iowa Conference, we are concerned for our South Sudanese brothers and sisters in Christ whose families and friends have experienced heavy rains causing drastic flooding. The five plus months that they lived in water was devastating and caused much despair.
Thank God these Mabaan Christians have reached out to the Iowa Conference to help them bring hope to those affected by the flooding. The Mabaan communities of faith worship with us in Des Moines and Storm Lake as well as many locations in the United States.
Some of us originally from Africa have also had natural disasters that devastated our homelands so we know how the United Methodist Church comes to the aid in addressing humanitarian needs. Unfortunately UMCOR, the humanitarian arm of the United Methodist Church, does not operate in South Sudan. Having said that we have to recognize that there are other places in Africa where people are victims of flooding and no help has been offered. Nevertheless we are willing to encourage each one of you to assist the community of Mabaan.
We encourage our fellow United Methodist pastors and friends as we raise funds to purchase tents, tarps, solar lamps, food items and farming tools. We are asking our own church family to get involved in some way possibly by holding fund raisers for the Mabaan Flood Relief. We support these fund raising efforts so that we can be difference makers in the lives of our South Sudanese friends, the Mabaan speaking community.Eric Sayonkon
Emmanuel Naweji
Les Green
Patrick Munyakazi
Michal Lundula
Daniel Niyonzima
Michael Adedokun
Kiboko Kiboko
Cephas Davis
JR Naninzeye
Sedar Sheko
Derrick Okine
Momodu Kamara