Sudan Council of Churches requests prayer for upcoming Referendum.

The Sudan Council of Churches (SCC) is asking partner churches to be in prayer for the Referendum in southern Sudan. The vote scheduled for Sunday, Jan. 9, is a referendum on whether southern Sudan will secede from the northern part of the country. It is a result of the comprehensive peace agreement reached in 2005 after decades of civil war between north and south.

Writing that, "It is good to keep praying for one another," SCC director for Ecumenical Church Relations, Emmanuel Nattania A. Bandi, sent the following list of specific prayer requests to Jay Wittmeyer, executive director of Global Mission Partnerships for the Church of the Brethren:

1. Those who have registered their names are facing the challenges of selling their votes out in the upcoming Referendum.
   
2. Those who will cast their votes will not be influenced by other means to choose contrary to their choices.
   
3. Ask God to guard the process to be peaceful, free, and fair.
   
4. Ask God to grant a peaceful Referendum.
   
5. After the result is announced let there be no violence among the ordinary people.
   
6. Safe journey for the southerners in the North and Khartoum (the capital city) who want to come back to the South, and prayer for the means of transport."

Church of the Brethren mission staff in southern Sudan, Michael Wagner, has been counseled to leave the country and return to the United States over the period of the Referendum. He has been working as seconded staff with the Africa Inland Church-Sudan (AIC) since July. For more about Wagner’s work: www.brethren.org/site/PageServer?pagename=go_places_serve_sudan. For a photo album: www.brethren.org/site/PhotoAlbumUser?AlbumID=12209&view=UserAlbum.

Source: 12/30/2010 Newsline