Exploring how God is at work in different corners!

During the crisis and war which began in South Sudan in December 2013, entire populations were displaced from their home regions, and their institutions often moved with them. One such institution is Giffen Institute of Theology (GIT), formerly in Malakal (Upper Nile), now located in Kakuma Refugee Camp in the far northwest corner of Kenya. 

Students, Faculty and Staff of GIT (Kakuma Refugee Camp) 

Dramatic flight with Mission Aviation Fellowship (MAF) 
from Juba to northwest Kenya

                                                                               

Rev. Paul Ruot Kor, a former student who has become a friend, currently serves as principal. Rev. Paul has been serving as a pastor for more than forty years and has much to offer students at GIT. As an historian, Rev. Paul suggests that GIT has trained and graduated more Presbyterian pastors in South Sudan than any other institution. It was a great joy for me to visit my friend Paul, to collaborate together with him, to go into the camp each day, to help teach a couple of classes, to share from the book of Job during chapel, to spend time with faculty, staff, and students, to gain a better understanding of life at the school, the joys and the challenges, and to experience life in the camp which included one of the part-time teachers being robbed one morning while I was there.

Rev. Paul Ruot at his desk in his office at GIT;

we had some nice discussions together about faith and culture

Rev. Ruot and I teach on the Trinity;

Rev. Ruot explains the Godhead as "three in one"
in the local Nuer language 

It was also a joy to meet Rev. Paul’s wife and child and eat the wonderful “kop” together which his wife had prepared. It was also nice to have time together whereby I could query my friend concerning my own research interests, namely concerning Nyarial (Eleanor Vandevort, former missionary to Sudan) and her Nuer brother, Rev. Moses Kuac Nyoat, the first Nuer pastor in southern Sudan. 

Rev. Ruot with wife and child (to my right in photo)
Faculty member and community member (to my left)  

Eleanor Vandevort (Nyarial) in Nasir, circa 1950s
Former missionary to Sudan, friend to the Nuer people

Rev. Moses Kuac Nyoat
first Nuer pastor and friend to Nyarial
Rev. Ruot spent time as a young pastor learning about and from Kuac Nyoat

 

I am grateful for Rev. Ruot's invitation for me to come visit him at GIT in Kakuma Refugee Camp!

Sunrise, Kakuma Town (November 1st, 2022)