Thursday 8 January 2009

Supporting a Sudanese student through university



Mark Yemba Soro is a twenty-year old orphan from the Diocese of Rokon, in South Sudan. He was orphaned during the long Sudanese civil war at the age of six. He and his sisters found shelter and support with Bishop Francis Loyo and his wife, Mama Linda.

They were deeply impressed by the strong Christian faith which Mark's parents had passed on to their children, and also by Mark's hard work and dedication to his education. Seeing his potential, they sacrificially funded his secondary education in Uganda (South Sudan had no secondary schools at that time), and Mark gained the local equivalent of our "A" Levels. Mark was offered a place at university in Kenya.

At this point, Bishop Francis contacted a friend in the Blandford and Milton Deanery, and asked for urgent prayer for Mark, saying that he desperately needed support.

Bishop Francis and Mama Linda were quite unable to go on funding Mark's education, and they were just praying that God would take care of it. The people of the Deanery responded immediately, and have so far funded fees and living expenses for one of two semesters in the first year, and the fees for the second semester.

Dear God, please help me to continue to be radically dependent on you, but also wise enough to respond when you show me that there is something I can and should do. Please don't let Mark's education falter now, for lack of support..