Ongoing radio programs in the often war-torn country of South Sudan are changing lives, one at a time.
A South Sudanese man who contacted our radio station told our producers that he used to have three sons, but had tragically lost all three of them to revenge killings.
The retributive cycle of revenge killings can go on and on, with families constantly retaliating, murdering one boy for another in a series of unending heartache.
The man heard a Words of Hope program on peace and reconciliation playing on the radio one day. The producer was reading from the Bible, and highlighting Romans 12:9: “Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave it to the wrath of God, for it is written, ‘Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord.’”
Feeling convicted, the man traveled to the radio station to speak with the producers there, who relayed the story to us. “I am not one of you people who has gone to school,” the man said. “I did follow my father’s gods. And when my first son was killed, I did tell my other two boys to take great revenge for the death of their brother.”
“But it turned out to be a great disaster to me and my whole family,” he continued sadly.
Angrily he shook his head. He explained that his religious beliefs had condoned the revenge killings, but now he desperately regretted his actions. “I am a killer,” he said bitterly. “I did send my sons to take revenge, and now that has killed them all.”
Finally he looked up at the producers with a searching question. “Can someone who has not gone to the school come to your God?”
Our producers concluded the story with these simple and powerful words: “And we did welcome him, and he was baptized.”
South Sudan News
It has been ten years since South Sudan declared independence and became the world’s newest country. Sadly, violence continues to threaten communities there in ways that prove hard to shake.
The United Nations reports that, “pervasive insecurity continues to impede sustainable peace from taking root.” And that “so far in 2021, more than 80 percent of civilian casualties have been attributed to intercommunal violence and community-based militias.”
Food insecurity, looting, and abductions are also dangers. There remains much to be done. Let us not grow weary of praying for Kingdom peace in South Sudan.
