Mining massacre highlights Gospel need in South Sudan

South Sudan (MNN) – The recent killing of more than 70 people in South Sudan gravely underscores the country’s worsening situation and need for the hope of Christ. Increasing numbers of rebel forces plague an already fractious society, where Stephen Wesley with Voice of the Martyrs Canada says true persecution against Christians is taking place. 

“But then on the other side: you’re seeing, really, brother against brother, ethnicity against ethnicity, tribe against tribe – both of whom are calling themselves Christians but are not living it. And so this has to get worked out,” he says. 

Wesley recently returned from Juba, South Sudan, where his team and ministry partners held a theological training on persecution and discipleship. 

“I heard some of the leaders from South Sudan speaking at our conference and basically calling out the South to say, ‘If you name the name of Christ, then you cannot kill your brother,’” he says. 

Wesley notes there were several testimonies of people impacted by the teaching, including a high ranking army official:

“[He] heard the teaching and wants to take [it] to the government and show them that what they’re doing is the opposite of what they should be doing.”

Wesley says a transformative idea for warring believers is an understanding that our identity should be in Christ. 

“And where the world’s culture has infiltrated the church, it needs to go out,” Wesley exhorts. 

Instead, we need to usher in Christ’s kingdom, one that works together in unity. 

As lessons from this training continue to take root, please pray that people will continue to respond to the messages they heard, and pray for an end to the growing violence. 

“My confidence is that there is a number of key leaders that God is raising up in that land right now, in the midst of it, that are going to be influential to benefit both the church and society no matter what’s happening in the culture or the country,” Wesley says.