On Thursday, February 1, ITMI’s Vicky Waraka left her home in Juba, South Sudan to travel to Mundri for the funeral of an old friend, Mama Yekobede.
“Mama” is a term of respect and affection in South Sudanese culture. Mama Yekobede was a church leader of women in Mundri. She loved Jesus until passing into His arms at age 104.
Mundri is where Vicky used to live and minister, before moving to South Sudan’s capital city, Juba.
Vicky is a single woman who has devoted her life to serving Jesus. Currently, she serves as one of several leaders of Revival and Fire Ministries, a community of faith she and several friends planted together. Revival and Fire was planted years ago.
It’s leaders desired to start a new church based on the Biblical principles of leadership they heard ITMI’s Steve Evers share from the SALT material in 2012.
Vicky’s role with Revival and Fire includes teaching and discipling women, visiting homes to pray and share the Good News with both church members and community members, and leading Gospel counseling groups.
Vicky’s ministry of sharing Jesus and the healing He offers through forgiveness, salvation, and obedience has also included offering a home to various children and youth she encounters who need one.
On Saturday, February 3rd, around 2pm, Vicky was still in Mundri. She reminded Deborah to go to church, where she was scheduled to participate in training for her role as a Sunday School teacher. Everyone else was occupied outside the home that afternoon as well. After her training ended around 5pm, Deborah returned home.
That’s when she discovered that someone had cut through the wires that covered the window to Vicky’s room. The perpetrator had entered the home, and tossed the contents of the room. They had found and taken some cash.
It was already evening, so Vicky couldn’t travel the 8+ hours on washed out dirt roads to get home that night. The girls were terrified without her there. It’s not unlikely that the perpetrator was one of their neighbors.
But Vicky and her children do know where their security comes from. “We need more prayer,” Vicky wrote, as she described what had happened.
Vicky’s home was broken into just last January (2023). That thief stole a laptop and some cash, hobbling all efforts to provide for her family and impacting her ministry. The cash that was stolen had been set aside and carefully saved to pay school fees for some of the children.
This kind of incident continues to be common amid the insecurity of life in South Sudan, and it reflects the degenerated state of the country following years of tribal conflict that has spilled into both city and village life.
Home invasions can be devastating no matter who you are. The psychological trauma of having your own space invaded can haunt anyone.
But for most of the population of South Sudan who struggle daily to eat, earn income, and maintain some sort of secure place to sleep at night, even a small setback from something like a home invasion can affect a family for months.
In 2022, 7.7 million of the country’s 11 million people were estimated to be food insecure. 5.5 million have had to leave their homes, with 2.2 million relocating within the country and 2.3 million fleeing the country altogether.
This is a country whose people are desperate and hurting.
It’s why our nationals’ ministries in this region are so important.
While governments may respond with regulations and military activity, and NGOs respond with money and programs, it is centrally, foundationally and vitally important that the core, heart issues at play in every life be addressed with Biblical and Gospel-centered truth.
Vicky’s stories of visiting homes and listening to people in South Sudan have a discernible theme, and it is forgiveness. Most people in South Sudan have been victims of some kind of wrong.
When Vicky walks them through the Gospel and the idea of receiving forgiveness from the Lord, then in turn offering it to others, it changes the lives of those for whom the Holy Spirit illuminates this truth.
