Update on VTS Sudan Hebrew Program

I am very sad to report that the situation in Sudan has deteriorated to the extent that our teaching trip in December will likely be cancelled. Please keep Sudan in your prayers.

Here is the latest news from Dr. Jo Bailey Wells at Duke:

Further to Ellen’s email last week, there is further news to report, most of it sad and bad. Lauren Stanley – appointed missionary of ECUSA in Renk – received a directive from the Bishop of Virginia last week to return. She has had to bid hasty farewells and at this precise moment sits in the airport in Khartoum (relieved to have got through the various ‘security’ stages, having been at some risk these past few days). She is about to board her plane to Frankfurt, then Munich, arriving tomorrow evening at Washington Dulles. Do pray for her – the departure has been nothing less than traumatic. Her experience serves to underline the rapidly deteriorating situation in Sudan, not just in Dafur but also between South and North. We have said we will hold off a final decision regarding January visits to Renk for another couple of weeks – and this sign of our commitment means a lot to people there – but know that it is ever more unlikely.

Tomorrow a group from Duke’s Center for Reconciliation depart for Kampala, for a Great Lakes region Reconciliation Initiative. Here there will be many church leaders gathered from Kenya, Rwanda, Uganda, Congo and Sudan. They are keeping an eye out for ways we might maintain our commitment to theological education in Sudan, through partnership with institution(s) in a neighboring country.