An Update From Lauren Stanley

Our Rector, Canon Lexa, came across this article about Lauren Stanley. Since she worshiped with us in 2001, we have decided to share her story:

A little change here, a little change there, and pretty soon..

By Lauren R. StanleyKnight Ridder/Tribune News Service

RENK, Sudan - Two thousand years ago, an infant was born in a stable in the town of Bethlehem, in what was then Palestine. That child's birth was not a momentous event for the majority of the world. Oh, it was important to the mother and the father and some of their relatives. Accordingto Luke's Gospel, it was important to some shepherds. According to Matthew's Gospel, there were wise men from theEast who cared as well. But for the most part, no one paid attention or even knew that that child was born. His birth was just a small event in the midst of much larger events that, at least at the time, seemed so much more important. There is a similarity between that quiet moment in Bethlehem 2,000 years ago and what is happening in Sudan today.

When John Garang, the SPLA leader-turned-first vice president of the country, died just three weeks after taking office on July 9, it truly looked like our short-lived peace would be buried with him. But the Sudanese people stayed committed to the vision of peace that John Garang has presented, and today, it seems, peace has a strong foothold in this country. You can't see this new peace in the big picture, for there are still too many problems in the country: lack of food, potable water, education, health care, transportation, infrastructure and jobs. And that's just the beginning of the list. But if you look at the little things, and then look back across the short span of time since the signing of the peace treaty, the changes begin to add up, and together, they look pretty big.

On Jan. 9, the country celebrated the first anniversary of the signing of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement, marking the end of 21-plus years of war. Hundreds of people paraded through the streets of Renk, thousands in the streets of Juba, the southern capital, cheering and waving the flag of the Sudanese Peoples Liberation Army. One year ago, displaying that flag was a crime; now it waves proudly all over the South. There seem to be fewer police checkpoints as we travel throughout the country. No longer do the police as closely scrutinize my papers. More and more people have mobile phones. Bottled drinking water is available in more places. The major road being built to and into the South - the first in 25 years - is moving along farther and farther (and one day soon,
we pray, will reach Renk). There are more cars on the roads, most of them privately owned. In Khartoum, regular trash pickup is scheduled, andt rash bins appear along the streets. People now are beginning to bag up their trash for collection, instead of tossing it in the street for the goats to eat, or burning it, plastic and all. U.N. peacekeepers are appearing in the Northern Upper Nile region, where we live. And for the first time in 22 years, we celebrated the birth of that child in Bethlehem in peace. For the first time in 22 years, people felt free to travel about the country, to go back to their hometowns and villages, to see family whom they had not seen in decades, to simply celebrate without worrying about war.

Any one event, taken on its own, wouldn't signify much, especially in areas of the world that have not known war in a long time. But when you put these - and some many other little things - together, they add up to a momentous event that, like the birth of Jesus, will have tremendous impact on the lives of millions of people a long time into the future. We are starting small here in Sudan - a change here, a change there - just as God chose to start small with an infant born in a stable in a disputed land. Our prayer is that like the birth of that baby, which changed the world, our lives and the lives of those who follow us will be changed forever as well.

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(The Rev. Lauren R. Stanley is an Episcopal priest serving as an appointed missionary in the Episcopal Diocese of Renk, Sudan.)

Let us pray that the peace continues.