Getting ready for Wednesday Lenten Prayer - Psalm 23

The Lord is my Shepherd

One of the highlights of my life and ministry to date has been knowing the South Sudanese Community at Bethlehem in St Cloud.  In 2009 I traveled with two leaders of the Bethlehem Community to visit relatives in the “old country. ” At that time they were living just across the border from Sudan in SW Ethiopia. 

They have a powerful story. These are of the Nuer ethnic group who lived as herders and farmers in the upper Nile Basin until 2007 when - very literally - all hell broke lose. James Puotyual, who services as a Lay Minister, on the Bethlehem Staff tells the story of how as a teenage father with a young child being awoken in the night by the shouts of warning. “The army is coming. Run!” He and his wife Nyandit picked up their son Jul, and with their neighbors made there way to the Ethiopian border. It the journey took 5-6 days, James recalls. They had no food and little water. Many people – particularly the young and the old.

The whole community prayed Psalm 23, over and over and over again.

“Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death I will fear no evil
for you are with me. Your rod and your staff they comfort me.”

James is on the left with (R to L) - James' mother in law, friend and mother 

Children's Sermon at Sunday Worship. I am holding a picture of the Assembly
Bethlehem taken the Sunday before.

The congregation at Kargum, Ethiopia for Sunday Worship