Friday, November 06, 2009

International Day of Prayer for the Persecuted Church

The following is from a website called Everyday Christian.

[Bishop Wilson] Garang oversees more than 180 churches in South Sudan dealing directly with the spiritual and survival needs of impoverished people across a wide swath of the East African nation.

Garang’s experiences have brought him face-to-face with persecution, cultural doubts about Christianity and repression on a regular basis.

Garang was a refugee and part of the “Lost Boys,” a group of thousands of Sudanese children orphaned by the country’s civil war in the 1980s. It was during a long walk back to his home village in 1992 when felt the pull of ministry.

“Only through fasting and prayer was I able to survive,” Garang said. “The Holy Spirit has been instrumental for a lot of miracles and has convinced a lot of people to come to Christ. All of this has been done with how the Lord has worked, not me.”

I met Bishop Garang at the Provincial Synod of the Anglican Catholic Church in Richmond, VA. last week. You may read the whole article here.

1 comment:

Allen Lewis said...

As I said in an earlier post on one of the more recent articles, Bishop Garang is a truly remarkable person. My wife, Kay, and I were fortunate enough to eat breakfast with him the Friday that Synod ended. Kay has been in contact with him about the Kenya Clergy shirt project, but the in person contact was impressive.

Bishop Garang, for me, personified the humility and joy that we are called by our Lord to share one with another. He is truly a remarkable and gentle man. I cannot imagine him reacting in anger to anything.

Allen